7 December 2015

Explore the origins of Thanksgiving football, p 12

Graphic by Elias Brinkman

Christmas has been secular for a while, folks! See p 8

Tulsa will play in Independence Bowl, p 13

News

The Collegian: 2

7 December 2015

Above are the results from an e-mail survey distributed by the Advocacy Alliance and the University of Tulsa Institute of Trauma, Adversity and Injustice about rates of sexual assault at TU.

truck had collided with a student’s parked vehicle. The student was contacted and insurance information was exchanged.

Nov. 24 1:00p.m.

University of Tulsa Campus Security officers were dispatched to the Norman Village Apartments to investigate a marijuana odor.

Upon arrival of the Professional Staff Member (PSM), officers entered the apartment and made contact with the resident. Officers proceeded to search the apartment finding drug paraphernalia but no marijuana. Officers oversaw the disposal of all related drug materials. A formal report was written by the Housing Department as well.

2:00 p.m.

University of Tulsa Campus Security officers were dispatched to investigate a possible non injury motor vehicle accident. Upon arrival, a FedEx driver reported that their parking brake slipped on their truck and the

Nov. 26 7:10 a.m.

University of Tulsa Campus Security officers were dispatched to investigate possible vandalism at the Kappa Sigma fraternity house. Upon arrival officers made contact with two house members of Kappa Sigma who discovered trash dumped on the fraternity house porch. A suspect was visible on surveillance footage dumping trash cans on the porch during the night.

Nov. 27 5:30 University of Tulsa Campus Security officers received a phone call from a student traveling out of town on holiday that their personal apartment security alarm was activated. Officers responded to the students apartment in Norman Village and found no signs of entry. All the doors and windows were locked and nothing inside the apartment appeared disturbed. The student deactivated the alarm via their cellphone and officers secured the apartment before leaving

the scene.

Nov. 28 10:28 p.m.

While on routine patrol University of Tulsa Campus Security officers found the chains that block the fire lane behind the Pike House had been driven through. The chains and the locks that are attached to them were not damaged. The eyelit bolts on the poles where they attach were damaged and need to be replaced. Officers contacted our communications center and nobody had called in about running into the chain. The chain on the other end of the fire lane was still up and not damaged.

Nov.29 2:00 p.m.

University of Tulsa Campus Security officers were dispatched to John Mabee Hall for a report of a stolen bicycle. Upon arrival, officers met a student who reported their bicycle was missing from the bike rack at John Mabee Hall. They locked it in the court yard rack and found the cut lock left where they had locked the bicycle. They provided some descriptive information and an officer searched around to see if it could be located.

7:00 p.m.

University of Tulsa Campus Security officers were dispatched to investigate possible unauthorized phone calls. A university staff member reported unauthorized phone calls from their work phone. The staff member stated that they had received phone calls from 3 different people who all stated they received a call from their work extension.

The staff member said they did not know any of the callers and had not been on campus to use their extension during that time frame.

Nov. 30 10:10 a.m.

University of Tulsa Campus Security officers towed a vehicle off campus from the Harwell Lot. A vehicle was found parked contrary to university policy and officers verified that the vehicle had been previously tow warned. Towing of the vehicle was authorized by the on-duty supervisor and the vehicle was towed off campus without incident.

The Collegian does not edit the Campus Crime Watch except for content and brevity.

News

7 December 2015

The Collegian: 3

Protestors stand silently in ACAC. Many protestors belonged to HeadStrong and PRIDE.

Rosaria Butterfield gives talk amid student protest

Visiting speaker Rosaria Butterfield drew both supporters and protesters to her lecture on Tuesday Nov 17.

Kayleigh Thesenvitz Variety Editor Brennen VanderVeen Student Writer

On Tuesday, November 17, Dr. Rosaria Butterfield came to campus for a lecture titled “Sexual Identity and the Christian Faith.” The discussion focused on Butterfield’s conversion from atheism to Christianity. In particular, it focused on how she, as a lesbian, came to embrace a worldview that holds homosexuality to be a sin. The lecture was hosted by Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), Baptist Collegiate Ministries (BCM), Chi Alpha and the Wesley Foundation.

Dr. Butterfield’s lecture took place in the Great Hall of the Student Union. Before the lecture, as many guests were making their way upstairs, silent protestors stood at the head of the stairs with signs proclaiming “Love is Not a Sin” and “Love is not Conditional.” The protest was organized by Tara Grigson and Whitney Cipolla of Pride at TU and Jennie Wachowski of United Campus Ministries, among others. It did not impede traffic and was largely ignored by guests who averted their eyes from the crowd dressed in black (for the sake of uniformity) wielding rainbow colored signs.

Amidst the roughly 30 silent protesters, a few wore tags that marked them as spokespeople for the group, to answer any questions guests may have had regarding the protest.

As one of the spokespeople for the protest said, “We are protesting to show that there are people who differ in opinion than the groups who brought Dr. Butterfield here, and Dr. Butterfield herself.”

“We want to show support for LGBT+, we want them to know that there are groups on campus who do not believe that love is conditional,” the spokesperson continued.

“We want people to understand that we support freedom of speech, but at the same time we are supporting students that may be searching for something more in their lives.

We want to be a visible reminder of that.”

The room was filled. Several people had to stand. A few minutes before the lecture

began, some of the silent protesters entered the room and stood in the back.

The first part of Dr. Butterfield’s speech focused on how she came to be a practicing lesbian. She said she had a normal childhood and that she had considered herself heterosexual, having her first boyfriend in college and continuing to date men until the age of 28. However, she realized that she kept falling in love with women. She said her homosocial preference developed into a homosexual one.

The next part of her speech focused on her life as a lesbian. She said that “life as a lesbian felt normal.” She also spent time talking about how the LGBT community values hospitality. It is from her time in that community that she claims she honed her skills in hospitality that she now uses as a pastor’s wife.

She talked about how the treatment she received by Christians made her oppose the religion. She talked about how “the most frustrating thing” about Christians was “that they simply would not leave consenting adults alone.” She wrote an opinion piece for the local newspaper against the Promise Keepers, a Christian Men’s organization that had recently come to her town.

For that article, she received many letters, one of which defied her classification system of fan mail and hate mail. That letter was from Ken Smith, pastor of the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. It invited her to reexamine the presuppositions of her world view and invited her to dinner. Her experience with him and his wife made her sure that she was his friend, not just his project.

During this time, she was also reading the Bible extensively. She did so as a research project in order to write a book about the hatred of the religious right. She read it as an English professor, employing the same methods she does with other texts. However, reading the Bible changed her, something her friends noticed. The Bible’s notion of sin and repentance challenged her postmodern worldview, as did the notion of an omniscient and omnibenevolent God. She found the Bible’s message both compelling and frightening. Two years after her Bible-reading project had begun, she went to Ken Smith’s church. After befriending several Christians, she still felt that she lacked understanding. She wanted God to show her why homosexuality is wrong. This led her to prayer. Another day, she converted to Christianity, taking to heart Psalm 119:56, which

The controversial speaker drew a large crowd, amongst whom were about 30 silent protestors.

Butterfield authored The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, a book about her Christian conversion.

reads “This has become mine….”

The next part of her speech focused on the relationship between Christianity and homosexuality. For her, it has to do with pride and the idea of creating one’s own system of morality. She also said homophobia is a sin.

She noted that she does not believe that heterosexuality is the solution to homosexuality. She said, “the solution to all sin is Christ’s atoning blood.” She also said that someone can feel unwanted homosexual desire and be a Christian. She said what someone can’t do is embrace homosexuality and call it Christian. She said sin is abominable to God, never people.

She closed by saying that her protesters were right “to want a safe space to learn and to be.” She urged Christians to be hospitable and to share the whole gospel.

After her speech, members of the audience had the opportunity to ask her questions. Some of the questions were from people who appeared to agree with her. Others were from people clearly opposed to her speech. One person asked her how it felt to advocate something that increases the risk of suicide, depression and STIs in LGBT youth. Another audience member was upset that a transgender woman featured in the speech was described as having large hands.

Someone else asked about the aftermath of her conversion regarding her friends in the LGBT community. Dr. Butterfield said

she betrayed them and turned her back on her community.

During the entire event, the audience was respectful and no one interrupted Dr. Butterfield.

In response to Butterfield’s message, United Campus Ministries and Pride said, “We do not believe that homosexuality is a sin. Dr. Butterfield’s interpretation does not represent the beliefs of all Christians.”

Jim Scholl, a clinical psychology doctoral student and a spokesperson for the silent protesters was asked about his reaction, and that of the other silent protesters, to Dr. Butterfield. He called what she said “thinly veiled hate speech,” and said “Overall, her message was threatening and condemning towards sexual minorities—especially towards those who subscribe to a belief in eternal life.”

He noted also that “There is a vast body of research that explores the impact of prejudice on LGBT youth. Those who are rejected by their communities or families are at increased risk of high levels of depression, use of illegal drugs, risk for HIV and STIs and suicide. This is precisely why we are engaged in a silent protest—to show support for, and protect students who were at risk.”

Those interested in listening to Dr. Butterfield’s lecture in full can find it at the TU chapter of RUF’s website under “sermons.”

all photos by Kayleigh Thesenvitz

News

The Collegian: 4

City revitalization to continue

The city of Tulsa has several new additions planned for the coming years.

Jordan Hoyt Student Writer

In the past ten years the City of Tulsa has seen “Vision 2025,” (approved in 2003) and other developments lead to the BOK center, ONEOK Park (home to the Tulsa Drillers and Roughnecks soccer), and the Brady Art District’s renaissance, which included the Guthrie Green and First Friday art crawls among many other developments.

And the improvements are still happening! Here are some local developments you should know about: 1. A Gathering Place (phase one expected 2017)- This park along Riverside drive is designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh, the same architect who designed many parks in New York City. A boathouse, lodge, playgrounds, nature walks, land bridges and sporting areas will all be featured.

2. East Tulsa Mall (expected 2017)Due to the Turkey Mountain mall getting blocked, investors are now planning a new outlet mall to the east around the intersection of highways 44 and 244. If approved, there would be a new outlet mall just 5 miles east of campus.

3. “Tulsa’s Future” (ongoing)- This economic development initiative is meant to diversify the city economy, having already created over 12,000 new jobs with salaries over 50k. This might sound less exciting to college students, but with this development, the city will be less economically dependent on fluctuant oil prices in the future.

4. Arkansas River Dam (expected TBD)A city council decision is expected later this month for an estimated 242 million dollar dam and pedestrian bridge. Projects for a dam have been proposed in the past but are usually stymied by those calling for bridge and street maintenance.

5. The North Tulsa Neighborhoods Plan and Kendall Whittier Sector Plan (planning phase)- These are especially important to know about since residences are sharing their plans for the Kendall Whittier neighborhood that TU is located in. North Tulsa has long been overdue for investment as well.

6. OKPOP (expected 2018) and Downtown Transit Hub (vision)- Ambitious and exciting concept renderings were shown in September of a new green space around the Center of the Universe. This would be a fantastic addition to the newly planned OKPOP museum dedicated to Oklahoma’s influence on the rest of the country, from Garth Brooks to the Outsiders.

