The Great Recession, which began in 2007, was damag-

ing not only to the job market and banking sector, but also to educa-tion. State-funded schools have found themselves with shrinking budgets, and all schools—public and private—have found them-selves directly or indirectly affect-ed by the downturn.

Everyone has been affected, in-cluding the University of Tulsa. However, the university does have the advantage of being a private institution, which means that it does not have to rely on state fund-ing as its primary means of sup-

port. However, the recession has adversely affected the university in other ways related to funding.

The university’s endowment and some trust funds have been ex-posed to market change and those investments took a sizeable hit after the financial crisis of 2008. These accounts have dropped from an all-time high of $971 million in 2007 to $626 million by the end of the 2009 fiscal year. This drop caused university administration to worry, because endowment in-come constitutes about 20 percent of the operating budget.

Less-than-stellar endowment performances were a part of a larger disappointment for the uni-versity. In a statement in October 2008, President Steadman Upham discussed “the unsettled feeling” he experienced due to ”constant bad news stemming from the melt-down of the global credit mar-kets.”

These worries were compound-ed due to the method by which

funds are withdrawn from the endowment. Upham explained in his 2010 convocation speech that “each quarter, any earnings gener-ated by our endowment go into a holding fund. And each quarter, we draw from that fund based on an average of the previous 12 quarters’ performance.”

This means that the losses and paltry earnings experienced in late 2008 and early 2009 have been af-fecting the operating budget of the school for several years. Consid-ering that TU’s expenditures out-stripped its revenue for the 2008-09 and the 2009-10 academic years, it has become clear the the university has been dealing with very difficult issues for quite some time.

However, TU’s administration has been quick to address those issues under their immediate con-trol. As the student housing cam-paign and other major renovations neared completion, TU suddenly needed to adapt to a volatile economy, which led to some uni-versity-wide reform the the spring of 2008. After a healthy financial year in 2007, as the economy be-gan to take a turn for the worst, Upham laid out his plans to keep TU’s books balanced.

Upham optimistically cited ten factors that he believed would help TU to emerge from the recession relatively unscathed. Upham cited robust enrollment, the academic talent of the student body and en-couraging fundraising statistics.

However, due to the unpredict-able nature of the economy, he remained cautious, and acknowl-edged that a balanced budget was “almost taken for granted” at TU, emphasizing that “balanced bud-gets are the wellspring of financial stability.”

During the past fews years, TU’s administration has adopted more conservative fiscal measures in an effort to reduce the risk of fi-nancial disaster. For several years before the bulk of the recession swept the nation, TU built a small stockpile of funds to use as a cush-

ion if the economic situation wors-ened. It remains unknown how much of that stockpile was used, but the university also relied on many other strategies to curb the effects of the crisis.

Many of the university’s suc-cesses were due to careful work by the school administrators, Upham said. He highlighted their individ-ual roles in his 2010 Presidential Report: “As the 2008-09 academic year drew to a close our deans, vice-presidents and other senior administrators began to discuss the challenges presented by the troubled economy.”

The administration instituted several cost-saving measures like significantly reducing use of over-time, unpaid half-days through the summer, a brief hold on merit salary increases, reclamation of funding for vacant positions, and a moratorium on the creation of new positions.

However, absent from those cost-saving measures implement-ed were layoffs. Avoiding down-sizing is a feat the administration is particularly proud of. “TU did not lay off one single person dur-ing the recession years. That’s due to President Upham’s leadership and an executive team that worked very hard every day to find cost savings and efficiencies,” said Kayla Acebo, Vice President of Public Relations.

Additionally, the private dona-

tions of alumni and local founda-tions have meant that the number of scholarships awarded by the university has not decreased since 2006 and the university’s commit-ment to education and the edifica-tion of the Tulsa community re-mains strong.

“Despite troubling changes in the nation’s economy, TU has en-joyed milestone-filled (years) as a value provider for our students, partner institutions and the wider Tulsa community,” said Upham. In fact, TU has been fortunate that spending on academic instruction did not decrease during the reces-sion and appropriations for univer-sity-funded scholarships increased during the recession.

Other contributing factors to TU’s financial stability are the completion of the “Embrace the Future” campaign which raised $698 million for the university and the successful campaigns to build the Rayzor Hall, Stephenson Hall and the Lorton Performance Cen-ter.

In the end, the strategies em-ployed by the executive team and the Board of Trustees have proven successful, and despite the hits to the budget, TU has managed to re-main significantly more successful than other academic institutions during the recession.

Steven Buchele contributed to this report.

a student newspaper of the university of tulsa october 29, 2012 issue 9 ~ volume 98

TU President Steadman Upham delivered his convocation address Thursday Oct. 25, in which he addressed the university’s developing financial position.

Photo courtesy Erik Campos, University Relations, the University of Tulsa

Efforts by TU’s administration to protect the endowment in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis steered TU away from financial disaster.

Oscar HOStudent Writer

Financial collapse took toll on TU,American university endowments

TU endowment compared to total funds in top 120 U.S. university endowments

1999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011

$ 154,674,237$ 194,002,678$ 186,390,154$ 175,489,026$ 180,992,339$ 208,667,975$ 234,940,282$ 268,899,430$ 322,194,627$ 312,068,725$ 243,496,751$ 263,961,330

$ 684,138$ 725,470$ 730,949$ 679,691$ 640,119$ 701,948$ 769,551$ 816,980$ 915,320$ 843,030$ 646,672$ 691,917$817,322

Dollar amounts listed in 1,000s of dollars.

