Congress approves bill to oppose state amendment that bans Sharia law in courts
TREVOR SHOFNERThe Oklahoma Daily
The Undergraduate Student Congress passed a congressional bill Tuesday night to denounce a newly approved state amendment that pro-hibits state courts from considering interna-tional or Sharia law in decisions.
Congress members are encouraging the OU community to join them in condemning the implementation of State Question 755, accord-ing to the bill.
State Question 755 passed Nov. 2 with a 70 percent majority.
Gerrit Verbeek, petroleum engineering senior, argued in favor of the condemna-tion bill at the meeting. He said SQ 755 would
inadvertently alienate American Indians, since their status as domestic dependent nations puts treaties made between the tribes and the fed-eral government at odds with the international law ban in the state question.
“Oklahoma isn’t safeguarding its state cul-ture, it’s actively destroying it,” Verbeek said. “That’s why we, as a university in probably one of the most diverse and educated areas of the state, have a responsibility to say to our fellow citizens that it is absolutely stupid.”
The UOSA bill states that SQ 755 “portrays the state of Oklahoma as xenophobic and Islamophobic,” and that it will jeopardize job and communication opportunities for universi-ty students “in our increasingly global society.”
Shayna Daitch, international and area stud-ies district representative, authored the bill.
“I specifically wrote it because of the dis-trict I represent,” Daitch, international security
studies senior, said. “Dozens of students have talked to me about it. Everybody is extremely concerned.”
Twenty-three representatives voted in favor, none against and two abstained.
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The University of Oklahoma’s independent student voice since 1916
Editors note: The following column is in response to Monday’s story about the average pay for top college executives. The story, which ran on the bottom of page 1, compared President David Boren’s salary to total compensation packages of other college executives, but failed to mention Boren’s benefi ts. Daily editors felt it was necessary to clarify this information by running this column in the same spot as the initial story.
On Nov. 15, The Daily reported President David Boren’s salary was only one-half the national average for university presidents. However, although it appears Boren received only $380,585 in the university budget, he receives more under the terms of his contract.
His base salary automatically increases each year by the aver-age faculty salary increase. Boren also is considered a full profes-sor in the College of Arts and Sciences. He has never been paid
for teaching; however, if he served as a full-time professor, he would receive the highest salary for a full professor in that department — which was $173,400 in 2011. And, he would be entitled to a one-year sabbatical.
After turning 70 this year, Boren became eligible for payments under a supplemental qualified-retirement plan created for him by the OU Regents — $45,000 per year until he reaches 85. This is in addition to the estimated $69,500 federal pension he became eli-gible for in 2001 under the Civil Service Retirement System.
Boren also receives the use of Boyd House — a state residence
which underwent a $2 million renovation and expansion when Boren took over in 1994. The uni-versity maintains, pays utilities on and provides household staff for this residence. He also receives the use of an automobile plus all maintenance and operating expenses.
He receives one $50,000 an-nual expense account for meals, receptions, social functions, gifts, country-club dues, printing, post-age, publications, subscriptions, professional dues and other ex-penses. And, he receives another $50,000 annual expense account for scholarships, library acquisi-tions, campus beautification, stu-dent activities and other expenses.
Under his last contract, Boren also received $450,000 as an in-centive for staying through June 30, 2013. And, he receives this sum on a pro rata basis even if he leaves — so long as he does not serve as president of another university.
Boren also is permitted to serve on the board of any corporation or other legal entity so long as it does not interfere with his duties. Last year, he served on the boards of four corporations — receiving $167,146 from Texas Instruments, $73,849 from American Airlines, $131,682 from Torchmark and $270,917 from Continental Resources.
To be fair, Boren is a remarkable individual — a Yale graduate and Rhodes Scholar, holding an OU law degree and master’s degrees in philosophy, politics and eco-nomics from Oxford. He was the youngest governor in the state’s
history when he was inaugurated in 1975. He served 15 years in the U.S. Senate — distinguishing him-self as the longest-serving Senate Intelligence Committee Chair.
Since coming here, Boren also has raised $1.75 billion. He is the longest-serving university presi-dent in the Big 12. He has donated more than $1 million to the uni-versity — including the proceeds from his book. And, he and his wife named the university as the beneficiary of their $1.5 million life-insurance policy.
However, Boren also is very well compensated. He could make a lot more in the private sector, but his compensation package at OU represents the pinnacle one can attain in public service.
— Nicholas Harrison,
law and business graduate
Comment on thiscolumn at OUDaily.com
President Boren’s total pay much higher than reportedSTAFF COLUMN
NicholasHarrison
COLUMN
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ONLINE AT OUDAILY.COM» Documents: President David Boren’s employment agreement, proxy reports from the four corporations Boren sits on, the Norman campus fi scal year 2011 operating budget and more.
COLUMN
UOSA offi cially condemns SQ 755
OU law student, newly elected state representative will focus on education. See page 3.
Norman Music Fest becomes 3-day event, organizers announce
The Norman Music Festival has grown into a three-day event, festival organizers announced Tuesday in a press release.
The festival will take place April 21 to 23 — shifting from a Saturday-Sunday event to a Thursday-Friday-Saturday event — to help turn Norman into a weekend destination for travelers from across the state and region, festival spokesman Quentin Bomgardner said in the release.
Festival headliners have not been booked, but organizers will hold an open call to fi ll 130 slots with performers, according to the release. Submissions will be accepted Dec. 5 to Jan. 9.
The Norman Music Festival is a free music festival that takes place in downtown Norman. Previous headliners include Dirty Projectors, of Montreal, The Polyphonic Spree and Chainsaw Kittens.
— Daily staff reports
UOSA hopes more-informed students will be more likely to run for offi ce, vote this spring
CHASE COOKThe Oklahoma Daily
Undergraduate Student Congress will have a plan before it adjourns Nov. 30 to tackle student involve-ment at both the voter and can-didate levels, said Brett Stidham, UOSA Congress chairman.
UOSA election chairwoman Natalie Jester said she started for-mulating her plans after the elec-tion was over.
She said she will organize public relations campaigns to emphasize candidates and their goals.
Currently, candidates use the UOSA elections website and per-sonal appearances to inform stu-dents of their plans. Jester said she wants to make polling sites more
Informing students Congress’ priority
SEE UOSA PAGE 2
STUDENT CONGRESS | 16 SWORN IN AS NEW REPRESENTATIVES
MERRILL JONES/THE DAILY
Alyssa Loveless, human relations junior, is sworn in as a Undergraduate Student Congress communications district representative at Tuesday evening’s meeting. Loveless was one of 16 representatives sworn in after being elected during the fall general election Nov. 9 and 10.
