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Honors College welcomes inaugural dean
Last week, Tulsa criminal defense attorney Jeffrey Krigel had six charges levied against him based on his long history of alleged sexual assault and rape.
Aurora Stewart
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Student Writer
Last week Tulsa criminal defense attorney Jeffrey Krigel was charged with multiple crimes including rape and witness intimidation.
According to the official court record, there are six total charges levied against him:
First-Degree Rape
Forcible Sodomy
Second-Degree Rape by Instrumentation
Distribution of Obscene Material
Two counts of Witness Intimidation
A warrant for Krigel’s arrest was issued on Jan. 12. He turned himself in that same night.
The six court cases filed by The Grand Jury supposedly happened in 2011, 2015, 2021 and 2022
This is not the first case against Krigel. In 2021, he was arrested because of a separate rape allegation. In the previous hearing for this case, Wagoner County Managing Assistant District Attorney John Bennett called the victim as his witness. In her testimony, she claimed that she and Krigel had been involved in a long term on and off again relationship, but they were broken up on the night of the incident. That night she was at his home and while they were talking, he offered her water which she drank. She remembers nothing following this until she woke up alone on his couch not fully clothed. When she asked Krigel about her menstrual cup she later realized was missing, he affirmed that they had had sex that night. The case is scheduled to have its next session on Jan. 20 of this year.
While at the time this was Krigel’s only charge, the Tulsa Police Department still treated him as a serial offender. This was due to a separate month long investigation that revealed at least six women who also accused Krigel of sexual assault as far back as 2005.
Currently, authorities consider Krigel to be dangerous and have taken precautions to keep him detained.
Krigel is currently being held without bond due to his dangerous nature and history of tampering in cases. Along with his three rape charges, he also allegedly intimidated two people who testified against him in his divorce proceeding. He is accused of sharing their personal information online, filing lawsuits against them and attempting to physically track them down.
He has additionally been charged with sharing one of his victim’s nude photos.
In response to the most recent allegations, the Oklahoma Bar Association has asked the State Supreme Court to suspend Krigel’s law license.
Lieutenant Darin Ehrenrich from the TPD Special Victims Unit commented, “I hope that our actions have shown how seriously we’ve taken this case and how important it is.”
The Tulsa Police department has acknowledged the difficulty surrounding this case and cases of this nature. It is difficult for them to find people willing to come forward and testify in sexual assault cases. Lt. Ehrenrich stated that, “The vast majority of sexual assaults are not reported, and they’re not reported for any number of reasons. There’s generally fear when it comes to making reports. There could be fear of reprisals, fear of how’s this going to affect their life, how’s this going to affect my personal life, how will this affect my job?”
According to Lt. Ehrenrich, despite their lengthy investigation, it was not until another victim recently came forward that they could charge Krigel with the additional rape charges.
Krigel is currently being held at the Tulsa County Jail for his alleged crimes. courtesy Tulsa County Jail
TU names Dr. Jennifer Frey inaugural Dean of Honors College
Under Frey’s leadership, the new Honors College promises to offer students accelerated liberal arts education and increased opportunities for campus involvement.
Celeste McAtee
Photo & Graphics Editor
Early this month, President Brad Carson announced Dr. Jennifer Frey as the next leader of TU’s Honors program, soon to be expanded into a full Honors College, with the arrival of Frey in July. Frey, who currently teaches philosophy at the University of South Carolina, brings over 20 years of expertise in ancient Greek thought to TU. She is particularly active in researching topics of happiness, virtue and what it means to be human.
“I think about questions having to do with what a good life is,” she says when describing her scholarship. “[I study] what character traits equip a human being to be able to flourish.”
In considering what allows humans to “flourish,” she emphasizes the development of the human character, not only as an individual, but within a community. She investigates how character and community interact especially in the context of education. In the tradition of ancient philosophers of education, she studies how character development plays a critical role in academic learning.
“Reconnecting knowledge and virtue makes sense in higher education,” Frey argues. She claims that education should not serve only to strengthen students’ factual knowledge, but it must enable them to grow as responsible individuals by promoting virtues such as patience, humility and respect in the classroom. It is perhaps the development of these traits in an intellectual context, above learned factual knowledge, that makes a university education so valuable in modern society.
