9 February 2015

TU administration suspended Trey Barnett without a hearing According to documents obtained by the Collegian, Trey Barnett was suspended for Facebook posts he didn’t make. See full story on p. 3

TU suggests Collegian investigation may result in disciplinary action, p. 3 Falling oil prices hurt petroleum engineering students’ internship prospects, p. 4 SA senators elected, several seats still open, p. 5 “Daytripper” brings magical realism to a comic book, p. 8 Commentary: New website good for TU’s image, p. 10 TU unveils five-year plan for athletics, p. 13

the Collegian : 2

9 February 2015

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s your ad in the Collegian!

Once you advertise with the Collegian, people won’t be able to look away.

Contact our business manager Jesse Keipp at jesse-keipp@utulsa.edu.

February 21, 2015 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

The Student Union Visit https://orgs.utulsa.edu/sa/admin/register.php to register Cinnabon breakfast will be provided and a lunch box to go.

The first 350 people to register will recieve a dry-fit quarter zip.

Everyone who participates will receive a free pocket T-shirt.

After you register, an email containing your assignment will be sent closer to the date.

9 February 2015

NEWS

the Collegian : 3

TU suspended student without hearing, failed to present evidence to accused Trey Barnett was suspended last semester for Facebook posts written by someone else. He was never provided with a hearing. Editorin-Chief Kyle Walker and Managing Editor Conor Fellin report.

Late last October, the University of Tulsa suspended George “Trey” Barnett on harassment charges. The case centered on three Facebook posts which either tagged Barnett or were posted to his page by another account.

Christopher Mangum, now Barnett’s husband but at the time his fiance, claims in two sworn affidavits that he wrote the posts. Mangum has never attended TU and has been barred from campus.

Documents obtained by the Collegian show that Barnett never received a hearing, even though the Student Code of Conduct provides that “in all cases, a student accused of one or more violations of the student code has the right to a hearing.”

Barnett has been suspended until at least 2016. He will not be allowed to graduate from TU with a degree in theatre, a degree which he was eleven credit hours from completing.

Barnett was to graduate in December. He told the Collegian that his tuition had been paid in full.

After the suspension, Barnett filed an appeal that was

“Barnett will not be allowed to graduate from TU with a degree in theatre, a degree which he was eleven credit hours from completing.” ultimately rejected. The school will not hear any further appeals in this case.

Barnett provided the Collegian with copies of every document referred to in this article. The university declined to verify the veracity of the documents or comment on any aspect of this case.

“Trey and Chris are working together” Though the first of the relevant posts appeared on Barnett’s Facebook page in March of last year, it was not until late September when another post appeared that the university filed disciplinary charges against Barnett.

On Sept. 30, Barnett met with Senior Vice Provost Winona Tanaka. At this meeting, Barnett received a letter suspending him from several classes, removing him from his position on “The Glass Menagerie,” restricting his access to Kendall Hall and notifying him that a complaint had been filed against him.

The letter stated that it was “necessary to impose immediate restrictions” on Barnett given the “nature of the allegations.”

Several days later, a formal written complaint was lodged against Barnett. The complaint claimed that “Trey and Chris (were) working together” to create social media posts that allegedly harassed three faculty members and one student.

The complaint cited four such posts over seven months and included screenshots of the offending material.

In two of these instances, Mangum tagged Barnett in Facebook posts. In a third, Mangum posted directly to Barnett’s page. On Oct. 1 and 3, Mangum provided the university with two sworn affidavits stating that he alone was responsible for these posts.

On Oct. 9, Mangum was barred from campus. A letter sent to Mangum by Dean of Students Yolanda Taylor reads: “You will not be permitted on campus because of what you have said on your Facebook about TU, faculty and students.”

The complaint also mentioned a comment made by a user named “John” on local news station KTUL’s website.

According to the complaint, this comment “uses the same language and same accusations” as one of the other posts in question. Both Barnett and Mangum deny any involvement with this comment.

The complaint further claimed that Barnett was warned to prevent offensive postings. Barnett denies that he received such warnings, and no other evidence was ever presented that he had.

On Oct. 13, Barnett gave Tanaka his written response to the complaint filed against him. Tanaka provided Barnett with her decision less than two weeks later on Oct. 24.

“I decide whose story is more credible”

Tanaka’s 23-page decision finds Barnett responsible for several different violations of either the Student Code of Conduct or the Policy on Harassment.

The decision argues that Barnett was “responsible, directly or indirectly, for the postings” in question; that he “failed to act” to remove or prevent the posts; that he violated the Policy on Harassment because the posts were injurious to an individual’s reputation; and that he breached confidentiality by sharing details of the case against him with his then-fiancé and potential witness in his defense, Christopher Mangum.

The formal complaint originally alleged that Barnett and Mangum were working together. The decision takes a different line of argument.

Tanaka ultimately claims not that Barnett and Mangum were working together but that “Barnett became responsible for taking reasonable steps to prevent further attacks … on his Facebook page.”

Tanaka alleges that Barnett “did nothing” for “five months” and that he “acted only in early October, after commencement of this harassment case.”

Barnett contests this version of events. In his appeal, Barnett claims that “each of the controversial comments made by Chris Mangum on Mr. Barnett’s Facebook page were removed promptly after notice of their posting” and that “no single comment at issue in this proceeding was published to Mr. Barnett’s Facebook page for more than 48 hours.”

Tanaka’s decision does not show any sign that the school attempted to establish how long each post was available or how many people read them. Instead, the decision simply states that “some readers contacted one or more of the (complainants)” about the posts. The decision does not say whether these readers were interviewed and relies on the complainants’ own testimony to establish that the posts were widely read.

Barnett took particular exception to this part of the decision. In his appeal, he argues that “Tanaka presumed without factual support (that) the commentary was published for a significant period of time and to a significant audience.”

Similarly, the decision claims that one of the Facebook posts “quickly became the subject of discussion and gossip among students, faculty and alumni,” but provides no evidence to that effect.

Throughout the decision, Tanaka relies almost exclusively on the testimony of Barnett’s accusers, making reference to no other witnesses except Barnett. Mangum was never interviewed, and testimony he provided is explicitly rejected

by Tanaka. Although Mangum provided the school with two sworn affidavits in which he claimed sole responsibility for the posts, Tanaka dismisses his claims as “not credible.”

Tanaka took this position with respect to Barnett’s testimony as well. In a recording Barnett made the day he was given the decision, Tanaka can be heard saying, “The bottom line is, I don’t find your responses credible,” and, “I examine the witnesses, and I decide whose story is more credible.”

She goes on to tell Barnett, “I am not obligated to accept anything that you or anyone else says at face value.”

Tanaka’s decision does not describe or mention interviews with anyone other than Barnett and his accusers.

Other than the formal complaint and an initial meeting between Tanaka and Barnett’s accusers, no other sources of evidence are mentioned in any detail. Tanaka refers repeatedly to “evidence obtained during the investigation” but does not identify sources.

In fact, the only concrete evidence provided by the complainants and documented in the decision was the series of Facebook posts in question, appended to the formal complaint.

According to all of the documents available to the Collegian, Barnett was never provided with a hearing. As such, he was never confronted with the vast majority of the evidence recorded in the decision, never confronted with the specific arguments used by Tanaka and never provided with an opportunity to present witnesses on his behalf.

“There’s no solid evidence,” Barnett said. “And if there is, it was never given to me.”

The Student Code of Conduct states that all students shall have the opportunity “to hear all information against (them) and to question all witnesses against (them)” and “to present relevant information and witnesses on his/her behalf.”

Even so, Barnett was punished for sharing details of the case with Mangum, a potential witness, on the grounds that by doing so he breached the confidentiality of the proceeding.

The university has declined to explain how Barnett could gather witnesses under such strict confidentiality requirements.

“No further appeal is available” The decision imposed a number of sanctions upon Barnett. He was suspended and banned from campus until 2016. He will not be allowed to graduate with a major or minor in theatre, and he is not allowed to transfer theatre courses to TU from another university. His transcript will show that he was suspended.

“‘There’s no solid evidence,’ Barnett said. ‘And if there is, it was never given to me.’”

Barnett told the Collegian that he has also been locked out of his TU email account. The school has since provided Barnett and his attorneys with three cardboard boxes full of printed e-mails.

On Nov. 10, Barnett appealed Tanaka’s decision to Provost Roger Blais. Barnett’s appeal claimed that TU had violated its own policies by failing to give Barnett a hearing, by suspending him before they had received a formal written complaint and by punishing him for sharing information with a potential witness.

The appeal also argues that “Barnett cannot be held accountable for the conduct of a third-party adult,” that “the university’s decision is not supported by credible evidence,” and that the sanctions imposed on Barnett were excessive.

Additionally, Barnett offered to delete all of his social media accounts for the rest of his TU career if his appeal were granted.

Two months later, on Jan. 9, Barnett received the school’s one-page response to his appeal. After a brief discussion, his appeal was summarily dismissed in two sentences and with no argumentation. “No further appeal is available at the University of Tulsa,” the response reads.

“I’m having to start completely over” In the course of these events, Barnett and Mangum moved from their house across the street from campus to south Tulsa.

Barnett is now living there and working at a wholesale beauty supply store.

Both the move and the counseling Barnett sought during and after the disciplinary process have caused Barnett to incur significant expenses.

Barnett has been looking for a way to finish his degree.

He recently tried an online graphic design program, only to discover that just one of the 113 credits he had earned at TU would transfer.

“My original plan was: graduate from TU, get my degree with my lighting design emphasis, go to Tulsa Tech, get a degree in being an electrician,” Barnett said. “Building up all the knowledge in the area and being able to put it toward theatre.”

“I’m having to start completely over.”

TU suggests Collegian investigation may result in disciplinary action against journalists Collegian editors Kyle Walker and Conor Fellin have been told by university officials that they could face disciplinary charges for reporting on the suspension of George “Trey” Barnett. Editor-in-Chief Kyle Walker reports.

The Collegian’s Managing Editor Conor Fellin and I have been told that the university might bring disciplinary charges against us for certain aspects of the above story, “TU suspended student without hearing, failed to present evidence to the accused.”

Since early in the semester, the Collegian has been investigating the suspension of George “Trey” Barnett. After speaking with us on Jan. 19, Barnett provided us with a number of documents related to his suspension.

Those documents show that Barnett was suspended without a hearing for allegedly harassing posts that a third party made on his Facebook page.

The next day, we contacted University Relations to request an interview with Senior Vice Provost Winona Tanaka, since she was the author of the decision in Barnett’s case.

This interview was never granted, and the school never commented on the veracity of the documents.

On Jan. 21, I met with Mona Chamberlin, Director of Marketing and Communications, to discuss questions we had regarding Barnett’s suspension. I discussed with Chamberlin each of the documents Barnett shared with us.

The day after this meeting, we sent a list of questions to Tanaka through Chamberlin, as the university will usually respond only to questions submitted through Chamberlin’s office.

On Jan. 23, I received a call from the Collegian’s advisor Dan Bewley. He told me that he had spoken with Chamberlin by phone that morning. According to Bewley, the school expressed a concern that the Collegian would cross a line in our investigation and that this could result in some sort of university action.

I immediately contacted Chamberlin to arrange a second meeting, which took place later that day. Conor Fellin, Dan Bewley and I were each present. We made a recording of this meeting.

At the meeting, Chamberlin outlined the administration’s concerns. We were told that the school would not answer any questions and that unspecified pieces of information in our possession were confidential. If “anything that the university deems to be confidential” is “published or shared, (that) could violate university policies,” Chamberlin said.

“If this has already been shared, and I don’t know what you have shared with Conor or what you have shared as a staff,” Chamberlin said, “that constitutes disseminating this information.”

When pressed on the nature of this confidentiality, Chamberlin did not elaborate. The school never told us what information it deems confidential.

Despite multiple requests, the school never provided a highlighted copy of TU disciplinary policies showing the provisions we would violate by publishing “confidential” information.

Chamberlin additionally advised us to consult legal counsel. After the meeting, we contacted the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), a non-profit that supports freedom of the press on college campuses and provides legal counsel for student journalists.

SPLC contacted the university’s lawyer on Jan. 28. According to our contact at SPLC, it is TU’s position that connecting the Facebook posts on Barnett’s page with his suspension is an invasion of the privacy of the disciplinary process, and thus a violation of university policy.

In accordance with advice from the SPLC, we proceeded to write the story. At press time, it was not clear what course of action the university would take.

the Collegian : 4

NEWS

9 February 2015

Falling oil prices dry up petroleum internships Though many are celebrating the fall of oil prices, the number of internships available to petroleum engineering students is dropping as oil companies look for ways to save money. Student Writer Jordan Hoyt investigates.

Recent drops in gas prices may have consumers smiling, but some TU petroleum engineering students are left without internships for this summer. Last June the price of a gallon of gasoline in Tulsa averaged about $3.50, but just six months later the price has been cut in two at around $1.75.

Many oil companies are sharply cutting expenses to match the decline in income.

Oil tech company Schlumberger already announced the layoff of 9,000 employees worldwide. Baker Hughes has announced 7,000 layoffs worldwide.

“They will reduce the drilling activity and also become lean in terms of number of people,” said TU’s Petroleum Engineering Chairman Mohan Kelkar.

“I would expect some layoffs from the companies as they trim the workforce to reflect the reduced activity. There will be more reduction among the contractors as well as people involved in drilling and completion activities. I also expect a similar reduction in service companies employment.”

When asked if the recent downturn would affect TU’s job placement rate Kelkar responded, “I am afraid so. Students with limited summer experience and low grades would have a more difficult time in getting jobs. I expect that companies would continue to hire young people to balance their demographics. However, the number of new graduates hired will reduce over the next few years.”