Sammie Hottel Student Writer San Bernardino shooting results in 14 deaths Two assailants, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, opened fire during a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, killing fourteen and wounding twenty-one. Farook and Malik, who were heavily armed, were killed in the ensuing gun battle with police. Malik, a Pakistani national, reportedly pledged allegiance to ISIS in a Facebook post, and the FBI announced Friday that it would be investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism. One law enforcement official, however, cautioned that the evidence suggested that the couple was self-radicalized and not directly coordinating with ISIS. When the shooters’ identities were released on Friday, Farook and Malik’s landlord briefly opened up their home to journalists, allowing a live stream of images from their apartment, which contained an arsenal of ammunition and pipe bombs.

Germany approves non-combat mission against ISIS The German Parliament voted on Friday to send troops and dated reconnaissance planes to Syria to aid in the campaign against the Islamic State. The action reversed Chancellor Angela Merkel’s long standing opposition to providing military support to the air war against ISIS. Despite her reluctance, Merkel had her cabinet approve the deployment and allowed the action to be pushed through parliament, where it passed 446 votes to 145 votes. Additionally, Merkel promised France “any and all support” in fighting terrorism.

Norbert Röttgen, head of the foreign affairs committee, stated that “We’ve turned our backs on this region for years and I’d think we’d need to have damn good arguments to continue looking away considering the inhuman brutality that we’ve seen.”

Texas continues to resist resettlement of refugees On Friday, Texas dropped its request for a temporary restraining order to halt the resettlement of 21 Syrian refugees into the Dallas and Houston areas. The announcement came just hours after the US Department of Justice filed papers claiming that the state did not have the authority to interfere with national immigration policy. Furthermore, the International Rescue Committee, the relief agency responsible for resettling the refugees, filed a separate lawsuit that claimed Texas was in violation of US civil rights laws by discriminating against refugees on the basis of nationality. Texas has threatened to cut funding for the IRC if the relocations continue as planned, and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission sued the US government and the relief agency this week to block the refugees.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stated that the Federal Government is legally obligated to consult with Texas before resettling refugees. In response, the US Justice Department noted that according to the Refugee Act of 1980, the government must consult with states about the sponsorship process and distribution among states, not individual resettlement decisions.

Potential impeachment of Brazilian President Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff faces impeachment involving allegations of her administration’s illegal use of bookkeeping to mask the government’s financial situation. Rousseff has denied these allegations and suggested that the threat of impeachment is only being used for political advantage. Both those in favor of and those against impeachment are seeking to mobilize mass protests to influence lawmakers. Rousseff’s supporters chiefly consist of impoverished citizens, civic activists, and trade unionists.

Vagner Freitas, president of Brazil’s largest trade union confederation, denounced the impeachment, saying it would lead to the persecution of workers. Marcello Reis, leader of one of the largest pro-impeachment groups, called Rousseff’s government a communist regime and hopes to mobilize street protestors as soon as possible.

Parisian Café hit by terrorist attack reopens Café Bonne Bière, where five people were killed in last month’s terrorist attack on Paris, reopened its doors for business on Friday. The café was closed for three weeks, during which the bullet holes were removed and the walls repainted. During Friday lunchtime, the café was full, and a blackboard outside read “It is time for us to gather together again, united and to go forward in order not to forget.” Manager Audrey Bily stated, “The cafe was a place where people got together and exchanged and shared. That is what we want it to be again today.”

Many other establishments that were attacked remain closed, including the pizza restaurant adjacent to the café, but most expect to reopen by January.

7 December 2015

Absentee voting and you

Away from home during election season? You can still file an absentee ballot.

Brennen VanderVeen Student Writer Absentee ballots allow one to vote even if you can’t make it to the polling station on election day. This can be achieved either through mailing or early in-person voting. However, laws vary by state. As such, you should check the relevant authority in your state for all of the dates and rules about registering for both regular voting and for absentee voting. This could be an election board, an election commission, the state’s department of state, etc. This is also where you would find any documents that are needed.

If you are unsure of where to go, fvap. gov might be a helpful resource. It’s run by the Department of Defense for the benefit of service members, but it has links for individual states. If you are abroad, this should be your primary resource. For those living inside the United States, two caveats are that some of the information is specific to people living overseas and that voting is generally handled entirely by the states, so you should use it primarily to get to the state websites.

The deadlines for voter registration and requesting an absentee ballot vary by state, but as long as you look at information before the beginning of next semester, you’ll almost certainly be able to do so for the presidential primaries and any election taking place afterwards. Typically, the deadline to register is much earlier than the deadline to apply for an absentee ballot. So, if you’re already registered, you have a bit longer.

The main thing it might too late to do right now would be changing your party affiliation in order to vote in the “correct” presidential primary.

The following is based on information from the Oklahoma State Election Board’s website. Voters should still check with their county election boards for clarifications or confirmations of any rules about voting.

In Oklahoma, there are two main types of absentee ballot applications. They can both be found from the county election boards.

One application is for people who are either physically incapacitated or who are caring for someone who is physically incapacitated. The other type is for everyone else (who isn’t overseas); no reason is needed to re-

quest an absentee ballot.

It’s easier to apply for an absentee ballot when either you or someone in your care is physically incapacitated. People in this situation do not need their signature notarized, but they do need to witnesses. These voters can get their application to the county election board by mail, fax or telegraph.

Oklahomans living overseas don’t even have to be registered to vote, but they do have to be eligible to register. Also, while they can’t use a telegraph for their application, they can use email.

If you aren’t in any of the special categories, besides mail, fax and telegraph, you can also bring in the application in person.

However, you can’t have someone else (well, besides a postal worker) bring it in for you. Regardless of what type of absentee voter you are, the deadline to apply for an absentee ballot to be mailed to you is 5:00 PM on the Wednesday before an election.

However, Oklahoma doesn’t actually require voters to use the forms. You can just write a letter to your county election board.

To do so, you’ll need to include your name, birth date, address at which you are registered to vote, the election(s) for which you are requesting a ballot, the address to which the ballots should be mailed and your signature. You are allowed to request ballots for all the elections in that calendar year.

Of course, that’s just the application process to be able to use an absentee ballot.

If your actual ballot is mailed to you, the county election board must receive it back by 7:00 PM on election day. You can also do in person absentee voting anytime between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM on the Thursday or Friday before an election. For state and federal elections (not local), the Saturday before the election between 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM is also an option. People who vote in person apply for an absentee ballot that same day. For people living in nursing homes that are in the same county for which a person is registered, an Absentee Voting Board will come to the nursing home so that everyone there who applied for absentee voting can cast a ballot.

The only other special circumstance is if you find yourself physically incapacitated after 5:00 PM on the Tuesday before an election. People in this situation need to contact the county election board. They also need a doctor’s signature. In order to get the application and ballot to the county election board, they appoint an agent to do so for them.

Oil industry employees suffer severe losses

In the face of falling oil prices, many petroleum companies are unable to keep their full staff employed and are cutting positions across the board. Additionally, new job opportunities within the industry are sparse, threatening prospects for petroleum engineering graduates nationwide.

Sara Douglas Student Writer

Nearly 100,000 American oil company employees—now former—have lost their jobs in the last 18 months due to oil prices falling to extreme lows and American energy companies losing ground internationally.

Globally, almost 200,000 positions within the petroleum industry have been eliminated during this timespan.

As crude oil prices worldwide drop following increased production by Saudi Arabian companies, stateside corporations are finding themselves unable to stay afloat.

Cost cutting, mostly by way of layoffs, has been occurring this year at a rate nearly ten times that of what it was at this time last year.

Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Halliburton layoffs make up nearly half of the total job loss within the industry.

Those oil service providers have been hit harder than exploration and production businesses, although the latter companies are experiencing severe losses in profit as well.

ConocoPhillips is in the process of eliminating nearly 2,000 positions from their operations, while Oklahoma City-based energy group Chesapeake recently slashed 740 jobs, 15 percent of their workforce.

“Big Oil” companies like BP, Chevron, Shell and ExxonMobil have already begun making small cuts in their employed numbers and are expected to make deeper cuts in 2016.

Less sizable organizations like Pioneer Oil Co. and Swift Resources are being hit

even harder by forced operational cuts. Also experiencing setbacks in anticipated financial earnings are companies in fields related to the oil industry, such as construction, utilities and metals production: Caterpillar, General Electric and US Steel have all made cuts in line with plummeting oil costs.

The most significantly affected portion of the oil industry is by and far the oilfield sector, followed by contractors who provide drilling rigs to those extraction companies.

Cuts made at production companies, refineries and pipeline operators have not been quite as severe.

Large-equipment makers and suppliers have seen slipping success as well. Their customers, primarily oil companies, are unable to purchase new tools.

In addition to having direct negative effects on various components of the energy industry, the fall in oil prices has generated ripples of damaging economic impact in local communities.

Especially in towns which previously thrived on provisioning oil companies with supplies like fracking sand, liners for truck beds or safety equipment for drilling rigs, citizens may be benefitting from low gas prices at the pump but are still suffering overall because of lower economic prosperity overall.

Hiring rates have fallen as well during this industry downturn, resulting in fewer job opportunities for graduates of petroleum engineering programs nationwide.

Many who entered college just a few years ago when the industry was at a relative high were expecting immediate employment and hefty paychecks upon graduation, but such is not the case in today’s climate.

Even attaining an oilfield job on a drilling rig is significantly more difficult now than it was just a few short years ago because so many massive oil companies are having to scrap projects and planned undertakings.

Aiming for jobs in the research and discovery sector of the oil industry or pursuing a master’s degree to temporarily stave off the effects of unemployment are likely the best options for many petroleum engineering students as of now.

News

7 December 2015

The Collegian: 5

Scenes from Reconciliation Park

A response to the article on palliative care in the November 9. 2015 Collegian November 17, 2015 Greetings: First, thank you for penning an article on palliative care as an alternative to invasive and costly medical care. I would like to respond and expand on a few points made in the article, as palliative care is one of my areas of research.

Financial: You make the point that care is expensive in the last 5 years of life. This is true, and you aptly point out that Medicare spends one-fourth of its dollars on patient care at the end-of-life. This is a significant burden to both the finances of the patient and their families as well as the healthcare system.

End-of-life care: I agree and research has shown that palliative care is a vital alternative to aggressive care at the end-of-life, especially in the geriatric population you reference.

Now, I would like to clarify a few things regarding palliative care. The World Health Organization defines palliative care as “an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, sychococial, and spiritual.”

A common misunderstanding of palliative care is that it is for end-of-life patients only. This is where hospice is appropriate, yet in this country we misun-

derstand hospice and palliative care to mean the same thing. This leads to underutilization of palliative care as patients and families think it means they’re giving up. On the contrary, early access to palliative care is essential at any point in a disease trajectory, should be discussed at diagnosis, and is appropriate across the lifespan, from birth to old age. The use of palliative care does not preclude curative therapies either, and both can be received simultaneously.

Our population of older Americans is growing, and our advances in healthcare are extending life, especially life with chronic illness, beyond what was previously possible. Palliative care plays a vital role in managing the consequences and complications of chronic and/or life-threatening illness, and while it is cost-saving, the essential of palliative care is that it respects the wishes of the patient and their choices in care. This is important as the majority of people have stated in the course of research that they prefer to die at home, and not in a “cold, unfriendly hospital room.”

