Friday, November 24, 2023
‘Someone who looks like me’
Indigenous student sets example for others Bella Casey News and Lifestyle Assistant Editor Kalen Strunk’s classmate asked him a question that changed his life: “What are you?” He was in 8th grade, and it was his final class of the day. Science. But his mind wandered from the class lesson. “It was the first time I ever was aware that I could be perceived as not white,” Strunk said. Growing up in Del City, family members praised the white qualities in Strunk’s features. His friends watched his blond-haired, blue-eyed grandmother drop him off at school each morning. At that period in his life, Strunk Kennedy Thomason
said he identified more with his white heritage than his Indigenous heritage. But he is not white. He is biracial. He is five-eighths Indigenous. And a leader. An example. A scientist. Seek first to understand When Reese Fuller met Strunk, he did not like him. “Whenever we first met, we clearly had come from different backgrounds and had some different thoughts on things,” Fuller said. “And so the first time we ever encountered each other, we did not get along, to say the least.” Strunk was outspoken, assertive and open. Fuller was professional and reserved. The two met through President’s Leadership Council, a leadership and mentorship program for freshmen. They didn’t click. See Example on 4A
Abigail Stewart, who uses a walker, utilizes handicapable doors to access buildings on campus.
Accessibility issues
Students call on OSU to ‘do more’ Kennedy Thomason News & Lifestyle Editor
university complies with disability and accessibility laws, Stewart, along with other students, is pushing for OSU to improve its environment for students. “There’s a lot that After weeks of failed attempts to open the doors they (handicapable doors) don’t have maintenance, to the Classroom Buildlike over and over again,” ing, Abigail Stewart had Stewart said. “I would enough. email them, whoever’s Stewart, a junior, uses a walker to get around in charge of that. I’d be like, ‘Hey,’ and say which campus. building specifically, which As a high school door, and all of that. A senior, Stewart was diagweek would go by, not nosed with a cancerous brain tumor, located in her cerebellum. A successful surgery removed the tumor, and after undergoing five weeks of radiation, rehabilitation and chemotherapy, she was cancer-free. But it was just the beginning of her recovery. The cerebellum controls motor function, and a result of Stewart’s surgery was a loss of some of her abilities. “I’m still intellectually basically where I was before, but like movement and stuff, like I couldn’t move my facial muscles,” done. I’d be there the next Stewart said. She attends physical week for a class, not done. And then the next week, therapy twice each week and has gained back some not done. And I was like, of the function she lost ini- ‘This is ridiculous.’” Fed up, Stewart tially after the surgery. But three years later, said she decided to take a Stewart is still adjusting to proactive approach with the help of Student Governher disability. ment Association Senator And being a student Mackenzie Steele. at OSU has not made her Connected through experience easier. Accessibility on cam- one of Stewart’s friends, pus is an ongoing endeavor the pair started discussing ways they could prompt for OSU. Although the OSU to address accessibil-
ity last November. They met frequently to discuss what to include in the bill. Stewart presented Steele with a list of items she felt the university needed to address, and over winter break, Steele wrote the legislation. The items included requiring regular maintenance on handicapable doors, entrances and buttons, as well as providing more of them. It also addressed parking and maps, requesting OSU create a map of all handicapable entrances on campus and move handicapable spots closer to those doors. One of the most important, and personal, items was requiring that the University Testing Center provide an option on its registration form for students to indicate if they cannot use stairs, resulting in a testing space on the ground floor. For Steele, the goal was to put accessibility back on the priority list for OSU. Although the recommendation listed several goals for the university, Steele said she remained realistic in her expectations. “We kind of took it from the angle of like, we know maybe not all of these things will be addressed because a lot of them are complicated issues, but we just kind of wanted to show the university that this is a student concern and that SGA sees this as a concern and we wanted to help students,” Steele said.
“We kind of live in that microwave society, we always want things
instantaneously.But
that’s not always the way things work in
higher education, and we have to be
understanding of that.”
Melisa Echols SGA adviser
What’s Inside
Ask the Pokes: Favorite Thankiving Dishes
See ‘Do more’ on 3A
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Courtesy of Kalen Strunk Kalen Strunk, a microbiology and molecular genetics major, plans to pursue a research career.
Pickleball’s popularity proves constant across age groups Charley Van Newkirk O’Colly Contributor
fastest-growing sport in the nation. As pickleball picks up in popularity for all ages, cities are trying to accommodate the craze. Supporters say the sport’s success ranges As a long-legged Division 1 between age accessibility, the social aspect and athletic versatility. athlete, Linda Bakich is used to Because pickleball is simple winning. for anyone to pick up, many say But when it comes to pickleit’s just as much a social activity ball, the OSU long-distance runner than a sport, and it still allows it to tends to wipe the sweat off her forehead at a more consistent rate be competitive. Stillwater implemented when she faces one opponent. courts throughout the town for its It’s her maternal grandfans. Some local governments are mother. Bakich said her grandmother putting money toward these activities for members of their cities, beat her in a game of pickleball renovating tennis courts to picklelast month. “For some reason, she is just ball courts. “We are currently looking better and faster than me,” Bakich at turning the old tennis courts at said. “The sport is something we West Boomer near the sun deck to can do together; we are always turn into pickleball courts,” said laughing when we are playing.” Bakich and her grandmother Barbra Bliss, parks and community resources director. aren’t alone in their enjoyment See Pickleball on 4A of the sport, as pickleball is the
Tribune Content Agency Pickleball is an emerging sport for college students and older adults alike.
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