“The oil price can be low for a while. It is very difficult to predict how long will it last. However, there is currently significant oversupply of production with respect to demand. It will take some time before natural decline in production will match up with demand. I would not be surprised if the oil price stays relatively low (less than $70 per barrel) for two years.”

Tori Weir, a petroleum engineering major graduating in Dec. 2015, spent last summer interning at Apache but received no internship offers this summer.

“Many companies have delayed hiring people,” said one undergraduate petroleum engineering major who recently had a summer internship rescinded and wished not to be named.

“It worries me some, there is no way that things will return to the same way before, but I genuinely think it will be better than it is now,” our source said after being asked about career prospects.

“It’s hard to say how long the low prices will go but I’m still hopeful for prospects after graduation. I am now considering studying abroad or taking summer classes.”

Experts at the US Energy Information Administration find it hard to predict how long the downturn will last, but most say that low prices will last at least another half year as supply remains high and demand slowly decreases.

“I suspect oil prices to recover faster than

when they dropped in 2008 economic downturn,” commented TU Petroleum Engineering alumnus, Benjamin Paek of Halliburton.

“Most oil and gas operator companies have slowed down drilling. This may affect hiring in the short term for maybe one semester but companies are always looking for talent,” he said after being asked how TU’s hiring rate might be affected by the recent price drop.

Current prices of $48/barrel are unsustainable for many companies but those that use hydraulic fracturing are finding it especially difficult. Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that 37 out of 38 shale oilfields are below the break-even mark at

the current price.

Analysts at Oil-price.net predict that the higher cost of fracking will cause its decline in 2015.

“Environmentally, it’d be good if fracking does slow down,” Sasha West, president of TU’s Earth Matters club commented, “but it’d be better to move away from needing oil and gas as a whole, regardless of the extraction methods.”

“It’s been established that cheap gas means people are less conservative with their gas use and diverts attention from our long-term need to move away from fossil fuels to cleaner, more sustainable alternatives,” West said.

DOLLARS PER BARREL

Aug 4

$94.52

Sept 1

$92.16

Oct 6

$83.99

Nov 3

$78.31

Dec 1

$65.81

Jan 5

$48.86

Feb 2

$52.34

Elias Brinkman and Oscar Ho / Collegian

The above numbers are for dollars per barrel of crude oil, as reported by CNBC.

State of the State Address recap

In her State of the State Address, Governor Fallin stressed improvements in education, Oklahoma’s incarceration rate and health, explains Politics Reporter Brennen VanderVeen.

Feb. 1 3:10 a.m.

Officers were dispatched to the Kappa Sigma Fraternity House in reference to broken windows. Fraternity members saw windows in the Kappa Sigma House breaking and three males running from the scene and into the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity next door.

Feb. 2 7:40 p.m.

Officers were dispatched to Norman Village in response to a report of suspicious activity.

Officers determined that the male was a TU student who lived in the complex and was unloading items from his personal vehicle.

Feb. 3 4:09 a.m.

Officers on patrol checked on a man sitting in his car in the parking lot. The man was identified as a WFF employee taking a smoke break.

Feb. 4 11:00 a.m.

Officers were dispatched to a fire alarm at the University School. It was set off when a ball struck a pull station in the gym. The pull station and fire panel was restored and no damage was done to the pull station.

2:00 p.m.

Officers were dispatched to a fire alarm at the Lottie Jane. It was set off by a curling iron left on. The fire panel was restored and no damage was done to the room.

11:40 p.m.

Officers were dispatched to assist a situation between a TU student and a TU staff member. The TU staff member was making contact with a non-enrolled student who was reportedly residing in campus housing without authorization to start the eviction process. The student didn’t feel comfortable until security arrived.

9:37 a.m.

Officers investigated an ill student requesting transport to the hospital for evaluation.

EMSA and TFD arrived and transported by EMSA to St. Francis Hospital.

Feb. 5 11:00 a.m.

Officers impounded found property from McFarlin Library. The property included: a Toshiba flash drive, scarf, beanie and eye glasses.

11:30 p.m.

Officers investigated a report of a man climbing through a window of an apartment. The resident advised had climbed through the window due to not having their key to the apartment and not wanting a lock out charge.

4:30 p.m.

Two students reported a larceny that occurred in US West on 10 December 2014.

Their former roommate, no longer a student, failed to pay the apartment’s electric bill after receiving money to do so. The students reported the former student admitted to taking the money but would not pay it back.

Before beginning the policy substance of her speech, Governor Fallin held a moment of silence for state troopers Nicholas Dees and Keith Burch. Trooper Dees died on Jan. 31 after being struck by a car while investigating an accident on I-40. The same car put Trooper Burch in critical condition.

Fallin stated that she is “proud to serve as the chief executive of a state with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, a median household income growing at twice the national average, and the fourth-fastest growing gross domestic product in the United States.”

Fallin praised recent spending on infrastructure. She claimed, “Today we have only 390 structurally deficient bridges, down from a high of over 1,100. By 2019, we’ll bring that number down to zero.”

Fallin also stressed that improvement was needed in educational attainment. She believes the state must push for education beyond high school in order to address a skills gap. She cited studies that only 23 percent of jobs will be available to those with only a high school education or less in five years. This contrasts with the 46 percent of the working population who has a high school education or less today.

She also introduced a new program called Oklahoma Works, a partnership between the public and private sectors. It would allow both children and adults to get training for possible future careers.

Ultimately, she hopes to reduce “the rate of remediation for incoming college freshmen from 40 percent in 2015 to 30 percent in 2025 and increase the percentage of fourth grade students scoring proficient or above on the state reading test to 75 percent by 2018.”

Fallin also identified criminal justice and incarceration as needing reform. She stated that “one in eleven Oklahomans serve time in prison at some point in their lives. Many of our current inmates are first-time, non-violent offenders with drug abuse and alcohol problems. For some of these offenders, long sentences in state penitentiaries increase their likelihood of escalated criminal behavior.”

On account of this, Fallin urged the state to adopt more “smart on crime” policies like drug courts. She stated that “It costs the state around $19,000 a year to house an inmate,

but only $5,000 a year to send an addict through drug court and onto treatment. In addition to being less expensive, it’s also more effective; the recidivism rate for offenders sent to drug court is just onefourth of the rate for those sent to prison.”

She hopes that the prison population will be reduced by 10 percent by 2025.

Fallin’s final area of reform is health. In order to reduce prescription drug abuse, she wants to pass a bill that would make it harder for addicts to get drugs by preventing “doctor shopping,” or going to multiple doctors in order to get more medication.

She also wants to ban smoking at all K–12 schools. Currently, tobacco is only prohibited by state law during the school day. She also wants to ban texting while driving.

Additionally, Fallin wants to have the federal government renew Insure Oklahoma, which she described as “Oklahoma’s health plan for small businesses and lower income workers.” Her actual goals for health include decreasing infant mortality by thirteen percent by 2018 and decreasing heart disease deaths by twenty-five percent.

Most of the remainder of her speech focused on budget reform. One major problem that she sees is the diminishment of the General Revenue Fund, which is “the primary source of discretionary spending set by the Legislature each year.”

Last year, Oklahoma had its highest revenue ever at $13.6 billion. However, the “current budget system diverts billions of dollars away from the general revenue fund before the budgeting process begins, either to support various government programs, to pay for tax credits and incentives or to fill unused revolving funds maintained by some state agencies.”

As such, “In 2007, the Legislature appropriated fifty-five cents of every dollar taken in by the government. Last year, that declined to forty-seven cents. That means that today, despite the state collecting more money, the Legislature has significantly fewer total dollars to appropriate than in the past.”

She also proposed that the state adopt objective quantitative measures to ensure that programs are working and that the legislature devote every other year to the budget alone.

Student Association charters new yo-yoing club

A new yo-yo club, founded by Thomas Littlejohn, hopes to showcase yoyoing at TU. Student Life Reporter Michaela Flonard reports.

On Tuesday, Feb. 3, SA chartered the TU Throwers Club, a club focused on yo-yoing.

Sophomore Thomas Littlejohn started the club with several of his friends, under the advisement of Computer Science Professor Mauricio Papa.

The idea for TU Throwers began when Littlejohn didn’t see any throwing-related clubs on the list of current clubs.

Littlejohn yo-yoed in middle school but gave up the hobby in high school to focus on academics. Because he had more free time in college, he became interested in yo-yoing again, so he asked around to see if there was any interest in his group of friends.

He found many who were interested, because according to Littlejohn “a lot of people used to yo-yo.” Luckily for Littlejohn and his friends, “It is pretty easy to start (a club) on campus.”

The club is not strictly yo-yo themed. A lot of people used to also juggle, Littlejohn said, or even do kendama, so he’s open to expanding the club’s focus.

Seeing people yo-yoing, Littlejohn hopes, will attract students to the club. According to him, “a lot of time there’s not anything happening, so people need hobbies,” which he hopes will include yo-yoing.

“Most of the people who yo-yo are pretty chill,” Littlejohn said, so even if people aren’t particularly interested in yo-yoing, they still might be interested in hanging out with people in the club. “It’s a cool environment, not exclusive at all,” he said.

Since yo-yoing is an international hobby, Littlejohn hopes the club will break barriers and allow yo-yoers to “see different (yoyoing) styles from different countries.”

There are already international students from China in the TU Throwers Club.

On Thursday, Feb. 12, Littlejohn hopes to meet with students interested in the TU Throwers Club in order to discuss future dates and events, such as a welcome party and competitions in the future.

“It’s going to take several events to grow (TU Throwers),” he said.

Joining the club doesn’t require any prior experience, or even a yo-yo. “The point is not to take advanced people and take them to competitions,” Littlejohn said. “The point is to introduce throwing (yo-yoing) to the campus as a whole.”

9 February 2015

NEWS

the Collegian : 5

New SA senators elected, some seats remain empty Last week’s SA Senate elections concluded on Thursday. This spring, nine candidates were up for election. Politics Reporter Brennen VanderVeen and Student Life Reporter Michaela Flonard report on the new senators.

After SA elections last week, several senate seats remain unfilled. Senators faced no competition this election round, Politics Reporter Brennen VanderVeen and Student Life Reporter Michaela Flonard report.

Student Association’s senators run in either the fall or spring semester and serve a term of one year. Of the 34 total seats, 15 are open in the spring semester. Those seats are further divided into different constituencies. Six senators each represent one of TU’s different colleges. Residence halls, apartments and commuters are each two senator constituencies. Greek housing has one senator. There are also two at-large senators. Since there were only eight candidates on the ballot and two running a writein campaign, some of the seats will remain unfilled. Every candidate who ran appeared on the ballot was elected since no race had more candidates than positions to fill.

Previously a Senator for Greek Housing, Whitney Cipolla is now a Senator for the Arts and Sciences college after receiving 54 votes. Cipolla has also served as a secretary for Summer Senate and is currently the Sergeant at Arms. Because of her long-standing interest in student government, Cipolla found SA a “perfect way to work with fantastic students and staff while also bettering campus.” For her next term, Cipolla hopes to better serve the student body by adapting SA guidelines and writing “more legislation and resolutions that can make a difference on campus.”

The new Senator for the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Tavis Phan, has previously been involved with various organizations such as the Interfraternity Council. He received 102 votes and hopes to improve communication between students and SA. The Business College will be represented by sophomore Ryan Lane. He’s majoring in energy management. He decided to run a write-in campaign after seeing that the position was empty when he went to vote on Wednesday. As a senator, his main priority will be to ban cigarettes from TU. He says this is “to foster a healthier culture on campus.”

Chase Cocking will represent residence halls. He received 41 votes.

Anna Rouw ran to represent the residence halls and received 72 votes. This will be her first position in SA. A freshman, she waited a semester to get involved with SA so that she could learn more about TU before taking a leadership position. Rouw is majoring in business management and political science. As a senator, she wants to increase students’ accessibility to information about SA. Junior Matt Neyer was up for reelection as an Apartment Senator. He received 59 votes. Neyer, who served his first term in 2014, is a part of the Student Organization Committee. “It’s cool to see the new ideas

While there were 15 Student Association senate seats open this semester, only nine of them are now filled. Since no candidates ran for the other six seats, they will remain unfilled this semester. Next fall, it’s possible that some of the seats left empty will be filled through appointment by the Vice President.

Some students appeared on the ballot. other ran as write-in candidates. Any TU student can mount a write-in campaign.

Winning such a campaign is similar to being nominated for a position rather than actually winning one according to Brittany Johnston, SA’s Executive Director of Elections and Policy. The candidate does not automatically get the position. It’s just available to them if they speak with the Vice President about their duties and agree to the conditions to which the other candidates had to agree.

Some Senate seats represent one of TU’s six different colleges. Only three are filled: the College of Arts and Sciences, College

for clubs,” he said, as part of SOC. While SA was different than he expected, he really loved being able to “help peers get most of what they need” in terms of finance. At some point, he hopes to become chairman of the SOC. The other apartment Senator, Sirui Zhao, is a junior finance major. He received 43 votes. This is his first time in SA. “TU is an international family,” he said, and there are “some barriers between native and nonnative speakers” that he wants to address.

Zhao has experience in coordinating between international and domestic students as a part of the Chinese Student Association. When the Chinese Student Association held an event, about half were not Chinese.

“This kind of party should attract more people,” Zhao said. According to Zhao, “if we can inform people of different cultures, we can use these activities to make people work together.”

Sophomore Amanda Calhoun won a write-in campaign. She’s majoring in energy management with a minor in finance.

She is currently the secretary for both the Commuter Advocacy and Resource Society (CARS) and the Tulsa Energy Management Student Association (TEMSA).

Lauren Holmes ran as an at-large candidate and received 207 votes. She is a junior biology and pre-med major. Her freshman year, she represented residence halls, but she has since served as an at-large senator.