Representation of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (grey) and TU’s endowment (yellow) from 2003 to 2011.

Source: Institute for Education Sciences

Year Total in top 120 U.S. endowments

TU endowment

With the current state of the econ-omy, there has been a lot of dis-cussion about collegiate athletic spending. While it can be easy to point to the numbers to argue that spending is excessive, the many benefits of collegiate athletics are often overlooked in favor of eco-nomic concerns.

Collegiate athletics benefit not just the student athletes them-selves, but also the institution they play for. The benefits to student-athletes are easy to see, as athletic spending assists young athletes in fulfilling their dreams and receiv-ing an education at the same time.

In 2001, Tim Weiser, former athletic director at Kansas State, compared athletics to the front porch of a house and said, “People often see the university through the athletic program in a way that they might not otherwise see the university ... If you have a well-kept front porch, the rest of the university will take on the same image.”

This is almost certainly the case at the University of Tulsa, the smallest U.S. school to spon-sor NCAA Division I sports. The Golden Hurricane brings national attention to the university and the city; the university hosted the NCAA 2004 and 2008 Ten-nis Championships, and will host the C-USA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships at the BOK Center in 2013.

The university has hosted na-

tionally televised football games, and other elite sporting events have brought state-wide and na-tional focus to the university, pro-moting TU in a way few other me-dia could.

It is easy to point to the big-picture athletic expenditures while ignoring some of the finer details. In 2010, the operating expenses of the 16 teams representing the Golden Hurricane added up to over $24 million. The Associated Press published an article that year which listed Tulsa as being No. 2 in a list of the institutions that spent the most per undergraduate student. Also listed in the top ten were Notre Dame, the University of Miami,and the University of Arkansas.

What these numbers do not reveal, however, is the number if students that are athletes. For example, Arkansas had an un-dergraduate population in 2010 of 14,785, and 450 of these were student-athletes. In contrast, TU’s 2010 undergraduate enrollment was 2,943, with 409 student-ath-letes. This means that less than three percent of Arkansas’ student population benefited directly from their athletic expenditures, while almost 15 percent of Tulsa’s stu-dents benefit directly.

This statistic alone goes to show that the way the data are presented can give a distorted perspective. Another common argument is that the university spends money on athletics that they would otherwise spend on academics.

Donations given directly to the athletic department also contrib-ute to the amount spent on athlet-ics, and a great deal of the money spent is actually revenue produced from athletics itself. In fact, the school may generate academic do-nations from the publicity it gets as a result of athletics.

These sometimes-overlooked facts help produce a more com-plete picture of collegiate athletic spending and, through this under-standing, it is clear that collegiate athletics produce benefits that out-weigh the costs.

Across the nation, tuition rates are at an all-time high for college students, and, according to the De-partment of Eduction, the rate of defaults on student loans within two years of the first payment has continued to grow.

The take-away from these two facts is that students are paying more than ever for a college de-gree, and they are having a more difficult time than ever paying back the debt they incurred to earn it. Yet, in the midst of all of this expenditure on academics, athlet-ics programs are growing to be some of the most costly depart-ments for universities.

These growing costs, as iso-lated data, obviously say nothing about the returns of athletic de-partments, financial or otherwise, to universities and their students.

However, given the current eco-

nomic climate faced by students, every university should be asking, are we spending too much on ath-letics?

Clearly, as TU students and fac-ulty, our primary interest should be how spending on athletic pro-grams effects our university.

Nevertheless, TU is part of a larger trend that must be explained before examining TU’s own allo-cation of funds between athletics and academics.

A 2009 report titled The Aca-demics Athletics Trade-off from the Center for College Afford-ability and Productivity had this to say about university athletic departments: “For virtually all col-leges, intercollegiate athletics is not a good financial investment. In 2006, only 19 of 119 FBS (Foot-ball Bowl Subdivision) institu-tions realized a net profit from ath-letics, using a liberal definition of the term ‘profit.’”

This quote does more than high-light the limited returns of athletic spending—it also puts the trade-off between athletic and academic spending in the context of what is frequently the most popular and expensive collegiate athletic pro-gram, football.

Before addressing the central question, let’s examine how TU stacks up nationally in terms of spending on athletics and football.

According to another report form the CCAP, TU spends the equivalent of 48.1 percent of its instructional budget on athletics.

This report had TU ranked at

the third-highest ratio of athletic to instructional spending in the entire country, and another report published by the Associated Press ranked TU second nationally in terms of athletic spending per capita with $3,326 for each under-graduate student.

After examining statistics for all universities and TU, it is easy to be concerned about the central goals of our universities, at least in terms of expenditures.

We spend a great deal on athlet-ics and recognize almost no finan-cial returns directly through the athletic department.

No one can deny that there are benefits to having athletics and, specifically, a football program at your university, and those benefits are certainly not limited to finan-cial returns.

Something must be said about how sports add to student life and how they create connections between the university and their community.

Even then, does anyone truly believe we are seeing a sufficient enough return on this outrageous spending to justify continuing this trend?

Spending is always a zero-sum game for universities. Resources are either distributed in one de-partment or another.

As students continue to watch spending on athletic programs, especially football, detract from other departments, they will be forced to recognize that the uni-versity, as a primarily academic

institution, has an ob-ligation to provide its students with the best education possible, de-spite the cost to other departments.

If university presi-dents, faculty, and students aren’t bold enough to make such a statement, the idea of a university being a “primarily academic institution” is sure to change in the coming years.