Thank you for your time, Nicholas Zumwalt, MS, NR, CEN, CPEN Clinical Assistant Professor of Nursing Oxley College of Health Sciences The University of Tulsa Editor’s Note: This letter to the editor has only been edited for clarity.

all photos by Kayleigh Thesenvitz

Top left: One of the statues in the park is called Hope Plaza, featuring three scenes. The first, Hostility, features a white man in worn laboring clothes who is heavily armed. The scene signifies the mobs of armed white men who marched in and destroyed Greenwood.

Top middle: The second scene, Humiliation, depicts a black man dressed in a nice suit, and obviously more wealthy than the white man, surrendering in order to save his life.

Top right: The third scene, Hope, shows the white Director of the Red Cross holding a black child and promising help to rebuild and hope for a better future.

Above: The Tower of Reconciliation

FREE TO GOOD HOME, 2 YORKIE PUPPIES RE-HOMING, AKC REG, CONTACT ME VIA EMAIL FOR MORE DETAILS ON: hwxtion01@gmail.com

The Collegian: 6

Okla. govt. receives F in transparency Oklahoma’s recent string of poor report cards continues with failing grades in government transparency and accountability. Oklahomans should be able to demand these qualities from their government.

Kayleigh Thesenvitz Variety Editor Do you ever feel completely uninformed about what is going on in Oklahoma? Do you find out about a new law only after it is being enforced? Do you know the names Brian Bingman, Mike Schulz or Earl Sears? Do you have any idea how your tax dollars are being spent?

Don’t feel too awful about being uninformed about the happenings of Oklahoma, because according to the State Integrity Investigation it probably is not your fault. Oklahoma is among the 11 states that have a failing grade in government transparency.

The 2015 State Integrity Investigation was conducted by both Global Integrity and The Center for Public Integrity.

The report grades 13 characteristics of government that indicate

responsiveness and responsibility to constituents and then uses those numbers to generate a grade for the state. See the table accompanying this article for more detailed information about the results for Oklahoma.

Oklahoma ranked 40th in the nation for government transparency with an overall score of 59, commonly known as a big fat F. It is ironic that a state which prides itself on being anti-big government and accountable to its people would be one of the worst states when it comes to actually backing up that lip service.

What’s more, the release of this report hasn’t received much media attention at all, which has worked in favor of states who are failing to keep their citizens informed about the government matters that affect their lives.

I am by no means a conspiracy theorist. I don’t believe Oklahoma is hiding some big plot to retard its citizens into complacency by concealing government records, but there comes a point when you do have to questions your government’s motives. Even if those motives are as innocent as simply not having the time, resources or manpower to make government business completely accessible to the public, we need to know the cause

An official logo for the 2015 State Integrity Investigation, spotlighting Oklahoma.

Commentary

7 December 2015

OKLAHOMA STATE

I NTEGR ITY

INVESTIGATION

Categories

Grade

Public Access to Information Political Financing Electoral Oversight Executive Accountability Legislative Accountability Judicial Accountability State Budget Processes State Civil Service Management Procurement

Internal Auditing Lobbying Disclosure Ethics Enforcement Agencies State Pension Fund Management OVERALL

Rank

F (33) D+ (69) F (58) F (56) D- (60) F (48) D- (62) F (58) C+ (78) B (85) F (55) F (50) F (57) F

44th 13th 37th 35th 34th 45th 45th 32nd 7th 10th 38th 40th 34th

(59)

40th graphic by Elias Brinkman

A chart outlining the State Integrity Investigation’s individual grades for certain aspects of Oklahoma’s government, adding up to an overall integrity rating of 59.

of our failures in order to fix them.

Government transparency and accountability is an important ide-

courtesy Emilie Udell / The Center for Public Integrity

al upheld by the American people since the founding of our nation.

Rhetoric about the government being responsible to its people can be seen in the Declaration of Independence.

Our founding father Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these ends it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.”

The results of the study, which show only three states in the union made over a D+ in transparency should be absolutely horrifying to the American people. We should be calling our legislators and de-

manding honesty.

Of course complete transparency cannot and will never be an option. Tiptoeing the line between protecting national and state security and protecting the rights of the people is difficult business, but we the people have spent far too long having our right to examine our government ignored that our states now feel no need to keep us informed about the policy making which affects our daily lives.

To read about the exact findings of the report and the methodology used, go to publicintegrity.gov.

TU’s low Trojan survey ranking a minor concern

TU’s low ranking in Trojan’s annual Sexual Health Report Card should not be considered a major concern because the methods used to conduct the survey are subjective and leave out key considerations.

Brennen VanderVeen Student Writer On Trojan’s recent sexual health survey, TU was ranked a lowly 109 out of 140 universities. This represents a drop from last year’s ranking of 97. However, this isn’t necessarily a cause for concern.

The survey’s methodology includes eleven categories to rank student health centers: the quality of sexual health information and resources on the website; contraceptive availability (free or. at cost); condom availability (free or at cost); HIV testing-on site (on or off-campus and cost); STI testing on site (on or off-campus and cost); lecture and outreach programs and student peer groups for sexual health education; sexual assault programs, resources or

services; overall website usability and quality; hours of operation; the allowance of drop-ins as opposed to required appointments and “extra credit.”

Two potential objections are that all of these categories (except perhaps for the mysterious extra credit) together basically assume 1) that a large portion of the student body will engage in sexual activity outside of marriage or a monogamous relationship and 2) that it’s a university’s job to get involved in students’ sex lives.

These are both cultural and value judgements with which some students likely don’t see a problem. Also, large numbers of students engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage is probably an accurate description, even if some would have moral objections to it.

Either way, it isn’t necessary to embrace these objections in order to find the survey problematic.

For one thing, a ranking by itself isn’t particularly informative.

Isn’t how healthy a college campus is in absolute terms a more important thing than how healthy it is in relation to other universities? USA Today reports that on “a 4.0 scale, average scores increased from 1.9 in 2006 to 3.00 this year.”

This indicates that having a slightly lower ranking this year would be better than having a higher one years before.

Also, while it’s more likely that a ranking of 109 is indicative of a low score, theoretically even the low-scoring universities could just be clustered close to the 3.0 score.

Furthermore, a ranking doesn’t say how well a university did in a given category. So, all one can say looking at the rankings is that 108 universities did better than TU. One cannot say how much better they did or how badly TU actually scored.

Secondly, a report on sexual health at universities should measure the sexual well-being of students. It could take into account the number of STDs contracted, the number of unintended pregnancies, etc. (Of course, that would pose privacy concerns, but the actual metric would be more accurate).The Trojan report does not do that. Rather, it examines what a college does to prevent those things from happening.

Basically, the Trojan report only measures what a university does to keep its students healthy, rather than how healthy they actually are.

Theoretically, a school composed entirely of virgins but without a program to promote sexual-well being would fail Trojan’s survey.

While that’s certainly an extreme scenario, it isn’t too absurd.

Brigham Young University has ranked lower than any other university the last two years. BYU’s student body is almost entirely Mormon, and the honor code prohibits both extramarital sex and drugs and alcohol. And yes, this honor code is enforced. I’m not claiming that BYU is totally free of STDs and unwanted pregnancies, but I do doubt it’s a major problem.

courtesy www.trojancondoms.com

The cover page of Trojan’s 2015 Sexual Health Report Card.

Commentary

7 December 2015

The Collegian: 7

Coverage of shooters varies by race, religion

Media coverage of mass shootings often uses subjective language based on race and religion.

Lauren Rogers Student Writer Recently, it seems that every few days or so a certain genre of headline haunts the front page of every major paper and the news ticker at the bottom of every major news station’s screen: a mass shooting somewhere in the US. Then the next few days consist of near constant investigation and commentary until, gradually, the wound fades and is ultimately overshadowed by the next one.

This kind of event has become so frequent that, since I began writ-

ing this article about the shooting in Colorado Springs, there was another, larger, mass shooting in San Bernardino.

Although the scale and resulting coverage and analysis of the attacks differed, both attacks share a common factor. The perpetrators had religious motives.

Robert Dear’s motivation behind his attack was just as religious as that of Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, but while all fingers point towards Islam as a major influence in San Bernardino, Christianity receives little to no major criticism in the case of Colorado Springs.

Most of the coverage of the Planned Parenthood attack involved the media calling the mental health of shooter, Robert Dear, into question. House Speaker Paul Ryan made a widely-reported statement that “The common theme with these types of shootings is mental illness.”

If that’s the case, then the mental health of the San Bernardino shooters should be receiving more recognition than their potential association with ISIS, as was the case for Robert Dear and his ties

courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Robert Dear, the shooter in the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood attack.

to the Army of God, a domestic Christian terrorist organization.

Although the Army of God is nearly nonexistent compared to ISIS, they too are a religious terrorist group that has performed a plethora of disgusting acts. The Army of God has previously conducted kidnappings, as well as bombings at abortion clinics in Atlanta and Birmingham in the name of Christianity. An anonymous person reported to the New York Times that, during an extensive conversation in 2009, Dear had praised the Army of God’s violent actions, saying that they were “heroes” and that people who attacked abortion providers were doing “God’s work.”

Just as Muslims worldwide condemn extremists for violence that is unrepresentative of Islam, Christians denounce the validity of the actions of groups like the Army of God and the Lord’s Resistance Army. However, there is very little exposure in the mass media of these examples of extremism when compared to the provocative coverage of terrorism in the name of Islam.

Almost immediately after the San Bernardino attackers were identified and linked to Islam, the media became abuzz with theories that they were associated with ISIS. As of now, the FBI is investigating this potential link. Whether or not it’s true, the media jumped on this information to publish sensationalist headlines, such as Thursday’s front page of the New York Post, featuring the words “Muslim Killers” in bold white, covering nearly half the page.

Not only is that just an awful example of a headline that, taken out of context, could mean something completely different, but the original headline was supposed to be completely different.

“Murder Mission,” the original title, changed as soon as The Post discovered the religion of the two shooters, in order to elicit a more powerful reaction.

Actions like this one result in poll results like those in the Public Policy Polling report earlier this year, that 30 percent of Iowa GOP members believe that Islam should be illegal in the United States. This number is accompanied by 21 percent of Iowa GOP members who

courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The two shooters in the San Bernardino, California attack.

Above: Syed Rizwan Farook. Below: Tashfeen Malik.

are not sure if Islam should be legal or not, leaving only 49 percent actively believing Islam should be legal. Public Policy Polling also found similar numbers in North Carolina, with only 40 percent of Republicans responding that they believe Islam should be legal.

In a nation with freedom of religion looped into our first amendment, it’s beyond pathetic that statistics like this exist, but, unfortunately, when taking into account the way the media portrays Muslims, it’s easy to see where they come from.

Paris reactions neglect non-Western countries

American social media reactions to the Paris bombings were sometimes misinformed and ignored similar tragedies in other parts of the world. This should prompt us expand the range of our compassion.

Giselle Willis Managing Editor The coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris on the night of November thirteenth were horrific. Around 130 people died and hundreds more were injured. The people killed were just enjoying themselves at a concert hall, at a restaurant, at a bar. It is easy to imagine ourselves in the same kinds of places on a Friday night, and as we empathize with the victims, the terrorists succeed in disseminating terror. The Western world rose up in indignation, and understandably so.