In the senate, she serves as Clerk and Chair of the Student Investigative Committee (SIC). As clerk, she substitutes for the secretary when needed and is in charge of writing potential amendments to bills onto the board so that they can receive a vote. The SIC investigates possible problems around campus and tries to formulate a solution.

Last semester, they introduced eight bills.

Holmes is hoping that the committee will introduce ten this semester. Among them, she’d like to perform a survey to measure student enthusiasm for a frozen yogurt place in the Student Union.

The at-large write-in candidate, Miranda Dabney, is a junior English major and received 26 votes. While she’s never been a part of SA, Daphney is excited to “represent the entire student body.” “I have a lot of friends in SA,” Dabney said, “and they encouraged me to get involved.” Currently, she has no specific plans for her term and just hopes to learn what students want. As a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, Dabney knows of “issues with Greek housing and communication” that she would like to address. Dabney hopes to “be that voice for things that need to be improved.”

of Engineering and Natural Sciences and College of Business. The first two were uncontested, and the third had a write-in campaign. The College of Health Sciences, Graduate School and College of Law are all without senators.

The residence halls and apartments are each entitled to two seats, and both constituencies are fully represented. Since only two candidates ran for each of these constituencies, all candidates were guaranteed to win.

Greek housing, entitled to one seat, and commuters, entitled to two two, did not field any candidates.

Both at-large seats are filled. One candidate appeared on the ballot, and one ran a write-in campaign.

According to Brittany Johnston, such low competition is not unusual for spring. She credits the spring semester with low participation, stating that students generally opt to run in the first semester since they are “less over committed in the fall and willing to try new things and add them to the schedule.”

Greg Diskin / Collegian

Top: Left to right are Colleen Yoder, Associate Director of Elections and Policy, and Brittany Johnston, Executive Director of Elections and Policy.

Bottom: Left to right are Senator Matt Neyer (Apartments), Senator Lauren Holmes (At-Large), Senator-Elect Anna Rouw (Residence Halls) and Senator-Elect Miranda Dabney (At-Large).

SAVE shows support for sexual assault victim Right: This banner was created by SAVE (Student Alliance for Violence Education) to show support for the recent victim who reported being sexually assaulted. Almost seventy percent of sexual assaults go unreported. Student signatures were gathered in ACAC last Thursday.

Bottom Left: A student signs the banner, which will be displayed on campus. It has not yet been decided where the banner will be hung.

Bottom Right: LaFortune Residence Director Ronald Atkinson signs the banner as Darrin Priest, Apartment Community Director, looks on.

Morgan Krueger / Collegian

the Collegian : 6

NEWS

9 February 2015

Admissions uses social media, campus visits to lure prospective students Student Life Reporter Michaela Flonard investigates how TU admissions hopes to attract the students who will have the best experience at TU. Attracting the next class of students to TU is a very involved process, according to admissions counselor Solange O’Brien.

The university wants to make sure it is “attracting the best and brightest students from all of our territories,” O’Brien said, which means counselors try to get high school students exposed to the university.

Dean Barbara Adkins said that admissions attempts to “identify students for whom TU appears to be a good fit and personalize our interaction with them.”

Admissions’ first step is to show TU’s academics and various programs to prospective students.

Counselors try to visit high schools and college fairs to begin relationships with students.

To draw students to TU, admissions is emphasizing some of TU’s new programs, such as the computer simulation and gaming major.

Admissions also places emphasis on what happens after graduation.

According to Adkins, admissions wants students to “understand the importance of a liberal arts education along with a professional education or preparation for the future.”

Admissions hopes to “continue expanding the national scope of our student body,” according to Adkins.

Counselors are in charge of many different

regions; O’Brien, for instance, has several schools in Tulsa, as well as the southern part of the US and Washington, D.C. Social media has altered college recruitment, according to Adkins.

TU is on all social media, maintains an admissions blog, sends a multitude of emails and also uses traditional methods of communication.

Adkins said TU has such a “multifaceted approach because students are accustomed to having any type of information at their disposal instantly in many different formats.”

Last year, admissions added a staff member to manage social media and marketing efforts.

Technology has complicated admissions’ work slightly.

To provide information in such a variety of ways requires more cost and work than previous methods.

While Adkins does want a “strong student profile of incoming students,” the goal of TU admissions is “to enroll those who will succeed and be a good fit at TU.” Some students may not have “enviable test scores or grade point averages,” Adkins noted, but admissions may see something that makes them believe that these students will “contribute to campus life in many ways, achieve their goals, and make their professors and the University proud.”

Tim Coburn will head new school of Energy Economics The School of Energy Economics, Policy and Commerce, under the direction of Tim Coburn, focuses on business and policy in energy markets, Student Life Reporter Michaela Flonard reports.

TU’s School of Energy Economics, Policy and Commerce was created on July 1, 2014, with Professor Tim Coburn as the director of the school.

Headed under the Collins College of Business, this school comes seven years after the creation of the first energy-focused business degree.

This school hopes to give students a background in energy business principles and ethics in business as well as an understanding of energy markets and economics from a global and systems perspective.

Coburn wants to prepare undergraduate students for “business development in the upstream oil and gas sector, land administration, and finance and accounting in energy companies.”

The school will prepare graduate students for managerial and supervisory positions within energy companies, with a particular focus on project management, engineering and finance.

The School of Energy Economics, Policy and Commerce will conduct research such as “examining ways to better estimate remaining oil and gas resources” and studying the “evolution of global energy markets and their relationship to commodity practices.”

The school will oversee TU’s energyfocused business degree, including the Master’s in Energy Business, which has added around 150 students since 2012. According to Coburn, enrollment in the undergraduate major of energy management is stable.

Growth at the undergraduate level,

he hopes, will occur in the energy minor which “gives students the opportunity to add an energy focus to a degree program they are already pursuing,” Coburn said.

Because TU has a “rich energy heritage and is world-renowned for its energy programs in technical disciplines,” Coburn believes TU is a good place for such studies.

“Many graduates eventually find themselves looking to understand more about the business aspects of the companies they work for in an effort to advance their careers,” Coburn said.

Tulsa itself is home to many companies and organizations focused on oil and gas exploration, production, transportation and processing, giving TU an edge over similar programs in other states.

Coburn hopes the school can “address all of the business, policy, economic, market and related issues pertaining to the (oil and gas) industry.”

TU has never had a similar program, and Coburn said no other Oklahoman university programs “exist on the same level.”

The new school allows TU to compete with peer universities like SMU and the University of Houston.

These universities also have “businessoriented energy institutes that address the more holistic issues facing companies across the global economy,” according to Coburn.

“Energy is a huge, multi-faceted industry that extends beyond the specialized fields of petroleum engineering or geology,” Coburn said.

Oscar Ho Student Writer

IPT rules against British spy agency The British spy agency Government Communications Headquarters was censured for not revealing enough about how it shared information with the United States National Security Agency. The Investigatory Power Tribunal said that until December of last year, GCHQ contravened the law, but has since been compliant. This is the IPT’s first ruling against the cyber surveillance agency.

Jordan retaliates after ISIS burns pilot alive Jordan executed two terror convicts following Islamic State’s execution of Jordanian F-16 pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh. Failed suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi and al-Qaeda fighter Ziyad Karboli were hanged hours after IS posted a video appearing to show the pilot being burned alive. Jordan has vowed an “earth shattering” revenge for the pilot’s death.

Indian school finds gold, rupees in unused lockers A locker-cleaning operation at a school in Ahmedabad turned up 2.1kg (4.6 lb) of gold bars and 10 million rupees ($161,000) in cash. Staff were cleaning unused lockers and had just broken into five of them when they found the treasure. There is no record of who used those lockers.

Africa sees an upsurge in Ebola cases The World Health Organization has said that the number of new Ebola cases has gone up in the last week of January. Although Ebola cases are going down, “we really have to be vigilant because there are still pockets of infection,” said David Nabarro, the United Nations Special Envoy on Ebola. The United States is reportedly seeking to end its military mission to fight the virus.

Parents of US hostage hope she is alive in Syria The parents of an American held hostage by the Islamic State are hopeful that she is still alive. Kayla Jean Mueller, an aid worker, was captured in Aleppo in 2013. “We have sent you a private message and ask that you respond to us privately. You told us that you treated Kayla as your guest, as your guest her safety and wellbeing remains your responsibility,” said her parents. IS had previously claimed that Ms. Mueller was killed

by Jordanian air strikes on February 5. However, IS has offered no proof of her death, and both Jordanian and American officials have dismissed the report.

Authorities crack down on novelty tissues in China Chinese authorities seized $12,900 worth of novelty tissues intended for sale in Hong Kong. The toilet paper rolls and facial tissue packets bore mocking images of Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung. The embattled pro-Beijing head of the HK government is frequently depicted in a derogatory way. Last year, Hong Kong was beset by protests demanding democratic reform, but Mr. Leung successfully resisted the protesters’ demands.

Elias Brinkman / Collegian An artist’s rendition of the CY Leung novelty tissues.

Celtic music at LPC Thursday

“Songs of Life and Love” will feature a fiddle and Celtic harp as well as accompanying vocals at the Lorton Performance Center this Thursday. Student Writer Meagan Collins reports.

For those who love the movie “Braveheart” or the musical group Celtic Women, they’ll love this coming Concerts with Commentary.

The program, entitled “Songs of Life and Love,” will be performed by the group Vintage Wildflowers on Thursday, February 12th at 7:30 p.m. at Lorton Performance Center.

Abby Bozarth on fiddle, Dana Fitzgerald Maher on Celtic harp and Audrey Schmidt with vocals will be gracing the TU campus with their performance of Irish, Scottish and Appalachian traditional music.

Dana Maher, Celtic harpist and accompanying vocalist, said “Celtic music offers a window into life in a different time and place. (It) is great fun to listen to, but also a rewarding experience if you’re interested in learning about (the) history and culture.”

Maher also mentioned that Celtic music is known for being “up-tempo and lots of fun, both for the musicians and the audience.”

There will be several sets, each covering broad subjects for the audience and personal ones for the musicians.

The event is likened as very informal, really a “gathering of friends” to celebrate the ancestral roots of Bluegrass and other Appalachian tunes.

Bluegrass, developed from Celtic music, is popular in Oklahoma these days. Maher explained that the “connection between bluegrass and Celtic is more direct...than many people realize.”

If the audience only enjoys one thing about the performance, Dana Maher claims it’ll be that the music is “free, and free is always good, especially for college students.”

University launches new website Despite some early issues, the new website is now up and running. Sports Writer Wade Crawford reports.

This week marks the launch of the new University of Tulsa website.

What used to be a website that was clunky and hard to navigate is now smooth and well-organized.

However, the brand new website limped out of the gate, frequently inaccessible in the first several hours postlaunch.

The instability was eventually taken care of, and the new website was completely revealed.

The old website design was scrapped in favor of a site with larger text, pictures with current students and up-todate information.

Different heading sections show better organization, while some drop-down menus add quick access to frequentlyused services (such as scheduling a campus visit for prospective students or contacting the business office).

Some website features were cut during the redesign—namely, the staff directory and biographies.

While the biographies seem to be absent at the moment, various faculty and their contact information can be found as part of the new student portal, which also received a redesign.

variety

the Collegian : 7

‫وما زالت عمان تترقب عودة بانيها و قائدها‬ 9 February 2015

As a way of embracing the multicultural nature of the university community, the Collegian prints articles in languages that reflect the international makeup of our student body. Student Writer Mohammed Al-Salmi discusses the declining health of Qaboos bin Said, the current Sultan of Oman, and the effects this may have on his country.

The light that has spread its rays through the darkness is slowly fading, no longer shining brightly as it used to. His majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, has been serving his country for 45 years.

For the past few years, his health has been declining, and for the first time last year he was not able to attend the National Day celebration. He was in Germany taking treatment, but that did not stop his Majesty from appearing on Omani national television.

On Nov. 5, the nation was pinned in front of their TVs as they watched in silence his majesty’s message where he spoke of an unnamed illness.

His kind and wise words, “Praise be to the Almighty, for He has realized for us good results that require us to proceed with the medical program in the forthcoming period,” brought the joy back to the country and its people. He has yet to return to his country in good health and the Omanis have been waiting for his return anxiously.