Also at the meeting, Student Congress voted to create a webmaster position to serve all four branches of UOSA. The Pre-Medical Professionals Club was allotted $200 in emergency allocations for programs and activities. The “Fall General Election Compensation” Act of 2010 and “Fall General Election Poll Operators Compensation” Act of 2010 were passed unanimously. Election chair Natalie Jester will be paid $200 and election board members Ann Marie Daniel, Kristen Lauck, John Morrow and Gabrielle Skillings will be paid $40. Alpha Phi Omega will be paid $300, the OU Cycling team $150 and the Asian American Student Association $75 for manning the polling stations.
Visit OUDaily.com to view the bills.
About the amendment
State Question 755 prohibits state courts from considering international or Sharia law in decisions. The question passed Nov. 2, but the results were never verifi ed. U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange ordered a temporary block on the bill as a result of a civil rights lawsuit fi led by Muneer Awad, Council on American-Islamic Relations executive director. Awad claims the law is unconstitutional and the case will be heard Monday.
efficient by making them more visible and increasing staff.
The plan hasn’t been fi-nalized and it’s only an idea right now, said Stidham, human resources manage-ment junior.
Stidham hopes to reach out to students by contact-ing student groups, college administrators and focus-ing on larger districts like Arts and Sciences to inform students.
It will be a collaborative effort between the pub-lic relationos committee, the election chair, election board and other members of Congress, Stidham said.
“We want to make the op-portunity more apparent,” Stidham said. “That way, [students] can take the op-portunity and can make a difference.”
S t u d e n t s d o n ’ t t h i n k Congress has a major impact
2 • Wednesday, November 17, 2010 The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com
CAMPUS Reneé Selanders, managing [email protected] • phone: 405-325-3666
Today around campus» Bedlam Blood Battle, sponsored by Oklahoma Blood Institute as an offi cial Bedlam sponsor, will take place 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the ROTC Armory.
» Christians on Campus Bible Study will meet 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. in the Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Traditions Room.
» Ree Drummond, Pioneer Woman blogger, will speak 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Union’s Molly Shi Ballroom.
» School of Art & Art History Chili Bowl Scholarship Fundraiser will take place 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the School of Art’s Lightwell Gallery.
» OU Health Promotion is providing free cold & fl u prevention tips and giveaways noon to 2 p.m. at the Union’s Health Services table.
» This day in OU history
Nov. 17, 1986Students raise $14,000 for handicapped children
OU men were not afraid to lose some blood if the return involved raising $14,000 for the J. D. McCarty Center for Handicapped Children.
Sigma Phi Epsilon hosted the 12th annual Dewey Luster Interfraternity Boxing Tournament. Sororities participated in the event by competing in selling the most tickets.
The team trophy was awarded to Phi Delta Kappa, and the Miss Knockout title was awarded to Alpha Chi Omega’s Kristen Lee.
*Source: The Oklahoma Daily archives
Thursday, Nov. 18» Indian Youth Career fair will take place 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Union’s second fl oor.
» Student Success Series: CLEP & Advanced Standing will take place 3 to 4 p.m. in Wagner Hall, Room 245.
» Bedlam Blood Battle, sponsored by Oklahoma Blood Institute as an offi cial Bedlam sponsor, will take place 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the ROTC Armory.
» The OU hockey team will play Liberty University at 4 p.m. at the Blazers Ice Centre, 8000 S. Interstate 35 in Oklahoma City. Student admission is $5.
» Oxford professor Eugene Rogan will speak about “The Arab Experience of Democracy” from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History’s Kerr Auditorium.
Friday, Nov. 19» Bedlam Blood Battle, sponsored by Oklahoma Blood Institute as an offi cial Bedlam sponsor, will take place 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the ROTC Armory.
» Schools of Dance and Music collaborative performance begins at 8 p.m. in the Sharp Concert Hall inside the Catlett Music Center.
» UPB Movie Night will feature “The Other Guys” at 4, 7, 10 and 11:50 p.m. in the Meacham Auditorium.
» The Huston Huffman Center will host a free dodgeball tournament for all students, faculty and staff at 6 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 20» Zumba-thon for Diabetes will take place 3 to 5 p.m. inside the Huston Huffman Center for $10.
» Sooner Saturday will take place 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on campus.
UOSA: Spring plans already being formulatedContinued from page 1
Night features 6 student organizations demonstrating unique cultural traditions during annual event
LAUREN CASONHUAThe Oklahoma Daily
More than 75 students from diverse backgrounds watched as members of Delta Phi Omega performed the Indian Jogan Jogan dance Tuesday at Asian Oklahoma Night.
The dancers twirled arms and hands while Indian music played in the back-ground to kickoff the 23rd annual event, hosted by the Asian American Student Association.
The event is the group’s biggest fall event and allows various Asian campus organi-zations to showcase their different cultures and talents, group president Kristina Thai said. It is also meant to spread awareness of Asia’s diversity, she said.
The theme, “One Asia” touches on the diverse and unifying aspects of Asian cul-ture, said group treasurer Oliver Li.
The event began with a comical video of last minute “preparations” for the event. Executive board members said the show took two months put together and prepa-rations included recruiting performers, creating a stage backdrop painting, compiling programs and writing the script.
Various performers were introduced by emcees Bijan Aizimi and TramAnh Lai, Mr. and Ms. Asian OU,
respectively.Li performed a piano piece called “Autumn Moon Over
a Calm Lake.” The piece is based on a Chinese folk song in-spired by the scenery of West Lake in Hangzhou China.
The martial art Tai Chi Chuan — one of China’s three in-ternal martial arts — was showcased by Xinhai Du. He per-formed to Chinese cultural music.
Members of the Arab Student Association performed the Debkah Dance, a line dance in which the dancers stamped their feet in time to Arab music.
“Hello Vietnam,” a song by Quynh Anh, was performed in English by Katheryn Thai.
The evening concluded with two cultur-al skits performed by the Phi Delta Alpha sorority. The skits retold the Chinese folk-tale, “Zodiac,” and the Korean folktale, “Why is the sea so salty.”
Between performances, videos were used to illustrate cultural aspects of each country represented in the show.
H e l e n Vu , V i e t n a m e s e S t u d e n t Association member and microbiology and pre-pharmacy junior, said the videos were her favorite part.
“I like how they showed the videos about the different countries,“ she said.
Vu said she came to the event to learn more about the Asian culture.
Attendees judged the six groups and Phi Delta Alpha so-rority won first place for their folktale skits. Delta Phi Omega sorority won second with their Jogan Jogan dance.
Asian groups showcase culture
on them, said Jester, inter-national security studies ju-nior. Students should know Congress allocates the stu-dent organization’s funds and helps get construction completed around campus, she said.
“When [students] see construction they think the university did it,” Jester said. “Sometimes, it’s Student Congress getting that new sidewalk put in.”
