The Oklahoma Daily

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SPORTS • PAGE 7

LIFE & ARTS • PAGE 5

Sooners to host No. 3 Baylor

Students sound off on Oscars

Freshman guard Morgan Hook (shown left) and the OU women’s basketball team look to avenge a 92-70 loss earlier in the season to the Bears.

The Daily asks film and video studies students to discuss movies up for Academy Awards, which will be presented Sunday night.

The University of Oklahoma’s independent student voice since 1916

Friday, February 25, 2011

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Student government candidates set to run Filing period ends for UOSA elections with 2 presidential candidates on board KATHLEEN EVANS The Oklahoma Daily

The period to file for the OU spring elections ended 5 p.m. Thursday, with two pairs running for UOSA president and vice president and three candidates for CAC chair. The spring election process began at 8 a.m. Monday when the filing period opened. The formal campaigning period begins March 7,

followed by a two-day election March 29 and 30. Students may vote for Undergraduate Student Congress representatives, as well as top student leadership positions on campus. Also on the ballot, two people filed for Housing Center Student Association president, and one person filed for Student Bar Association president, Election Board chairwoman Natalie Jester said. “The candidates seem really excited so far,” said Jester, international security studies junior. “That’s what makes an election good and

more publicized — when candidates are excited about putting their name out.” Up next for the candidates is a detailed meeting Sunday about campaign rules. “The Election Board is meeting beforehand to go over all the rules. Our homework right now is to go over the rules in the Code Annotated and see how we interpret them so we are all on the same page,” Jester said. Jester has not gone through students filing for Congress yet and does not know if any seats will be unfilled or filled through unopposed elections.

Spring candidates UOSA president and vice president — » Forrest Bennett and Katherine Borgerding » Hannah Morris and Laura Bock CAC chair — » Bridgitte Castorino » Greg Emde » Melissa Mock

RELIGION | STUDENTS FIND SUPPORT, CENSORSHIP IN SWITCHING FAITHS

Former student vies for Council position Interested in politics from a young age, Holman takes his passion to a new level ALEX EWALD The Oklahoma Daily

A former OU student in his mid-20s wearing dark-framed glasses sits at the checkered table in Hideaway Pizza on Buchanan Avenue in Norman, quietly scribbling on a legal notepad. A silver Macbook sits under his briefcase, which contains a stack of voter registration forms. A handful of maps, including one of the ward borders in Norman, is piled on top of the forms. At 26, Stephen Tyler Holman is the youngest candidate in the March 1 city council election. “I think nationally we have seen an increase in youth interest ASHLEY WEST/THE DAILY

Religious studies senior Sarah Sullivan prays Monday in the reflection room in Bizzell Memorial Library. Sullivan, who grew up Christian, has converted to Islam.

SEE COUNCIL PAGE 2

Students convert to new faiths For one student, converting from Christianity to Islam came with clarity, conflict

year of college that his religion became a focal point. Growing up, Wilkey attended Catholic schools throughout his elementary and secondary education. He also went to weekly Mass with his parents. JANNA GENTRY The Oklahoma Daily He said he was first introduced to Buddhism through a world religions class he took in high school that inspired him to gain as much arah Sullivan, religious studies senior, was raised in a con- information as possible about the religion. servative, Southern Baptist family. In high school she was “It got to where I was so amped I couldn’t go to sleep at night,” he known by her peers as a strong Christian leader. said. “I was excited to wake up and go to school and get more inforThe process of Sullivan’s religious conversion began mation on the religion.” with a conversation she had with a Muslim friend After he felt he had exhausted all of his own reduring an idle night on campus, she said. sources, Wilkey said he decided to go outside of “I was just hanging out, and this guy asked me himself to learn more about the religion. He began If you are wrestling with why I wasn’t going out and partying,” Sullivan attending the Buddhist Center in Oklahoma your faith and someone said. “I told him it was because I didn’t do that. He City, and there he met a woman named Kelsang comes along with an said ‘I don’t either.’” Namdrel who left an indelible impression on him. alternative that seems Sullivan mistook her friend for a Christian, “It was so revolutionary to me that I met a perto address the answers and when the student informed her that he was son that had all the attributes that Jesus had talked to those questions, I Muslim, a dialogue began between the two about about,” he said. “I hadn’t really seen those attrithe similarities and differences in Christianity and butes in myself or in some of my peers.” can see why converting Islam. Intrigued by the similarities, Sullivan began After Wilkey met Namdrel, he said he devoted would be very attractive.” to actively seek out information about Islam. most weekends of the rest of his high school career With another Muslim friend, she began to comto spending time at the center. — TOM BOYD, RELIGIOUS pare the Bible with the Quran. Many times, her When he went to college, Wilkey said his freshSTUDIES PROFESSOR friend would ask her questions about the Bible she man year left him with little time for his fledgling could not answer. faith, and as a result, his practice suffered. “Having someone point stuff out to me in the Bible that I couldn’t Sophomore year, Wilkey pared down his activities so he could explain was a rude awakening for me,” she said. “I felt like a fool.” focus more on his faith, and that’s when Buddhism became most After an intense period of searching for answers, Sullivan said she important to him, he said. finally reached her breaking point. “Everything came back to Buddhism,” he said. “That’s what I “I finally broke down to God one night and just said ‘guide me to wanted to be the main facet for my energy.” what’s best for me,’” she said. Inevitably, both Sullivan and Wilkey said they experienced tranSullivan said she believes God guided her to Islam. sitions that came along with changing religions, but Sullivan de“There were answers in the Quran that I just couldn’t find in the scribed a more painful transition to her faith than that of Wilkey. Bible,” she said. “To me, the Quran was undeniable truth.” Adam Wilkey, Arabic studies junior, said his conversion process began earlier than Sullivan’s, although it wasn’t until his sophomore SEE RELIGION PAGE 2

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A LOOK AT WHAT’S ON Research into a chronic disease affecting children is now possible thanks to a $1.25 million grant

THE OKLAHOMA DAILY VOL. 96, NO. 103 © 2011 OU Publications Board www.OUDaily.com www.facebook.com/OUDaily www.twitter.com/OUDaily

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OU dean to lead climate survey Oklahoma Climatological Survey promotes interm director to permanent position SCOTT BEDGOOD The Oklahoma Daily

The interim director of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey has been named to a permanent position. Kevin Kloesel, associate dean of the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences, was appointed the director of the survey after serving as the interim director since January 2010, according to a press release. Kloesel will continue to serve as the associate dean of the college as well as performing his duties with the survey. The survey has been in existence since 1980 and is a statemandated entity, Associate SEE DIRECTOR PAGE 2

TODAY’S WEATHER

57°| 40° Tomorrow: Cloudy, high of 71 degrees


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