Sports the Collegian : 229 oCtober 2012

TU should get back to basics, focus on academics Athletics worth the investment

C-USA ongoing season review: Hurricane leads conference

As November approaches, the col-lege football season is a little over halfway finished. November is crucial to the fate of bowl-bound college football teams, and the games it brings will ultimately decide which two teams will head to the Conference USA champion-ship game in early December.

That said, it has been an ex-tremely engaging season building up to this pivotal point, and the outlook of some contenders for the league title has been defined a little more clearly.

Front Runner: TulsaWith Tulsa undefeated in confer-ence play at 5–0, it is the clear front-runner at the midpoint of the C-USA season. After a tough season-opening loss on the road to Iowa State, Tulsa hit its stride reeling and earned seven straight victories.

The Golden Hurricane boasts the league’s second best total de-fense, and leads the nation with 35 sacks while only giving up four sacks. Tulsa also owns the league’s best rushing attack, spearheaded by running backs Ja’Terian Doug-las, Trey Watts and Alex Single-ton.

Douglas, Watts and Single-ton are averaging an astound-ing 249 yards per game on the ground. If Tulsa can continue to have a strong ground game and stellar defensive effort, it will

be hard to deny the Golden Hur-ricane a shot at the league title. Dark Horse: SMUThe Mustangs have had an up-and-down season so far, posting a 3–4 record, but going into Novem-ber, Southern Methodist Univer-sity has gained some momentum.

Coming off of a 72–42 trounc-ing of Houston, SMU could be poised to make a run with the bulk of its C-USA schedule remaining.

SMU boasts a stout run game behind the C-USA preseason of-fensive player of the year, running back Zach Line, and could play the spoiler role to the championship hopes of teams like the University of Central Florida and Tulsa down the stretch.

Look for SMU to play like a team that has nothing to lose, po-tentially inspiring fear in the rest of the C-USA teams in the last weeks of the season.

Biggest Surprise: East CarolinaThere have been no surprising front-runners in C-USA at this point in the season. Many C-USA teams got off to really disappoint-ing starts to the season, or have fallen short of expectations. East Carolina, though, does not fall un-der either of those categories.

Picked to finish in the bottom half of the East division at the be-ginning of the season, the Pirates have posted an impressive 4–1 league record, and are right in the middle of the race for a spot in the League Championship game.

East Carolina has one of the na-tion’s best offensive minds in Of-fensive Coordinator Lincoln Ri-ley, and have the third ranked total defense in C-USA. East Carolina should be a serious threat to any team in the conference down the

stretch, especially if the Pirates are playing at home.

Biggest Disappointment: Southern MissLast year, Southern Miss won the conference championship. This year, Southern Miss is winless af-ter seven games. A drop-off of this magnitude is hard to explain or understand. To say that the Golden Eagles miss former Head Coach Larry Fedora (now head coach at North Carolina) is a drastic under-statement.

Golden Hurricane OutlookTulsa is right where it wants to be headed into the last month of the season. Traditionally, November

has been kind to the Golden Hur-ricane, with the exception of 2008, when the fateful month brought the previously undefeated Hurri-cane three lost games.

Just like in 2008, Tulsa will get a shot at the Arkansas Razor-backs next week. Crucial to the Hurricane’s success are starting quarterback Cody Green and start-ing running back Trey Watts, who both sustained minor injuries over the course of the past few weeks. Watts is expected to play against Arkansas, while Green’s status is a little more uncertain.

“Trey (Watts) looked really fresh this week. He didn’t miss a beat,” Tulsa Head Coach Bill Blankenship said. “Of course, he

wasn’t getting hit, but his move-ment looked really good.”

Blankenship later spoke on the status of Green: “As we speak today, I haven’t seen Cody throw like he’s going to have to throw. But according to the trainer, he’s where he needs to be. The jury is still out on Cody.”

If Green and Watts are healthy, Tulsa could have a shot on the road at Arkansas, as the Razorbacks have been struggling this season. A win would be all too welcome to Tulsa fans, redeeming decades of losses to Arkansas.

The Golden Hurricane has not defeated the Razorbacks since 1976.

As the C-USA passes into the fateful games of November, teams assess their chances at bowl and championship play.

Jake DODsOnStudent Writer

College athletic programs have benefits other than net dollar profits that justify expenditures, and distorted statistics can be manipulated to condemn spending.

amanDa scHenk Student Writer

If universities are primarily scholastic institutions, the majority of their resources should be devoted to furthering academics rather than acessory programs.

nick

LeweLLen Student Writer

The women’s soccer team closed out the regular season and the seniors bade adieu to Hurricane Stadium on Friday with a 2–1 win over Southern Methodist University following an enthralling game. Seniors Rebecca Handley and Stephanie Aitken landed the Hurricane’s two points of the evening.

Yang Wang / Collegian

Women’s soccer finishes regular season strong

Located just one block west of campus in the historic Campbell Hotel Open 4 p.m. Mon.-Sat.; 11 a.m. Sun.

The Campbell Lounge 2636 E. 11th St., Tulsa, OK 74104 (918) 744-5500 www.thecampbellhotel.com

The Campbell Lounge

The University of Tulsa men’s basketball team is ready for a new season. This will be basketball great Danny Manning’s first season as head coach. TU is not his first col-lege coaching experience, but the fresh en-ergy he has brought to the team is evident. With six freshmen and only three returning players from last season, the TU team is in-experienced with college gameplay.