Andrew Bundy, European studies and German se-nior, said he has only voted three out of the six election
during his time at OU. He cited lack of information about candidates being the main reason he didn’t vote.
Bundy also favors the spring elections because bigger offices like UOSA p r e s i d e n t a r e u p f o r election.
Bundy said if UOSA had more power, students might be more interested.
“If they had a stronger effect on [OU’s] budget,” B u n d y s a i d , “s t u d e n t s might care.”
S t i d h a m s a i d o n c e t h e p l a n i s f o r m e d , n o
actions will take place until Congress assembles in January.
Jester said she will work this semester on legisla-tion to implement some of her planned changes. Once completed, it will be voted on during the spring 2011 semester.
Bundy said he hopes changes will happen be-cause Congress seats are important.
“Smaller offices are im-portant,” Bundy said. “But their message is not heard as strongly.”
What is the Asian American Student Association?
It is the umbrella group for all Asian organizations. The group has three goals, to: » spread cultural awareness,» serve the community,» and give Asian American students a chance to bond.
*Source: Asian American Student Association Historian Chris Nguyen,
and President Kristina Thai
OU leading OSU in first two days of Bedlam blood drive
The Bedlam Blood Battle blood drive is under way, and OU is narrowly leading the race with 408 Sooners donating blood as of Tuesday afternoon. Oklahoma State University students are catching up, with 407 Cowboys donating after two days.
The blood drive began Monday and will continue through Friday. OU is competing with OSU to see which school can donate more blood in a week. The Oklahoma Blood Institute is coordinating the competition.
Donors will receive a free T-shirt and a chance to win two tickets to the 2010 Bedlam football game. Footballs autographed by Bob Stoops will also be given away to five people who donate.
Those interested in participating in the Bedlam Blood Battle may donate 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday at the OU ROTC Armory.
— Daily Staff Reports
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OU law student also plans to improve transportation, reform tax-credit system
EMILY HOPKINSThe Oklahoma Daily
Emily Virgin, D-Norman, will undergo new legislator orientation today, after being sworn in Tuesday.
Virgin won with 63.63 percent of the votes in all 16 precincts to defeat Republican Kent Hunt in the Nov. 2 midterm elections.
Before the legislative session begins in February, Virgin said she is planning on attend-ing as many community events as possible.
Virgin said education is her No. 1 priority and is looking forward to travel-ing throughout her com-munity and state to observe the issues.
“To really focus on the problems and be able to go around to schools and really study the problems within the education sys-tem, and also just to have the resources and the abil-ity to fix those problems — that’s really what excites me the most,” she said.
Virgin wants to first look at education funding. Her goal is to make govern-ment more accountable in sending money direct-ly to classrooms.
“I want to make sure we take a look at the sys-tem as a whole and find other ways to improve the system, not only with giving it more funding but just making sure the teachers are treated the way they deserve to be treated, specifically in terms of salaries,” she said.
Other goals in the education realm include re-vamping the teacher retirement system and re-ducing the extreme pressure placed on teachers by the weight of standardized tests.
“A lot of teachers have told me they don’t have the freedom to come up with their own curricu-lum many times and instead are forced to teach what is only on the test,” she said.
The very presence of State Question 744 on the Nov. 2 ballot, Virgin pointed out, reveals that re-forming the education system is on the minds of Oklahomans.
She said she also hopes to be selected to serve on the Education Committee in order to propose legislation and conduct research on how to best update the system.
“It’s pretty obvious we’re near the bottom in almost every category concerning education, whether it’s per people expenditures or teacher salaries,” she said. “There’s been a growing move-ment toward wanting to improve our education system and I think that’s seen across the aisles.”
Though education is her top priority as a first-term legislator, Virgin says her other key issues
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 • 3The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com NEWS
Virgin to focus on education funding
AUTHOR/THE DAILY
Emily Virgin, D-Norman, stands Friday in the OU Law School library. Virgin, second-year law student, said she plans to increase direct-to-classroom funding across the state.
Computer science programming group wins regional event
MEAGAN DEATONThe Oklahoma Daily
OU’s Computer Science Programming Team recently took first place out of 71 teams at the 2010 Association for Computing Machinery South Central USA Regional Programming Contest.
OU A will next compete in the international con-test Feb. 27 to March 4 in Egypt.
Allen Smith, computer science junior, said he was looking forward to doing some sightseeing.
“Since we’re only going to spend five hours of that actually program-ming, I’m sure there will be plenty of down time,” Smith said.
OU A, one of two OU teams at the competi-tion, was the only one to finish all of the problems in the Oct. 29 and 30 competition.
“It is challenging to solve the problems and fun to solve them with the group we have,” said Peter Reid, computer sci-ence senior.
The University of Texas at Austin came in second and Abilene Christian University came in third.
The regional competi-tion consisted of eight programming challenges. Team members had five hours to write all of the code for the program during the competition and could not use any outside electronics.
“For each problem, we have to write a program to answer a particular kind of question,” Reid said. “Once we think we have written it correctly, we submit our program to the judges. They test it with several questions.”
If the program cor-rectly answered the ques-tions submitted by the judges, that problem was marked as completed. If it was wrong, the team had to try to figure out what was wrong with the program.
First place goes to the team that solved the most questions in five hours, Smith said.
If two teams tie for the most problems solved, then the tiebreaker is how fast each team solved the problems, he said.
The team practiced weekly before the com-petition at New York Pizza & Pasta on Campus Corner.
“Our plan was to get used to working in a noisy environment like that of the competition by practicing in a place with plenty of distrac-tions,” Reid said.
Non-computer science majors are rare on the team, but allowed.
“They do need to be accomplished pro-grammers with a broad knowledge of algorithms, especially those that are taught in CS courses,” said Rex Page, computer science professor.
Students who are inter-ested in joining the team next year can contact Professor Page for more information.
include improving the state mental health and substance abuse systems, lowering the overall in-carceration rate, building a new transportation in-frastructure and reforming the tax credit system.
“We need to make sure that we’re not wasting a lot of money by giving it away to corporations that aren’t cre-ating jobs,” she said. “There’s a lot of abuse and waste in that system that I’ve looked at over the past year.”
The 24-year-old is now in the process of transitioning from the role of OU law student to District 44 representative in the House of Representatives.
“I’ve been tr ying to play catch-up at school,” Virgin said. “I had fallen a little behind in the days close to the campaign and preparing for finals as well has been an activity in the past weeks.”
To better focus on her new job as a legislator, Virgin said she will take a leave of absence from law school next semester, but will go back in the summer and next fall with a lighter course load.
“We do interim studies and try to prepare bills for the next legislative session, so I will definitely be preparing to deal with that,” Virgin said.
Though she is supposed to graduate in May 2012, Virgin said she will be taking the additional
two years allowed by OU Law School and now plans to grad-uate in 2014.