‫وكعادة خطاباته الرسمية فانها‬ ‫تتسم باسلوب األبوه الذي يثلج‬ ‫الصدور كيف ال وهو األب والقائد‬ ‫ و تبقى‬.‫واملعلم يف شتى املجاالت‬ ‫أي��ادي الشعب العامين مرفوعة‬ ‫إىل السامء تدعوا الله رسا وعلنا‬ ‫وتترضع إليه ب��أن يرجع إليهم‬ ‫سلطان ال��ب�لاد معافا يف بدنه‬ ‫ فال‬.‫وعىل أتم الصحة و العافية‬ ‫زال جاللته يتلقى العالج يف دار‬ ‫األملان ولكن رغم ذلك فإن تفكريه‬ ‫ال��دائ��م ينصب عىل ح��ال بالده‬ ‫و مصلحتها و كيفية بنائها و‬ ‫ وبالرغم من‬.‫تطويرها باستمرار‬ ‫قلق العامنيني عىل صحة قائدهم‬ ‫فهم يقومون بواجباتهم حتى تسري‬ ‫أمور البالد عىل خري حال إىل حني‬ .‫عودة سلطانهم معافا إن شاء الله‬

‫من شهر نوفمرب وقف العامنيون‬ ‫أمام شاشات التلفاز صغريهم و‬ ‫كبريهم حينام ظهر صاحب الجاللة‬ ‫السلطان ق��اب��وس مهنئا شعبه‬ ‫بذكرى العيد الوطني لبالده و‬ ‫مطمئننا إياهم عىل النتائج املبرشه‬ ‫”شاءت الإلرادة اإللهيه‬:‫حيث قال‬ ‫أن تتزامن هذا العام ونحن خارج‬ ‫ال��وط��ن العزيز لألسباب التي‬ ‫ و التي ولله الفضل ان‬،‫تعلمونها‬ ‫هيأ لنا من النتائج الجيدة ما يتطلب‬ ‫منا متابعتها حسب الربنامج الطبي‬ ”.‫خالل الفرتة القادمة‬ ‫من الجدير بالذكر أن‬

‫كلمته ك��ان لها ص��دى كبري يف‬ ‫قلوب شعبه و قاطنني البالد من‬ ‫االجانب والوافدين حيث عمت‬ ‫ ومنذ‬,‫البهجة والفرحة يف البالد‬ ‫ذلك الوقت والشعراء واملنشدون‬ ‫يتغنون بأملانيا حيث أصبح ألملانيا‬ .‫موقع خاص يف قلوب العامنني‬

‫وحكمته و مبواقفه السياسية التي‬ ‫يشري إليها جميع الحكام أعاد عامن‬ .‫لعهدها السابق‬ ‫بحكمة ال يعلمها إال الله‬

،‫فإن عامن تخوض تحدي جديد‬ ‫ففي السنوات املاضية تدهورت‬ ‫وبشكل ملحوظ صحة حرضة‬ ‫صاحب الجاللة فأصبح قليال ما‬ ‫ ويف السنة‬,‫يشارك يف املناسبات‬ ‫املاضية توجه حرضته و برفقته‬ ‫طاقمه الطبي ليقيض فرتة نقاهه‬ ‫يف منزله الكائن بأملانيا ليجري‬ ‫ عىل عكس‬.‫الفحوصات املعتادة‬ ‫كل سنة فإن فرتة مكوثه طالت‬ ‫فأصبح الشعب العامين قلقا متشوقا‬ ‫ وألول مرة منذ‬,‫لرجوع قائدهم‬ ‫أربعة و اربعون عاما مل يتمكن‬ ‫القائد األع�لى للقوات املسلحة‬ ‫و سلطان البالد من التواجد يف‬ ‫ع�مان لإلحتفال بالعيدالوطني‬ ‫ و يف الخامس‬.‫الرابع و االربعون‬

‫النور الذي ال طاملا اشع‬

‫وتفاخرنا به يف املحافل وبني سائر‬ ‫ بدأ يخفت وكأن آنواره‬،‫الشعوب‬ .‫الساطعة ب��دأت باإلضمحالل‬ ‫إن السلطان قابوس حفضه الله‬ ‫ورع��اه وس��دد خطاه قائد نهضة‬ ‫عامن املباركة يعترب نور وروح‬ ‫ حيث استطاع ويف غضون‬.‫البالد‬ ‫خمسة و اربعون عاما ان ينقل‬ ‫عامن نقلة نوعية من ظالم الجهل‬ ‫وضيق املعيشة إىل نور العلم و‬ ‫ حرق شبابه ليعيد مجد‬,‫الكرامة‬ ‫وطنه وي��رج��ع لشعبه مكانته‬ ‫ لقد تعدت عامن من‬.‫املرموقة‬ ‫خالله ع�لى العديد م��ن املحن‬ ‫الصعبة و الشدائد التي أثبتت‬ ‫من خاللها إنها قادرة عىل تحدي‬ ‫ ولقد كان للسلطان دور‬.‫املصاعب‬ ‫كبري يف ذلك فلقد كان يرشف وعن‬ ‫كثب عىل سري خطى النهضة وعىل‬ ‫ فبحنكته‬،‫جميع السياسات املتبعة‬

Performers in “FIRST” draw plenty of laughs

Managing Editor Conor Fellin thought that student-produced song cycle “FIRST” was delightful thanks to its high-energy acting.

A group of 16 TU singers played to their comedic strengths in “FIRST,” a song-cycle about college relationships drawn from various musicals and movies. The show was directed by senior Grace Seidel, an organizational studies major and musical theatre minor, as part of her senior project.

The show began with “Freedom,” a song where two friends are shouting over each other with excitement at the beginning of a roadtrip. The song’s frequent tempo changes and bubbly tone were clever ways of dealing with the rough edges that seem to be in the first song of every setlist.

After “Freedom,” the show began to really hit its groove, with Kyle Doud and Caitlin Cash delivering the right amounts of cluelessness and indignation respectively in “But I Don’t Want to Talk About Her” from “I Love You Because,” a song about an awkward first date where the guy can’t stop talking about his ex. The song got plenty of big laughs from the audience. And it established where the show’s greatest strength lay: in its emotive and energetic portrayal of all the quirks that come with college relationships.

This strength was reflected in the song choices. In “Fine” from “Ordinary Days,” a man decides

Cody McCoy and Nicole Billups perform “Fine” from “Ordinary Days,” a musical number about a bickering couple.

to propose only after an evening of quarrelling with his girlfriend. In “Serious” from “Legally Blonde,” a woman expects her boyfriend is about to propose to her, only to discover his rambling about the future was actually leading up to a breakup. Even “Love Is an Open Door,” the naive love-at-first-sight tune from “Frozen,” got a performance.

The surprise treat of the show was watching each of the performers adjust his or her microphone in character. The bickering couple from “Fine” stumbles to situate their mics while avoiding eye contact. At the opening of “Pulled” from “The Addams Family,” the sworn pessimist who’s begrudgingly starting to find joy in her new relationship doesn’t go to the

microphone but rather tugs the microphone stand to her once she’s found her place on the stage.

The show concluded with a few more somber songs as Jevan Bremby and Grace Seidel gave excellent vocal performances on “Good Thing Going” from “Merrily We Roll Along” and Goldrich & Heisler’s “Out of Love,” respectively.

Courtesy David Kennedy

The show ended with a tribute to Michael Hunt, a theater student who died in 2013. The cast walked onto stage a few at a time to sing “Light” from “Next to Normal” together. It was one of Hunt’s favorite songs.

In the end, “FIRST” made for an entertaining night, with the stage instincts of its many performers taking the spotlight.

Night Light Tulsa helps Tulsa’s homeless Night Light Tulsa is a weekly event in which volunteers gather to provide food and hygienic necessities to Tulsa’s homeless. Satire Editor Fraser Kastner discusses his experience volunteering at Night Light.

For almost a year and a half, Night Light Tulsa has been serving Tulsa’s homeless population every Thursday under the bridge at 202 North Maybelle. The group, loosely affiliated with Kirk Plaza Church of Christ, provides food, shampoo, soap and clothes, and offers services such as haircuts, nail trimming and foot washing.

Typically they will serve between 200 and 250 guests every Thursday. There’s even a place to get pet food. Last Thursday, several members of the Sociology Club and I volunteered.

The evening begins with a prayer, the theme of which recognized the inherent humanity in each other, and especially the guests, as they are called. This sentiment is important for them, since they are too often are marginalized to the point of dehumanization.

During volunteer orientation, we are reminded to make eye contact.

As I watched and interacted with the guests, I found several things surprising. They were all friendly and excited to be there.

As obvious as this may seem, I realized that I had subconsciously been expecting a group of sullen zombies, not the personable crowd that attended. There were also more kids than I was expecting.

“My impression of homeless people and everybody out here has changed a lot.” said Jason Pryce, another volunteer. “A lot of them are more willing to work, and want to work. A lot of homeless people have jobs, they just don’t make enough.” While we were talking, one of the guests, who identified himself as “Shorty,” approached us and let us know how appreciative he was of Night Light’s work.

The food line is extremely active. We served hamburgers until the meat was completely gone, after which sandwhiches of hamburger buns and cheese were served.

Night Light Tulsa also features several other services for the guests. My fellow sociology majors served at the book station.

Other volunteers were handing out donated clothing. Two city employees from the Animal Welfare department handed out pet food.

On warmer nights, foot washing is offered.

Night Light Tulsa co-founder Anisa Jackson said, “It’s something that not only cleanses their feet, which is a huge source of disease, but it also clothes them in clean socks, and more importantly clothes them in dignity and love, and that’s really what we’re down here to do.”

Students interested in volunteering can simply show up in time for the weekly volunteer orientation, every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. before the guests arrive.

Courtesy Night Light Tulsa

Two volunteers prepare food for Tulsa’s homeless at Night Light.

variety

the Collegian : 8

9 February 2015

First ever Void essay contest

The Void is hosting its first annual essay contest for the 743rd time as the universe repeats itself endlessly without meaning or change. Please select one of the prompts below and write a response. When composing your piece, please be sure to utilize humor, absurdity and dread in the proper proportions. Editor-in-Chief Kyle Walker and Managing Editor Conor Fellin look forward to examining your essays because they have been predestined to do so.

1. Tell a joke about death.

Elias Brinkman / Collegian

2. The late 19th century Danish author Searing Alterrailgard begins his magnum opus with the following observation: “It was the fragility of my fragility that at first perplexed me. That I could with a thought, nay, with but a fluttering approaching the potency of a thought, imagine myself into the most utter sovereignty or the basest vulnerability—this was the foundation of all my future troubles. I told myself that all the problems of our age could be reduced to this one: that a man can, in all his virility, surrender ahead of the fact to the most excruciat-

ing humiliations and degradations and then, before the ink has dried on the rap sheet of his soul, transform himself into the most ruthless tyrant in the world, and all of this in the soul of that middle-aged accountant you passed this morning without the slightest ceremony.”

the fragility of our fragility, and so on even to higher orders.

Argue either a) that Alterrailgard was doomed to his uncertainty by the blasphemous deeds of his father, and his father before him, and that therefore, any faith in human responsibility is a foolish superstition; or b) that it is not only the fragility of our fragility that should distress us, but that we must go further to fear even the fragility of

4. In his story “The Chasm of Gibraltar,” George Lou Borg writes, “I reached into the nothingness of my pocket, only to find nothingness I had when I left the house and nothing more.” In what ways do you feel your individuality being smothered by the herd?

3. Does the certitude of what we see shackle us to a set of events that uncaring gods ordained eons ago, or is even the existence of our own bodies a tenuous illusion?

5. Discuss.

Comic book “Daytripper” reflects evocatively on death and meaning The magical realist comic book “Daytripper” makes daring use of visual media and its serial format to ask big questions. Managing Editor Conor Fellin reviews.

“Daytripper,” Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon’s attempt to bring magical realism to the pages of a comic book, is a lovely reflection on death’s power to define a life and bring it meaning.

The ten issues of “Daytripper” tell the life story of Bras, an obituary writer who works in the shadow of his celebrated novelist father. At the end of each issue, Bras dies, with the next issue picking up at a new chapter of Bras’ life as if nothing had happened.

What sounds at first like a sick gimmick actually turns into a profound reflection on the interplay between death and meaning. By variously punctuating Bras’ otherwise unaltered life story, each death casts Bras’ life in a different light. In Bras’ obituary, he can be an anonymous celebrant in a festival, a doomed but admirable idealist or a beloved patriarch.

If some of the above descrip-

tions sound worn, it’s because they are. A fifty-word obituary can only capture so much.

What animates the pages of “Daytripper” are the vibrant details that a newspaper’s print can’t capture. The books are at their best in the small moments when Bras seeks relief from his father by joking with a college friend or reassures his wife back home during one of his cross-country tours.

Cast within the grand narrative of Bras’ life, the sweet simplicity of these moments takes on a special charm.

thought as to how a comic book was the right choice for “Daytripper.” With each issue showing a pivotal moment in Bras’ life, “Daytripper” is a novel of snapshots. So it only makes sense that the action is frozen into a series of comic book frames, single moments that define and explain the action surrounding them.

“Daytripper” is not perfect.

Occasionally the multitudinous death scenes are more melodramatic than they are affecting. And around the middle of the series, it becomes hard to be invested in the

“By variously punctuating Bras’ otherwise unaltered life story, each death casts Bras’ life in a different light” Then there are Ba and Moon’s breathtaking spreads, spreads that meld Brazil’s natural wonders and urban environments with the otherworldly landscapes of their characters’ minds. If you find yourself wondering why this story needs to be told in a comic book, check out a few of them. Your doubts will be resolved.

While I’m at it, here’s another

plot when you know that it’s only a few pages before Bras gets killed off again.

But “Daytripper” more than makes up for these mistakes with what it does accomplish. “Daytripper” succeeds as a reflection on life, death and meaning, and as a showcase of the oft-overlooked strengths of serialized graphic novels.

Courtesy Vertigo Comics

Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba’s “Daytripper” is full of stunning spreads combining the real and the surreal.

Nicolas Cage erotica confuses, frustrates This erotica about a clone of actor Nicolas Cage brings up some questions about the nature of celebrity, the structure of stories and women’s role in the workplace. Web Editor Sam Chott wrote almost 800 words about this absurd story.

Do you know what Nicolas Cage sounds like when he’s having sex? Neither did I, until I read the short erotica story, “I Did Nicolas Cage’s Clone,” by Olive Scratch, author of “Seducing Genghis Khan,” “Once Upon A Dumpster,” and the classic “I Did Slenderman At Viking Fest.”

The first half of the story explains how the protagonist, Maddie Mortenson, began working at ViaClone, a secret government organization that secretly clones prominent figures so that they can be secretly replaced if they die. All very secret. ViaClone’s recruitment strategy is evidently based

Elias Brinkman / Collegian

around taking the nation’s most promising scientific minds, putting them through a years-long interview process, and then telling them to have sex with clones.