“We look forward to getting out there and seeing where we’re at,” said Manning. “It’s been a fun process so far. We’re getting bet-ter each day.”

A new, faster tempo has greatly affected practice, and with more conditioning and running, the team is already in better shape than last year. “We want to get up and down the court; we want to be able to push tem-po,” Manning said.

The team is also getting new jerseys this year to go with the new court in Reynolds and its new coach. The jerseys will be re-vealed in time for season play, but right now the team is wearing throwback jerseys that have no names, “TULSA” in bold across the

front and a much simpler design.On Saturday, the Hurricane played its

first exhibition game. It soundly trounced the Emporia State Hornets 60–49. Leading at halftime, the players continued to bring their best in the second half. Twice the play-ers enjoyed a 13-point lead over their op-ponents.

At first, it looked as though the lead might exchange hands during the game, but Tulsa maintained it for most of the first half. During that half, that lead grew and resulted in a solid win for TU. Rashad Smith scored the first two points of the game, which were

crucial to the lead. Historically, Tulsa has a greater chance of winning a game if they are ahead at the half.

“Scottie Haralson is the only player on our team with the ultimate green light,” said Manning. “When he’s open, he shoots it.”

Haralson did score a few points this game, but Smith and James Woodard were the scoring leaders with 19 and 12 points, respectively. Smith also had the most re-bounds.

The exhibition was an exciting beginning to a season that has already been dubbed “The Danny Manning Era.”

The Tulsa Oilers ice hockey team hosted the Quad City Mallards for the home opener of their 2012–2013 season Friday night at the BOK Center.

The Oilers were looking to come out strong in front of 5,400 fans, including St. Louis Cardinals shortstop and Owasso na-tive Pete Kozma, after their 8–2 loss last Saturday to the Wichita Thunder. The puck was in the Oilers’ zone for the majority of the first ten minutes, but about halfway through first period, the Oilers’ Drew Fisher put the puck in the back of the net, and the arena filled with excitement.

That joy was short lived, though, as the Mallards returned with two quick goals within five minutes. The Oilers kept the pressure on for the rest of the period and had many chances to score, but were unable to get past the Mallards’ goalie. At the end of the first, the Oilers but were losing 2–1 despite more shots on goal.

The Oilers didn’t let off the pressure go-ing into the second period. Tense words were exchanged, bodies were thrown and tussles started, but the officials kept the players under control. Near the end of the

second period, Oiler Gary Steffes knocked the puck out of the zone and passed past the Mallard defense to David Alexandre Beauregard who skated down the ice on a breakaway. The puck flew over the shoulder of the Mallard’s goalie and into the upper, right-hand corner of the net, tying the score.

The spirits of the Oilers and their fans were riding high, but only moments later, the Mallards replied with a goal of their own after the Oilers failed to clear the puck from their own zone. The period ended with worry brewing among the fans.

Four minutes into the third period, Stef-fes was back in action for the Oilers. Michel Beausoleil had a breakaway, but shot the puck wide. It came off of the board right to Steffes, who stuffed the puck under the Mal-lard goalie’s pads to tie the game at three.

Regulation time was running out and nei-ther team could score. Players and fans were getting tense. The play was getting more physical and some fans on the extreme were wanting blood, but the players kept calm and continued to play until the end of regu-lation with the score once again tied at three apiece.

So began a five minute, sudden-death overtime period. The Oilers could not clear their zone and the Mallards took advantage. With just 32 seconds until a shootout, the Mallards snuck the puck past Oiler goalie Dan Bakala to claim two points in the stand-ing, leaving the Oilers with one point and a loss.

The team faced the Mallards again on Sat-urday night in Quad City, Iowa. The Oilers handily beat the Mallards 4-1 after taking an

early 2-0 nothing lead in the first period. On Sunday afternoon, the Oilers took their first home victory against the Fort Worth Brah-mas. With this victory, the Oilers are now in first place in the CHL.

The team will travel to Dallas to play against the Allen Americans on Wednesday and Friday nights before returning home to play the Americans once again on Saturday night at 7:35 at the BOK Center.

In the 1912 Olympics, one of the most fa-mous athletes in Oklahoma history, Jim Thorpe, won gold medals for the U.S. in the pentathlon and the decathlon. He was later stripped of these honors because—having played semi-professional baseball before the Olympic games—he was not considered an “amateur.”

It would not be until the 1970s that the International Olympic Committee began to allow professional athletes—those who ac-tually made money off of their athletic tal-ent—to compete.

Now Olympians like Michael Phelps can bring in tens of millions of dollars off of en-dorsements and cash prizes, and the USA can clobber all basketball competition with super-teams of the most well-paid super-stars on the planet.

Amateurism was and is primarily a prin-ciple of the upper classes, stemming from an English aristocratic ethos that empha-sizes the “fairness” of gentleman athletes competing on the basis of non-specific, well-rounded talent. Both specialization and compensation are looked down upon—a snobbish luxury not afforded to those for whom athletic talent and effort represents the only path out of poverty.

Though the Olympics now allows pro-fessional athletes, amateurism is not dead.

Today the NCAA—the National Collegiate Athletic Association—is the most influ-ential body of amateur athletes in North America, with over a thousand colleges and universities being governed by its rules.

One such rule is the enforcement of ama-teurism by preventing schools from offer-ing student-athletes anything more than free tuition, room, board and school-related ex-penses to play for their teams.