Elizabeth Bangs, law pro-fessor, taught Virgin in her Criminal Procedure class last year and said her former stu-dent’s electoral win is exciting for the law school and for the Norman community.
Virgin has the support of some classmates, too.
Second-year law student Hailey Green said that as a
Republican, she respects Virgin’s willingness to work across party lines to solve issues.
“She is focused on what matters: our state and its people,” Green said. “I am confident that Emily will do well as a state representative because she has taken the time to talk with many of her con-stituents to find out what their priorities are.”
It’s pretty obvious we’re
near the bottom in almost
every category concerning
education, whether it’s
per people expenditures
or teacher salaries.”
— EMILY VIRGIN, DISTRICT 44 REPRESENTATIVE
Virgin’s education goals
» Increase funding accountability» Make teacher salaries comparable with surrounding areas» De-emphasize pressure of standardized tests» Update teacher retirement system
Sooner science team to head to Egypt
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Huzzah! We might actu-ally decrease federal spend-ing! But is it enough? I think not.
The National Committee on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform was created by President Barack Obama to identify “poli-cies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustain-ability over the long run.”
The co-chairmen of the committee, Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson, are going out on a limb, proposing big cuts to some of the most sa-cred cows on Capitol Hill. Simpson said the commission has “harpooned every whale in the ocean.” Perhaps “harpooned” is too strong of a word.
Unless of course you’re harpooning Moby Dick, which in that case will only anger the blasted thing. And angered they have. After proposing spending cuts in Social Security, Medicare and, dare I say it, even defense, Bowles and Simpson might be hard pressed to find a warm crowd of supportive fans desperate to dole out super rad high fives.
If the U.S. truly wants to mend itself, more needs to be done than simply cutting the budget of already failing government pro-grams. Take a look, for instance, at Social Security and Medicare.
Social Security and Medicare are es-sentially pyramid schemes. That is to say, in order for them to work, they demand an ever-growing population to survive. As soon as one generation stops having as many children as the previous generation, the system collapses because it lacks the number of people required to satisfy the demands of caring for the aging generation. In 1935, the contribution of 17 workers paid for the benefits of one retiree. By 2035, that number will be as low as 2.1. To continue down this road would be insanity.
This is a very large albeit only one exam-ple of many government programs which need to be done away with. Can we end such programs tomorrow? No, it simply is not feasible. But if Americans truly want to prosper, they must be weaned from the ills that have brought them into this disease of economic mediocrity.
We can no longer, as a people and as individual citizens, support things such as agricultural, energy and housing subsi-dies. We can no longer favor tariffs in order to “protect” our markets. Most importantly however, we cannot, nor should we, expect so much from our government. It’s wrong, it’s selfish and it’s too expensive.
And that, frankly, is what it boils down to: money. We don’t have any to spend. When the federal govern-ment’s revenue cannot match its costs, there are basically four things it
can do: Raise taxes, borrow money, print money and/or lower spending.
I will give you a hint: The first three op-tions have already been tried, and they haven’t worked. Americans don’t like taxes; they feel taxed already as it is. My goodness, the very country itself was founded on people not liking taxes (without represen-tation, of course. But who feels represented now?)
Then how about borrowing? The gov-ernment borrows money to pay for things it couldn’t afford in the first place. Why this is a good investment plan is beyond me. Then of course we have the favorite current solution: printing money, or “Quantitative Easing” as it’s now called. Whatever we call it, it still means inflation and it means a debasing of our currency. Basically, your money is losing value.
That leaves us with reducing spending, the one option that hasn’t been tried. But to reduce spending, the individual citizen must be asked to take greater responsibil-ity for him or herself. It means taking the government out of the equation of the mar-ketplace, and allowing the private sector to flourish. It means, most importantly, that as a society we should expected to manage our own lives more than the government manages it for us.
If spending was truly cut, and I mean really cut, the American people would all benefit. We would have less taxation and more money in our pockets to spend as we see fit. There would also be more jobs, since companies would be attracted by the lower taxes and fewer regulations put on them.
The debt is only a symptom of the cause. Our mentality as a nation is the real dis-ease. In pursuit of short term material ben-efit rather than long term growth and pros-perity, we have left much of the American legacy on the wayside. Let’s return to the policies that made this country great from the beginning. Lower government spend-ing and more freedom for the market and the individual will bode well for all.
— Tucker Cross,
letters senior
Comment on thiscolumn at OUDaily.com
The Bowles-Simpson proposal takes a decent s tab at one of the big-gest problems the federal government faces: debt. Indeed, our national debt has ballooned to well over $13 trillion. To put that in perspective, the entire U.S. GDP for 2009 was around $14 trillion.
Our deficit for 2009 was about $1.4 trillion, certainly not helping our debt problem. However, a man named John Maynard Keynes justifies the most recent deficit spikes.
Keynes, a brilliant economist, said that governments should use expansion-ary fiscal policy (increasing government spending and decreasing taxes) during economic slumps to help get out of them. Indeed, this is what President Roosevelt’s New Deal, in combination with WWII, did to get the U.S. out of the Depression.
Yay for fiscal stimulus! However, poli-ticians have too-often neglected the flip side to Keynes’ deficit spending theory: During times of boom, the government must run budget surpluses.
These surpluses will help rein in the economy, so that growth levels don’t exceed their natural rates, which helps keep reces-sions from becoming too severe.
Also, these surpluses during boom times pay for the deficits run during the bad times. Brilliant!
The problem is that only one half of this coin is po-litically popular.
Cutting taxes and provid-ing more government ser-vices is great! Something for nothing!
However, when all we do is increase spending and decrease taxes, we get what we have today: a national debt that equals 90 percent of our economy’s output.
The Bowles-Simpson proposal is there-fore quite relevant to our nation, and to our generation especially, for we will be the ones to pay down this monstrous debt left to us by the generation before us.
However, the timing and structure of their proposal is far from what we should be doing to tame the debt beast.
Rather than cut entitlement spending for those who need it most, cut it for those who need it least; as OU President David Boren and many others have proposed, we should enact a “means test” to deter-mine who really needs Social Security, Medicare, etc., rather than simply give it
to anyone over a certain age threshold.
Another area of spend-i n g t h a t n e e d s t o b e drastically cut is military spending. The time of us
being the World Police is long over. We spend 10 times more than the next 10 top spending countries combined on our military. That in and of itself should be persuasive enough.
With this means test and militar y spending cuts, the two biggest areas of spending could be drastically reduced.
Regarding taxation, the bottom line is that taxes are going to have to go up. However, they do not have to go up for everybody.
Letting the Bush tax cuts expire for ev-eryone will almost undoubtedly plunge us back into recession.
However, if we let them expire only for the wealthiest Americans, the economy would do fine and we would be able to start reining in the deficit.