Maddie, as the highest-ranked clone-banger at ViaClone, is assigned to a special case. A clone of Nicolas Cage has sent every girl away in tears, until now. Maddie uses her feminine wiles to seduce the clone, dubbed “Nicolas Rage,” for his temper and arbitrary misogyny, and ends up enjoying their rendezvous so much that she helps him break out. In the epilogue, they move to Barcelona, where she writes erotica and he opens a coffee shop.

I wish I were making this up.

I don’t want anyone to think that I’m looking down on erotica writers. I get it. It’s tempting to find a gimmick and base your story around it. But, as many directors apparently still have yet to realize, Nicolas Cage is not the solution to your problems.

First of all, the Nicolas Cage element brings nothing to the sex scene. Literally half of the story was an extended excuse for the protagonist to bang Nick Cage,

circa Con Air, so I expected some signature Cage moves. Disappointedly, Rage never once abruptly switches between a whisper and a shout in the middle of a sentence, and his absurdly large forehead is never mentioned. I’m left reading a generic, mediocre sex scene with the impression that Olive Scratch doesn’t really understand quite how male genetalia work.

There are also issues with the setup. We’re introduced to a whole cast of characters who never come up again, and there are throwaway references to the rest of the clones, but nothing compelling. I get that this is how erotica works, but after a couple of pages focused on Morticia Diamond, the mysterious founder of ViaClone, I’m disappointed when we never learn her story. Also there is definitely a confirmation of a Keanu Reeves clone, and the fact that it’s never elaborated on is just the mother of all missed opportunities.

At some level, I’m left wondering why we’re given so much background when really all you need is the protagonist asking normal, non-clone Nick Cage if he wants to fuck. It could even be set in ’97, so there are no continuity issues when Nick Cage has long hair. But if you dive deep enough into this story, you begin to uncover the true message.

Maddie is established as being one of the most intelligent biologists in the world, and ends up in a dead-end job, with the promise of a real career dangled just out of reach by a system designed to see her fail. Her only real goals at work are to please men who, despite being nominally lower on the pecking order, still control her. She ends up settling down with said man, taking on a more domestic career. The story is clearly a metaphor for the struggles women face in the workplace.

Our protagonist is clearly facing a system of oppression, and the unanswered questions the story poses allow us to ask our own. Maddie’s ultimate act of rebellion, her marriage of the clone, only plays right into the system’s hand. I’m not gonna outright allege anything, but this seems awfully similar to some other books I’ve read, and if you rearrange and replace the letters in “Olive Scratch,” you get “Sheryl Sandberg.” Coincidence?

Oh, and if any of you were drawn in by the first line, I’ll spill the beans. When Nicolas Cage screams during coitus, he reminds Maddie of the “not the bees” scene from “Wicker Man.” This image is one that I will carry for the rest of my life, and now you, dear reader, will too.

variety

9 February 2015

the Collegian : 9

“A Most Violent Year” portrays a different side of Gangster films

Oscar Isaac delivers a solid performance in a relatable small business drama that feels like a classic mafia film. Student Writer Wesley Liao thought the film was an inspiring commentary on morality in a genre that usually features anti-heroes.

Set in early 1980s New York, “A Most Violent Year” follows a successful immigrant, Abel Morales.

Morales worked his way up from a lowly oil truck driver to owning his own company. As he attempts to expand his business he continually runs up against dishonest competitors and the high level of crime in New York.

He strikes a deal to purchase an adjacent facility, but keeps running into challenges on multiple fronts.

His oil tankers continuously and mysteriously get robbed, causing his drivers to lose faith in him. The DA in charge of addressing corruption in the oil industry is investigating his company for fraud.

Meanwhile, his wife continually grows less certain of their safety as rivals attempt to intimidate the Morales family. In the midst of these troubles Abel Morales attempts to stick to his beliefs of dealing with his challengers legally and honestly. The struggle is tense and intimate.

“A Most Violent Year” contains many tropes that will be instantly recognisable to fans of the traditional gangster genre, such as the New York setting, the rising protagonist, and the classic barber-

Courtesy Participant Media

Oscar Issac as Abel Morales kisses his wife Anna in “A Most Violent Year.” Anna is a constant source of support, but sometimes tempts Morales to give in to corruption.

shop scene. It even includes actors from HBO mob crime dramas “Boardwalk Empire” and “The Wire.”

Where “A Most Violent Year” differs is in its uncompromising hero. Rather than cataloging a slow descent spurred further downward by hard decisions, Abel Morales is adamant when it comes to his business processes and integrity. The film generates significant tension, watching Morales wrestle with the pressures on all sides while trying to stay true to what he believes.

This is the third feature film

written and directed by J.C. Chandor. His debut film, “Margin Call,” was a complex business drama, telling the tale of the major players in an investment firm reacting to the early stages of the financial crisis of 2008.

Compared to “Margin Call,” “A Most Violent Year” is a much more approachable, down to earth story. Where “Margin Call” wows with high-level investment trading and the internal politics of the corporation, Abel Morales’ simple oil retail business puts the focus on the hard choices he has to make.

Oscar Isaac shows his depth as an actor in his role as Morales.

Isaac is most famous for playing the title role in the Coen brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis.” Davis was a down-on-his-luck musician who couldn’t get a foothold in the industry and who was often disliked, lost and unsure of himself. Almost the polar opposite, the persistently determined Abel Morales displays confidence and takes risks.

In a reversal of the classic gangster movies, “A Most Violent Year” is an inspiring commentary on morality. The symbolism pres-

ent in the film emphasizes this.

For example, Abel’s wife has mob connections and continues to propose easy but morally questionable options. Just like his wife, the business he is “married” to is inherently related to crime.

Abel Morales lives up to his name. He is the living, righteous, morality amidst a corrupt and destructive environment. In a genre populated with anti-heroes, his battle with honesty is a welcome, insightful challenge to common tropes.

Last week, the Collegian reported on the “controversy” surrounding the choice of the watermelon as Oklahoma’s state vegetable. This week, Satire Editor Fraser Kastner ranks some of the other state symbols, in no particular order.

By Fraser Kastner 1. Buffalo (State Mammal): Okay, we’re starting out pretty strong here. Everyone loves buffalo (buffalos?). They’re like real life teddy bears. So like bears, I guess. Anyway, this choice is slightly marred by the tragic irony of the buffalo being hunted nearly to extinction by the western settlement that we celebrate so enthusiastically.

2. Common Raccoon (State Furbearing Animal): I like that we have a state animal, as well as a separate subcategory for animals you can shoot. Keep on rockin’ Oklahoma. Also, isn’t there a more exciting furbearing animal we could have chosen? Like the buffalo?

3. Gusty (State Cartoon Character): I’m not going to lie to you guys. I have no idea what they were thinking when they enacted this little piece of legislation. There’s only one drawing of this character, and it isn’t very good.

My theory is that some bored State Representative found a bar napkin some long-dead cowboy had scribbled on and decided to see if he could incorporate it into our state canon, just for laughs.

6. Port Silt Loam (State Soil): Oklahoma you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. While I don’t object to the particular choice of soil, I do draw the line at having it as a category in the first place. Did no one think that deciding on a state soil was a waste of everyone’s time? What important legislation didn’t get passed because the State Legislature was too busy deciding what kind of soil they felt best represented Oklahoma?

7. Mistletoe (State Floral Emblem): 0/10 stars. Totally season and climate inappropriate. Does Santa live in Oklahoma? No? Then why is this an official state symbol?

8. Bullfrog (State Amphibian): I have no opinion on this one. Aside from the fact that the frog reminds me of a childhood I cannot return to, chasing frogs in the creek behind my house. Playing with neighborhood kids who have long since moved away. Learning to ride a bicycle. Flying a kite. I cannot look at the frog any longer.

9. Collared Lizard (State Reptile): I actually kind of like this one. The lizards 4. Acrocanthosaurus (State Dinosaur): Hell yeah. Now this is what I’m talk- have pretty colors. Some people call them Mountain Boomers. That’s nice. ing about. This thing looks like it eats Communism for breakfast. Look out, 10. Oklahoma Tartan (State Tartan): For those who don’t know, a Tartan is a Putin, we’ve got this motherfucker on our side. pattern of plaid specific to different Scottish tribes. How we came to get one 5. Milk (State Beverage): Dammit, just when I thought we were getting some- is a mystery that I am too lazy to unravel. All I know is that I appreciate the where. It’s not even chocolate milk, which is obviously better for drinking effort taken to appropriate from a white culture for a change. purposes. It’s wrong, too. The real state beverage is terrible low-point beer.

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This editing may take place in many forms, including grammar corrections, changes in paragraph structure or even the addition or removal of sections of content. Editorial Policy: Columnists are solely responsible for the content of their columns. Opinions expressed in columns may not represent the opinions of the entire Collegian staff, the administrative policies of the University of Tulsa, the views of the student body or our advertisers. Letter Policy: Letters to the editor must be less than 500 words. While we do not require it, letters sent via e-mail to the Collegian are encouraged. Under no circumstances will anonymous letters be published. The name of the person submitting the letter must be published with the letter. We reserve the right to edit or reject all letters. The deadline for letters is 5 p.m. on the Saturday prior to publication.

editor-in-chief—Kyle Walker managing editor—Conor Fellin news editor—Morgan Krueger sports editor—Matt Rechtien variety editor—Abigail LaBounty commentary & barricade editor—Giselle Willis satire editor—Fraser Kastner photo & graphics editor—Elias Brinkman copy editor—Amanda Hagedorn business & advertising manager—Jesse Keipp distribution manager—Walker Womack, Katie Hill editorial consultant—Nikki Hager web manager—Sam Chott social media manager—Charlie McQuigg

commentary

the Collegian: 10

9 february 2015

On TU’s brand of justice

The University of Tulsa’s treatment of Trey Barnett was a mockery of due process. Instead of holding a hearing, the school constructed a one-sided story and then issued a disproportionate punishment. Every student should be concerned. Editorial Consultant Nikki Hager writes.

The University of Tulsa suspended a student 11 hours from graduation, without a hearing, without presenting compelling evidence and for something the student didn’t even say himself.

TU then threatened disciplinary action when the student newspaper began investigating the suspension, without citing which university policies the newspaper supposedly violated. The implica-

tions for student life at this school are huge.

First of all, the administration mishandled Barnett’s case on a number of grounds. The most glaring issue is that student Trey Barnett was deprived of a hearing, which the Student Code of Conduct says students are entitled to “in all cases.”

Hearings ensure that both students and the university are on the same page by allowing students to provide witnesses to speak on their behalf and to present evidence in their favor.

Hearings also promote an open dialogue between the administration and the student.

According to the cover story, the university’s case was built en-

tirely on the testimony of Trey’s accusers. All other evidence mentioned in TU’s decision was either completely circumstantial or ambiguous.

Since TU has failed to provide any additional information, it seems that the administration had already determined that Trey was guilty and then worked backward, working any evidence they came across into a completely one-sided and misrepresented story.

Furthermore, TU alleges that Trey violated confidentiality by showing the complaint against him to his then-fiance, the person who actually posted the things that Trey was being punished for. The student code of conduct explicitly allows for such documents to be

shared with potential witnesses.

This was undeniable bullying.

It is absurd to punish a student for the speech of a third party.

Trey did not write the posts that TU determined he was responsible for. They were not posted by his Facebook account. Individuals are tagged in posts that they do not author all the time.

All of the concrete evidence shows that Trey was not the author of these posts.

On top of that, the administration then threatened and bullied the Collegian for investigating the matter, blatantly hampering freedom of the press. While TU is a private school, the school’s Statement on Rights, Freedoms, and Responsibilities states that, “the

TU’s new website, launched on Monday, Feb. 2, has a sleeker feel, makes navigation easier and, unlike its predecessor, is not a public relations liability.

rights of free inquiry and free expression … shall not be infringed upon.”

TU said that the Collegian might violate university policy but failed to cite the policy or policies at issue.

If the administration disciplines the Collegian like they disciplined Trey, it will be because it did its job as a student newspaper.

What happened to Trey should be offensive to every student’s basic sense of justice. Every single one of us would expect to be accorded due process. Anything less gives the lie to TU’s virtuous, neighborly self-image and makes me question my decision to come here.

I’m disappointed in you, TU.

Courtesy University of Tulsa

TU’s new website modern, marketable TU recently unveiled a new website that is prettier, more navigable and has been impressively implemented.

Student Writer Nate Beckemeyer opines.

Recently, the University of Tulsa rolled out a new website. The website looks considerably better than the old one, has greater

functionality, greater navigability and generally comes across as newer than mid-90s.

There is one substantial problem, however, which is not the fault of TU and which will be fixed over a (presumably short) amount of time. Because of how stupefying navigating the old website could be, many students began merely googling the page that they wished to find. Now, as Google’s servers haven’t updated to reflect our website’s new hierarchy, that tactic results in links to the old locations, causing Google’s results to give errors.

That problem should be resolved fairly quickly, when its robot crawls our website, locating the new pages and updating Google’s information accordingly. In the meantime, however, searching the TU website does bring up good results—the item you’re searching for is usually in the top

few items. So, although this can be largely inconvenient for some users, it’s easy to get around, and it will be resolved quickly. But there are still other good features, of course!

A major benefit of the new website? The advertising point: Our website is actually marketable. The new one is easy for prospective students and their families to see relevant information, such as degree programs, financial aid, etc. All of these were previously available (and, admittedly, not that hard to find); however, they all had one thing in common: visiting the TU website.

And that was a bad marketing move. I know that when looking for colleges, one of the things that I looked at was their websites. Ours was not impressive, and that did not give me a sense of confidence. Obviously it was not (and should not have been) a substantial deterrent to my attendance, but

it did put a sour taste in my mouth. Our new website does quite the opposite. Perhaps I’m merely idealizing it, with the juxtaposition of the old website, but I think that it’s very pretty.