Frey’s theories on education factor into recent discussions about the liberal arts’ role in education more broadly. As several universities neglect humanities programs in favor of technical and professional programs, Frey asserts that the liberal arts are essential for meaningful university education: “A truly liberal education is supposed to make those who seek it free in an interior and fundamental sense,” she says. “[Learners should be] able to discover, for themselves, the authentic purpose or meaning of their own lives, to understand what constitutes their own flourishing and to find ways they can creatively contribute to the common good of their communities.”
TU’s plan to expand the Honors program into a full Honors college can be seen as a response to attacks on the value of the liberal arts – such as those that came from TU itself a few years ago. The mission statement of the Honors college makes clear its intention to recentralize the liberal arts – alongside the necessity of intellectual virtue – in higher education:
“The mission of the Honors College at the University of Tulsa is to offer an excellent and accelerated liberal arts education, focused on the study of classical texts in the liberal arts tradition, in a vibrant intellectual community that fosters friendship, growth in excellent habits of mind and character, and service to the common good.”
Frey reveals some of the practical aspects of the program that will help it achieve its mission. The most significant piece of the curriculum is its heavy emphasis on classroom discussion in seminar classes. Frey says that “by focusing on the liberal art of dialectic, the Honors College at the University of Tulsa will train its students to search for the truth together in a community where the dignity of every participant is valued and respected.” Disagreement in these discussions, as will inevitably occur, is also essential for the success of the program. Frey continues that “there is no expectation that students will agree about contemporary political or moral issues, but there is the expectation that in spite of deep and abiding disagreement, they will learn to discuss and investigate their own humanity with one another, in ways that speak to a mutual recognition that everyone belongs in the conversation and has an equal stake in it.” In learning how to “navigate the complicated, complex space” of classroom discussion in their seminar-style classes, students will be able to form “intellectual friendships” that encourage them to continue pursuing truth even well outside a scholarly setting.
The Honors College also offers students opportunities for character growth in its new emphasis in campus involvement. Frey shares her dedication to “scale up” student life experience in the Honors College through sponsoring several events outside the classroom, including monthly guest speakers, weekly community “intellectual events” and required service for all Honors College students. Frey explains her special attention to extra-curricular involvement, describing her vision for the college as “not just programs, not just coursework, but creating intentional community.”
Dr. Frey is not new to the TU campus. After striking up an accidental friendship with President Carson on Twitter, she was invited to campus last fall to speak about the value of a liberal arts education. In a full Chapman Hall lecture room, she unapologetically defended the liberal arts’ place in higher education. She declared that the “fundamental human desire to know and to understand—ourselves, our world, our history, and one another—is the real reason we are here; it is the raison d’etre of the university. We are not here to educate for a life of work. We are after something higher.”
Frey will be coming to TU alongside her husband Dr. Christopher Frey, who will join the faculty of the Department of Philosophy and Religion as the McFarlin chair. Frey will also be bringing her podcast “Sacred and Profane Love” to Tulsa, on which she will continue to investigate human happiness and the meaning of life.
TU does not provide enough vacation days during the school semesters, and it is a detriment to students.
Erika Brock News Editor
The University of Tulsa does not provide students with days off that are spaced in a way that students can truly feel rested. Each semester, students are run ragged under constant pressure to work. The only breaks are during the second week of school, when classes have just finished syllabus week and students are still waiting for the semester to begin. It is later that they become worn down and exhausted, nearing burnout from intense schedules. A three-day weekend would provide them the time to relax and catch up on the work they are needing to complete.
The average fall semester looks like this for students at the University of Tulsa: a week of classes, no true homework yet because not enough material has been covered, and then immediately after, a three day weekend due to Labor Day. Everyone is fresh and not fatigued from work. Then, it is time for classes to really gear up as teachers begin getting into the nitty-gritty of lectures and assignments. The first round of tests comes and goes, with no real end date because of the lack of a fall break, and then round two of exams, providing roughly a week of mental reprieve from test prep, then finally fall break! Then, students are back on the grind for a week straight that immediately leads into finals. Of course, we then have winter break, but it’s, rinse and repeat in the spring, this time with Martin Luther King Jr. Day right after the first week of class.
Having the full week for fall break is a blessing for students. It is not something common at other universities, and it is very nice to have so much time with our families, especially for the students who are from out of state and are traveling long distances to see their families.
