The Student Voice Since 1903 UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2004
UCOSA meets to discuss fee increase bill by Michael Robertson Staff Writer Approximately 65 senators from various UCO student organizations met Nov. 29 in the Robert S. Kerr Room in the Nigh University Center to discuss a bill that, if passed, would increase student fees 18 cents per credit hour. If implemented, the bill would generate money to fund independent research projects by undergraduates. After about an hour and a half of discussion and debate, the Senate voted to put the resolution on hold until the first UCOSA Senate meeting of the spring 2005 semester. The purpose of the senate meeting was primarily to decide whether the bill goes to a vote of the student body, said Tandy Moore, Human Resources Society senator. If passed by the student body, the bill would have to be approved by the university president and the Oklahoma State Board of Regents before it could be implemented. It is unlikely that the bill will ever come to a student vote. The author, UCO student David McWhorter, said he graduates this month, making it unlikely that the proposal will have much support next semester. "It kind of stinks," McWhorter said. Public Relations Student Society of America Senator Jason Hines said historically, issues that have gone to a student vote usually pass.
Residence Hall Association Senator John Nazari confirmed this, and said the UCOSA leadership knew that, and deliberately stalled the bill to prevent a student vote. "They knew that if it didn't get settled in this meeting it wouldn't pass because (the author) is graduating," Nazari said. "It was their way of killing the bill without actually coming out and killing it. I think the overall reason they wanted to kill it was they didn't want to charge students more fees," Nazari said. While Nazari had no official involvement with the bill, he said he had a hand in it's planning. "I've talked to McWhorter about this bill since summer, so I was sort of like a consultant," Nazari said. During the debate portion of a meeting, a certain amount of time is apportioned to arguers both for and against the bill in question. Senators volunteer to argue for each side. In this particular meeting, Senators who were against the proposal volunteered to speak for it, and they waived their speaking time. When speaking time is waived, it automatically goes to the next speaker for the other side. As a result, the time they were allotted to speak on behalf of the bill was given to arguments against it. Dallas Strimple, president pro tempore, said this is a
see FEE, page 3
Access to records challenged at colleges by Sarah Skinner Staff Writer
Photo by Robert Crauthers
"Breathe," David Thummel's copper and steel sculpture, is unveiled Dec. 8 at Evans Field.
ADP sculpture unveiled by Joseph Wertz Staff Writer An unveiling ceremony for David Thummel's sculpture "Breathe" took place at 11 a.m. Dec. 8 between Y Chapel of Song and Evans Hall. Thummel's sculpture won the first "Outdoor Sculpture
Competition," which was sponsored by the College of Arts, Media & Design's Dean's Office and the American Democracy Project. A reception took place in the Evans Hall Great Room prior to the unveiling ceremony. "David's piece asks us to
breathe deep, choose freedom and choose service," said Don Betz, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. The sculpture stands around 13 feet tall, is made of copper and steel, and is located in a garden near the Y Chapel of Song and Evans Field.
National organization seeks used textbooks ■ Students can donate their used textbooks to "Books for Africa" if they have been published since 1999. by Lauren Pulsinelli . Senior Staff Writer Textbooks collecting dust on a shelf or thrown in the trash because they can't be bought back at the bookstore are being sought after by Better World Books. A book drive outside the Nigh University Center bookstore will be hosted by BWB Dec. 13 through 17. The books will be donated to "Books for Africa," a non-profit organization committed to ending the book famine in Africa. "There is obviously a pretty large need or they wouldn't keep shipping 80 percent of the books that are donated," said Jimmy Witcosky, a junior public relations major. Witcosky has volunteered to
help with the book drive for the past three semesters. In that time Witcosky said two thousand books have been collected from campus. "This time we are hoping to get a thousand books," he said. BWB organizes book drives at colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada. "A large number of the same books are needed for college classes or else they can't be used," Witcosky said. "It's easier to do that because the organization is operated all over the country." This year BWB is collecting books from 1999 or newer. "Last year two million books were sent to Africa," Witcosky said. The books not able to be used are sold for cash donations ,generated by BWB online book sales.
Photo by Justin Avers
Better World Books will collect used textbooks for use in African colleges Dec. 13 through 17 at the Nigh University Center bookstore.
by Caroline Duke Editor in Chief
Stockings await the arrival of 271 Edmond children at an annual holiday party on campus.
see STUDENT PRESS, page 7
CAMPUS ANNOUNCEMENTS ■ The Student Perception of Instructional Effectiveness survey is online through Dec. 12 at: broncho.ucok.edunquest ■ Fall commencement ceremonies will be at 10 a.m. Dec. 18 for the Colleges of Arts, Media & Design, Mathematics & Science, and Education. Ceremonies for the Colleges of Business Administration and Liberal Arts will be at 2 p.m. Dec. 18.
Annual party benefits hundreds of Edmond children
Photo by Justin Avera
The First Amendment allows Americans to govern a nation and express free thought in an open marketplace of ideas. Each year universities all over the country try to take these rights away from their campus newspapers through censorship, violation of the Open Records Act, intimidation and threats to take funding away from the newspapers. When cases have gone to court, state and federal courts have repeatedly sided with university papers. OSU's campus newspaper, The Daily 0 'Collegian, dealt with these problems about a month ago. The university made it almost impossible for the paper to get information for a story. "I asked for the database of GPA distributions without student names," said Sean Hill, senior editor at the 0 'Collegian. "They first said it wasn't easily accessible then they forwarded me to another office." Once school administrators compile the information, they refused to give it to Hill in electronic format. Hill said they told him that it wasn't their policy. Instead, they handed him 400 pages of data, an impossible amount of information to sift through. Hill is currently trying to make contact with OSU's attorney, saying that the school is in violation of the Oklahoma Open Records Act. Arizona State University's student-run newspaper, State Press, has also had to deal with a similar problem. The paper published a
About 270 Edmond children participated in the 14th annual President's Club party Dec. 8. The party, which matches each child with two UCO sponsors, allows for each child to receive a new hat, mittens, gloves and under-
wear, courtesy of the "Cozy Kids" project, said Beverly Prosser, administrative assistant for Student Development. This is the second year for "Cozy Kids," she said. "What happens is when two people sponsor a child, they buy them a gift, an article of clothing and a stocking full of candy," Prosser said. "The President's Club is actually
who plans, executes and is in charge of the party." She said the organization has been working on this event since August. "UCO has just been phenomenal in donating all of this stuff because every child will get all of those things," Prosser said.
■ Donations are still needed for the "Orphans in the Ukraine" collection drive. Timber Massey, Ukraine Peace Corp volunteer and UCO graduate, will distribute the clothing and toys to children 3 to 8 years of age. The drop-off location is the Vista office, Rm. 107 of the Communications Building. Donations will be accepted through Dec. 17.
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For more information about the ADP at UCO, visit www.thevistaonline.com