Most impressive of all, however, is just how efficiently the website has been released and updated to fix errors. While it had errors at the beginning, most of them have been resolved. Fortunately, there’s a form at bit.ly/TUwebreport for reporting these errors.

There are a few substantial design flaws that remain, such as being forced to download the 502-page academic bulletin even though I may just want to see the required classes for my computer science major, and so forth. But for the most part, this website is up and running, only seven days after rollout.

Newly low oil prices benefit consumers, not environment

Over the past six months, the price of oil has dropped substantially. In the short term, the benefits outweigh the costs, but the long-term effects remain to be seen. Student Writer Nate Beckemeyer ponders.

The price of gasoline recently dropped from over $100/barrel to less than $50/barrel. And that’s great because it encourages driving (bad for the environment), crushes Russia’s economy (bad for Russians), crushes Venezuela’s already disarrayed economy (bad for Venezuelans) and slows down the

natural gas and green industry (bad for the environment). However, its major redeeming quality is that it’s fantastic for consumers globally.

In the past two decades, many people have raised environmental concerns, warning that if we do not reduce carbon emissions, our planet will suffer dire consequences: superstorms, the extinction of many species, alterations in food chains, a lack of resources, etc.

The second largest cause of carbon dioxide emissions (after burning fossil fuels for energy) in the United States is transportation, such as driving, flying and marine transportation, according to the EPA. Although the price of airfare will not necessarily drop, meaning that people won’t fly more frequently, the amount that people drive will go up.

Renewable energy sources had made headway on the claim that fossil fuels will only get more expensive, while they themselves will only get cheaper. New estimates of the amount of oil remaining and accessible make this claim false in the short run, which will substantially slow the production

of new green energy sources.

However, the maintenance cost of renewable energy is significantly lower than the continued purchase of fossil fuels, so renewable energy sources will continue to be implemented (and maintained), albeit at a much slower rate.

The fracking industry has only become more effective in the past few years. Fracking is generally cheaper and produces energy at a more controllable rate: The Economist contrasted oil and natural gas, stating that, “America’s Exxon Mobil and Russia’s Rosneft recently spent two months and $700m drilling a single well in the Kara Sea, north of Siberia.

Although they found oil, developing it will take years and cost billions. By contrast, a shale-oil well can be drilled in as little as a week, at a cost of $1.5m.”

Additionally, it’s more clean-burning. A number of concerns have been raised, however, particularly about the environment and health. Fracking can be dangerous to the environment because it releases volatile chemical compounds into the air that can cause acid rain and contaminate the air. It

also contaminates nearby water supplies and spreads carcinogens into the air.

But, as BBC points out, “the industry suggests pollution incidents are the results of bad practice, rather than an inherently risky technique.” Of course, that would imply that federal regulation is required to enforce standards that prevent contamination.

So although fracking is a young industry, it’s still a viable alternative to oil because it is still cheaper, more controllable and (hopefully soon) better for the environment.

Yes, the reduced cost of oil does put a dent in the fracking industry, stalling environmental issues and prolonging the use of oil. But it doesn’t stop the fracking industry by any means, and the renewable energy campaign has made and will still make some headway.

Although the green revolution is slowed, the benefit for consumers is substantial.

According to The Economist, the average motorist could save $800 this year in gas prices. With that kind of gain per person, the great economic benefits outweigh the environmental concerns in the short run. In the long run? Well, we’ll just have to see.

9 february 2015

Commentary

the Collegian: 11

Approval method of voting eliminates two-party stranglehold

This week, Flatlanders decide to try the approval method of voting: everyone gets more than one vote, and the best-liked candidate wins. Student Writer Sam Beckmann explains.

The citizens of Flatland need a new president. Having seen the problems with firstpast-the-post voting though, they also need to come up with a way to elect that president and still ensure a couple things. First, all the shapes wish that they could vote for whoever they support, without having to think about how everyone else is going to vote.

Second, there can only be one president.

And third, a spoiler candidate should not change the results of the election, if multiple candidates from the same party wish to run.

After much deliberation, they decide to host the next election with an approval method of voting. In approval voting, rather than pick one candidate that they wish to win, voters can put a check next to each candidate’s name, indicating that they would not mind having this individual in office.

They can check as many candidates as they

like, or none at all (though this doesn’t affect the outcome, so it’s the same as not voting). Essentially, an approval system gives voters one vote per candidate: for or against.

As it currently stands in Flatland, the population is divided up politically into five parties: 35 percent are Square partisans, 36 percent are Triangle partisans, 7 percent are Circle partisans, 10 percent are Star partisans and 12 percent are Parallelogram partisans (Figure 1). Triangle and Square still make up the major political parties and the majority of all voters, so in a first past the post system, one of them would certainly win.

However, things turn out a bit different in an approval system. Square voters support Square, obviously, but they also approve of the policies held by Parallelogram, so they “approve” of him too on election day. Triangle supporters don’t like the policies of any other parties, so they only approve of Triangle.

Circle supports herself and Parallelogram. Star voters are somewhat in between Triangle and Square and as such approve Star, Triangle and Parallelogram. Parallelogram approves of themselves, Square and Star candidates.

When all these approval checkmarks are tallied up, Square is supported by 47 percent of the population, Triangle by 46 percent, Circle 7 percent, Star 22 percent, and Parallelogram is supported by a winning 64 percent (Figure 2)! This is a surprising result, since Parallelogram is not a major party; both Square and Triangle have about three times as many supporters.

Figure 1 Partisans of each politician, with the politicians they approve of: 35% Square -> Square, Parallelogram 36% Triangle -> Triangle 7% Circle -> Circle, Parallelogram 10% Star -> Star, Triangle, Parallelogram 12% Parallelogram -> Parallelogram, Square, Star

Figure 2 Approvers of each politician, with the partisans that make up their voters: 47% Square -> Square + Parallelogram 46% Triangle -> Triangle + Star 7% Circle -> Circle 22% Star -> Star + Parallelogram 64% Parallelogram -> Parallelogram + Square + Circle + Star “Partisans” have selected their candidates as their number-one choices, “approvers” agree with candidates though these candidates aren’t necessarily their first choices.

But by appealing to a wide range of voters, Parallelogram was able to get many differing political parties to approve of him and thus could win the election. The advantage of this system is that the majority of voters (64 percent) have a president that they approved of on election day. The disadvantage, however, is that a relatively small percentage (12 percent) of the population had their first-choice party elected.

Beyond this simple election, though, approval voting is more resilient than first past the post: If another member of the square party was to run in the election, not much would change. The square voters could approve of both candidates, and subtle differences between the two candidates would lead to some voters giving approval to one and not the other, thus giving the better-

liked candidate a greater chance to win. So spoilers do not upset elections in approval systems.

Plus, perhaps the best part of approval voting is that no tactical voting strategies are required. You can’t “waste your vote” on candidates that are unlikely to win; each voter just votes for the candidates that shapes support.

Inspired by this new presidential election system, the citizens of Flatland decide to redo the way they elect their congress in order to reduce the effects of gerrymandering and allow voters to not have to think about who everyone else is voting for. To do this, they’ll have to implement an entirely new concept of what a vote means: the single transferable vote.

Downsmash vs. Touchdown: E-sports gaining traction

Professional video gaming has increased in popularity because of its relatability and availability.

Like professional sports, e-sports have money prizes and commentators, too. Student Writer Sam Beckmann observes.

On Sunday, February 1, nearly 150 million people tuned into Super Bowl XLIX to watch the Patriots and the Seahawks battle it out. Meanwhile, 100,000 other people enjoyed a different kind of battle: watching two fighters going by the names PPMD and Armada take each other on in a virtual world. They were watching an event called Apex, a fighting game competition that occurs every year. Apex’s main event is the Super Smash Brothers tournament.

Competitors duke it out in all of the Smash Bros. games, with prize money for the winners coming in at over $10,000. Over onethousand competitors fought to claim the

prize at the event, hosted at a hotel in New Jersey. In the world of e-sports (electronic sports, or professional video game competitions) though, this event is rather small. Last year, the game company Valve hosted “The International 2,” a Dota 2 tournament that garnered almost 20 million viewers, about 1/7 the number of people viewing the Super Bowl.

E-sports began in the 1980s with small tournaments hosted on college campuses or out of individual homes. It grew slowly over time, eventually exploding in the late 2000s primarily due to the ready availability of live streaming, allowing anyone to watch tournaments from the comfort of their own homes. As fans of the sport grew, so did the level of competition. Modern esports players have their own teams, sponsorships and even media managers. And the prizes for winning tournaments have scaled up accordingly: In 2014, the equivalent of over thirty-million US dollars was given out across the globe in prize money.

Although online streaming has allowed e-sports to become more available, the popularity of the genre can be explained by a number of factors. These factors include the popularity of video games; the rise of “video game personalities,” people who record themselves playing and commenting on games; and the relatable experience of playing the game.

Sean Plott, a professional “StarCraft II”

commentator, thinks watching e-sports is so popular because you can play the same game as the professionals, in your home, whenever you want. If you see a pro use a really cool strategy in one game, you can

So, if you have a chance, I encourage you to take a look at what professional video games look like. Tournaments and streamers for a wide range of games can be found all the time on Twitch.tv, currently the most

“If you see a pro use a really cool strategy in one game, you can try that very same strategy within minutes” immediately fire up your version of the game and try that very same strategy within minutes. Online streaming also allows viewers to have conversations with the streamer and with other viewers. Overall, this system leads to a more engaging and entertaining experience for the viewer.

popular streaming service. And remember, whether you play Smash Bros. by attempting to get a “neutral-air double-shine jumpcancel” or just Falcon-punching everything in sight, the most important part of playing a game is to do whatever lets you have fun playing it.

TU shouldn’t give tickets if a lot is mostly empty

Parking tickets serve a purpose, admits News Editor Morgan Krueger, but they are being overused and abused by TU in order to line its pockets.

As much as we hate them, parking tickets do serve a purpose. It’s when that purpose is forgotten that unfair practices arise.

Parking tickets are given to discourage parking in the wrong lots. This is in order to ensure that people who have a tag for that lot can find a spot to park.

When there are twenty spots and twenty parking tags, it’s easy to see how important it is that people park in the right lot.

But what about when this isn’t the case?

What if someone parked in the very large library lot when there were only a dozen cars there? Maybe because, I don’t know, it was nine degrees outside and a ten minute walk to ACAC in freezing weather—let’s be honest—completely SUCKS. In that case, I argue that no citation should

be given. There were dozens of empty spaces in the lot. No one was going to be without a parking spot because a student didn’t want to die of hypothermia.

I am not exaggerating. There were barely a dozen cars in that giant parking lot.

In that case, a parking ticket serves no purpose. It doesn’t help anyone in regards to parking.

In fact, the ONLY benefit I can think of for issuing a ticket in that context would be the money the school gains from it.

Even if that ticket was only 25 dollars, considering that TU gave out 5,781 citations in 2014 … that’s a lot of money. And most of it is coming from the pockets of TU students.

Tickets make money. When more tickets are given, more revenue is gained. Many believe giving out as many tickets as possible is a tactic of broke police forces and bankrupt cities. While annoying, such a strategy is understandable. At least it’s going to good things, like the mayor’s salary. Right?

TU, on the other hand, had their assets increase over $13 million in fiscal year 2012.

So what’s their excuse? Giving President Upham a raise? He already makes $800,000 and more each year.

If a parking lot is less than halfway full, there is no practical reason for TU to hand out a citation.

Come on TU. Give your students a break.

Trust me, we need that 25 dollars more than you do.

Courtesy R. Paul / Apex

Player aMSa celebrates as fans cheer. E-sports can have the same fanfare and excitement as physical sports.

Just off the Creek Turnpike between Aspen and Elm in Broken Arrow WarrenTheatres.com • Movie Line (918) 893-9798

the Collegian : 12

Sports

9 February 2015

Oilers host Rush, fall in back-to-back games The Tulsa Oilers looked to continue their hot streak after beating the Brampton Beast, but instead they hit a wall while playing the Rapid City Rush. Sports Writer Wade Crawford reports.

After back-to-back wins against the Brampton Beast, the Tulsa Oilers looked to continue their hot streak against the Rapid City Rush. The Rush sit just behind the Oilers in the Central Division of the Western Conference, standing at three games behind Tulsa.

In Thursday’s game, Tommy Mele seemed to give a quick notice of his return from Oklahoma City, scoring a goal that was ruled no good due to goalie interference.

Oilers goals leader Drew Fisher was quick to make up for the non-goal, scoring with just under eight minutes to go in the

first period. After Rapid City made quick use of a two-man advantage to begin the second period, Tommy Mele scored a (legitimate) goal to draw the lead to 2–1.

A pair of goals by Rapid City’s Kale Kerbashian (no, seriously, I’m not making this name up) and Tulsa’s Nathan Lutz brought the score to 3–2 after two periods.

The third period is where things started to get hectic in the BOK Center. Rapid City tied the game at three goals apiece with a little over five minutes to go in the game and took the lead just over a minute later.

Tulsa’s Dave Pszenyczny tied the game only 32 seconds after the second Rush goal.

The high-scoring episode with a final Rush goal, by Jesse Schultz. The Oilers couldn’t regain the tie and fell victim to a 5–4 loss.

The Rush were able to stuff Tulsa again on Saturday night, winning 4–2 on “Pink In The Rink Night.” The man that ended

Thursday’s game began Saturday’s, as Rapid City’s Jesse Schultz knocked in the first goal of the game.

This goal was the only one of the period, as the Oilers failed to score, even with nearconstant pressure on the Rush goalie.

Jeff Jubinville scored the tying goal early in the second period. Rapid City took the second period to return to the hot streak they enjoyed in the Thursday game, scoring three goals in just under four minutes, on just eight shots on goal.