Yet well-intentioned American reactions all over social media were often inaccurate. First, the Eiffel Tower turns off its lights every night at 1am to conserve electricity, so a dark Eiffel Tower is not the sign of mourning many seemed to think it was.

Then presidential candidates

and political figures like Ted Cruz and Ann Coulter took to Twitter to push their own agendas. The former wrote that we need to stop allowing Syrian refugees into the country, and the latter implied that that if France allowed concealed carry, someone would have been able to stop the attackers.

Regardless of whether either of these, and many other political judgments made in the aftermath of the attacks are correct, it’s selfish to try to use them for political arguments so quickly after they occurred, especially when we didn’t have that much information about what had happened.

Only a day before Ann Coulter’s tweet, Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, suffered its own tragedy. Two suicide car bombings left at least 43 dead and, again, hundreds more injured. Again, ISIS claimed responsibility and again, the attacks occurred during the evening in a densely populated civilian area.

There was hardly the American outrage that there was over the Paris attacks. While the Beirut attacks were not necessarily worse or more worthy of grief, it is important to ask ourselves why we cared more about France—why it is that we recognize the colors of the French flag but can’t figure out where Beirut is, much less name the colors of the Lebanese flag.

Yes, more people died in Paris than in Beirut. France has historically been our ally. People here idolize France as the land of lovers, and only ever associate the country with war when they’re thinking about Les Miserables.

Lebanon, on the other hand, is part of the Middle East that American media portrays as perpetually

I noticed that when my friends a Facebook bandwagon trend wartorn. In reality, Lebanon hasn’t seen violence on the scale of the who typically post about global to jump onto, and they weren’t Beirut attacks since the end of current events changed their pro- megaphones for political agendas. file pictures, I was less upset. I They occurred in a global context their last civil war in 1990.

But how would we know? was more disappointed with oth- wherein Iraqis and Iranians have While Africa and Latin America ers who changed their pictures died at French and American hands are largely ignored, the only rea- but don’t typically seem to follow as well. Although it is admittedly son we get news about the Middle global events. Mainly because I as- easier to do so, it isn’t fair to pay East is because of our vested inter- sumed (and of course I shouldn’t) more attention to France when the est in their oil. Even then, we’ve that these people only cared about Lebanese victims were people too. gotten so desensitized to hear- the Paris attacks because they Consider reading about global, not ing about violence in the Middle were against French people that just European, affairs. Give other East that we don’t click on those looked like them, and not because countries a reason to think we’re news stories anymore, so there’s they cared about foreign affairs, or not self-centered and exclusive. If you want to pray, don’t just pray less incentive to report on it. We humanity in general.

The terrorist attacks were not for France. don’t click on news about suicide bombings in the Middle East anymore, so there’s less incentive for the media to report on them.

This ignorance about other parts of the world directly relates to American xenophobia. Americans who want to keep Syrian refugees from entering the country believe are understandably trying to keep friends and family safe. Yet refugees aren’t any more likely than natives are to perpetuate domestic terrorism. The fear of outsiders is misplaced.

The Facebook French profile filter was the cherry on top of American tunnel vision. To begin with, the filter was useless, graphic by Elias Brinkman because there was no need to “spread An example of the temporary profile filters offered by Facebook, sporting the French flag. awareness” about anything French.

Commentary

The Collegian: 8

7 December 2015

A secular Christmas is

no big deal

An example of the Coca-Cola advertisements which popularized the image of Santa Claus as we know him today.

Christmas is no longer a purely religious holiday, and many Christmas-time symbols and practices have secular origins.

People are free to celebrate the holiday in whatever manner they choose—with or without its religious aspects.

Justin Guglielmetti Student Writer It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

That magical season when the weather gets cold, the days grow darker, merriment is palpable in the air, and—most importantly—we get time out of school! For millions in the United States and around the world, the month of December and Christmas itself bring joy and a temporary relief from the problems of their everyday lives. But because people just can’t seem to live a day without drama, it also means that we have to deal with all sorts of contrived Christmasrelated controversies, including one, the increasing secularization of Christmas, which seems to come up more and more frequently every year.

Now I may not be a veteran of the War on Christmas like those brave anchors over at Fox News, but I think I’m qualified to speak on this issue given the fact that I am a pas-

sionate secularist and public atheist who— big surprise—loves Christmas! That’s right, it’s by far my favorite holiday and I’m not even a Christian. Shocker, right?

If this somehow does come as a surprise, it shouldn’t: Christmas has long ago transcended the designation of being a simple religious celebration and to deny that is simply to live in ignorance.

To be clear, I am not claiming that Christmas as we know it is not religious in its inception, or even that it’s no longer primarily spiritual to millions of devoted Christians.

Since the days of the Roman Empire, men and women have gathered on December 25 to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It remains a Church holiday with its own liturgical season and the Christmas vigil is still a vital part of many people’s Christmas celebrations. All I am trying to say is that it is possible to celebrate and enjoy the holiday without any of the religious components.

After all, an unbiased look at it reveals a holiday that isn’t that religious at all.

First of all, I would like to examine the claim that Christmas is becoming “more secular.” It’s been a holiday rooted outside of Christianity since the very beginning, the feasts of those aforementioned Romans.

Look at the date itself, December 25. Most Biblical scholars agree that the historical Jesus was probably born sometime in the spring and it definitely wasn’t at any point during the winter.

So how did we settle on the end of December? It’s a simple answer that has nothing to do with “God’s will” or religion: the Romans had two holidays, Saturnalia and Sol Invictus (the latter of which was specifically on the 25th) which honored gods in their pantheon, and elements of these celebrations, including the dates, were adopted

by Christians as they superseded the Roman pagan religion as the dominant faith in the empire.

All that Christmas imagery that we’re used to, the decorated trees, elves, and Santa Claus? You guessed it, not Christian at all.

Christmas trees were adopted from the Yule celebrations of the Germanic peoples, which were in honor of the winter solstice. As this was around the same time as the chosen date for Christmas, it became an integral part of the holiday as Christianity spread throughout Europe. Elves were a creation of author Louis May Alcott in 1850. Even Santa, who is (loosely) based on the historical figure St. Nicholas, was fashioned into his toy-making, North Pole-living self by a variety of 18th and 19th century storytellers that had nothing to do with the Church, and the most popular image of him as a rosy cheeked fat man in a red and white coat and hat was given to us by none other than the marketing department of Coca-Cola in the 1930s.

Speaking of Santa, it becomes pretty obvious once we grow up and stop believing in him that the entire modern idea behind “Jolly Old St. Nick” is a commercial one, designed to promote a consumer culture and sell as many toys over the holiday season as possible. He’s not about the giving nature of the holiday; he’s about making sure little Timmy’s parents feel obligated to get him a

courtesy Insomnia Cured Here / Flickr

new LEGO set. There’s not much religious about that.

With all that being fact, what is there to argue against Christmas being largely secular? Nearly everything that the holiday is associated with in popular culture comes from a non-religious source. And guess what, that is just fine!

I personally love Christmas because my entire family gets together, we eat a nice meal, exchange presents, and have a generally good time in each other’s company. It’s a season of fond memories from my childhood and great new ones that I make with my loved ones every year. There’s nothing Christ-related to my celebration besides the name of the holiday and it doesn’t diminish the experience in the slightest.

But that’s just how I celebrate Christmas.

My experience is irrelevant to any who choose to celebrate the religious aspect of the holiday, just as theirs is irrelevant to mine. Can’t we all just settle on the fact that Christmas is for everybody and people can make of it whatever they want? Take Christ out of it or not, I don’t care and neither should you. Just let me relax and sip my eggnog in peace.

courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Christmas is for everybody and can be celebrated a number of ways with friends and family.

Consumers should be protected from data brokering

Today’s consumers are vulnerable to having their personal information tracked, stored and sold by information brokers for targeted advertising purposes. There are very few regulations in place to protect their information.

Brook Becker Student Writer In 2011, filmmaker Jason Zada released a short, interactive film called Take This Lollipop on Facebook. Once it began, it was clear that the cinematic piece was terrifying on multiple levels. The cinematography and acting were well-executed, but what was disturbing concerned the viewers, who were the focus of the film. The viewer’s own private information was flashed on the screen as being researched by a stalker, who, at the end of the film, drives to a satellite street image of your last posted residence. The implications at the conclusion are rather gruesome and morbid, but more importantly than that, it caused many users to reflect on just how much info Facebook had been racking up and selling about them.

At the time, this film was a massive smear on Facebook’s reputation that blew up in the

24-hour news cycle. It prompted a response from Facebook, disclaiming the film and for a short time actually blocking it from the website.

In 2015, Facebook does not bother trying to hide their storage of your information anymore. If you go to Facebook’s business section, you can pay for your company to be promoted through targeted advertising to specific groups or locations. Google and other domains have held these practices for quite some time.

Then you hear about information brokers and data brokering.

Members of a rising career in the IT field, information brokers collect and research data about individual persons which they then compartmentalize and return to companies to sell and reap a profit.

In 2009, Congress published a review that found that while data brokers themselves are very protected (e.g, their own information having special exemptions from the records of their companies), they publish and sell collections of persons in lists such as sexual assault victims, the mentally ill and the financially vulnerable.

All this is done with little regulation or repercussions. Though there were legal attempts to clearly outline the beginnings of a regulatory system around information selling and info brokers, the bill died in-committee.

Worse yet, because information brokerage firms are unregulated and have such a powerful hold of the media, you’ve probably never heard of them, and they’d like to keep it that way. In December 2013, during another review of information brokering, an Axicom representative, one of the largest multi-billion dollar firms handling information, actually boasted that they had

complete files on “at least 10 percent of the world’s” population. And yet again, in December 2013, another bill failed to pass which would have better regulated the industry.

At this period, consumers are completely vulnerable. In the previously mentioned Congressional Staff Report, opting out of

these companies can often be both costly and complicated, and by no coincidence.

So for now, the best we can do is to be collectively aware of the information which we broadcast, and make better attempts to emphasize and highlight those who would be more than happy to exploit the personal data of others for a few bucks.

courtesy Wikipedia

The official poster for Take This Lollipop, which prompted Facebook users to watch the short film with an image of a razor-filled lollipop and a menacing dare.

Variety

7 December 2015

the Collegian: 9

Take a nostalgia trip with The Peanuts Movie The cinematic update of the much loved classic Peanuts characters adds further timelessness to the franchise.

The new Peanuts movie retains the charm of the original comic strip.

Joshua Ridgway Student Writer For as long as I can remember I have loved the Peanuts comic strip. Who hasn’t?

Charles Schulz’s beloved characters have been cultural mainstays since they were introduced 50 years ago.

The Peanuts Movie has been in development for several years. However, Schulz’s estate refused to allow any adaptation that would depart from the spirit of the original comic strip’s values and morals. In fact, they had denied several scripts before greenlighting this one. The real question is, did they succeed in getting a faithful adaptation to the screen? I believe they did, and it could not possibly have turned out any better.

The movie focuses mostly on Charlie Brown and Snoopy. It follows Charlie Brown’s agonization over the Little Red Haired Girl, and Snoopy’s imagination of his fights with the Red Baron.

The main moral of the movie is that people notice when you do the right thing, are compassionate and never give up. While it may seem a bit clichéd, it is nonetheless true, providing a rare example of traditional values that a lot of recent family movies seem to distancing themselves from, relating instead the more modern values of celebrating differences, such as Home, Inside Out, and The Good Dinosaur.

