a student newspaper of the university of tulsa
february 18, 2013 issue 17 ~ volume 98
Future medical school loses home
TU’s administration has decided not to purchase the downtown property due to a lack of funds. Cara Dublin Student Writer
O
n Friday, University of Tulsa’s President Steadman Upham sent an e-mail to the student body announcing that the school has decided “not to purchase the Hartford Building downtown for use as the future home of the Tulsa School of Community Medicine.” TSCM is a joint project between TU and the the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa Schusterman campus intended to advance the capabilities of both schools and to address what the e-mail called “Oklahoma’s health disparities and acute physician shortage.” According to a statement recently presented to the Board of Trustees, Oklahoma currently “ranks 49th in the nation in physician coverage,” and so the need is immediate. The Hartford building in downtown Tulsa was to have become the home of this joint four-year medical education program, but
Upham’s e-mail stated that “the projected cost of acquiring and redeveloping the Hartford Building site became prohibitive.” Instead, TSCM will utilize existing campus facilities on both the TU and OU-Tulsa Schusterman campuses. It was not immediately clear which TU facilities might be utilized. “Our needs, our partnership and our mission for the medical school in Tulsa remain the same,” Upham said in the recent statement. “Only the location is changing.” University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren announced in the same statement that the “planning process” of establishing a formal medical school in Tulsa is “proceeding on schedule.” Upham commented that the utilization of existing facilities “allows for a more rapid opening of the (TSCM).” This was confirmed in the allstudent e-mail, which stated that “the timeline for the Tulsa School of Community Medicine remains on schedule, with plans to admit the first class in fall 2015.” Private donors have provided extensive support for the project, and confidence is high that the schools’ partnership will soon
yield tangible results. TU pre-medical student Gabriella Pierce said she was “a bit concerned” about the decision. “The purchase of the Hartford building seemed like a really great thing for both schools and an important factor in their overall plans,” Pierce said. She expressed worry that the two school’s plans were somewhat disorganized or indefinite. “However,” Pierce said, “OU Med has a great reputation, and TU has high standards, so I trust that however it works out, the TSCM will have a positive impact on the Tulsa community and be a really good option for our students.” Pierce also said that she still intends to apply and considers TSCM to be among her “top three choices ... no matter what building they end up with,” stating that the decision not to purchase the Hartford building “has not affected her plans.” Pre-medical sophomore Meghana Rao also said that the decision did not impact her opinion of TSCM. “I am actually especially glad that they won’t be postponing the opening of the medical school for another year like they did previously,” she said.
Courtesy of KRMG
The Hartford Building in downtown Tulsa was to be the site of the Tulsa School of Community Medicine until Friday, when officials announced to the TU community that cost issues would prevent the purchase of the property.
TU relations with Kendall Whittier have improved With service day approaching, KendallWhittier residents reflect on an improvement in University-neighborhoood relations since the 1970s. Myriah Downs
Swift as O’Hare: Student athlete W breaks NCAA mile record
Student Writer
Track athlete Chris O’Hare broke the collegiate record for the mile this Saturday. Staff Report
U
niversity of Tulsa runner Chris O’Hare broke the collegiate record for the mile at the indoor Wanamaker Mile of the 106th Millrose Games on Saturday. His time, 3:52.98, broke the record set by O’Hare’s purported rival, Brigham Young University’s Miles Batty, by nearly a second and a half. “It’s fantastic,” O’Hare said. “It is a great honor to be associated with such great athletes that have held that record in the past, and the great athletes that will hold it in the future.” In addition to breaking the record for the mile, O’Hare earned fourth place in the competition. “I’m proud of Chris,” Head Coach Steve Gulley said. “He went out today and ran the fastest collegiate mile in history, which is a hard thing to grasp.” Hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland, O’Hare has had a prestigious career with TU’s track team. Last year, he won the mile event at the NCAA National Indoor Track and Field Championship, bringing TU one of its only three national championships and its first in track and field. This year’s Millrose mile was a race between nine professional and three collegiate runners, including two-time Olympian Lopez Lomong.
Courtesy of John Nepolitan, Armory Track
Student track athlete Chris O’Hare broke the collegiate record for the mile at the Milrose Games on Saturday. His showing earned him fourth place in the competition.
ith Service Day around the corner, many students are preparing for that special day once a year when they roll up their sleeves and work on community service projects across Tulsa. Campus-wide days of service date back decades, beginning with major universities that used them to strengthen connections to their surrounding communities. The days feature peak levels of student involvement and are generally organized by university-appointed officials. This year’s Service Day will take place on Feb. 23 and is expected to put over 600 students to work. Every student participant will receive breakfast and lunch, and students who signed up before the Jan. 26 deadline will get a free t-shirt. Service Day comes as a product of the steady progression of the university’s image in the local community since the 1970s. The decade saw a building boom in the Southern Tulsa area featuring new housing developments and commercial districts, mirrored with the sharp decline in the Northern Tulsa area. According to Reverend Todd Freeman of College Hill Presbyterian Church, the decade marked a peak in animosity between the university and the surrounding community. During the time period, there was an exodus of homeowners from the community and an increase in leasing. Following this, the university began constructing apartment complexes that, in the “long run helped with the detrition of the neighborhood,” Freeman said. However, at the time, there was
fear and contention as the “university (expanded) from Delaware to Columbia and people (did not) know how far they would go.” As TU expanded, friction with the community continued to grow as well, leading to a perception that neither group wanted the other. However, modern perceptions of the TU have changed. Associate Director for Community Involvement Michael Mills is reportedly involved in a number of local councils, including the Indian Nations Council of Governments, which serves as a community task force. The group works on community and economic development by focusing on providing affordable housing and housing assistance to the elderly. Mills and Susan Neal, Associate Vice President of Government and Community Relations, are members of the Kendall-Whittier Ministries, a joint collaboration between TU and local churches and businesses designed to make decisions affecting the entire community. The collaboration is used for “information distribution and dissemination” and routinely keeps community members aware of group proceedings. After the breakdown in university relations in the 1970’s, TU began to reach out to the general community. “It is the university that made the first step to come over and talk to (the community) to see how we felt things were going,” Freeman said. Such outreach has led to a more positive perception of the university to decreased tension between the two communities. The impact of the administration’s efforts is alsow felt in the greater North Tulsa community. Auxiliary Leader Marsais Broadway of the Metropolitan Tulsa Urban League’s “Young Professionals” program said that in her experiences both as a student at Oral Roberts University and as a Tulsa-area professional,
See Neighbors page 5
True Blue Crew Would you like to participate in the planning, promotion and implementation of True Blue Neighbor service projects? If so, then True Blue Crew is for you!! Interested students should plan to attend an informational meeting on Tuesday, February 12 at 5pm in Holmes Student Center, room 50. If you are unable to attend this meeting, but are interested in learning more about True Blue Crew, please contact Mike Mills at Michael-mills@utulsa.edu. Street School Tutors Street School is currently seeking volunteers to tutor students high school level Algebra 1 on Fridays from 9am-11am. For more information on any of these opportunities, contact Kathy Shelton in the True Blue Neighbor Volunteer Center at kathy-shelton@utulsa.edu, call 918-631-3535 or come by Holmes Student Center room 25.