That would be plenty of offense for the Rush, as the final score was tallied by Tulsa’s Tommy Mele in the third period.

The weekend gave the Rush their third and fourth straight win and sent the Oilers to a .500 record in regulation games (21–21).

Tulsa takes to the road to play the Missouri Mavericks and the Quad City Mallards, before hosting the Mallards on Saturday night.

Jesse Keipp is…

Picking Up Ladies With Marshawn Inside of Marshawn Lynch’s tough football exterior lies the heart and tongue of a romantic poet. Lynch’s quips such as, “Yeah,” “I’m just here so I don’t get fined” and “Thanks for asking,” serve as perfect pick-up lines. At least, that’s what one DePaul University student tried to prove in a YouTube video.

Photo courtesy of insideechanrysbrain

If you were looking for love, wouldn’t this be the first person that you would consult? He just strikes a pose of dignity, grace and beauty.

David Kennedy / Collegian

Left to right: Junior guard Marquel Curtis dribbles past the Mustang defense in Saturday night’s 57–68 loss. Even with the loss, the Golden Hurricane remains in first place in the conference by half a game (10–1) . Right: junior forward D’Andre Wright goes up to the hoop, drawing fouls from the SMU defense in the process. Wright had 10 points and six rebounds in the game. Tulsa will look to bounce back against UConn on Thursday.

The streak ends: Tulsa suffers its first conference loss to Southern Methodist The matchup between Tulsa and SMU was billed as the match that could determine the conference.

Unfortunately, Tulsa lost this match to conference rival SMU. Sports Writer Joseph Edmunds reports.

The Golden Hurricane men’s basketball team’s win streak came to an end at 12 wins after a loss to SMU on Saturday night.

On Thursday, Tulsa traveled to Houston to take on the Cougars. As has been the case with much of their strong conference play, the defense came through to lead TU to victory. The Golden Hurricane started the game strong, opening with a 9–3 run on baskets

by D’Andre Wright, Rashad Ray and James Woodard.

Houston was forced to call a timeout, and Tulsa pushed the lead out to 13–5 after the timeout. From there, however, the Cougars pulled back within two points at 13–11 and proceeded to take their first lead later in the half at 20–19. Houston kept the pressure on and earned a 34–29 lead heading into halftime.

Houston scored the first basket of the second half, giving them a 36–29 lead, their

largest of the game. After that, a dunk by Wright triggered an 11–0 run for the Golden Hurricane, retaking the lead at 40–36. The first double-digit lead of the game for Tulsa came at 50–40 with eight minutes remaining in the game. Houston scored the next four points to pull within six, but that was as close as they would come as TU scored the final seven points of the game to finish out the 57–44 victory.

Tulsa’s defense stymied Houston in the second half, only allowing ten points on three field goals. Four of TU’s five starters scored double figures, including Ray, who started his first game since a loss at Wichita State on Nov. 29. The win brought Tulsa’s win streak to 12 games, as they opened 10–0 in conference play. This season is their best start to conference play in the last 40 years; it’s the best start since the 1968–69 team also started 10–0 in conference.

Against SMU on Saturday, the Golden Hurricane shot a season-low 28 percent from the field and were unable to find a rhythm for most of the night on offense.

Tulsa scored the first points of the game on a three-pointer by Woodard, but within three minutes, SMU had the lead at 5–4.

Tulsa would not lead again for the rest of the

game. In the first half, the game was close, and Tulsa even brought the score to a tie on multiple occasions. The momentum was with SMU heading into halftime, however, as they ran a play after a timeout that left Ryan Manuel wide open for a slam dunk, giving SMU a six-point advantage.

The Golden Hurricane played a strong beginning to the second half and leveled the score once more at 43–43 with twelve minutes remaining in the game. From that point, SMU proceeded to go on a 15–0 tear, in which they kept Tulsa scoreless for a span of nearly eight minutes. The game was out of reach; TU couldn’t bring the deficit below ten for the rest of the game.

With the loss, Tulsa’s longest win streak since the 1999–2000 season was cut short at 12 games. Tulsa opened conference play by winning their first ten games; this loss is their first conference loss.

Despite losing to SMU, who is currently in second place, Tulsa remains on top of the American Athletic Conference standings at 17–6 (10–1 AAC). SMU has a 10–2 conference record, with two losses against Cincinnati. The Golden Hurricane return to action this Thursday, Feb. 12 on the road against UConn.

Women win their 4th straight The women’s basketball team traveled to Houston to play the Cougars. There it continued its winning streak. Sports Writer Joseph Edmunds reports.

With a win over Houston on the road Saturday afternoon, the Golden Hurricane women’s basketball team extended their season-long winning streak to four games.

The game remained close for much of the first half, as the score was within five for the first thirteen minutes of the game.

From there, however, Tulsa was able to gain some momentum heading into halftime. The

Golden Hurricane pushed the lead to double digits at 23–13 with four minutes remaining in the half and kept steady to take an 11-point lead into halftime.

The second half featured much of the same play as the latter part of the first half.

Tulsa kept the pressure on the Cougars, and with twelve minutes left, the Golden Hurricane had brought the lead to twenty. Houston could never get the deficit below 15 for the rest of the game, and Tulsa cruised to an easy victory. Ashley Clark, Mariah Turner and Kadan Brady all scored double figures for Tulsa.

Strong defense and an emphasis on gaining control of the ball led to the win as Tulsa

outrebounded the Cougars 42–29 and took a 12–9 lead in steals. Head coach Mossman had this to say about the win: “We just keep improving, we’ve definitely gotten better defensively, we’ve gotten better from a rebounding standpoint and our offense continues to be solid. It goes back to a renewed focus on the defensive end and getting stops.”

The win is the fourth in a row for Tulsa, their longest streak of the season. Their record now is 12–10 (7–4 American Athletic Conference), while Houston fell to 6–17 (1– 11 AAC). Their 7–4 conference record puts the Golden Hurricane in fourth place with seven games remaining. Tulsa plays next on Feb. 10 at home against Temple.

Entirely unsolicited and out of context, the undergrad used the lines on unsuspecting ladies in the library and walking to class.

Surprisingly, he (supposedly) managed to land a few phone numbers. Pitifully asking, “Maybe?” while handing over the phone appeared to be the most successful move.

Nonetheless, there’s no telling how many slaps were edited out of the video.

What was he thinking?

Speaking of picking up ladies, Phoenix police picked up NFL Hall of Famer Warren Sapp for soliciting prostitutes after the Super Bowl. Apparently, Sapp was willing to do anything to keep the party going, even paying for some company.

Soon afterward, the NFL Network fired Sapp from his sports analyst position. Prostitute solicitors don’t make for wholesome, family television. But alleged murderers sure do! (Cough, Ray Lewis, cough.)

If only Sapp had used some of Marshawn Lynch’s pickup lines instead of opening his wallet, he might still have a job. To top off the whole ordeal, Bud Light pulled Sapp from its oh-so-coincidental “Up for Anything” ads.

Always Bigger in Tulsa For decades, the good ole U.S. of A. led the world by building increasingly taller skyscrapers. Eventually, America lost interest, eventually resigning to symbolic heights, such as the new World Trade Center’s 1,776 feet.

Consequentially, America let other nonAmerican countries construct the world’s tallest towers. In a supreme act of charity, the Land of the Free left Dubai to build the 2,722-foot-tall Burj Khalifa.

Likewise, schools across the country race to complete the largest football scoreboards.

Last year, Texas A&M’s Kyle Field grabbed the title. Next, Auburn will boast of its scoreboard’s girth. However, an inside source tells me that Tulsa is just waiting for its opportunity, then...BAM! A scoreboard shall appear that wraps around the perimeter of Chapman Stadium. That’s the advantage of a soon-to-be $1 billion endowment. All it takes is one phone call to the Chapmans.

Chipper is Off his Rocker For simplicity’s sake, let’s just assume that 1 percent of the general population is crazy. That is, 1 percent of the general population prefers hats of the tin-foil variety and/ or insists that the world is run by lizard people. This percentage can be extrapolated to professional athletes.

Courtesy Hartford Courant

The only problems that Chipper Jones has with this hat is that there is no fancy cursive A on the top of it, nor is there a bill that can be used to block the sun from his eyes. Other than that he supports everything about the hat and what the hat stands for.

Sure, everyone knows the Jose Cansecos and the Ryan Leafs. But did you know Chipper Jones is a little “off his rocker?”

In a recent tweet, Jones blew the whistle on the Sandy Hook shooting: “So the FBI comes out and confirms that Sandy Hook was a hoax! Where is the outrage? What else are we being lied to about? Waco? JFK? Pfff…”

Because the FBI’s 2012 crime data listed Newtown, CT’s murders at 0, Jones hastily concluded that all of Sandy Hook was a hoax.

Nonetheless, Jones is less likely to be crazy than he is to just be misinformed.

He should probably spend a little less time on Yahoo! comment sections. Let that be a warning to everyone.

Sports

9 February 2015

the Collegian : 13

Lunch with Derrick Gragg: AD talks about “Elevate”-ing Tulsa sports Tulsa Athletic Director Derrick Gragg has unveiled the univerity’s five-year plan for the athletic program. Bleacher Creature Jesse Keipp reports.

Clark Hauls in the Honors Junior guard Ashley Clark received the American Athletic Conference, College Sports Madness American Athletic Conference Player of the Week and was nominated for the BennettRank Game of the Week for her performance during Tulsa’s then 3-game winning streak. She was averaging 17.0 points per game and 9.0 rebounds per game against East Carolina, SMU and UCF. In the game against UCF she scored 23 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.

Softball Storms Out of the Gate Tulsa’s No. 21 ranked softball team kicked off their season in Arizona this past Friday and Saturday, beating Grand Canyon and Santa Clara twice each to start with a 4–0 record. Following those win, the Hurricane defeated Coloradao State 2–0 to sweep the invitational. The Hurricane were led by seniors Julie Kernen and Erica Sampson whose bats led Tulsa to victory. The Hurricane will head to Boca Raton, Florida for their next tournament, followed by a trip to Waco, Texas to play in the Baylor Invitational and then make their way to Tulsa for their first home game.

Player Development Head football coach Philip Montgomery has named Dan Bitson as the Director of Player Development for the upcoming season. Bitson previously worked as the receivers coach last year with Keevan Lucas, and the running backs coach with Trey Watts, Ja’Terian Douglas and Alex Singleton the two years prior as well as having played wide receiver for the Golden Hurrricane. Before coaching at TU he was the head coach at McClain’s High School in Tulsa.

In a press conference on Thursday, Director of Athletics Derrick Gragg outlined a five-year plan, nicknamed “Elevate,” for TU Athletics. The plan coincides with Tulsa’s upgrade from C-USA to the American Athletic Conference. The mission of the new plan is “to provide opportunities, inspire excellence and prepare leaders in a championship culture.”

Gragg was quick to point out Tulsa’s 56 championships during the school’s ten-year tenure in C-USA. Athletics also boasts a strong academic history in C-USA, including an academic excellence award during TU’s last year as a C-USA member.

“Two hundred thirty-three of (TU’s student athletes) had a 3.0 or better (last semester). That’s out of about 410. That’s pretty darn good,” said Gragg.

Gragg hopes to increase the student-athlete graduation rate from about 66% to 70%, roughly that of the general student population. The athletic success, despite football’s

capped at $2,500 per student-athlete, to be distributed proportionally to a student-athlete’s scholarship.

When pressed on new facilities, Gragg said, “What we’ve proposed is a multi-purpose, indoor practice facility that would be jointly used by varsity athletics and … our students and intramural system.”

The TU administration aims to create a space which would enhance goodwill across the entire student body.

“We do have great renderings, a good plan. We have donor interest,” said Gragg.

While planning is well underway, the biggest roadblock is location.

“Location is the main hurdle,” said Gragg.

Gragg cited “designated green spaces” as one difficulty. When asked about replacing Mabee Gym, Gragg pointed to the cost of demolition and to the loss of parking, which is already scarce across campus. A parking garage would cost a prohibitive $25,000 per space.

If the project were greenlit today, construction would take “between twelve and eighteen months,” according to Gragg.

Athletic and academic success, as well as a new indoor athletic facility, point to sustained growth for many years to come in TU Athletics.

rough year, has seamlessly continued in the AAC. “Going into the new conference, we had a great start … We also won three of the first four (AAC) championships,” said Gragg.

The Golden Hurricane captured conference titles in men’s and women’s cross country and men’s soccer. Especially considering men’s basketball’s stellar start, Gragg expects TU’s momentum to carry not just into the spring but well into TU’s future.

Upon Gragg’s arrival, TU men’s soccer coach Tom McIntosh told Gragg, “I think we can win a national championship.”

Gragg placed a vote of confidence in TU’s coaches.

“Our coaches, across the board, are the best I’ve been around,” said Gragg, who’s been to five institutions.

Despite fears of a growing divide between the Power Five conferences and the rest of FBS, Tulsa will offer cost of attendance to student-athletes starting next year, as part of an agreement with the rest of the AAC. “Cost of attendance is the gap between what scholarship covers and other things, like going home … The bottom line for us is about $600,000 (in total cost of attendance),” said Gragg.

Full cost of attendance at TU will be

Against SMU, some students showed no class

The Tulsa Hurricane hosted the SMU Mustangs on Saturday night.

Sports Editor Matt Rechtien had a problem with some in the student section.

This past Saturday night Tulsa was hosting 23rd-ranked SMU in a nationally televised game that was billed as a battle between first and second place. It had all the markings of a fantastic matchup. When I walked into the Reynolds Center and saw that it was packed with both students and alumni alike, I was excited for what I hoped would be a hard-fought victory.

