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OU coaches call for new arena Moser, Baranczyk advocate for new basketball facility ROSS LOVELACE, COLTON SULLEY, ALEXIA ASTON rosselovelace@gmail.com colton.m.sulley-1@ou.edu alexiaaston@ou.edu
Oklahoma men’s and women’s basketball coaches Porter Moser and Jennie Baranczyk advocated for a new basketball arena during their respective media availabilities last week. The first-year Sooners coaches, hired away from Loyola-Chicago and Drake, respectively, were adamant that a new arena is needed and said they’ve had conversations about it with athletic director Joe Castiglione since arriving in Norman in April 2021. “I definitely think it’s time for a new arena for a lot of reasons,” Moser said. “Definitely been talking since
I was hired with Joe (Castiglione). He’s very much in those conversations and very aggressive with those conversations. “There are people who have had two arenas since (1975). It’s a huge part of what we want and the direction we want to go.” A project was created in 2017 when the city of Norman unveiled a plan to develop a new entertainment district to potentially house OU basketball, with restaurants, hotels and other amenities. The OU Foundation requested tax incentives through the University North Park tax increment district in 2018 to build the arena, the Norman Transcript reported. Following opposition from community members and a lawsuit regarding records allegedly subject to the state open records act, the OU Foundation withdrew its request in July 2018. The new district would have been located between Rock Creek and
PHOTO PROVIDED
A 2018 three-dimensional rendering of a proposed 10,000-seat arena situated in University North Park.
see ARENA page 4
ALEXIA ASTON/THE DAILY
The OU Board of Regents and OU President Joseph Harroz (center) meet on Dec. 2, 2021.
OU leaders inquire about student regent Student Government Association chair, OU regent suggest campus leader to fill vacant role KAROLINE LEONARD karolineleonard@ou.edu
Following Phil Albert’s resignation from the OU Board of Regents on Jan. 24, OU SGA Chair Crispin South said he, along with other OU students and faculty, began inquiring about the appointment of a student regent to complete the remainder of Albert’s term. Albert resigned amid two years of litigation with a $7.4 million embezzlement allegation from Pelco Structrual, a company he helped found. South tweeted Jan. 25 saying Gov. Kevin Stitt should nominate a student, as other state universities across the country have student regents. In Texas, 10 universities, including the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, currently have student regents who serve for one-year terms. The majority of these student regents do not have voting power, according to the Texas Education Code, but they can voice student concerns to the board to sway votes. “If there was a student in some capacity on the Board of Regents, then they would be able to more effectively lend a student voice and represent student concerns to the board,” South said. “It’s just in line with best practices (with)
universities across the country.” OU Regent Rick Nagel said while he doesn’t know the extent of the legislation in Texas, the idea interests him as he believes it would amplify students’ voices and improve relationships on the board. According to the education code in Texas, the respective chancellors for each university create an application system for potential student regents where student government associations and chancellors recommend students for the position to the governor, according to the education code. Student regents possess the same responsibilities and opportunities as the rest of the board. However, they cannot vote and are not counted in determining whether a quorum exists. Student regents are also not compensated. Nagel said Oklahoma can surely build upon Texas’ system, and OU could better implement the system. Since student regents in Texas typically serve for one year, South said the remainder of Albert’s term provides a unique possibility to appoint a student regent without altering state law. “If it works out well, then we can legislate it and have it become an actual codified part of Oklahoma state law,” South said. “Being able to provide a student voice on the Board of Regents and have some kind of student input for the biggest decisions that affect our whole university, I think is something that we would really benefit from.” As a former lobbying force coordinator and vice chair for the University of Oklahoma Student
Association — now known as OU SGA — Nagel said he believes in involving student voices and aims to improve their accessibility to the board. In one of his first meetings with the board, Nagel said South spoke and joined him in opposition to the 2.75 percent tuition increase approved during the summer of 2021. Nagel said, at the very least, a student government representative should be given a place to speak and offer student opinions in every meeting. “I think the student government representatives should have a standing place on the agenda to present whatever items that are topical to the students (and) to address issues, raise concerns and provide feedback, positive or negative, so we can act on it,” Nagel said. “The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents need to be perpetually in tune with our customers.” Nagel said a student regent could build relationships and trust with the board as a whole and act as a conduit between the student body and the Board of Regents by offering their insights and opinions. “The important thing really is that there is legitimate student representation on the Board of Regents, and there’s someone responsible and thoughtful and in touch with the student body who ends up on the board,” South said. OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. announced a few days after Albert’s resignation that OU Board of Regents Vice President for University Governance and
Executive Secretary Chris Purcell 8-9, according to an email from a is retiring. This year’s officers are university spokesperson. slated to be elected at the next OU Board of Regents meeting March
UNIVERSITIES WITH STUDENT REGENTS/TRUSTEES • Baylor University (Non-voting member) • Texas A&M (Non-voting member) • University of Texas (Non-voting member) • Washington State University • Indiana University • University of Massachusetts
OU BOARD OF REGENTS STITT APPOINTMENTS • Gary Pierson (2019-2021) • Eric Stevenson (2019-current) • Michael Cawley (2019-current) • Anita Holloway (2020-current) • Rick Nagel (2021-current)