Furthering with taxes, the top marginal tax rate should not be reduced, as the Bowles-Simpson plan suggests; rather, they should be increased significantly.
It is absurd that the highest tax bracket is $370,00. People making $370,000 a year should not be taxed at the same rate as those making $3 million a year, and these people should not be paying the same rate as someone making $300 million a year.
We need a tax system that takes into account
that there are plenty of people who make more than $370,000 a year, and these people should be taxed more than every-one else.
There are many other tax-related changes that need to be made (simplifi-cation, loophole-closing, an estate tax), but not enough room for this article.
In sum, spending needs to be cut and taxes need to be raised, but not at the ex-pense of the middle and lower classes; and, they should probably wait until the economy is back to full employment.
— Jerod Coker,
journalism senior
Comment on thiscolumn at OUDaily.com
Meredith Moriak Editor-in-Chief
Reneé Selanders Managing Editor
LeighAnne Manwarren Assignment Editor
Jared Rader Opinion Editor
James Corley Sports Editor
Dusty Somers Life & Arts Editor
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Chris Lusk Online Editor
Judy Gibbs Robinson Editorial Adviser
Bobby Jones Advertising Manager
contact us 160 Copeland Hall, 860 Van Vleet OvalNorman, OK 73019-0270
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The Oklahoma Daily is a public forum and OU’s independent student voice.
Letters should concentrate on issues, not personalities, and should be fewer than 250 words, typed, double spaced and signed by the author(s). Letters will be edited for space. Students must list their major and classifi cation. Submit letters Sunday through Thursday in 160 Copeland Hall. Letters also can be e-mailed to [email protected].
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Columnists’ and cartoonists’ opinions are not necessarily the opinions of The Daily Editorial Board.
4 • Wednesday, November 17, 2010 The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com
OPINION Jared Rader, opinion [email protected] • phone: 405-325-7630
THUMBS UP ›› UOSA unanimously condemns SQ 755 (see page 1)
OUR VIEW
Jerod Coker
STAFF COLUMN
er
MN
Tucker Cross
STAFF COLUMN
oss
UMN
Solution not found in education documentaries
POINT/COUNTERPOINT
Is the recent U.S. defi cit proposal a good idea?Yes, but it needs to go further cutting entitlement programs
No, timing and structure of it not right for reducing debt
We need a tax system
that takes into account
that there are plenty
of people who make
more than $370,000 a
year, and these people
should be taxed more
than everyone else.”
Several documentaries critical of our nation’s education system have cropped up in the last year. People are beginning to recognize there is a problem with education in the U.S.
On Monday, the education film “Race to Nowhere” was screened in the Rupel Jones Theatre. It tackles one problem with education in the U.S.: The system puts too much pressure on students to make a grade rather than receive a valuable learning experience.
This became prevalent with the advent of No Child Left Behind, which former President George W. Bush signed into law in January 2002. This act implemented standards-based education reform, meaning students are measured against a concrete standard rather than how well students perform compared to others. States where schools had low-scoring stu-dents are threatened with less federal funding for education.
This caused the opposite result lawmakers were expecting: Instead of improving education, teachers simply taught for the tests, and scores were often manipulated to pass students to the next grade rather than actually help those who didn’t un-derstand the standardized material.
It’s understandable how such an education system would stifle creativity and put pressure on students who don’t per-form well in a universal approach to education.
The question is what other model must we implement re-garding education? “Race to Nowhere” uses a school started by the famous Blue Man Group — called “The Blue School” — as an example of emphasizing creativity over achievement when teaching kids.
It may not be a universal answer, but could probably work for some students, and that’s one thing lawmakers need to
understand when it comes to “reforming” education — a “one-size-fits-all” approach isn’t going to cut it.
However, caution should be exercised with how audiences react to the film’s emphasis on the pressure students face to meet expectations. While creativity should be emphasized, there shouldn’t be any decrease in the standards we expect from students. It would be a tragedy if we took the film to mean students are incapable of handling pressure, especially in light of our country’s education rankings com-pared to the rest of the world.
Indeed, this is one area tackled in another education documentary released earlier this year, “Waiting for Superman.” This film cites an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development international student as-sessment study that reported students in the U.S. rank 21st and 25th in science and math scores respectively out of 30 developed nations.
Equally shocking though is the same study revealed that when it comes to confidence in the grades made in these sub-jects, students in the U.S. ranked the highest. Obviously many students think they’re doing a decent job when, compared to the rest of the world, it is rather mediocre.
Solutions for the nation’s education so far have been inad-equate. Indeed, “Superman” and the Obama administration have decried what they see to be too much funding for public education while at the same time praising the results of private charter schools.
However, they fail to realize that these charter schools
receive millions in private funding unavailable to public schools, and a very small percentage of them actually perform better than public schools.
The Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University evaluated the effectiveness of charter schools in the area math tests in half of the 5,000 charter schools in the U.S. The report concluded that “17 percent of charter schools re-ported academic gains that were significantly better than tra-
ditional public schools, while 37 percent of charter schools showed gains that were worse than their traditional public school counter-parts, with 46 percent of charter schools dem-onstrating no significant difference.” The per-cent of charter schools that had outstanding improvements was much smaller than the 17 percent.
The solution remains a mystery, but the answer will likely be a blend of some of the proposed solutions offered by the two films
mentioned. Yes, lawmakers ought to repeal certain aspects of the No
Child Left Behind Act, specifically the parts that pressure teachers to make sure students make the grade. At the same time, students must be expected to meet challenges in new ways, rather than being considered unable to handle pressure. Charter schools are probably appropriate in some cases, but shouldn’t be considered the cure-all.
When it comes to education, one size doesn’t fit all.
Comment on this column at OUDaily.com
While creativity should
be emphasized,
there shouldn’t be
any decrease in the
standards we expect
students to succeed.”
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 • 5The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com
LIFE&ARTS Dusty Somers, life & arts [email protected] • phone: 405-325-5189
OUDAILY.COM ›› Read about the stars from MTV’s ‘The Buried Life’ appearing on campus tonight
RESTAURANT REVIEW
Is it just me, or are there way too many Mexican restaurants on Campus Corner?
Yo u ’ v e g o t L a L u n a , Chipotle, Freebirds, the ghost of Moe’s and now, the new guy — Fuzzy’s Taco Shop. Students are going to start bursting forth with re-fried beans by the burrito-full. Afternoon classes are forever doomed to juvenile interruption by the physical reaction to such lunches. You know what I mean, assuming you learned the songs about that particular type of food in elementary school.
Pardon the brief soapbox rant. I’m still bitter about the untimely departure of Moe’s from its Campus Corner home — though it was only a matter of time, to be hon-est. You can only give away delicious free chips and salsa with a burrito purchase for so long without losing profit hand over fist.