In short, athletes can receive scholar-ships, but they cannot be paid. They are amateurs.

The word “amateur” derives from French and means “lover of.” Calling an athlete an “amateur athlete” is making a statement about motivation and incentives.

But here we must be skeptical—do col-lege athletes really compete just “for the love of the game”? Perhaps some do, like Division III athletes who are not eligible for athletic scholarships. But on the whole, there is an array of motivations leading stu-dents to play for their schools’ teams, and many of these motivations are financial: scholarships or the hope of a prosperous professional career.

Requiring amateurism is a moral or aes-thetic position that disdains financial remu-neration as a “corrupting” influence upon sports. The position is buttressed by notions of fairness and equality, or concerns that replacing amateurism with wages would eradicate team solidarity.

One can prefer amateur sports for any reason in the world. But the NCAA goes one step further—as the only and undis-puted governing body of high-caliber col-lege athletics in the United States, it wields monopolistic, unilateral power over its la-bor class, and it successfully colludes with other monopolies like the NFL and the NBA

to further restrict the opportunities available to young athletes in America via limits on how soon after high school athletes can join pro leagues.

The pro leagues get better trained, more experienced players without paying to de-velop them—the college leagues get guar-anteed seasons with top-quality athletes for the low, low price of college tuition and board.

Economics has no moral or aesthetic remarks to make about amateurism, but economics knows a thing or two about mo-nopolies. And when there is only one busi-ness in the country that will hire an 18-year-old for his promising football or basketball skills, and that organization restricts wages to nothing except scholarships, limits mo-bility with rules about transferring schools or going pro, and even prevents outside em-ployment like endorsements or commercial contracts, make no mistake—that is a mo-nopoly, and a very successful one at that.

Amateurism may be a fine thing. Many a college athlete benefits more from a free education than he or she would from a few years of compensation in a minor or semi-pro league.

But for a single institution to wield un-checked power to determine exactly how young men and women can use and benefit from their talents—and for there to be no competing entities that offer other deals, like living stipends or guaranteed remuner-ation for athletic injuries—that is a recipe for management to extract enormous prof-its from unpaid labor, and that is a situation that is neither prudent nor just.

the Collegian : 3 29 oCtober 2012Sports

Welcome back to the theoretically weekly Bleacher Creature!

It is joyous to be back in the hallowed halls of The Collegian’s print, but with a heavy heart I inform you that we must dis-cuss again lockouts.

The most despicable, dreaded thing in professional sports—even more so than Cris Collinsworth’s mindless rambling on Sun-day night football—has bitten us yet again, loyal fan. Not to fret too much, though—it’s only hockey.

In another installment of a tired tale, the players can’t come to terms with the own-ers. After the NFL players’ lockout, the NFL refs’ lockout, and the 2011 NBA lockout, this seems like the oldest story in the book.

The NHL season, which was supposed to start Oct. 11, has been pushed back until at least Nov. 30. That’s over a quarter of the hockey season cancelled already.

This will be the third lockout since com-missioner Gary Bettman took office in 1993, the most notable of which ended with the cancellation of the entire 2004-2005 season. Things look bleak at best for hock fans.

Well, let’s keep the sports pessimism rolling with some football obituaries:

• On Sept. 23, we learned of the sudden, tragic downfall of Darrell Revis’ ACL. Revis was not only the best corner in the league, he was arguably the best player. He had an uncanny ability to shut down either side of the field in man coverage in the context of a decidedly pass-happy league.

Last year he held opposing receivers to an unbelievably low 41.2 percent catch rate. Revis will not only be missed by the Jets, but by fans of the game everywhere. R.I.P. Darrell Revis’ ACL.

• On Oct. 23, it came out that Packers re-ceiver Greg Jennings would be out a mini-mum of three weeks after undergoing ab-dominal surgery. While he’s gotten plenty of airtime on Old Spice commercials, Jennings has hardly seen the field for a game this year.

Believing in one’s “smellf” obviously ex-pedites healing of bodily injuries. It’s true that he’ll be back in time for the playoffs, so he doesn’t belong in the obituaries, but the hopeful, patient fantasy football teams that were depending on Jennings do belong there. R.I.P., my fantasy football team.

Well, this has sure been a downer of an ar-ticle. Let’s try to brighten it up with some quick hitters to end things out.

The World Series! That’s exciting! Some-body told me TU football was pretty good, that’s exciting! Hey, basketball’s almost back!

Take heart, good sports fan, it is easy, in this day and age, to let the darkness of contract disputes and injuries swallow you whole, but it is important to keep the light in view.

Remember the reason you first began to follow sports religiously, and you’ll remem-ber that there is always something pure and good to be found in sports. There’s some good in this world Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for! Who’s with me?

sam mOrtOnStudent Writer

Men’s basketball begins “Danny Manning Era”The Golden Huricane has an exhibtion victory out of the gate and is looking forward to a season of firsts.

Beate HaLLStudent Writer

Oilers threaten Mallards’ natural habitatThe Tulsa Oilers lost their home opener to the Quad City Mallards, came back to dominate the Mallards’ own home opener the next day and finally beat the Fort Worth Brahmas for their first victory at home.

wiLL BramLettStudent Writer

Amateurism abused by athletic monopoliesThe NCAA, along with organizations like the NBA and NFL, leave athletes with few options outside their preset path to the pros.