I hoped that when the game was over I would be leaving the Reynolds Center ex-

Tennis Update The women’s tennis team has lost their first home match of the season against the No. 38 ranked Purdue. After leading early against the Boilermakers, the Hurricane were unable to prevent the upset and Purdue was able to steal the win after earning the 1, 2, 5 and 6 singles position points. This puts the overall record at 6–3. The women will look to bounce back against Oklahoma on Feb. 15. The men’s team lost 4–1 to No. 10 Baylor in a hard fought match. In their second top twenty matchup of the weekend, the men faced No. 17 Texas Christian University, losing 4–0. This puts their record 7–4, with their next match coming against in Fayetteville, Arkansas to take on the Razorbacks on Wednesday.

National Signing Day was last week, and Tulsa got a new class of incoming talent. With the new coach came new struggles, but things are looking up from here. Sports Writer Wade Crawford reports.

Soccer Signs Eleven The men and womens’ soccer teams signed eleven students to the upcoming freshman class last week. The men’s team signed seven from around the country filling every position with at least one player. Head coach Tom McIntosh was quoted, “In terms of the overall group, we’ve added some of the better players in the country at their respective positions.

It is a group that that has the ability to impact our team immediately. They come from winning cultures with their respective club teams and can help us achieve our own goals here at Tulsa.” The women’s team signed four of their own mostly from Texas and Oklahoma. Head coach Kyle Cussen said on the four; “We have a solid core of returning players, but this will fill needs and will help us immediately, as well as for the long term. It is a solid class that helps us take that next step toward a conference championship and an NCAA berth.”

With the coming and going of National Signing Day, Tulsa ranks 98th in the country in recruiting.

Amidst a class of two-star recruits is a pair of three-star recruits and Chad President, the ninth-ranked quarterback in the country. President, defensive end Michael Anderson and athlete McKinley Whitfield top the class of 18.

Only four states are represented in this year’s class. Included is Arkansas (one commit), Kansas (two), Oklahoma (only four!) and Texas with the remaining eleven.

The trenches were looked after this year, as seven total players from the offensive and defensive lines committed.

Only one other quarterback joins Chad President in the class, Will Hefley from Pulaski Academy of Little Rock, Arkansas (quite the unorthodox program—definitely worth a quick Google search).

Five skill players and athletes, three defensive backs, and a linebacker round out the positions represented this year.

the bird at opposing fans for the sole reason that they are fans of a different team, then you are not being a fan. A fan is “an enthusiastic devotee, follower, or admirer of a sport, pastime, or celebrity.” Passion is an essential part of being a fan, but when you mistake profanity and vulgarity against an opposing team’s fan base for fandom, then maybe you need to look at what kind of fan you are.

After the game was over and the fans of both teams were leaving Reynolds, I was embarrassed to even make eye contact with SMU fans. I felt like I needed to apologize to their fans for the actions of those twenty students. My friend told me later that he talked to some SMU fans who said that they know it wasn’t our entire student section or fans, but that they were coming to the game to watch their team and left with a bad perception of TU. I love Tulsa basketball and am proud to call myself a fan of the Golden Hurricane, but I am not proud to have been at that game and associated with that crowd. We as students should not stand for our own peers tarnishing our name and reputation.

cited, happy and proud to call myself a TU fan. What I did not expect to feel was embarrassment—but that is exactly the way I felt leaving, not because of our team (which I am proud to support), but because of a small group of fans.

Tulsa played hard, but ultimately lost to the team that was more dominant. Sure I was upset with the loss—I really wanted to see our perfect run in the conference play out—but that is not a reason to be classless and crude to opposing fans.

Our student section on Saturday—even though it was only a small minority of the students at the game—was awful. When people start chanting “F-ck you SMU,” everyone comes out a loser. Those twenty people made our students and the University of Tulsa look like complete and utter assholes.

Yes, heckling has a place in sports—it can be fun to call out a player for committing a foul or making a mistake—but what happened on Saturday was not a harmless jeer at a player or against the Southern Methodist team. It was an attack on their fans.

When you show up to a basketball game drunk, start shouting vulgarities and flipping

National Signing Day: Tulsa recruits a new class of talent, adresses depth concerns The Hurricane’s recruiting is down from last year, where they placed at 78th. Though there were no players above three stars, running backs D’Angelo Brewer and Tavarreon Dickerson have already made a small impact.

2013 was slightly more successful, with TU ranked 74th, tied with three other schools. While Keevan Lucas was the obvious head of this class, Will Barrow and Kerwin Thomas have both seen starting time at cornerback.

So what has caused this downturn in recruitment? Looking at previous classes, replacing older, veteran players was much more of an urgent issue—not so much now when sophomores make up a good amount of the starting corps.

That being said there were needs to be filled in the positions that seniors left.

“We had some depth issues in some certain spots, and as you can tell in our signing class we tried to address those especially in the back seven defensively.”

“We feel like we addressed those needs, again, we did it in a hurry but excited about those additions that we have added and up front offensive line-wise in whatever league you’re in, especially in this one, you’re going to win games up front.”

When asked about starting players Montgomery said, “We’re always going to have

the philosophy that we would love to redshirt every freshman we take in.”

“With that being said, my job, Dr. Gragg back there, he hired me to do a job to make sure we’re putting the best 11 guys on the field. So if that happens to be a senior, great!

If that happens to be a true freshman, great.”

However, the much larger reason recruiting was down is the coaching change. Blankenship was out, and Montgomery was in— the new coach has had little time to bring his own athletes in (President notwithstanding).

“With the way they did the ‘dead period’ this year with the Football Championship Series going on, it really made it a new challenge for us.” “(We) had to take almost a year’s worth of recruiting and it’s 15 days, but really when you got guys here on campus, when you narrow it down, we did about a year’s worth of recruiting in ten days,” said Montgomery.

What can we look for in recruiting in the next few years? I’m not saying we’ll be up with the big Power Five schools, but the recruiting will be much better.

Coach Montgomery has spent well over a decade under Art Briles in the state of Texas, growing relationships with high school coaches across the state and elsewhere. Give Coach Montgomery time and patience, and the recruiting class will improve.

‘Cane Calendar Feb. 9 – 15 Monday, Feb. 9 Men’s Golf @ UTSA Oak Hills Invitational; San Antonio, TX; All Day

Wednesday, Feb. 11 Men’s Tennis @ Arkansas; Fayetteville,

AR; 6 p.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 10 Women’s Basketball vs. Temple; Reynolds Center; 7 p.m.

Men’s Golf @ UTSA Oak Hills Invitational; San Antonio, TX; All Day

Saturday, Feb. 14 Softball vs. Maryland; Boca Raton, FL;

8 a.m.

Friday, Feb. 13 Softball vs. Drexel; Boca Raton, FL; Softball vs. Michigan State; Boca Raton, 10:15 a.m.

FL; 2:45 p.m.

Women’s Basketball @ SMU; Dallas,

TX; 1 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 12 Men’s Basketball @ Connecticut; Hartford, CT; 6 p.m.

Softball vs. Florida Atlantic; Boca Raton, FL; 5 p.m.

Track @ Tyson Invitational; Fayetteville, AR; All Day

Men’s Tennis @ Washington; Seattle, WA; 2 p.m.

Track @ Tyson Invitational; Fayetteville, AR; All Day

Sunday, Feb. 15 Softball vs. Providence; Boca Raton,

FL; 10:15 a.m.

Women’s Tennis @ Oklahoma; Norman,

OK; 12 p.m.

9 February 2015

The State-Run Media

the

State-Run media Tutoring would-be tyrants since none of your goddamn business.

An open letter to TU’s administration Fraser Kastner Chief Propagandist

Well, here we are. The story of Trey Barnett’s suspension has gone to press, despite the best efforts of the TU administrators. As a fellow tyrant, I feel that I must extend my condolences to the TU administration. I can only imagine what you must be feeling right now, and I just want you to know that my blackened, cynical heart is with you. As much as this must hurt, the wheels of institutional oppression must continue to turn.

First, let me congratulate you, the administrators, on what you did right. It was absolutely reasonable for you to suspend the student in question. If he didn’t hold dissident views, he should have cut off all ties with his peers who did. Really, he had the whole thing coming.

Also, I really like how you engaged in a campaign of harassment to punish someone on trumped-up harassment charges. That was a stroke of evil genius.

Furthermore, the way you constructed your arguments was really top notch. I particularly enjoyed the part where you pretended that you didn’t know how Facebook works and condemned Barnett for not preventing someone from mentioning his name in a critical statement about the university.

However, I do have a few criticisms to make. First of all, pun-

ishing dissidents without even a rigged trial is a bad idea. I know, I know. I wish I could just order people shot like in the good old days, but these days you have to pretend to give people a chance before you punish them.

Secondly, you guys did a really, just shamefully bad job of silencing the press. I mean, you had one meeting with Kyle and Conor, and you threatened to think about suspending them if they broke a few poorly-worded rules you made up.

Come on, you guys. Journalists live for stuff like that. You seriously thought you could threaten the two people most able to blow the whistle and not have anyone find out about it? I’ll bet there weren’t even any armed guards present.

Now, I don’t mean to come off all mean and critical. You guys are obviously new to the oppression game, and you did a great job for amateurs. So, I thought I’d give you a few pointers, just between us.

The first thing you’re going to want to do is scapegoat someone.

You did this a little bit with Barnett, making him responsible for things other people said. You did something similar with the girl that got sexually assaulted last year. You know, “It’s your fault for not doing more to prevent this,” was about the extent of your argument. This is a good start, guys, but you could really do more to make people look bad.

Start spreading rumors that

Fraser Kastner / Collegian

Blackmail 101: hire look-alikes of your enemies and photograph them doing shady things. For more compromising photos, contact Fraser Kastner at STATERUN@aol.com. Cash only.

Kyle Walker secretly has a drug problem. Tell people Conor Fellin listens to Skrillex. Just the worst stuff you can think of. Also, release a statement about the suspension that hints at but does not mention further misconduct by Barnett. That should complicate the picture for a while.

Secondly, classify everything.

Refuse access to even the most mundane piece of official paperwork. I know it will look suspicious, but I’m sure you can think of some kind of excuse. Besides,

looking suspicious is better than looking guilty. And, lets face it, we all know you are.

Last, scare the shit out of anyone who might be involved. Give Campus Security scarier-looking uniforms and have them pull people out of class for “questioning.”

You don’t need to hurt anyone; just keep them for a long time and remind them that you can punish them for breaking rules you haven’t written yet.

Now is an important time for you, TU administrators. How you

handle this crisis will either unbalance your regime or further cement your position in the halls of despotism. Good luck, and know that no matter what happens, you probably won’t be punished as harshly as you punished Trey Barnett.

Duplicitously yours, Fraser Kastner Chief Propagandist

TU student did not watch Super Bowl, wants you to know it Sophomore Jeremy Pearsons is completely ignorant of football, pop culture, other stuff you like.

Abigail LaBounty Patrician

Last week, as the State-Run Media surveyed students on their Super Bowl opinions and expectations for the half-time show, this reporter came across something strange. Sophomore chemical engineering major Jeremy Pearsons claimed to know “nothing” about the Super Bowl, or even sports in general.

In his opening statement, Pearsons asserted that he knew absolutely nothing about the Super Bowl. “I’m not even sure who’s playing this year.” When asked about the halftime show, Jeremy didn’t even know who was play-

ing. “Katy who? All I listen to is faux 80’s electronica. I don’t even own a radio. Or a cd player. I listen to my tracks on vinyl.”

Pearsons went on to say, “I don’t even know what sport the Super Bowl is. Is it soccer? Anytime a family member or my girlfriend drags me to a sports event I’m just like woooh, take the ball, do the thing, score some points! I even got it on a shirt!”

When we told him what teams were playing and asked him to at least make a guess, Jeremy just said, “Are those really teams?

What cities do they belong to? I swear you guys are just making shit up.”

“Sports don’t even matter anyway. I’d rather be prepping for the Smash Bros. tournament. That’s a real sport. It takes skill and dexterity, not like that rugby bullshit where people just smash into each

other ... If I even knew what that sport was.”

“I mean, who even cares about football anyway? That’s the one with the human sacrifice right?

I think it’s sick that Americans have such a fascination with death that we crowd around to watch a game where all the losers are put to death to honor the God Charisacort. What kind of fucked up society is this?”

Friends of Pearsons said that this sort of behavior is typical for him. “He does this thing where he’ll pretend to be profoundly ignorant about something popular,” said Jenna Washington. “It’s like his way of saying, ‘Hey, I’m better than you.’”

Pearsons went on to say that he “didn’t even know who Taylor Swift was,” and then asked “what is an ‘iPod?’” This reporter stopped listening after that.

Madeline Woods / Collegian

Jeremy Pearsons, who neither understands nor has ever heard of the Super Bowl.

So this is what a Sudoku looks like, right? Just put the right numbers (?) in the right boxes … It’s easy.

Brought to you by the letter D. And Elias Brinkman.

9 February 2015

the Collegian: 15

9 February 2015

the Collegian : 16

What do you love about living on campus?

Meeting new friends and attending fun events n Rolling out of bed and being minutes from class Close to fitness center, library, computer labs and more n

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Wireless internet EVERYWHERE n Convenient laundry facilities Fill in the blank (you know you could)__________ n

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Housing Selection Information Sessions GENERAL INFORMATION SESSION There will be information booths in the Union Food Court and Pat Case Dining Center on Mondays and Wednesdays at noon from February 16 – March 4. Please stop by and ask any questions.

LIVE CHAT AVAILABLE ON CANELINK! Sundays through Fridays, Feb. 1 – March 13. Chat live with a housing professional from 2 p.m. – 10 p.m.

To start a live chat, click on the “Apply for Housing,” or “My Selection Info” link within Canelink.

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