The issue with this break is how close to the end of the semester it is, which cannot be helped due to the timing of the holiday. We are taking our break and coming back after such a long time, studying really throws students out of the working mindset, and it can be difficult to throw themselves back into the thick of it to finish out the semester.
A true fall break, or an extra day off sometime between Labor Day and Thanksgiving would be a positive change to help prevent burnout in the student body through the long trudge of the semester, even if it means that students go a day or two later in December.
Placed in the middle of the spring semester, spring break allows students to rest. This break provides a clear division of the semester so students don’t feel quite as thrown off their settled routine, and have more time to get back into it before finals begin.
At the end of the day, any decision the university makes regarding our breaks and
how they are placed, it is a certainty someone will complain. It is not possible to make everyone happy, but breaks spaced out more evenly throughout the semester or an extra day or two off would be, hopefully, a positive change for the students.
Breaks in the fall are not evenly spaced, contributing to student burnout. courtesy utulsa.edu
TU sets Guinness World Record for largest pizza party
If the goal was charity, TU spent more effort breaking the record than inducing generosity.
Shelby Hiens
Commentary Editor
This past Saturday, the University of Tulsa made history by hosting the largest documented pizza party in the world. The Guinness World Record was attempted between 6:50 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. There were 3,357 people in attendance at the Reynold’s Center who fulfilled the requirements in order to qualify. Each participant had to eat two small slices of Andolini’s pizza and drink an eight ounce bottle of water within the 15 minute timeframe. The participants also had to be over 12 years of age.
The party directly benefited Make-AWish Oklahoma via donations by sponsors and attendees alike. In total, the party raised about $40,000 for the foundation.
The event was no small feat and the record was earned at no small cost to TU. Although the university still charged tickets to the party and subsequent basketball game at the discounted rate of $5 per person, students were not required to purchase a ticket. TU provided free commemorative lanyards and sweatshirts to the first 1,000 attendees and an additional 1,000 sweatshirts to the first 1,000 students through the door.
After the attempt was finished and the sponsor’s donations were publicized, it was announced that President Brad Carson would match every dollar donated at the event.
If the goal of the event was to put TU on the map and gain notoriety, Carson succeeded. If the goal was to get more attendance to the basketball game, Carson utterly failed when most of the attendees fled the stadium before the game could begin. If the goal was to raise money for charity, students questioned if this was the best way to go about it. With the amount of money that was put forth to create the event in the first place and incentivise the participants, why didn’t TU simply donate those funds instead? The free souvenir sweatshirts and lanyards combined with renting shuttles to transport participants to the Reynold’s Center had to cost thousands.
There is no guarantee that TU even gave out 2,000 sweatshirts. Although this is what the university claimed, sweatshirts were given at the end of the event as attendees left. To simplify and speed up the process of seating people in the stadium, participants designated to receive a sweatshirt were given wristbands as they checked in. When I walked to the home side of the court to collect my sweatshirt, the volunteers handing
them out were not checking for wristbands at all. They tossed sweatshirts to the clamoring sea of students haphazardly, trying to get them out as fast as possible. There was no order to the process at all and absolutely no way to ensure that the first 2,000 attendees or students were able to receive their promised goods. Not only that, as I fought my way out of the Reynold’s Center, I witnessed another group of volunteers giving out more sweatshirts in chaotic fashion without checking wristbands.
Additionally, Andolini’s spent money on the ingredients to make at least 1,700 personal pan pizzas (as every participant ate half of a personal pizza), which could have gone directly to Make-A-Wish Oklahoma had charity been the primary goal.
Without the hype and excitement of contributing to infamy, TU would not have attracted so many sponsors or attendees who, undoubtedly, donated at least $20,000 as part of the event. TU’s goal was to raise $15,000 for the Make-A-Wish foundation, which they surpassed. However, Carson ended up matching the donations. Carson could have made that $20,000 donation without spending university funds on the pizza party had he wished. As a charity event, the pizza party cost TU funds that could have strictly been donated or used to improve our cam-
courtesy Shelby Hiens Participants were required to eat two slices of pizza and drink eight ounces of water in 15 minutes.
courtesy Shelby Hiens There were 3,357 participants in the Reynold’s Center on Saturday evening.
pus and academia by giving our professors raises or fixing the dilapidated buildings.
Over $40,000 was raised for Make-A-Wish Oklahoma. courtesy Shelby Hiens