JOHn LepineStudent Writer

Yang Wang / Collegian

The men came away from their exhibition game with a win. The promise of the season ahead holds much opportunity for growth and the establishment of a new era for Hurricane men’s basketball.

neWS the Collegian : 429 oCtober 2012

On Oct. 27, Nimrod International Journal hosted its annual Confer-ence for Readers and Writers at the Allen Chapman Activity Center.

The day began with two concur-rent panel discussions. Following this, participants attended a morn-ing master class before proceeding to an optional lunch with readings by Nimrod judges. After that, there were afternoon master classes.

The conference ended with readings by well-regarded authors Mira Bartók, Gail Carriger, Pam Houston, Kate Kingston and Jack Smith. Throughout the day, stu-dents who had sent in selections of their work worked one-on-one

with Nimrod editors.The conference was a mixture

of all ages and all levels of expe-rience, from a young woman who said that she was 15 to an older woman who remarked: “I’m a 72 year-old lady who has never done any of this before in my life!” This generated a supportive environ-ment of writers and readers who were all there to learn.

Emerging student writers have the most to gain from attend-ing panel discussions and master classes led by established writers. The advice of an experienced writ-er forces students to look at their work from a fresh perspective and rethink the process of writing.

“There is no formula for fiction, but there is a big engine that drives fiction,” said writer Gish Gen dur-ing the master class “Trumps and Discards: Generating Ideas.” She identified this driving force as in-ternal and external conflict, and had everyone in the class write down three conflicts and then ex-change ideas. Junior Kaedi Love called it “The most important ses-

sion I attended because it chal-lenged me to generate ideas and think about conflict in a new way that was very fruitful.”

The conference also helped draw attention to one of least glamorous aspects of writing: ed-iting. Working one-on-one with Nimrod editors gave students per-spective about what is publishable and what is not. It also highlighted the importance of editing and re-working pieces before sending them out for possible publication. “You only have one shot,” said panelist and writer Pam Houston, “You don’t want your name out there attached to something sub-par.”

The conference also offers op-portunities for students who are volunteering or working with the journal for credit or for work-study. “You get experience in run-ning and putting together a huge conference,” said senior Shelli Castor, who has a work-study job with Nimrod. “You have to be ready to roll with the punches. It keeps you on your toes.”

Nimrod conference brings diverse group of writers to TUWriters both active and aspiring made TU their destination this weekend to attend Nimrod International Journal’s annual Conference for Readers and Writers.

HeLen pattersOnStudent Writer

Sustainable Engineering for Needy and Emerging Areas is a group that works globally to pro-vide creative, sustainable solutions to specific problems. An offshoot of Engineers Without Borders, SE-NEA began as Sustainable Energy for North East Asia, an individual

project through EWB. According to junior Kimberly

Poff, the spirit of participants can be summed up as really wanting “to help the world with engineer-ing.” This enthusiasm is evident in the number of projects that have been undertaken since SENEA’s founding less than a decade ago.

“As an organization we have an out-of-country area that we are partnered with and we ask them what they would like,” Poff said. Individual students then volunteer to be project leads for the needs listed by that country. This allows SENEA to expand its membership to non-engineering students. Some students work with a partner on

TU engineering and humanitarian organization SENEA functions as a rallying point for those interested in putting the physical sciences to work.

Beate HaLLStudent Writer

SENEA oversees numerous engineering projects

SENEA’s Aquaponics Team is working to implement a combined aquaculture and hyrdoponics system for use in Cambodia. Aquaponics combines the keeping of marine life and the growing of food via hydroponics. The aim is a completeness of ecosystem that provides healthy and sustainable food.

Photo Courtesy SENEA

Seismology

ITaly

Six Italian seismologists were con-victed of manslaughter on Oct. 22 for failing to predict a 2009 earth-quake in the town of L’Aquila. The scientists, along with one gov-ernment official, were sentenced to six years in prison after more than 300 people were killed in the quake.

Several preliminary shakes had alarmed the townspeople of L’Aquila, but local seismologists concluded that it was nothing to worry about after further investi-gation. Unfortunately, the move-ments of tectonic plates can be highly irregular and in many cases earthquakes are exceedingly diffi-cult to predict. This was one such case.

The largest issue in the case seems to be the disconnect be-tween the language scientists use to express uncertainty and the lan-guage people are used to hearing. It is uncertain what precedent this ruling will set for scientists, but the consensus among scientists is that it does not bode well for their trade.

Medicine and Physiology

EnGlanD

In the proceedings of the UK National Academy of Sciences, an international team has reported a new procedure for taking high-res-olution 3D images of breast tissue. This procedure would decrease the dose of X-ray radiation needed for the image.

3D scanning is not generally used on breast tissue, given its particular susceptibility to x-rays. New sources of x-rays would need to be developed before this process could become available in clinics.

Transportation

USa

On Tuesday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill which regulates safety and perfor-mance standards for autonomous cars. This has the most immediate effect on Internet giant Google, whose driverless vehicles are al-ready road-ready.

The law does not give the go-ahead for the sale of the cars, though it does set guidelines and standards for determining when the car is safe to sell. Google esti-mates it will have vehicles on the road in less than five years.

The autonomous cars are pur-ported to be safer than their man-ual, counterparts and will be de-signed for those with disabilities, those who are too young to drive and those who are too drunk to drive.

TU salary potential reports misleading, not significant

Under the microscope:

Less than a month after the news of TU’s eight-slot drop to 83rd in the US News and World Report’s na-tional university rankings, the ad-ministration has found something to celebrate: the website Payscale has ranked TU first in graduate earnings in Oklahoma and fifth in the “South Central Region,” which includes Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.

