Friday, April 29, 2022
SGA holds inauguration after controversial election Kylie Hammack Staff Reporter
Vice President Maddie Dunn, a junior elementary education major. Also taking the oath of office at the OSU’s Student Gov- event, was Senate Speaker ernment Association inau- Audrey Fleschute, a sophogurated its new president, more, and other members vice president and execuof the executive cabinet. tive cabinet; setting the “We’ve got a really stage for what is to come really good team so I am next year. really confident that we On Wednesday can get some stuff done,” evening, Riley Pritzlaff, a Pritzlaff said. “I’m super junior and political science excited.” major, was sworn in as stuThe event included dent body president with speeches from the outgo-
ing figures in SGA and the newly inaugurated officials. During these speeches, members of SGA leadership highlighted their aspirations to increase campus involvement and awareness of SGA. “I am really excited about recruitment,” Fleschute said. “We’re just not in the students’ eye at all, people don’t know who we are, so I really want to change that.” See SGA on 4A
Courtesy of SGA OSU’s Student Government Association gathered this week to host the annual inauguration of president Riley Pritzlaff (center right), vice-president Maddie Dunn (center left), senate speaker Audrey Fleschute (left) and presidential cabinet members.
Ranks third in Big 12 for sustainability Kylie Hammack Staff Reporter
Courtesy of McKale Montgomery Bryant Keirns (left), an OSU graduate student, won with a time of 2:24:51; McKale Montgomery (right), an OSU assistant professor, won the women’s marathon with a time of 2:41:06;
OSU professor, student win OKC men’s and women’s marathon Payton Little Staff Reporter
school, and Montgomery found her passion for running in an unexpected way. Montgomery grew up Orange runs strong: in the small town of Fair26.2 miles to be exact. fax, Oklahoma, living out On April 24, runners in the country 4 miles from from across the country town. When she was 14, she participated in the Oklaho- made it her goal to play on ma City Memorial Maraher high school basketball thon, in remembrance of team. The coaches told her the Oklahoma City bomb- if she wanted a spot, she ing 27 years ago. would have to earn it workThe winners of both ing out during the summer marathon races had strong at the school gymnasium. ties to OSU. McKale Mont- Because she was not old gomery, an assistant profes- enough to drive yet, Montsor in the nutrition depart- gomery would run the 4 ment, won the women’s miles to town almost every division and Bryant Keirns, day to workout at the gyma graduate student in nunasium. She earned that tritional sciences, won the spot on the basketball team, men’s division of the race. but when she joined track Both have experience and field, Montgomery said running; Keirns ran durshe found winning state ing middle school and high meets to be more fun.
This passion of running continued for Montgomery. After graduating high school, she began to run for Texas Christian University and she is now the proud owner of the OKC Memorial Marathon course record; running a time of 2 hours, 41 minutes and 6 seconds. “It was just fun to be able to make a goal and hit it,” Montgomery said. “I’m 37, I kinda thought at 27, when I first won the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, my running career was on the downhill slide. I was planning to start a career, start a family, and so to be able to still set running goals and do them at my age is fun. See Marathon on 5A
Sonrisa Bebo, a freshman French major, has a passion that is not typical of all language majors: sustainability. In addition to her French major, Bebo is studying fashion merchandising and global studies as minors. Bebo became interested in sustainability during her senior year of high school and has grown that passion in college. “It started out in fashion specifically and going thrifting but when I came here as a Freshman Research Scholar, I couldn’t find any research opportunities in French,” Bebo said. “So, I decided to do my own study on sustainability.” During Earth Day April 22, OSU organizations hosted various events promoting sustainability and appreciation of the planet. However, through her research, Bebo is examining how OSU performs in sustainability compared to other Big 12 universities yearly. “There is actually a lot going on here on campus and people just don’t know about it,” Bebo said. To show this, one portion of Bebo’s research was a survey for students assessing their knowledge and ideas about sustainability at OSU. “With the survey I sent out, I had about 80 full responses,” Bebo said. “The consensus was that students thought that sustainability might be happening on campus, and wanted to believe that it was, but they weren’t for sure.” Some examples of sustainability on campus Bebo found when completing her case study included sustainable features in the Ferguson College of Agriculture’s new building, the position of campus sustainability director, a living-learning community in the Iba residence hall that practices living sustainably and the panhellenic club “Green Greeks.” “I think OSU should advertise what is going on more,” Bebo said. “That would be one great way to start informing students of what’s going on or seeing if they can get students involved with sustainability.” To measure how well OSU is faring in its sustainability
Kylie Hammack Sonrisa Bebo presents her case study, highlighting how OSU compares to other Big 12 universities in sustainability.
initiatives, Bebo used a database that scores universities on sustainability based on self-reported data. A few Big 12 schools, including the University of Oklahoma, do not report their sustainability data, but Bebo was able to gauge OSU’s sustainability success from the available data. “I looked at the Big 12 university scores and compared and, actually, OSU is the third best,” Bebo said. Although her time as a Freshman Research Scholar is coming to a close, Bebo is interested in furthering her research on sustainability. “I want to look at other universities that are doing very very well even if they are not in the Big 12 and see what they are doing and if we could possibly implement it here at OSU,” Bebo said. Bebo said she sees college campuses as the perfect environment to implement sustainability practices and measures. “I think it’s important that future leaders, business people, and citizens of the world are aware of how to make the environment better,” Bebo said. news.ed@ocolly.com
What’s Inside
Jason Bollinger Q&A Page 3A
U.S. Senate candidate Jason Bollinger met with OSU students to discuss his campaign.
Succulent planting Page 6A
Students had the chance to plant succulents as part of a SUAB event.
Best Jim Carrey movies Page 8A
Jim Carrey has talked about retirement recently and his resume is long.