In stark contrast to my old favorite, Fuzzy’s is looking to carve a new niche into the Norman Mexican food hier-archy, somewhere between a college pub and the kind of cheesy restaurant you find on vacation in Cancún where they sell “genuine handmade” Mexican food at tourist prices.
On the plus side is the vibrant mix of drinks avail-able at Fuzzy’s. During my Thursday night dine-in, I spotted a group of girls slurping some alcoholic concoction through four straws bobbing around in a fish bowl.
They sell a handful of beers (because really, what goes better with Mexican food?) and margaritas in fun little glass goblets — the kind that “Ladies Man” Leon Phelps once swirled Courvoisier in while entailing his romantic exploits on “Saturday Night Live.”
Plenty of TVs (they were all playing college sports when I was there) help set the mood as a casual hang-out, with plenty more room on the patio out back. That place will probably be hop-ping once the frost melts away from the flower beds in the South Oval.
And now, a four-syllable review of the food: It was OK.
Specifically the beef que-sadilla platter, which I or-dered because I felt like quesadillas are a pretty fair
Taco shop doesn’t stand out from the crowdSTAFF COLUMN
Matt Carney
MN
ey
If you go
WHERE: 752 Asp Ave.
HOURS: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday;10 a.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday
PHONE: 405-701-1000
MATT CARNEY/THE DAILY
Top: Stacy Sebastian, a manager at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, holds a platter of food Thursday inside the restaurant. Fuzzy’s opened the doors to its Norman location in late October.
Left: The beef quesadilla platter comes with two sides of the diner’s choice, pictured here with black beans and grilled potatoes. The restaurant is open until 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.
dish to review at a Mexican restaurant.
With two sides of your choice (I went with black beans and grilled potatoes), it all rang up to just a shade over $8 and left my post-af-ternoon run stomach a wee bit hungry.
It certainly tasted pretty good, though. The drippy cheese drizzled across the quesadillas was far above stadium nacho dispenser-quality and the potatoes were cooked per fect ly , though the whole platter still left me longing for quantity.
Less food than a Chipotle burrito or a Freebirds mon-ster-size (which they hap-pen to be selling at half-price for students right now) and more expensive than either isn’t a very good equation for the type of restaurant that generally caters to the very hungry.
The most noticeable part of the restaurant (aside from the extremely vibrant paint job that works as a satellite beacon on the outside and the interior of a fast food play palace inside) was the enormous number of stu-dents who were already eat-ing there.
Fuzzy’s hasn’t had its doors open for long, but we clearly got the message — football players, greeks and your ev-eryday students alike.
With the fun atmosphere, ideal location and OK food, Fuzzy’s just might be in busi-ness to stay.
— Matt Carney,
professional writing senior
Stay connected with
The Daily’s life & arts
desk for features and
entertainment news from
the Norman community
@OUDailyArts
www.twitter.com/OUDailyArts
Find out more about Fuzzy’s Taco Shop at:www.fuzzystacoshop.com
Follow Fuzzy’s Taco Shop on Twitter @FuzzysNorman
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The Center for Middle East Studies hosts
“The Arab and Democracy”lecture delivered by
Dr. Eugene Rogan, Oxford University
Thurs, Nov 18 at 4:30pm
Book signing to follow
Spring 2011 Dream Course
NOW ENROLLING!!!
GEOL/METR 1034.010: Native Science and Earth Systems of North America
Instructors: Doug Elmore, Kevin Kloesel, Mary Jo Watson, and heather ahtone Instructors: Doug Elmore, Kevin Kloesel, Mary Jo Watson, and heather ahtoneI
This dynamic team-taught course examines Earth Systems using both Instructors: Doug Elmore, Kevin Kloesel, Mary Jo Watson, and heather ahtone
This dynamicThis dynamic teamteam-taughttaught ccourse examines Earth Systems using bothourse examines Earth Systems using bothIndigenous and Western perspectives of science. Instructors utilize a This dynamic team taught course examines Earth Systems using both Indigenous and Western perspectives of science.Indigenous and Western perspectives of science InstructorsInstructors utilize autilize acombination of geology, geography, meteorology, and Native American Indigenous and Western perspectives of science. Instructors utilize a combination of geology, geography, meteorology, and Native American combination of geology geography meteorology and Native Americansciences, as expressed through art and oral history. Scheduled combination of geology, geography, meteorology, and Native Amesciences, as expressed through art and oral historysciences as expressed through art and oral history. SScheduledcheduledspeakers include Gregory Cajete, James Rattling Leaf Sr, Willard sciences, as expressed through art and oral history. Scheduled speakersspeakers include Gregory Cajete, James Rattling Leaf Sr, Willard include Gregory Cajete James Rattling Leaf Sr WillardSakiestewa Gilbert, and Steven Semken. speakers include Gregory Cajete, James RaSakiestewa Gilbert, and Steven Semken.Sakiestewa Gilbert and Steven Semken
Lecture: Tues/Thurs 1:30 – 2:45 Lecture: Tues/Thurs 1:30 – 2:45Two labs available: T 3-4:50 -or- W 3:30-5:20
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ormation, contact heather ahtone325325-8560 or [email protected] or h ahtone@ou edu
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Instructions:Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.
Previous Solution
Monday- Very EasyTuesday-EasyWednesday- EasyThursday- MediumFriday - Hard
6 8 2 3 7 5 9 1 43 7 1 6 4 9 2 5 84 9 5 2 1 8 6 7 37 5 4 9 8 3 1 2 61 2 6 7 5 4 3 8 98 3 9 1 6 2 7 4 59 6 8 4 2 7 5 3 15 1 7 8 3 6 4 9 22 4 3 5 9 1 8 6 7