The Peanuts Movie also manages to incorporate every single running gag from the cartoons and comic strip, even if most of them are just one shot fan service. Schro-

eder’s love of all things Beethoven, Lucy’s Psychiatric Help stand, the kite eating tree, the football kicking and the teacher who sounds like a trombone all make appearances. There are so many more, you’ll have to watch the movie to catch them all yourself.

The animation is some of the best Blue Sky has done in years, and switching into three dimensions did not ruin the look of the original characters. The colors also match the original strips and cartoons perfectly, and the music provides a pleasant call back to the source as well.

The voice acting is also superb. All the characters sound like their previous selves even though only Snoopy and Woodstock have the same voice actor they originally did.

As with any movie, it does have its faults, but they are only faults that a nitpicky fan like myself would find. The side characters, all of whom are extremely interesting and popular in their own right, didn’t get nearly enough attention.

Schroeder (my personal favorite), Linus, Lucy and Peppermint Patty are particularly underused. But this is minor, and I understand why they used them as sparingly as they did, even if I wanted to see more of Schroeder pulling his piano out from under Lucy. The focus of the movie was on Charlie Brown’s character, and if they had given as much attention to the side characters as many fans would want, then the movie would have pulled the focus away, and turned the movie into purely fan service, instead of the heartwarming tale it is.

While Inside Out will probably win the Best Animated Feature Oscar this year, I believe that The Peanuts Movie will at least be nominated. It is a near perfect family feature. This movie is one you buy on DVD and show your kids for years to come.

tucollegian@tucollegian.org

editor-in-chief

Morgan Krueger managing editor

Giselle Willis news editor

Fraser Kastner sports editor

Matt Rechtien variety editor

Kayleigh Thesenvitz commentary editor

Hannah Kloppenburg satire editor

Caitlin Woods photo & graphics editor

Elias Brinkman

business & advertising manager

Paul Moses web manager

Sam Chott

distribution managers

Kayleigh Thesenvitz and Trent Gibbons

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all photos courtesy The Peanuts Movie

Scenes from The Peanuts Movie remind viewers of the heartwarming nature of the classic stories.

Variety

the Collegian: 10

7 December 2015

An introduction to Wheeler Walker Jr.

courtesy iTunes

Walker’s eccentric persona and absurd music are potentially a form of well disguised social commentary, according to some rumors.

Previously unknown country music artist Wheeler Walker Jr. released his first profanity-ridden EP. Savanna Deweese Student Writer Wheeler Walker Jr. is supposedly an up and coming country musician whose appearance has caused quite a stir. He recently released a three-song EP titled “Fuck You Bitch” that is a precursor to the release of his first full length album this coming February.

This record is being produced

by Nashville’s Dave Cobb, who is known for having produced the

work of Shooter Jennings, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton and, most notably, Jason Isbell.

Walker has apparently been working on releasing an album for the past 15 years but he couldn’t find a producer that was willing to release an album so profane-laden.

This seems understandable just given the album’s title.

Wheeler Walker Jr. is adding to country music’s ever growing sum of songs about lousy men complaining of their most recent break-up. In true honky tonk fashion Walker uses about the same three chords throughout the entirety of the first track “FYB” and lacks any sort of stand-out picking or strumming patterns.

The instrumentation, like the

lyrics, is redundant and aggressively simplistic. The only surprising aspect of this song is that he doesn’t mention a pick-up truck once. This song is so absurd I had to listen to it multiple times to make sure it was as ridiculous as it seemed.

Interestingly enough, it is rumoured that Wheeler Walker Jr. is the alter ego of Comedy Central’s comedian Ben Hoffman, who is known for his skits on “The Ben Show.” One skit in particular called “Eating P**** Kicking A**” is in fact a satire on country music.

It takes some googling but you can find the released trademark registration for “Wheeler Walker Jr.” where Hoffman is included on

the paperwork for Pepperhill records, his current label.

So it appears Walker took the idea from that skit and turned it into an entire performance act.

He even took the crude, rough and tumble country persona to Twitter and Facebook, where he is just as harsh and obscene as he is in his songs.

After considering Walker’s music as a performance act rather than than the debut of an aspiring musician, I began to wonder if this Wheeler Walker Jr. is the hero country music needs.

Walker seems to be trying to make a commentary on how pop country these days is in fact the worst of both worlds. But he isn’t just condemning pop country to

the equivalent of frat house dumpster juice; in some ways it seems like he wants to get back to the roots of country music. Real country music like George Jones and Jerry Reed, not Rascal Flatts or Florida Georgia Line.

The funny thing is that his performance is incredibly convincing.

Looking at reddit threads and Youtube comments, the majority of his listeners don’t even know it is an act, and just like the music.

Wheeler Walker Jr.’s full length, eleven-song album will be released this February, but in the meantime, if you’re interested, his raunchy twitter persona is entertaining enough—@WheelerWalkerJr.

The Good Dinosaur little more than passable Pixar’s newest film has a strong core character duo and theme, but pacing issues and an uninspired supporting cast keep it from greatness.

James Whisenhunt Student Writer

Just five years ago, Pixar seemed like they could do no wrong with their films. Apart from the polarizing Cars, every Pixar film seemed to be a modern classic: an incredible mix of comedy, drama, action and emotion.

Recently, however, things haven’t been looking so bright for the studio. After a string of lowest rated films (Cars 2, Brave, and Monsters University), and no film release in 2014, fans may be finding it hard to be faithful.

Pixar came back with a bang this summer with Inside Out, a critically-acclaimed, heartwrenching story about growing up and the value of having sadness in our lives. Just four months later, with expectations set high, the studio has released another film, The Good Dinosaur.

The Good Dinosaur opens by introducing its promising premise: What if the meteor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs didn’t hit? In the film, the meteor whizzes by as a shooting star in the night sky and the dinosaurs go on about their existence.

Flash forward millions of years, and viewers meet a family of agricultural brontosauruses, including the film’s protagonist, Arlo.

Arlo is the runt of the family. He cannot complete than the smallest family tasks, and is often terrified by things like small bugs and the family’s chickens.

This fear and lack of accomplishment causes Arlo’s father to give him an important task in which he can prove himself: capturing and killing a creature that has been eating the family’s corn supply.

The creature turns out to be a small human, the equivalent of a wild dog in the context the film. Things go south during the capture and the two end up falling into a river. The main plot of the film begins as In an effort to continously pump out movies, Pixar fails to do its best work.

Arlo and the human, who he names Spot, its greatest strengths: the film’s in- lationship between the two main try to find their way home. credible scenery and the relation- characters, which becomes the One of the biggest problems ship between Arlo and Spot. film’s strongest point. The two with The Good Dinosaur is that it The journey home takes the two start off as adversaries, but slowly takes too long to reach the point through mountains, valleys, for- learn to depend on one another where the story starts going some- ests, rivers and fields, all of which as they reach their common goal. where. A lot of time is spent on the are beautifully animated. With no This relationship is effectively farm in the first act of the film, and cities in sight, shots of the hori- used in everything from problem it isn’t until 20 minutes into the zon have trees as far as the eye solving in the wilderness to very film that Spot is even introduced. can see. These views are often ac- emotional scenes about what it For a 100-minute film, hav- companied by a beautiful sunset means to be family. ing about a quarter of it being or a night sky with too many stars Unfortunately, the excellent setup starts the pace at a snail’s to count. Visually, the film is one writing for Spot and Arlo is not crawl and makes it feel like it was of Pixar’s strongest in terms of universal, as every other character stretched out for time. graphical prowess. in the film feels boring and underIt isn’t until the two get washed The journey also gives the writ- developed. Characters come and down the river that the film shows ers the freedom to explore the re- go throughout the journey, but all

courtesy IMDB

of them, including the film’s villain, seem to exist only as plot devices.

The film may have been better if it had introduced the characters naturally and developed character growth, instead of forcing static characters into situations.

Unfortunately for Pixar fans, The Good Dinosaur is not one of the studio’s best. Most of what happens in the film outside of Spot and Arlo’s relationship falls flat, leaving a film that weighs itself down with poor pacing decisions and too many unnecessary characters.

Variety

7 December 2015

the Collegian: 11

Mockingjay, Part Two:

Mockingjay, Part Two sacrifices good dialogue and story telling for intense action scenes.

James Terrell Student Writer The last chapter of The Hunger Games series was released a few weeks ago, and was the star of one of TU’s Hurricane Thursdays.

While it was action packed and far more eventful than part one, Mockingjay, Part Two never really took off like the first two movies, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.

Taking from the success Harry Potter received when it split its

YA action movie thrilling but far from perfection

conclusion, Lionsgate tore Suzanne Collins’ already shaky finale in two for the sake of profit. While that decision could have provided more time to expand on characters and provide closure for controversial topics within the book, the film stuck to its guns and merely ran its course.

The film does have its moments, especially when it comes to action.

The mutts are disgustingly horrifying, and the traps were anxiety inducing. In fact, there were several times where I found myself at the edge of my seat because no one, save Katniss, was truly safe. Since the original The Hunger Games formula had been used twice, it seemed fitting to put it in for one last time, with the inclusion of the

The action-packed conclusion to the Hunger Games series is exciting but not well written.

booby traps in the Capitol, and it provided a man versus nature aspect that’s so prominent in the other films.

The film also did a great job with giving dimension to minor characters from the previous films

The leads also soared with the content that was given to them, although Liam Hemsworth could’ve stepped up his game a little bit. In the books I rooted for Gale, but in the film it was clear that Peeta was the better match.

lines are meant to be inspiring and meaningful, and while that was probably inevitable due to it being the end, the film relies on it far too heavily. It quickly turns into a recap of everything going on and there aren’t any new ideas,

“Lionsgate tore Suzanne Collins’ already shaky finale in two for the sake of profit” like Effie Trinket and Johanna Mason. All the characters have some dimension or a reason to be in this film, and that doesn’t always occur, especially in action flicks.

The film falls short due to its overuse of sentiments. The script is, in the nicest word, cheesy, and while that’s not a horrible thing, it’s not too great either. All the

just rallying cries for events that have already happened. There’s a need to give the audience closure, but perhaps it was too much. This is especially prominent in the last scene (be prepared to laugh) and after the tunnels.

It also had an issue with logic.

Certain situations throughout the film just didn’t make sense, and while I refuse to spoil, it seems to me that a huge colosseum looks like the perfect place to make a trap, and maybe going through it isn’t the best idea out there. The resistance is unrealistic too, and given the chance, the Capitol could’ve easily destroyed them.

Also, when someone is thrown at a wall with extreme force, usually they’re left with at least a couple of bruises.

Overall, the film isn’t terrible.

It probably won’t be remembered in 30 years, but it’s still worth the action scenes. It just isn’t all that good when it came to a story. In fact it had a large resemblance to Lionsgate’s other film series Divergent in the sense it was pretty to look at but also without depth. If you enjoy blockbuster series, loud noises and inspirational quotes on Instagram, this film is perfect. If you don’t like all three of those, you’re really not going to enjoy it much. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part Two is an intense, big budget, overall good time, just don’t expect it to be the next great movie masterpiece.

courtesy IMDB

Adele manages to impress despite shortcomings in 25

Adele’s new album missteps with odd genre variance, but is still an excellent return.

