The Herb and Succulent Festival brings vendors and community together

Plant lovers unite at the Herb and Succulent Festival for Earth Day.

The Botanic Garden at Oklahoma State University held its annual Herb and Succulent Festival on Saturday, getting everyone in the spirit for Earth Day.

Despite the clouds and chilly weather, vendors, volunteers and garden management kept the event alive offering unique hand-made treasures and plants that they had spent time cultivating over the last year. Garden manager for the Botanic Garden, Connor Schmitz, graduated from OSU with a degree in public horticulture. Schmitz said he is passionate about plants and people and enjoys bringing the two together by putting events like this into action for a memorable collaboration between the two.

“My interest is in public gardens and that’s kind of the interface between plants and people, a public place like a public garden,” Schmitz said. “That’s really evident today where we have everyone showing up and everyone really seeing that we have a place out here. A lot of people call the gardens a hidden gem because they don’t know that it exists out here.”

This year’s festival was the largest event the garden has put together so far, and Schmitz said volunteers at the Botanic Garden, otherwise known as ambassadors, are the main reason the event was possible.

See Festival on 6 feeling of being the last one on court and everything on the line.”

She added a third memory.

“I hope that one of the memories that hasn’t happened yet, that will be my favorite, is beating OU on Friday,” Wolfberg said.

Wolfberg holds Bedlam on such a pedestal she is ready to slot it in over beating Pepperdine. She won her match to clinch the overall dual win over a top five team, and it is second place to a hypothetical win against the Sooners. Wolfberg has never beaten the Sooners, and she said that makes

“We didn’t play them my freshman year because of (COVID-19) and we lost the last two years,” Wolfberg said. “So I’m, like, so hungry to beat them because we can’t lose to OU.”

Teammate Ayumi Miyamoto, another senior who has yet to beat the Sooners, said winning Bedlam was important to her as well.

“We have to beat them, for sure,” Miyamoto said.

on FTC proposal banning noncompete agreements

Michael Clark Staff Reporter

Spears School of Business’ associate professor legal studies Griffin Pivateau and several professors of law from across America are joining together to comment on the Federal Trade Commission’s ban on noncompete agreements.

A noncompete agreement is a clause in employment contracts that can stop employees from working for a competitor or starting their own business for a period of time after leaving their job. The FTC’s proposal protests that these agreements can harm workers by reducing opportunities and earning potential. This clause also harms business growth and competition.

Pivateau agrees that the FTC proposal is long overdue and will protect workers and competition. The professors point out that this proposed ban aligns with the views of an increasing number of people, many states are already enacting laws to ban noncompete agreements.

OSU

“I am proud to join my colleagues in supporting the FTC’s proposal to ban noncompete agreements. These agreements are harmful to workers and to competition, and they are long overdue for reform,” said Pivateau, the Puterbaugh Professor of Legal Studies at Spears Business.

Griffin Pivateau is an expert on employment law and has received national recognition for his work in law journals. He frequently speaks out about employment law issues such as this.

While the proposal is just starting out, and may ultimately end up disregarded, the proposal has been met with controversy from businesses. These corporations argue that noncompete agreements protect company secrets and other information that should be kept under wraps. However, workers feel that they are unnecessary and harmful.

Regardless, this development is a significant step forward. If the proposal ends up passing, this will have a major impact on the American workforce.

Wolfberg and Miyamoto have spent years as a part of the rivalry between the Cowgirls and the Sooners. That time is what forges the desire to beat the other side, more so than any other team. For a long time, college sports involved primarily teams of players who had spent their careers facing their rivals and building up animosity.

But collegiate sports are changing. With the arrival of Name, Image and Likeness deals, the transfer portal has become an ever-present aspect. Senior Martina Zerulo transferred to OSU from Arkansas in 2021. Zerulo was honored on Senior Night along with Wolfberg. Like Wolfberg, Zerulo said the wins against Texas and Pepperdine were at the top of her list. Unlike Wolfberg, there was no mention of the Sooners.