3 1 56 9
8 6 2 14 6 9 7 5 2
8 92 1 4 3 6 7
9 5 6 25 1
1 7 4
Universal Crossword
UNDER WARRANTY by Henry Quarters
ACROSS1 Chip’s
cartoon friend
5 Questionable perfume?
9 Emulate a rat 13 Happily ___
after 14 Dash of
panache 15 Farm
machinery mogul John
16 Fell to pieces
18 Cut down to size
19 Wine glass part
20 Lair of a wild animal
21 Absorb gradually
23 Slip by, as time
25 Impudent 27 Roman
“being” 28 Subordinate
staffer 29 Frequent
reac-tion from Scrooge
30 River in central Missouri
33 Reeking 36 Needing
fixing 38 Emphasize
the impor-tance of
40 Completely ridiculous
41 Do a sartorial job
42 Genesis garden
44 Grabs some shut-eye
48 Like Cary Grant
51 High-flying elite
53 Potatoes and yams, e.g.
54 Trim the lawn 55 Where goats
gambol 56 Certain
Japanese-American
57 Went kaput 60 Having no
drawbacks 61 Cream-of-
the-crop 62 Impersonated 63 Fit together
harmoniously 64 Caboose’s
position 65 Bad gradesDOWN1 Judicial
ruling2 Is of use to3 Subsidiary
propositions4 Before, to
the Bard5 Siouan
shelter6 Thicke of
“Growing Pains”
7 Place to get a screwdriver
8 Secret9 Gillespie’s
genre 10 Ready to be
rented 11 Military
storehouse 12 Quilting
event
15 Like a wrung-out dishrag
17 Attack ___ (campaign tactic)
22 Tijuana timeout
24 Indiana state flower
25 More hot-tempered
26 Talese’s “Honor ___ Father”
28 Grow long in the tooth
31 1/20 of an old franc
32 Emerge 34 Sixty secs. 35 Big-time
happening 36 Metrical feet
(Var.) 37 ___ Arbor,
Mich. 38 Degree of
success? 39 Current that
goes with the wind
43 Expel from law practice
45 Not on the level
46 Reese or Herman
47 Tiers for cheers
49 West Indies witchcraft
50 He moon-walked before Michael
51 Batman foe (with “The”)
52 Yeanling producer
54 Da Vinci’s “___ Lisa”
56 Takeaway game
58 Mass of fish eggs
59 Palindromic relative
PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER
Edited by Timothy E. Parker November 17, 2010
© 2010 Universal Uclickwww.upuzzles.com
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Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) - Make certain the buck stops with you if you make a serious gaffe; don’t resist taking any blame. You’ll gain the respect of others by ‘fessing up to the matter.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) - You normally tend to be a bit of a risk-taker, but it could end up hurting you if you take a fi nancial gamble on limited information. It’ll be a case of what you don’t know hurting you.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) - Carefully plan all your moves and methods, so that you don’t make a miscalculation and deprive yourself of success you normally would have achieved.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) - Because you could be a bit daring, you might jump to conclusions far too easily. Take the necessary time to verify all information that comes from unknown sources.
PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) - Involving yourself in the fi nancial affairs of others isn’t the wisest course of action for you to take. If you allow yourself to be drawn into their problems, demands could be put on you personally.
ARIES (March 21-April 19) - You’re the one who will be held accountable for the actions and/or behavior of someone you teamed up with, if anything should go wrong. Be sure your ally is highly credible.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) - Unattractive jobs that you’ve put off doing will only get tougher by delaying them or ignoring them completely. They are likely to jump up and bite you.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20) - Guard against an inclination to take risks with something you borrowed from another. If you ruin anything the other person values, you will be expected to make restitution immediately.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) - It is best never to knowingly buck the odds, especially with matters or things that are work-related or have to do with your career. You could do irrefutable harm and risk a lot for a little.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) - Although you generally are a reasonably tactful person, you might be so focused on the faults of others that you condemn them for things you normally wouldn’t. Lighten up.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) - Manage money matters yourself, instead of putting your fi nancial affairs in the hands of someone about whom you know little. Any mistakes this person makes will come out of your pocket.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) - If someone whose support you usually receive is very resistant to your plans, expressing aggression won’t help your case one bit. Find out what it is that s/he dislikes and try to make some changes.
HOROSCOPE By Bernice Bede Osol
Copyright 2010, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC ACCESS
During the Regular Meeting Of
The University of OklahomaPUBLICATIONS BOARD
Friday, Nov. 19 at 9:30 a.m.Copeland Hall, Room 146
Students, staff, faculty and others in the community are invited to express their views concerning
The Oklahoma Daily or Sooner yearbook to the Publications Board.
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6 • Wednesday, November 17, 2010 The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com
CLASSIFIEDS Bobby Jones, advertising managerclassifi [email protected] • phone: 405-325-2521
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 • 7The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com
SPORTS James Corley, sports [email protected] • phone: 405-325-3666
OUDAILY.COM ›› Story following the end of OU volleyball’s road game against the No. 5 Cornhuskers
FOOTBALL
OU football coaches lim-ited media access to play-ers this week as the team prepares for a must-win road game against Baylor on Saturday.
By doing so, the staff essentially admitted that its play-ers lack the confidence to be mentally ready for a game after standing up to questioning and poking from sports reporters about the road struggles during the week.
This causes me to question whether the coaches can manage the emotional states of these players. Media and fan scrutiny is as much a part of football as the turf or the pigskin, yet this Sooner group seems to take criticism to heart when away from Norman.
Even though many key players are underclassmen, we’ve been constantly reminded how mature they are.
But could their youth and inexperience explain why the Sports Animal’s Al Eschback or the Norman Transcript’s Clay Horning are more intimidating to the Sooners than Texas A&M junior quarterback Ryan Tannehill or Missouri sophomore wide receiver T.J. Moe?
It’s not like journalists are the bad guys here. We aren’t constantly telling players they are worthless or incapable.
But we do wonder why OU is 17-15 on the road since 2005. We do wonder why the Sooners lost five road games last year alone and are 2-2 this season.
So what if we ask about the road struggles before every road game? So what if we question the preparedness of the team when it fails to produce in the fourth quarter?
That’s our job.And it’s the coaches’ jobs to prepare the players for
the challenges of foreign stadiums and performing away from the safety and protection of Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
If limiting media availability to players after practice is what it takes for OU to be mentally ready to perform on the road, I applaud the move by coach Bob Stoops and his staff to do so this week.
However, it also raises a far greater concern for the players. Journalists — like the Tulsa World’s John Hoover, who was shut down in Tuesday’s press conference after asking about the road struggles — will do their jobs and ask the questions that need to be asked.
If being shielded from those questions is one of the only ways these players can be ready for road games, maybe they’re not quite as mentally mature as we’ve been told.
— James Corley,
journalism senior
Coach Art Briles, QB Robert Griffi n changing football culture in Waco
CLARK FOYThe Oklahoma Daily
As the Sooners prepare for Saturday’s game, players and coaches are focusing on finishing the season with two straight road games.
Road play has not been the Sooners’ forte the past couple of seasons. In fact, the Sooners have lost their past two road games this season after losing five games away from home last year.
Player availability has been limited to two players each day this week for inter-views after practice while the team prepares for Baylor.
Former University of Houston coach Art Briles was hired in 2007 by the Bears and has already left his mark on the Bear Nation, OU de-fensive coordinator Brent Venables said.
Briles’ offensive genius is the reason behind Baylor’s 489 yards of offense per game, good for ninth in the nation and second in the Big 12.
“He’s very tough and very confident,” Venables said. “He has a ‘go for broke’ men-tality, and his players feed off of that. ... He has changed the culture there at Baylor big time.”
Leading Briles’ offense is sophomore quarterback Robert Griffin III. He sat out the majority of last season with a torn ACL — earning him a medical redshirt — but has returned this year right in stride of where he was as a true freshman.
