INSIDE
THEVISTA University of Central Oklahoma
• Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . PAGE 2 • Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGE 3 • Bronze and Blue . . . . . . . PAGE 4 • Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . PAGE 6 • Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGES 7 & 8
The Student Voice Since 1903
WWW. UCO360.COM Study finds current college students study less than predecessors Adam Holt
WEDNESDAY • June 6, 2012
Endeavor Games
UCO seeking volunteers for Endeavor Games 500 athletes from around the world are set to compete June 7-10 Volunteers needed at sites across Edmond.
Staff Writer A study by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) suggests that college students of today study less than those of decades past. The NSSE is a survey where over 1,400 four-year colleges in the U.S. and Canada participate. The results of this survey are used to analyze student effort and use of time as well as how institutions deploy resources and organize curriculum. One finding of the NSSE is that today’s average full-time student studies 15 hours a week. This differs from the traditional idea of studying two hours for every one hour of class per week, which would equal 24 hours. Researchers have raised a number of theories to why this is. One idea concerns the rising cost of higher education and students taking on jobs to be able to pay for it. Archers take aim at practice targets June 10, 2011, at The Endeavor Games. Photo by Liz Boyer, The Vista Bruce Lochner, Ph.D., Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Director of Bryan Trude dom, so it is becoming more broad than as just a have the opportunity to qualify for the 2012 ParaStudent Counseling at UCO United States-only event. It is becoming a global lympics, beginning Aug. 29 in London, England. agrees with this assertion. Senior Staff Writer event.” Leatherwood cited the story of Jeremy Camp“I feel there is less economVolunteers are asked to work three to five hour bell, a 2004 Endeavor Games athlete who earned ic support for students,” said The UCO Wellness Center is searching for vol- shifts as the Endeavor Games hosts 11 events, for a sponsorship from his performance, who went on Lochner. to set the world record in discus at the 2008 Paraunteers for the 13th annual Endeavor Games, to athletes ranging from 3 to 63 years of age. Lochner also feels that toWhile volunteers will receive a T-shirt – and de- lympics in Beijing, China. be held June 7-10 on the UCO campus along with day’s generation of college pending on the hours scheduled, lunch – for some In addition, U.S. Paralympics will also be hoststudents are more likely to sites at Edmond North High School and the UCO the benefits of volunteerism extends far beyond ing clinics in several events prior to the start of Lake Arcadia Outdoor Adventure Recreation Cenhave different burdens to the material. the games in archery, ambulatory track, ambulacarry than those students in ter. For Trade and Industrial senior Michael Lopez, tory field, cycling, power lifting, rowing, sitting “The games is a sporting event for the physically the past. who volunteers with the U.S. Paralympic Sitting volleyball, shooting, swimming, wheelchair track “Today’s students have disabled,” Grant Leatherwood, Endeavor Games Volleyball team, volunteering for events such as and wheelchair field. media representative, said. “It’ s for any range of more complex lives. They are the games offers a chance for personal growth. “It’s not just the competitors, we need the voldoing more things,” he said. physical disability, it could be an amputation, it “It’s a sense of accomplishment, just to see and unteers,” Leatherwood said. “Without them, this could be a paralysis, anything like that.” “You see students who may Leatherwood said that the games were expecting help,” Lopez said. “When I volunteer, I really don’t event could not have happened for the last 13 be caregivers to a member of around 500 competitors from around the world know how to explain that feeling. How can you years.” their family, or have part-time Students interested in volunteering can register and were in need of at least 200 volunteers pri- explain it? I felt good just because I was able to or full-time jobs, and more help, and just to be able to see it.” online at www.ucoendeavorgames.com by clicking marily to work track and field events at Edmond who are in organizations.” The games will feature indoor and outdoor ar- on “Volunteer Registration.” Students with quesNorth, as well as drive athletes between event sites, chery, cycling, swimming, power lifting, table tions about volunteering can contact Coordinator hotels and Will Rogers World Airport in OKC. Continued on page 4 “Last year we had 37 states represented at the tennis, track and field, sitting volleyball, three-on- Channing Winblad at (405) 974-3142, or by email games,” Leatherwood said. “We also had athletes three wheelchair basketball and shooting sports. at ucoendeavor@uco.edu. from Puerto Rico, Turkey and the United King- Competitors who meet the age requirements will
State
New Medical Examiner office, ‘Master Lease Program’ on hold OK universities await Attorney General Pruitt’s opinion of the constitutionality of the program. Trevor Hultner
Staff Writer UCO and other universities across Oklahoma have halted planned building projects until the state Attorney General, E. Scott Pruitt, releases an opinion on the constitutionality of the “Master Lease Purchase Program,” which is described by the Oklahoma Regents for Higher Education as being “a method of financing the acquisition of major personal and real property that will provide cost efficiencies in finance and administration.” The man who asked the Attorney General to give his opinion and put the program on hold was state Sen. Patrick Anderson, whose opposition to the program includes criticism of UCO adding the construction of the Medical Examiner’s Office to the Master Lease project list. “I believe there are some fundamental flaws in the manner in which the Master Lease programs have been established and are operated that make them unconstitutional,” Anderson, a Republican from Enid, said in a statement on May 10. “The original purpose of these programs was to allow colleges and universities to save money when purchasing copiers and computers, but has now ballooned to annual multimillion dollar requests.” Fellow state Sen. Clark Jolley, a Republican from Edmond, has been lobbying hard for relocating the Medical Examiner’s Office near UCO. He said in a telephone interview
on Friday that Anderson likely doesn’t have a problem with the Medical Examiner’s office being moved here. “I think he voted with me on passing the bill that’s bringing the ME’s office to Edmond,” he said. “I think, for him, it’s more of an issue with the constitutionality of the entire program.” This seems to pan out in some of Anderson’s other statements. “My only political interest is to protect the taxpayers of Oklahoma from what I believe is an unconstitutional issuance of debt,” Anderson said in a response to some of Jolley’s public statements on May 14. “I have challenged the Master Lease Program because it is used to issue millions of dollars of debt without a vote of the people or a vote of the Legislature – that clearly violates our state Constitution.” Jolley contends that, at least in the case of the relocation of the ME’s office, a vote of the Legislature was in fact cast. The State Medical Examiner’s office lost accreditation in 2009, due in large part to “poor facilities, poor equipment and a backlog of cases,” according to Jolley. In 2010, Dr. Collie Trant was replaced as Chief Medical Examiner by Dr. Eric Pfeifer. “To be honest, Edmond North High School’s science lab is better than what the Medical Examiner’s office has,” Jolley said, referring to the ME’s central office near OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City. “The current location In this April 2010 photo, state senator Scott Pruitt address reporters at the Oklahoma can’t be retrofitted, and it can’t be remodeled.” State capital. Now the current Oklahoma state Attorney General, Pruitt will soon Also in 2010, Anthony Sykes, a state sena- release his opinion on the constitutionality of the Master Lease Purchase Program. Photo provided