TU alumni with bachelor’s de-

grees, and no further, reported earning a median starting salary of $49,100 and a median mid-career salary of more than $90,000. As a benchmark, the national minimum wage is $15,000 annually, the national average for elementary school teachers is $55,290, and the mean annual salary for chief ex-ecutives is $176,550. The average annual salary for all occupations in the US is $45,230.

In the “South Central Region” of the Payscale rankings, TU (103rd in the nation) fell behind Vander-bilt (26), Rice (54), Texas A&M (81), and University of Texas Aus-tin (94) who ranked 17th, 17th, 65th, 46th in US News and World Report, respectively. Oklahoma State University ranked 364th in

the Payscale rankings and 139th in U.S. News, while the University of Oklahoma—the 101st U.S. News university—ranked 223rd for pay.

TU is much smaller than its nearest competitors in Oklahoma, twice as selective, and has aver-age SAT scores around 100 points higher. This can explain the lack of surprise at the result, which has been posted on TU’s website for nearly a month. “I saw the link,” junior Chris Burnworth said, “but I didn’t feel like it was relevant so I ignored it.”

Perhaps the most significant piece of information gleaned from the Payscale rankings in Oklaho-ma is that TU performs much bet-ter against OU and OSU in terms of average graduate salary than

in terms of overall rankings. TU earnings, however, are most likely skewed by the exceedingly high earnings of petroleum engineers ($93,048) and the large numbers of students from Houston, one of the highest-earning cities for TU alumni, at $58,000 and $194,000 starting and mid-career.

The gap between TU and its re-gional rivals is similarly smaller when ranked by pay scale. Starting salaries, especially in engineering, nursing and teaching, show much lower variation across the nation as a whole. The use of monetary variables also decreases scatter in rankings, making a twenty-slot difference in the Payscale rankings far less significant than a similar difference in the U.S.

News rankings. Other intrinsic issues may di-

minish the significance of the Pay-scale rankings. The survey only considers those with bachelor’s degrees. Alumni with masters or doctoral degrees are not con-sidered. This disproportionately disregards liberal arts majors – a group more likely to be concerned with employment than their engi-neering counterparts. “

As an English and philosophy double-major I have very low in-come potential,” junior Helen Pat-terson said, “and recognize that this survey does not apply to me.” Finally the Payscale earnings are self-reported and come from a fairly small sample of people: only 371 TU alumni were surveyed.

Reports that TU grads salary potential is the highest in OK ignore flaws in survey and ranking methodology.

kimBerLy pOffStudent Writer

projects, while others take lead-ership roles upon themselves and recruit friends to work with them on their projects.

“SENEA actually is more of an umbrella organization,” explained Poff, “so all of the students who join SENEA kind of have their own project.” SENEA works with students to provide information for development projects, design planning and support, but does not provide funding. Most SENEA projects are funded through grants or out of individuals pockets. Traveling out of country gets ex-pensive, but most students manage to find the funds.

The local Rotary Club has also gotten in on the act by finding projects and funds for students. Will LePage started a project in Guyana involving water purifica-tion funded completely by the ro-tary club. “Not only do we go look

for projects, but people come to us,” Poff said. The rotary club has continued to work with SENEA over the past several years and will probably continue to provide funding and support.

“We brought them projects that we were already looking at, said ‘Are any of these interesting to you?,’ and they said yes,” said Poff. This simple system has lead to projects in many different coun-tries and provides experience for all participants. With projects from pedal-powered washing machines to sustainable shepherd’s huts in China, the works of SENEA really do spread out all across the map.

SENEA is currently working on an aquaponics project in Cambo-dia. Aquaponics is the combina-tion of aquaculture and hydropon-ics (aquaculture is the growing of creatures in a tank, usually things like fish, snails or prawns; hydro-

ponics is the growing of plants in water).

Aquaponics uses fauna to en-hance flora and flora to create a better living environment for fauna. This symbiotic relation-ship is sustainable and will allow the project to continue for many years. However, aquaponics is a fairly new science, and there are still quite a few tests to run on this system.

Rather than fly to Cambodia several times a year to test a sys-tem, Jordan Occena, a project lead with SENEA, started working on the project in Oklahoma. Jenks High School has a greenhouse, and that greenhouse has a model aquaponics system. This system is working well, and Occena and others will be traveling to Cambo-dia soon to work on their project there.

kimBerLy pOffStudent Writer

Dear Students, Faculty, Staff, and Otherwise,

I was born in San Antonio, Tex-as, but my family called Arkansas home from 1992 on. Arkansas is a one-team state—everyone roots for the Hogs. And if I had gone to the University of Arkansas, as I nearly did, so would I.

But I went to TU. The Univer-sity of Tulsa is my alma mater. The Golden Hurricane is my team. When our football team travels to Fayetteville this Saturday, my alle-giance won’t be divided. Whether or not you’re going to the game, whether or not you grew up root-ing for one team or another, I urge you to support our boys through-out this week. We haven’t beaten

Arkansas since 1976, but this is a winnable game for us, and it would be a huge statement on our part.

Did you know that part of your student activities fee goes towards free admission to the Philbrook Museum of Art? The Philbrook is located on South Rockford Road, which is basically 27th and Peo-ria. Just show them your student ID—there’s no limit on how many times you can go. My favorite ex-hibit is on the south side of the sec-ond floor—futurism in products and artifacts from the 20th century. Check it out!