“He’s a terrific player,” Venables said. “He plays
every snap with a great deal of purpose. Every play you’re holding your breath when he is back there.”
In 2008, Griffin was re-garded as a raw athlete and a run-first quarterback.
That year, he threw 267 times for 2,091 yards and 15 touchdowns.
This season, he already has thrown 380 times for 3,071 yards and 20 touchdowns.
But he hasn’t totally given up rushing, accumulating 508 net yards and the eight touchdowns on the ground.
Like it or not, the Baylor offense with Briles and Griffin at the helm is to be feared, Venables said.
“They’re breaking every scoreboard every week, and they’re just very productive and explosive and playing really well,” Venables said.
The two best offenses in the Big 12 — Baylor and Oklahoma State — are exact-ly who OU finishes its regular season against on the road.
With the limited availabil-ity this week, the players are keeping to themselves this week to focus, junior wide receiver Ryan Broyles said.
“The media is going to talk, friends and family are going to say things, but the only thing you can control is the locker room,” he said.
With the Sooners lining up
against an explosive offense Saturday, Broyles said they are ready for a dog fight.
“That’s how we prepared this last week versus Texas Tech,” he said. “We know it’s going to be a full-round game, and if it does happen that way, we are going to play all four quarters and play our best game and hopefully get a win on the road.”
Despite the additional focus, Broyles said noth-ing has changed in their preparation.
“We practice every week to dominate our opponent,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if we are away or at home; we practice to win.”
Baylor not same old Bears
ROD AYDELOTTE/WACO TRIBUNE HERALD/AP
Baylor sophomore quarterback Robert Griffin (10) slips past a Kansas State defender Oct. 23 in Waco, Texas. Baylor won 47-42.
COLUMN
Is withdrawing best way to focus?
ROBERT GRIFFIN III
Sam Houston State301 yards, 3 total TDs
Buffalo324 total yards, 4 total TDs
at TCU185 total yards, 1 TD
at Rice318 total yards, 3 total TDs
Kansas444 total yards, 4 total TDs
at Texas Tech402 total yards, 4 total TDs
at Colorado371 total yards, 1 TD
Kansas State 412 total yards, 4 total TDs
at Texas236 total yards, 3 total TDs
at Oklahoma State282 total yards, no TDs
Texas A&M304 total yards, 1 TD
STAFF COLUMN
James Corley
LUMN
orley
8 • Wednesday, November 17, 2010 The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.comSPORTS
VOLLEYBALL
CHRIS DORWART/DAILY NEBRASKAN
Members of the Nebraska Cornhuskers celebrate a win over Colorado on Sept. 19 at NU Coliseum. OU is 0-30 against the Huskers in Lincoln, Neb., and has lost the last 26 straight meetings. The last regular-season match between the teams is tonight.
RISING: FRESHMAN GUARD MORGAN HOOKHook has already shown she is a capable scorer coming off the bench. In OU’s
fi rst regular-season game, she scored 13 points — including 3 of 7 three-point attempts — in 28 minutes.
EVEN: VOLLEYBALL’S DEFENSEThe Sooners showcased some of the best defense they have played all year
against Colorado, then used the same stellar defense to take down No. 14 Iowa State on Saturday. OU recorded an amazing 84 digs in its win over the Cyclones.
FALLING: FOOTBALL’S CONFIDENCEBy greatly reducing the media’s access to players this week, the coaches, in essence, admitted to
being unable to keep their players mentally prepared for road games with the media asking questions and calling for solutions.
— James Corley/The Daily
Sooner sports stock report
OU aims for fi rst win at Nebraska in last ever conference meeting
GREG FEWELL
The Oklahoma Daily
The Nebraska volleyball team doesn’t lose very often, especially at home.
OU faces a tall task when it tries to beat the fifth-ranked Huskers tonight in Lincoln, Neb. Even though the Sooners picked up their first win over a ranked oppo-nent Saturday against No. 14 Iowa State, history is over-whelmingly against OU for a second.
The win over the Cyclones was a highlight in what has been a great season so far for the Sooners, but a win against Nebraska on the road would be one of the biggest wins in program history.
O U ha s n e v e r w o n i n Lincoln, going 0-30 at the NU Coliseum.
And aside from Nebraska’s OU-football-esque home success, the Cornhuskers also own the nation’s lon-gest consecutive home sell-out streak (145 matches) in not just volleyball but all collegiate women’s sports.
The Huskers have won the 26 meetings of the teams, in-cluding the Sept. 29 match in Norman (3-1).
While Nebraska is obvi-ously the favorite going into this match, OU has proven that they can play with any-one in the country. After losing two straight matches for the first time in over a month to kick off November, the Sooners came back with a vengeance last week. Led by stellar defense, the team dominated Colorado 3-0 and then upset Iowa State 3-1 to capture sole posses-sion of third place in the Big 12.
Sooners to fi ght history, Huskers
That match, along with the upset victory over Texas in 2007, was a big deal for the program. However, a win over Nebraska is the kind of thing that garners national attention.
OU has been hovering just outside the top 25 all year. After last week’s per-formance, the team is clos-er than they have been all season, earning 58 votes. A win over the No. 5 team in the country would be just the thing the Sooners need to finally receive a ranking.
But that’s not the only thing up for grabs for OU. Since Nebraska is mak-ing the move to the Big
Ten Conference next year, tonight’s match will be the last conference meet-ing ever between OU and Nebraska, and therefore the team’s last chance to take down Nebraska in the regular season. This would b e O U c o a c h Sa nt i a g o Restrepo’s first win over the Cornhuskers in his 10 sea-sons at OU and would give the Sooners a huge boost in national attention.
First serve in the match between OU (19-8, 11-5 Big 12) and Nebraska (24-2, 16-1) is set for 7 p.m. at NU Coliseum, and the match will be aired nationwide on CBS College Sports.
Seven OU volleyball players were named to the 2010 Academic All-Big 12 team Tuesday, tied with Kansas for the most of any conference school. All seven were named to the fi rst team.
Hitters Suzy Boulavsky, journalism junior, and Francie Ekwerekwu, human relations graduate student, were two of only three named to the team with perfect 4.0 grade point averages.
“They work hard on the court to make this program successful, and they’re getting it done in the classroom as well,” OU coach Santiago Restrepo said.
Chrissy Dissaro, health and exercise science senior; Sarah Freudenrich, human resources management senior; Caitlin Higgins, microbiology junior; María Fernanda, health and exercise science sophomore; and Morgan Reynolds, elementary education sophomore, join Boulavsky and Ekwerekwu on the list of 51 student-athletes.
— Daily staff reports
VOLLEYBALL
7 named to Big 12 academic team
Morgan Hook
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