James Whisenhunt Student Writer Logical fallacies and how to use them.

Adam Lux Student Writer Has a local newspaper published an article that doesn’t agree with your narrow viewpoints of the world? Do other people have opinions that are contrary to your own? Use these simple methods to forcibly change other people’s minds, or at least destroy their reputation.

Petitio Principii: A classic also known as begging the question. Why is something true? BECAUSE OF COURSE IT IS! This one is most effective when you’re louder than the other party.

Prejudicial Language: This one seems like it’s easy to spot but it’s actually pretty sly. All you have to do is describe the others opinion using loaded and emotional wording. All good and righteous people do X (or do not do X) and therefore X is right (or wrong.)

Appeal to Heaven: This one is simple if a bit easy to see through.

You don’t need to actually have a reason if you just claim that something is the will of God (or is against God’s will). I mean you obviously know exactly what God wants. How could your view of morality possibly be wrong if it is inspired by God? Ad Hominem: This is a good fallacy to use if your adversary

is pointing out other fallacies like moral high ground and begging the question. When you are ready to go on the extreme offensive, there are a few methods to do this properly.

Obviously you must start shouting fire and brimstone. Call them the scourge of the earth. Damn them, damn them to Hell! It’s where they must be going anyway. Or you can try subtly degrading their humanity by offering some type of help which not only makes them look insane but make you look kind.

“Oh I pray for the health of anyone who believes THAT.” If all else fails you can always throw the hail mary of logical fuckery. Appeal to appropriate content. The topic of conversation is clearly unfit for a newspaper to publish. And you would know too!

You are the supreme authority to determine what is and isn’t appropriate for media. You are end all and be all. You are the Alpha and the Omega. The supreme being among a sea of lessers. All bow down to YOU. Let them feed your insatiable appetite for affirmation lest you devour their world, their reality. You chant to the Heavens and whatever is above “Ego sum deus. Ego Sum Deus. EGO SUM DEUS!”

It seems like yesterday that Adele was struggling to hold onto her six Grammy awards, when it was almost impossible to turn on the radio and hear anything but “Someone Like You” or “Set Fire to the Rain.”

It also feels like an eternity since we’ve heard anything new from her. Apart from her title theme for the movie Skyfall, Adele has been mostly absent from the music scene since the release and subsequent promotion of her masterpiece 21.

Almost five years later, Adele’s return to the music scene was one of the biggest in modern pop, with the video for her newest single “Hello” being viewed over 27 million times in its first 24 hours.

The video also came with an an-

courtesy Adele

Adele maintains the powerful emotion of her songs in her latest album.

breakup album like 21, but as a make-up album. This shift in theme shines through in her lyrics.

Songs like “Remedy” and “Love in the Dark” show a much more emotionally resilient side of Adele, though the music sounds like it would fit right into the somber themes of 21.

Musically, 25 feels like a blend of her previous albums, 19 and 21.

Many songs feel similar to songs from 21, with backbones of piano,

“She sees 25 not as a breakup album like 21, but as a make-up album” nouncement: her new album 25 was going to be released less than a month later.

Thematically, 25 moves into some uncharted territory for Adele. She sings on her new role as a mother, making up and giving up on past lovers, and the growth pains associated with coming into adulthood.

With 21, Adele was known for emotional, instrumentally minimalist breakup songs. Adele has stated that she sees 25 not as a

guitar and vocals. However, 25 takes some cues from Adele’s debut by introducing more layered, occasionally electronic instrumentals and a bit more genre variance than was present in 21.

This variance can be a bit hit or miss. Songs like “River Lea” and “Sweetest Devotion” show that Adele can mix up her instrumentation and still retain the Adele feel.

Other songs, like “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” and “Water Under the Bridge” are pop

ballads that feel a bit too clinical.

They’re fun to listen to, and would make good radio singles, but they don’t have much of the underlying emotion that make her songs timeless.

Despite some musical missteps, Adele’s voice consistently manages to amaze in 25. Adele proudly displays her impressive range and ability to capture a song’s emotion in her tone.

Her voice also feels more nuanced than it has in earlier albums.

Partly the result of production differences, 25 has more instrumental focus than 21, and Adele knows when to fade her voice back and let the song breathe.

This can be contrasted to songs from 21 like “Rolling in the Deep” and “Don’t You Remember,” wherein relatively minimalist instrumentals accompany Adele’s booming voice.

25 may have some misguided tracks, but it is what fans would expect from Adele, overall. Fans of old albums will be satisfied with the new material, and new listeners wanting to know what all the hype is about will be happy to discover that Adele Adkins does not disappoint.

Sports

The Collegian: 12

7 December 2015

Feature: History of Thanksgiving football For as long as football’s been around, it’s been played on Turkey Day. Here’s a history of how that connection came to be.

just always seemed inseparable to me, like you just couldn’t have one without the other.

This year over Thanksgiving break, I decided to figure just how long that relationship has actually existed, why it actually started, and just how NFL took control of a Matt Rechtien national holiday.

Sports Editor To my surprise the NFL has played games on Thanksgiving ever since it was created One of my favorite traditions on Thanks- back in the 1920s. But even before they giving, after eating a big meal at my grand- started playing their games, the idea of footpa’s house, is to sit and watch the one sport ball on Thanksgiving had already become a that is exclusively an American tradition. normal affair for most people.

There’s nothing better than sitting around In fact, way back in the 1890s, Michigan and watching football with family and State started hosting games every Thanksfriends because that is the way it was meant giving, and high school teams started to to be watched. emulate the tradition by playing their final Having watched football on Thanks- regular season game or their playoff games giving ever since I’ve been a football fan on that day. (which I admit only really started when I The reason that football on Thanksgivwas a freshman in high school) I got to won- ing was so popular so early on is because dering just how and when football became Thanksgiving was one of the few days that such a big deal on Thanksgiving. They have people had off in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

This tradition continued when the early form of the National Football League was created in the 1920s, with the Detroit Lions. I always thought that was weird because in my memory Detroit has been one of the historically worst teams in the NFL (as well as my beloved St. Louis Rams). It’s confusing why one of the worst teams gets to host a primetime Thanksgiving game every single season. graphic by Elias Brinkman This game started as The two symbols of Thanksgiving in American culture, the turkey and the football.

a gimmick to try and get more fans to come out to Lions games, but this “gimmick” has since turned into a huge success for the Lions who have hosted a Thanksgiving game almost every year since. The only seasons they haven’t hosted a game were when Roosevelt tried to change the date of Thanksgiving, which made it harder to play a game on

local St. Louis high schools who played on Thanksgiving, hosting rights reverted back to Dallas after just two years. Ever since, the two teams that you could count on playing on Thanksgiving have been the Dallas Cowboys and the Detroit Lions.

In recent years, as Thanksgiving football has grown more popular, the public started

“Thanksgiving was one of the few days people had off in the late 1880s to early 1900s”

the actual holiday, and during World War II when the NFL did not schedule a Thanksgiving game.

After WWII was over the NFL continued the tradition and later in 1951 the NFL commissioner said the Lions would be the only team to have a permanent Thanksgiving game.

However, in 1966, just six years after “America’s Team” was founded, the Dallas Cowboys started hosting Thanksgiving games as well. It was rumored that they wanted to be guaranteed, along with Detroit, the right to host a game every year.

Their reason for wanting to be guaranteed a Thanksgiving game in perpetuity was that while it had been around for a while, games on Thanksgiving were still not attended as well as those on Sundays, but had the large upside in being one of only two games that people could watch on Thanksgiving.

However, in the late 1970s, the St. Louis Cardinals, who are now the Arizona Cardinals, replaced Dallas as one of the two hosts for two years. They were not nearly as popular as the Cowboys. Due to St. Louis’s weak attendance as well as opposition from

calling for changes in how the games are chosen. More teams wanted to start hosting these games because it seemed like an unfair advantage for these two teams to get to host games every Thanksgiving.

So in 2006 the NFL responded by starting a third game on Thanksgiving that has no set host, but is decided by the NFL when they create the schedule in the offseason.

The game is generally chosen as a marquee matchup that will draw a lot of viewers, such as rivalries or interesting story-lines like when the Baltimore Ravens played the San Francisco 49ers, who were coached by John and Jim Harbaugh and ended up being a preview for the Super Bowl that season.

At the same time, the NFL introduced the idea of regular football every Thursday with Thursday Night Football, which later became a year long series, and allows every team to play in one Thursday night game a season. This negated any advantages or disadvantages, at least on the field. Money and viewers is a whole different story. Still, it appears that Thanksgiving football as it stands now will remain the way it is.

Men’s soccer season ends with NCAA tournament run After a tough loss to Notre Dame in the NCAA tournament, the men’s team’s season is finished.

Joseph Edmunds Sports Writer

By earning their berth through becoming the American Athletic Conference champions, Tulsa earned the right to host their first game in the tournament, drawing a game against No. 16 Florida International.

The Panthers got on the board first in the sixteenth minute, after some attacking play lead to a cross into the Tulsa box. The cross sent the ball towards the back post, close to the goal but just far enough away from goalkeeper Jake McGuire. Luis Betancur got on the end of it, and headed the ball home.

Neither team was able to capitalize on

any chances for the remainder of the first half, and the Panthers took their 1–0 lead into the break.

In the second half, the Golden Hurricane came out and played aggressively, looking for an equalizing goal. They found one when Juan Sanchez took a masterful strike from near the top of the box, and sent it curving past the Panther goalkeeper to knot the score.

Shortly after, Munashe Ranaje drew a foul in the FIU box, earning a penalty kick.

Geoffrey Dee stepped up to take the shot.

After the goalkeeper saved the initial attempt, the rebound bounced back to Dee, who put the rebound home.

Tulsa nearly held their 2–1 lead for the rest of the game, but the Panthers had other plans. With just ten minutes left, Brad Fountain managed to bring the score level, forc-

ing the game into overtime.

In the overtime period, Tulsa looked good with their offensive chances, and Miguel Velasquez was able to put one home, and the Golden Hurricane took the 3–2 overtime win.

In the second round, Tulsa faced No. 8 ranked Notre Dame. Similarly to the game against the Panthers, Tulsa went down in the first half, when Jeffrey Farina scored, giving Notre Dame a 1–0 lead. Their lead held until halftime.

In the second half, also similar to the FIU game, Tulsa began to play with more urgency. They pushed forward, and created a number of offensive opportunities. After fifteen minutes of pressure, Sanchez equalized off a pass from Dee. The score held until the end of regulation, and still remained 1–1 after the two over-

time periods.

After all of their conference tournament games resulted in wins via penalty shootout, the Golden Hurricane weren’t strangers to the situation. However, the shootout wasn’t as kind to them this time. Tulsa wasn’t able to convert any of their shots, and Notre Dame took the shootout 3–0 to advance.

Tulsa finished the season with an 8–6–7 record, a conference championship and a trip to the second round of the NCAA tournament. After last year’s loss of a strong senior class that included Akeil Barrett and Abe Matamoros, this season went well for the Golden Hurricane. A lot of underclassmen had strong contributions throughout the year, and the core of the team will return next year, with the exception of defender Bradley Bourgeois. Look for good things from this team in the coming seasons.

having beat both UCF and USF on the road in October. First up were the UCF Knights.

