FEB. 16, 2012
Women’s Basketball
Beer
UCO takes on the Lindenwood Lions tonight at 6 p.m. in Hamilton Field House. Page 7
Dr. Stephen Law, professor of psychology and award winning homebrewer, brews his own beer and mead. Page 3
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THE VISTA
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA’S student voice since 1903.
Higher-Ed
THE TROUBLE WITH TENURE By Ben Luschen / Staff Writer Tenure for college professors and academics, a system which has been a fixture in American universities since the early 1900s, is now facing challenges from at least one member of the Oklahoma State Legislature. Rep. Corey Holland (R) is the author of HB 2598, which if passed would not allow new hires into the Higher Education system to attain tenure. Another bill authored by Holland, HB 2599, would require universities to conduct an annual posttenure review. In the current tenure system, newly-hired assistant professors work for a period of usually five to seven years before they get the chance to apply for tenure. If granted, the professor is then promoted to associate professor and is granted a long-term or even indefinite employment contract. With years of further work and peer review, additional promotions and contracts may be granted. If HB 2598 and 2599 were to pass, new hires would instead be subject to yearly contract renewal. According to Holland, part of the reason he introduced the bill was over concerns that the system allowed schools to misplace their loyalties. “Colleges and universities exist for the benefit of the students not the professors,” Holland said. Holland questions whether paying the unquestioned salaries of tenured professors is keeping to university students’ best interests. “The tremendous increase in costs for attending colleges and universities in our state is of great concern to me,” Holland said. “I’m discovering that in many cases tenured professors who do not research are making over $150,000 – more than the Governor – and [are] teaching less than 50 students per year.” HB 2598 is already beginning to receive criticism, mostly from those
involved in higher education. Mark Hochenaur, a UCO English professor who also runs the politically progressive blog Okie Funk, is an avid supporter of the current tenure system. “College tenure is vital to protect academic free speech,” Hochenauer said. “Sometimes professors must present what some people might believe are controversial ideas and theories in the classroom. If you take away this ability through arbitrary employment practices and real or perceived intimidation, then it’s a real loss of
freedom for our culture.” Many of the bill’s critics, including Hochenauer, have stated concerns over what they believe to be a vague description of how the new system would affect previously tenured faculty. Holland, however, says it is not his intention to remove tenure from those who have already earned it. “I do not believe it is proper, much less legal, to remove tenure from those professors who have currently attained it,” Holland said. Among several critics of academic
tenure, one of their biggest problems with the system is their belief that professors become virtually impervious to being fired after achieving tenured status. According to Hocheanauer, however, this is untrue. “I think tenure is widely misunderstood,” Hochenauer said. “Earned tenure does not mean a professor can’t be fired even on a speech issue. It just allows for due process.” Hochenauer also addresses the concerns that tenured professors become complacent by pointing to the
intense review process professors subject themselves to not only before they become tenured, but prior to attaining the status as well. “After tenure, professors are constantly reviewed as they climb through the promotion ranks,” Hochenauer said. “It’s a rigorous process that is not duplicated widely in the public or private sector.” Holland argues, however, that tenure as we currently know it is dated and in some cases obsolete.
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PAINT THE CAMPUS PINK WEEK CONTINUES
Pink paper lanterns hang in the Nigh University center as part of Paint The Campus Pink week. Photo by Garett Fisbeck, The Vista
State House
Plaza District
REVERENDS AND RIFLES MARIPOSA PROJECT WORKING TO
EMPOWER WOMEN THROUGH ART By Brittany Dalton / Copy Editor It began with empowerment. Maria Atkinson, a 2011 photographic arts alum of UCO, says a conversation with good friend and well-known local poet Jennifer Hudgens led to the birth of the Mariposa Project, intended to serve as a female empowerment art project. “Mariposa is Spanish for ‘butterfly,’” Atkinson said. “[This project] was created to encourage women of all ages and sizes to be confident in themselves and their beauty despite what society says is beautiful.” The Mariposa Project will take place tonight from 7:30 – 10:30 p.m. at The Parish, located on NW 16th Street in the Plaza District of Oklahoma City. Multiple art forms will be incorporated to spread a message of self-acceptance and confidence, including photography, mixed media, poetry and music. Atkinson will be displaying her own photography, and Hudgens will be performing poetry alongside fellow poets, including Melissa May and Ashley Combs. In addition to photogra-
WEATHER
““I do feel like someone should have the right to use deadly force in their own home. That makes sense,” he said. “If you are threatened in your own home, someone is there that shouldn’t be.” Since the House of Representatives Public Safety Committee approved the bill by an 11-3 margin, the bill goes on to the full House this week. The Stand Your Ground law was amended last year to include places of business, but House representatives felt that churches should be included. Many churchgoers and ministers feel the bill is appropriate. “I haven’t seen or heard any threats at my church, but a friend of mine at a Baptist church here in Edmond told me about a bomb threat they received a few years ago, all because someone didn’t agree with the preacher,” David Lehman, 42, said. “If a man’s house is protected, so should a house of god be,” Lehman attends the Edmond Church of Graphic by Cody Bromley Christ on 9th and Bryant. By Josh Hutton / Staff Writer If the law is amended, it will read, “The legA current Oklahoma house bill aims to ex- islation hereby recognizes that the citizens of tend the Stand Your Ground law to places of Oklahoma have the right to expect absolute worship. If passed, ministers and church staff safety within their homes, places of business, would have the right to use deadly force if a or places of worship.” Nickell sees it differently. threat of imminent death or severe injury is “I don’t think you should allow it period. perceived. The bill has caused a stir in both sectarian If you are being threatened by someone for what you are preaching about, then you and religious circles. “That’s ridiculous. That’s the most absurd should probably step back and examine what thing I’ve ever heard,” Brooks Nickell, a soph- you are telling people,” he said. “I can’t think of an instance where someone would need a omore at UCO, said. Nickell felt a private residence should be af- gun in church. Especially if you are teaching forgiveness and compassion.” forded a method of defense.
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phy and poetry, local musicians will perform, including Sherree Chamberlain and Anna Kinder, an English Education major at UCO. The participants of the Mariposa Project are donating proceeds from purchases at the event will go to benefit the YWCA’s battered women’s shelter of Oklahoma City. There will be a suggested donation of $5 at the door. “The grass is always greener” Hudgens was first inspired to create the Mariposa Project after her introduction to esteemed poet Sonya Renee Taylor’s “The Body Is Not An Apology,” a work intended to promote self-love and empowerment. Some of Hudgens’ ties to the Mariposa Project are linked to personal experience. “I had a gastric bypass in July 2009 – I have since lost over 300 pounds,” she said. Hudgens said the experience was not only a physical transformation, but an emotional and psychological one as well. “I am not the same person now, which is a
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DID YOU KNOW? On this day in 1923, archeaologists unearted the tomb of King Tut.
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