Bedlam wasn’t a part of Zerulo’s experience until 2021. Even after a few years at OSU, the match against the Sooners wasn’t at the forefront of her goals as it was for Wolfberg and Miyamoto.

Alex Garcia, a senior who transferred to the Oklahoma State men’s tennis team in 2022 from Baylor, said matches against OU don’t mean more to him than matches against any other team.

“I want to win Bedlam, but I want to win every match,” Garcia said. “Maybe if I had a bad feeling for them, it would make me want it more, maybe I would feel more pressure, but I really treat every match the same way.”

Freshman Carl Roothman found himself in a similar space when the Cowboys played the Sooners this year. Although he is not a transfer, incoming freshmen go through the same process of inheriting rivalries. For Oklahoma State fans, Bedlam is a word that brings back years upon years of memories. For Roothman, this was his first Bedlam. The matchup between the Cowboys and the Sooners meant nothing to him until he arrived at OSU.

“It’s interesting because you come in and see, like, ‘Oh, [you don’t like] OSU and vice versa,’ and you have no beef with them,” Roothman said.

Of course he wouldn’t come in having beef with the Sooners. Roothman is from South Africa; he didn’t grow up watching the two teams clash. Roothman will spend the next few years playing the Sooners. The crowds in Norman will boo him; he will see the glee of the Cowboy faithful when he beats them. The rivalry will grow to mean something to him.

Transfers come into these rivalries the same way a freshman does, but they come into the program later in their college career. The transfers who come in as juniors and seniors will have one or two years with the team; not nearly as much time to get to know the school’s rivalries.

Dustin Taylor, coach of the Cowboys, said it takes time to get into a rivalry.

“I’d say you need a year under your belt to really understand the rivalry,” Taylor said.

Rivalries won’t fade from the hearts of fans and schools, but it could dull if half the players on a team don’t have any personal connection to it.

For the players who come in and play one year, they might never get the full experience, but Taylor said he doesn’t think that prevents them from making an impact. If transfers and freshmen take the time to learn about the rivalry and draw on their experience, they can pump themselves up even if they don’t carry a personal vendetta against their opponent.

“We’ve all had rivalries, you know,” Taylor said. “So you kind of put yourself in rivalry mode.

“It’s not so much who (the opponent) it is, it’s just understanding the history and now it’s time to not like (the opponent) quite as much.”

Transfers who have multiple years of eligibility left are more common with the extra year the NCAA granted for those who were active during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those players have time to get invested. Ryan Livesay, a volunteer assistant coach for the Cowboys, joined the staff on March 21, so the match against the Sooners was his first. After Bedlam, he said he did not think it would take long for freshmen or transfers to acclimate..

“One match?” Livesay said. “They got to see it once and then they’ll, they’ll get it. It can be any sport really; you can go to a basketball game; you can go to a football game. They’ll see it and you know, for the guys that were a part of it tonight, they definitely have a different feeling probably going forward than they did before.”

OSU’s midweek baseball game against Wichita State rained out

Allen Staff Reporter

There won’t be any baseball played at O’Brate Stadium this week. Due to rain and the forecast for continued rain and storms throughout the afternoon and evening, Tuesday’s game against Wichita State has been cancelled and will not be rescheduled. The Cowboys and Shockers met twice this season, with OSU winning sports.ed@ocolly.com

10-1 in March, and Wichita State picking up a 13-6 win in Stillwater earlier this month. This was the final game scheduled between the two. OSU (28-13, 11-7 Big 12) has won four consecutive games, including a three-game sweep of Kansas last weekend. The Cowboys sit second in the Big 12.

The No. 17-ranked Cowboys next take the field against Michigan in Ann Arbor this weekend, beginning at 3 p.m. Friday. OSU’s next home game is May 5 against East Tennessee State.