After losing the first set 18–25, Tulsa came out with an early lead in the second set, and held on after the Knights’ rally to tie the match at one apiece going into the intermission. Both ties battled throughout the third set, with it tied as late as 18–18, before UCF pushed ahead, taking the set 25–21 and going ahead two to one for the match. The fourth set was very similar to the third, with the score tied late before the Knights pulled ahead and won the match three sets to one.

Erica Bohannon led with 17 kills, junior libero Brooke Berryhill picked up 20 digs in the losing effort.

The Golden Hurricane finished the season off strong with a sweep of the USF Bulls.

Tulsa won the first two sets 25–18, and the final set 25–21 to complete the season sweep of the Bulls. Bohannon and Rebecca Reeve recorded 14 and 13 kills respectively and Berryhill once again led the Hurricane in digs.

Bohannon and senior Ashley Hooper earned First-Team All-Conference Honors this season. Bohannon is the only athlete to earn first-team all-conference accolades in back-to-back seasons since Tulsa joined the

American Athletic Conference. Tulsa was only one of four teams to have multiple athletes on the list.

Bohannon recorded 515 kills and ranked 13th in the nation. She also ranked 44th nationally in kills per set with an average of 4.06. After this season she ranks third in Tulsa history for kills with 1,275 total kills in three years.

Hooper led the Golden Hurricane this season with a .320 hitting percentage, and is fourth in total blocks in Tulsa’s history.

Now that the season has come to an end, Tulsa will look towards next season. Tulsa has four athletes who will be graduating this season—Ashley Hooper, Kelsey Parks, Paige Panfil and Nicole Newton.

On the other side, Tulsa signed two players to national letters-of-intent back in November; Haley Coulter and Taylor Horsfall.

Coulter was the 2014 Florida Class A Player of the Year, and Horsfall is one of the top ranked liberos in the country.

Coach Ryan Willis said of the two, “We are excited to add Taylor and Haley to our team next year. When we began recruiting the 2016 class we wanted to make sure of two things; that they are winners, and that they are passionate about the sport of vol-

leyball. Without a doubt our staff did a great job recruiting this class.”

Volleyball ends season by splitting final four games

The women’s volleyball team ended their season over Thanksgiving.

Matt Rechtien Sports Editor

The Golden Hurricane women’s volleyball team ended their season over Thanksgiving break, splitting their final four games and finishing with a 10–10 record in conference play and an overall record of 15–17.

This ended their 10-year streak of 20 or more wins a season.

The Golden Hurricane started their final stretch on the road at Temple, followed by a match against UConn. In their first games against these teams back in early October, Tulsa beat the Huskies, then fell to the Owls.

This time around history was repeated, as the Owls swept TU while finishing second in the conference. Tulsa responded two days later, by beating the Huskies three sets to one after losing the first set of that match.

Returning home just before the Thanksgiving holiday, Tulsa was looking for the season sweep of both of the Florida teams,

College Bowl Pick’Em by The Collegian - Enter The Collegian College Bowl Pick’Em Contest to win $20.

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Winter Break Edition

Men’s Basketball

Women’s Basketball

Women’s Tennis

Dec 8 – vs. Iona 8 p.m.

Dec 13 – @ Missouri State University 2 p.m.

Dec 19 – vs. Oregon State @ Far West Classic 10 p.m.

Dec 22 – vs. Northern Arizona University 7 p.m.

Dec 29 – vs SMU 4 p.m.

Jan 2 – @ Cincinnati 3 p.m.

Jan 5 – vs. East Carolina University 6 p.m.

Jan 10 – @ Tulane 1 p.m.

Dec 9 – vs. Oklahoma 7 p.m.

Dec 13 – @ Little Rock 2 p.m.

Dec 20 – @ Northern Iowa 1 p.m.

Dec 30 – vs. East Carolina 7 p.m.

Jan 2 – vs. SMU 2 p.m.

Jan 6 – @ UConn 6 p.m.

Jan 8 – @ Temple 4 p.m.

Jan 10 – @ Memphis 1 p.m.

Jan 8 – Hurricane Invite

7 December 2015

Sports

The Collegian: 13

photos by Greg Diskin

Left to right: Senior guard Shaquille Harrison goes up to the basket surrounded by ORU defenders in the Tulsa loss in the PSO Mayor’s Cup. Harrison has had a strong start to the season, joining teammate James Woodard as a conference player of the week. Junior guard Teanna Redi dribbles past the Indiana State defenders in Sunday’s loss. She led TU with 13 points and seven rebounds.

Men’s basketball has big wins and tough losses to start season

Men’s basketball is almost through their nonconfernce schedule, as we recap the early part of the season.

Joseph Edmunds Sports Writer The Golden Hurricane men’s basketball team is off to a 5–3 start to the season, which includes a few wins against strong teams.

Up to this point, all of their games have been non-conference games.

First on the schedule was Central Arkansas. As expected, the game didn’t pose too much of a threat to the Golden Hurricane.

Tulsa played with excellent offensive balanced. Six players scored in double digits, with James Woodard and Shaquille Harrison leading the way with 23 and 22, respectively. The final score was 98–81.

In the second game of the season, Tulsa welcomed Ron Baker and No. 9 Wichita State and to the Reynolds Center.

The first half featured a very even game, and the Golden Hurricane managed to keep a slight lead for the majority of it. They built the lead up to eight at 30–22 with two and a half minutes left in the first, but Fred Van

Vleet had different ideas for the halftime score. He made three consecutive threepoint shots, and the Shockers took a one point lead into the halftime break.

In the second half, Tulsa started to assert themselves, and maintain a lead. Their three-point shooting was strong, and another well-rounded offensive game contributed to their success. Baker had a solid game for the Shockers, almost bringing them back on his own, but his efforts weren’t enough.

Tulsa claimed the 77–67 victory, which was their first victory against a ranked opponent in the past 12 years. It was their first victory against a top ten team in the past 15 years.

After the upset, the Golden Hurricane’s next three games came in the US Virgin Islands Paradise Jam. In the first round, they played Ohio University. This game featured the closest final score of any of Tulsa’s game at that point. Harrison had a big game, scoring 31 points, a career high. The Golden Hurricane needed every one of those points, as they made a big second half comeback to take the game, 90–88.

Their next tournament opponent was Indiana State. The game was a much less offensive game, and again featured a Golden Hurricane comeback. Harrison again led

Tulsa scorers with 24 points, and Tulsa won their fourth game in a row to start the season and advance to the final of the Paradise Jam, winning 67–59.

The championship game featured a matchup with South Carolina. Again, the Golden Hurricane found themselves trailing in the second half, but this time could not complete the comeback. South Carolina had a 16 point lead, but that was cut to four with twelve minutes left, but Tulsa couldn’t get any closer. The Gamecocks handed the Golden Hurricane their first loss of the season, 83–75.

After the tournament, Tulsa’s next opponent was Arkansas-Little Rock. This time, Tulsa held a lead in the second half, but gave it up to a UALR comeback. They opened the half with a 10–0 run to take the lead, and out-scored the Golden Hurricane from that point forward to win the game, 64–60.

Tulsa then travelled to Stillwater, Oklahoma to face Oklahoma State. In a defensive game, Marquel Curtis pulled through with 10 points in the second half to help lead the Golden Hurricane to a 66–56 victory. The game was tied with five minutes left, but Tulsa made smart plays down the stretch and outscored the Cowboys by 10

over that period.

In their most recent game, the Golden Hurricane faced in-town rival Oral Roberts.

The game was the closest game of the season. In the first half, Tulsa held the lead for the majority of the time, and they took a two point lead into the halftime break.

The second half featured a lot of backand-forth play, as each team held the lead for small periods of time. The game was tied late, and Obi Emegano made a shot with 2 seconds left for the Golden Eagles, giving them the 70–68 win.

This season has included a variety of game types, from defensive games to highly-offensive showcases. Overall, the team looks good so far. This is the second year under coach Frank Haith, so the players are more familiar with his system now. The offense is led by Harrison and Woodard in most games, but overall the scoring is pretty well divided among the players. The team is experienced, as most of the players that see regular minutes are seniors. I’m excited to see how this team continues to develop over the rest of the season; there has been a lot of promise shown this far.

Wakefield led Tulsa in scoring with 21 points in the game, a career high, but again the Golden Hurricane had a tough time holding off their opponents at the other end.

They fell in this game as well, 82–73.

Next up was in-town rival Oral Roberts.

This game was much lower scoring than the other two. Tulsa didn’t shoot well from the field in this game, especially from beyond the three-point arc, and fell 59–53.

In their fourth game, the Golden Hurricane finally put a tally in the win column.

They faced Arkansas, and ran out to a large lead. Their largest lead hit 18 points, before Arkansas tried to push themselves back into the game. Tulsa held off the rally, and notched the 74–67 win.

The Golden Hurricane’s next two games came in the UNLV Lady Rebel Round-Up tournament, and Tulsa didn’t fair so well in it.

In their first matchup, they faced Drake.

Though Tulsa did well on the offensive end, they couldn’t stop Drake from scoring, conceding 31 points in both the first and fourth quarters. They fell 91–80 on the game.

Their next tournament game was the closest game of their season so far, against George Mason. The Patriots took an early lead in the game, and the Golden Hurricane just couldn’t complete the comeback, falling 64–63.

The Golden Hurricane then faced Grambling State. They cruised in this game, as

Kelsee Grovey led the way with 21 points, as Tulsa shot well to earn the 79–51 victory.

After their second win of the year, Tulsa fell in their latest game, against Indiana State. The Golden Hurricane held a lead throughout the first half, but couldn’t keep it as the game continued on into the later stages. It was a close contest, but Indiana State ended up on top, 67–63.

After a rough start, conference play is fast approaching. Conference play is typically the harder part of the schedule for the year, so hopefully the Golden Hurricane can get a couple wins heading into that part of their schedule to be at their best when it comes.

night. However, the offense made a huge mistake to end the half, as a low snap led to a safety for the Midshipmen.

Navy took a 23–7 lead to halftime, and built on the lead with a Demond Brown rushing touchdown, following Dishan Romine’s return to Tulsa’s eight-yard line. The Tulsa offense made up for their safety to end the half, marching down the field in the first drive of the second half, capped by Langer’s second rushing touchdown. The Midshipmen answered right back, as Quentin Ezell ran for Navy’s fourth rushing touchdown.

The Midshipmen made their final score of the night on the first play of the fourth quarter, on a touchdown by Brandon Colon.

Tulsa showed some final signs of life late in the game, with a D’Angelo Brewer rushing touchdown.

Next Tulsa took to the road for their final regular season game, facing the Tulane Green Wave. Evans passed for 367 yards and three touchdowns while Garrett had a 216-yard game receiving. Additionally, Josh Atkinson received for just under 100 yards.

Tulane quarterback Jordy Joseph threw for 343 yards and four touchdowns of his own.

The first quarter featured touchdowns from each team, with Evans passing to Justin Hobbs and Joseph passing to Charles Jones. The second quarter began the same way, with Tulane’s Teddy Veal and Atkinson responsible for each team’s second touchdown. Tulane took control for the rest of the half, behind a field goal and Joseph’s longest touchdown pass of the night—a

66-yarder to Dontrell Hilliard.

Tulane’s ten-point halftime lead didn’t last for long, as Tulsa put up ten unanswered with a 40-yard field goal by Redford Jones and another Evans touchdown pass to Garrett. Tulane regained their lead over the rest of the third and beginning of the fourth quarter, as a field goal and a pass by Joseph to Andrew Hicks gave Tulane a 34–24 lead.

Tulsa made an incredible comeback to close out the game, as Craig Suits returned an interception for 28 yards and a touchdown just 14 seconds after a Zack Langer rushing touchdown. The 45–34 victory was sealed when Kolton Shindelar returned another Joseph interception for 89 yards and a touchdown.

With the victory against Tulane, Tulsa earned their sixth victory and sealed a trip to a bowl game. The American Conference has seven bowl spots, facing off against teams from the SEC, ACC, Conference USA, Mountain West, Middle American and Sun Belt conferences.

The game against the SEC takes place in Birmingham, Alabama, while the game against a Mountain West opponent (or BYU) takes place in Hawaii. The remaining games that Tulsa could participate in take place in Florida or Louisianna (the ACC game is in Maryland, but Navy is contractually obligated to take that bowl game, leaving the other American schools out of the selection for that bowl).

While the bowl is a fantastic team achievement, a Tulsa player is also a finalist for an

individual award. Wide receiver Keyarris Garrett is a finalist for the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose award, which recognizes outstanding play and off-the-field character of student-athletes that were either born in Texas, played for a Texas high school or attended a Texas football institution.

According to the award’s website, the award “will be presented annually to the nation’s outstanding Division I college offensive player...the player must also exhibit the enduring characteristics that define Earl Campbell, including integrity, performance, teamwork, sportsmanship, community, and tenacity.” *Editor’s note: Announced on Sunday, Tulsa will be playing in the Camping World Independence Bowl in Shreveport, LA, on Dec 26 at 4:45 p.m. Tulsa will be playing against Virginia Tech.

Women’s basketball has tough start to season

Women’s basketball has lost most of their games so far this season.

Joseph Edmunds Sports Writer This season has started out rough for the Golden Hurricane women’s basketball team, who sit at 2–6 so far.

Their first game brought Kansas State to the Reynolds Center. The Golden Hurricane had a balanced offensive attack, but couldn’t hold off the Wildcats. They dropped the game 75–67.

In their second game, they travelled to Saint Louis to face the Billikens. Erika

Football heading to Shreveport for Independence Bowl

The Golden Hurricane finished off the regular season with a loss to Navy and win over Tulane to be bowl eligible for the first time in three years.

Wade Crawford Sports Writer After a loss to the Navy Midshipmen, Tulsa sealed their bowl spot with a comeback win against Tulane.

Navy’s triple option attack shined throughout the game, as they rushed for 457 yards and five touchdowns. By Tulsa’s standards, the offense struggled, picking up just over 350 total yards. Quarterback Dane Evans passed for 278 of those yards; no Tulsa receiver had more than 75 yards. In addition, no Tulsa touchdowns were scored in the air while Zack Langer and D’Angelo Brewer had a combined three touchdowns.

After Tulsa forced an early fumble, Navy created a turnover of their own, stripping the ball from wide receiver Keyarris Garrett after his first reception of the game. Navy took advantage of the opportunity for the first score of the game, as back Toneo Gulley rushed for 70 yards and a Navy touchdown.

Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds avenged his early turnover, throwing a 39yard pass to Jamir Tillman and rushing for a touchdown, giving Navy a 21–0 lead. The Tulsa offense cut the lead to 14 points on Langer’s first rushing touchdown of the

courtesy Camping World Independence Bowl

Tulsa will play in the Independence Bowl.

7 December 2015

The State-Run Media

the

State-Run media Are we done yet?

Student returning home for the holidays discovers that he is the “weird” relative Everyone has that one family member that people ignore at family gatherings.

One student discovered over Thanksgiving break that he might just be that guy.

Caleb Freeman Avoids eye contact at family events.

graphic by Madeline Woods

Now why would anyone want to avoid this guy?

With the upcoming end of the semester, TU students recently enjoyed a week-long break to celebrate Thanksgiving. Over the course of the week, students took time off from their studies to relax and spend time with family and friends. However, one student is still reeling from the discovery that he is the family member that everyone wants to avoid.

Billy Gibson, 19, reportedly came to this realization shortly after arriving at his grandmother’s annual Thanksgiving lunch at her home in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Walking to greet his Uncle David, Gibson was taken aback when he was offered a handshake.

“He gave the rest of my family

hugs,” noted Gibson.

Gibson’s anxiety was heightened when he began to notice peculiar sideways glances from cousins, aunts, and uncles. “I ended up going to the bathroom to see if anything was on my face,” said Gibson, who has remained noticeably shaken since the event.

“There wasn’t anything there.”

After several unanswered waves to other family members and a rushed side hug from his grandmother, who appeared to be scanning the room for any onlooking relatives, Gibson began to realize the gravity of his situation. “I was honestly stunned. I kept on asking myself where things had gone so wrong,” said Gibson, who has not shaved since the event.

Several acquaintances of Gibson have speculated on reasons as to why Gibson is considered the black sheep of his family.

“He’s oddly into that 90’s TV show Doogie Howser, M.D. He references it all the time,” said Gibson’s roommate, who has requested to go unnamed in order to avoid potential backlash.

Fellow classmates have also cited Gibson’s obsession with Korean pop music and his frequent

visits to the website 4chan as potential causes.

“You hear about things like this happening to people, but you never expect it to happen to you,” said Gibson, who is reportedly struggling to make it through the denial stage of grief. “I seriously can’t be the weirdest person in my family. I mean, my Aunt Kathy has braces and she’s in her forties.” Gibson also referenced his Uncle Trevor, who has no sense of personal space, and his cousin Jamison, who frequently refers to himself in the third person, as family members more deserving of his family’s alienation.

Those who know Gibson have noticed a change in his personality. “You can tell it’s really affected him,” noted Gibson’s roommate. “He’s been going for a lot of walks, and he’s gotten really into The Smiths.”

Since Thanksgiving, Gibson has also begun to smoke clove cigarettes, write sonnets, and frequently view the movie Dead Poets Society. His roommate is currently in the process of setting up an intervention, saying, “If I hear ‘Asleep’ by The Smiths one more time, I might go crazy.”

New sexual health course based Local Internet activist to on relationships in Gossip Girl receive Nobel Peace Prize The collision of corporate sponsorship and TU’s recent poor grade on sexual health has resulted in a new partnership that teaches students how to be responsible based on the popular show “Gossip Girl.”

Brook Becker Actually prefers “Pretty Little Liars.”

In an email sent out over the weekend to TU students and faculty, President Upham announced that the university would begin to take corporate sponsors to renovate and develop campus facilities. Student health resources will now be sponsored by broadcast network The CW, beginning with a new mandatory sex-ed program titled Gossip Girl, Not Gonorrhea.

CW representative Bill Young hosted a press conference Monday evening where he explained the program as an attempt to encourage students to feel empowered by whatever decisions they decide to

make with their bodies, while remaining healthy and educated.

“It’s a sliding scale based on the characters as we know and love them. In the danger zone, in which students are unaware of multiple partners’ histories—or even names—we have Chuck Bass.” Young gestured to a singleaxis graph represented at one end by actor Ed Westick. “And on the opposite end, the key model of responsibility and knowledge, we have, well...Jenny was the closest thing to being a responsible character we could find.”

Addressing the confusing and, at-times, flawed design of the graph covering sexual health and awareness, Mr. Young had a prepared statement.

“Look, it’s a new program, alright? We have a few kinks to work out.” Young at this time leaned into the microphone. “Pun intended.”

Young continued to explain alternative systems ready to be tested.

“We’ve considered a scale that relates your sexual knowledge and awareness of partners to your predictions on Gossip Girl, assessed,

of course, prior to the reveal.”

Young offered pamphlets of other optional scenarios. “Another idea that’s being looked at is to have students binge-watch the entire series, then record and analyze mistakes our characters made when taking care of their sexualities and bodies.”

Closing the conference, Young took one final moment to address concerns and protests at corporate sponsorship and the potential negative impacts on campus and on students.

“A lot of people have called us out. Subtweeting, vagueblogging, saying that The CW is instituting a program that is esoteric, abstruse, and worse, morally bankrupt,” Young then took a moment to read out printed statements from social media sites. “Well, I’ll just say one thing about this: that sort of vocabulary is outside of The CW’s target-demographic, and as such, we have no comment at this time.”

Following this closing remark, Representative Young shouted “Young out!” to the remaining crowd and dropped the mic, breaking it.

A local man whose idea of activism means liking Facebook posts is set to receive a prize for his actions.

Nathan Hinkle Changes the filter on his profile pic every week.

Not all good deeds go unpunished. Jim Nobell, a local resident and prominent online activist, has recently been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts towards thousands of causes. The State Run Media was granted an interview at his activist headquarters.

Nobell explained how “everyday I get up excited to change the world so I get online and give my support to causes such as clean water and disaster relief by liking and commenting on them.”

Asked how he has the energy and the strength to continue his tireless efforts towards humanity, he responded that he finds the strength by the works of other activists.

This reporter was in awe over his breath-taking remarks. Describing all of Nobell’s works of

image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

charity would take hours to complete, but a few of Nobell’s important achievements include writing inspiring messages such as, “This is terrible” on pictures of diseaseridden areas in Africa, or writing things like “Great” and “Doing the Lord’s work” on posts made by the Red Cross.

Nobell’s humble attitude manifests itself in his physical appearance, as well, as his attire consists mainly of free t-shirts from charity events that he happened to stop by for a few minutes. Jim Nobell will receive his award on December 10 with other important members of society.

propagandist With the semester drawing to a close, The State-Run Media’s Head Propagandist finally comes out of hiding to see the year off, and to give the paper a sense of symmetry.

Caitlin Woods Barely hanging on at this point.

Hey there everybody. It’s me, the Head Propagandist here at The State-Run Media. Now, I know what you’re all thinking — “What’s the situation with those guys who made you kill the former editor?” Well. Let me stop you right there. Don’t follow that thought with, “Weren’t you going to find them?” And certainly don’t remind me that I said I was going to “Make them pay.”

This is a season of love and forgiveness, everyone. I’ve moved

past that. And it has nothing to do with the fact that, from the moment I took this job, they have been closely monitoring everything I say and do. It’s probably not likely that they can read my mind, right?

Let me continue by voicing my support for the forces behind this publication. We here at The StateRun Media strive to bring readers the highest quality and most relevant news, and in order to do so we must heavily monitor and

edit whatever “they” deem extraneous. Without their final word, I would venture to say this newspaper would have a hard time being called “news” at all.

Really, who are we to decide for ourselves what is “newsworthy”? If everyone had a voice, our newspapers and magazines would be full of subjective nonsense! I, for one, am certainly glad I didn’t spend all semester publishing childish and inane articles.

As Head Propagandist, I prom-

ise to keep up the quality of each issue of The State-Run Media.

And really, don’t worry about what I wrote at the beginning of the semester. Everything is going perfectly well, and I certainly am not in the process of gnawing off my own hands.

Have a great end of the year, readers! I look forward to what The State-Run Media’s secretive directors have in store for all of us next semester.