Best,John LepineSA President

president

neWSthe Collegian : 5 29 oCtober 2012

Asia

North KoreA

North Korea’s Air Koryo, the world’s only one-star airline, will, for the first time, offer online booking services for flights to and from its airport in Pyongyang to Beijing and Shenyang in China or Vladivostok, Russia.

The one-star service rating by Skytrax, which ranks airlines across the globe, designates a

“very poor quality performance.” Though Air Koryo’s domestic

flights still use airplanes from the Soviet era, international flights primarily use Russian-made Tu-polev aircrafts.

The North Korean government allows few of its citizens to travel out of the country, but fewer still can afford the flight. One trip to Beijing can cost up to $374.

“Clearly, this website is created with the purpose to impress the people who have never thought of travelling to Pyongyang,” Leonid Petrov, a North Korea expert at the University of Sydney said.

JApANOne year after the Fukushima

nuclear meltdown, radioactive ce-sium levels still have not declined in Japan’s waters.

The Japanese government has tightened food health standards by lowering the limits of cesium lev-els in fish and other seafood, but many bottom-dwelling fish such as cod and flounder are already above the limit.

“The current levels of contami-nation in the fish and seafood from the Fukushima coast will continue for a while, perhaps more than 10

years, judging from the progress in the cleanup process,” marine bi-ologist Hideo Yamazaki said.

Experts suspect that either the residue sediments from the sea-floor are the cause of ongoing contamination or that the plant is still leaking radioactive water into the ocean. Radiation levels in the reactors are extremely high, and it remains unclear exactly when re-pairs can be made.

MyANMAr

At least 56 people were killed and close to 2,000 homes destroyed in Myanmar’s latest outbreak of eth-nic conflict that spanned four state townships. Several people with gunshot wounds were taken to the hospital 10 miles away.

The violence erupted between the Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group and the Muslim Rohingya minor-ity. Though the UN estimates the Rohingya population at around 800,000, Myanmar’s government does not count them as one of the nation’s official ethnic groups. The Rohingya are commonly treated as intruders from Bangladesh and are widely discriminated against.

Ashok Niga, a UN Resident and Humanitarian coordinator for Myanmar, gave a statement call-ing for short-term and long-term humanitarian solutions “to address the root causes of the conflict.”

A similar outbreak of violence earlier in June left at least 90 peo-

ple dead and burned more than 3,000 homes, leading tens of thou-sands into refugee camps.

South America

BrAzil

Brazilian police have finally found and arrested German con man Hartmut Muller, who had fled to the southern city of Florianopolis in January after evidence of his fraudulent business stacked up in court.

Muller duped nearly 3,000 Eu-ropean investors out of close to 5 million Euros, or $6.5 million, by inventing a pseudo-scientific theo-ry called “global scaling,” which he claimed allows him to transmit “information without any limits in quantity, quality or time,” among other things.

The fictitious theory allowed him to develop several bogus prod-ucts, such as “vitality-generators” that improve one’s life force and “wellness devices” which protect customers from electronic smog.

Muller reportedly continued his scams during his sojourn in Brazil. He advertised fake software that allegedly used his global scaling theory to improve Internet bank-ing security.

The local police will hold Muller in custody until they re-ceive an extradition request from Germany.

Eye on the world:

magDaLena suDiBJOStudent Writer

oct. 16

Lost and Found

A student found a bag in Alex-ander Health The bag contained school books.

oct. 17

4:25 p.m.

Officers on patrol observed a ve-hicle parked illegally. The vehicle was on the tow off list as a habitual violator. The vehicle was ticketed and towed per policy.

oct. 18

1:40 a.m.

Officers were dispatched to a fire alarm in Fisher South. A student attempted to make tea with a plas-tic tea pot and the tea pot caught fire. The fire was out when officers ar-

rived. The fire department was cancelled.

2:00 p.m.

Officers were dispatched to Helm-rich Hall for money stolen from an office. Officers took a report and security will view the video to identify the suspect(s).

12:10 p.m.

Officers on patrol were advised that there was an accident at 500 S. Harvard Ave. Officers took a report and TPD arrived and issued two citations for no insurance and expired tag.

A TU student was involved so campus security took a report.

oct. 20

12:05 a.m.

Officers were called by the PSM for underage drinking. Officers conducted a room check and all parties in the room were underage. Officers completed a report and the beer was poured out

1:45 a.m.

Officers on patrol observed a large cooler in the parking lot of USW.

There was no one around the cool-er. Officers took the cooler and turned the cooler into the property room.

The owner of the cooler con-tacted security and demanded his cooler be returned. The called threatened security and again de-manded his cooler be returned. The caller is not a student and was advised on the procedure to get his items returned.

10:00 p.m.

Officers on patrol observed a fence cut on the north campus property. Officers secured the area as best they could and called in a work or-der to have the fence repair.

oct. 21

1:45 a.m.

Officers on patrol observed EMSA parked at Mayo Village. Officers were informed that a student was ill. EMSA wanted to transport the student but that student refused. The PSM was notified.

1:50 a.m.

Officers were dispatched to Lot-tie Jane for a fire alarm. Upon ar-rival officers determined that the

alarm was caused by a pull station. There are no suspects at this time.

11:25 a.m.

Officers on patrol drove up on a vehicle accident at 800 S. Harvard Ave. Officers made contact with a TU student that was involved in the accident. A campus report was made and TPD arrived and issued two citations to the driver at fault.

oct. 22

3:20 p.m.

Officers were dispatched to Sharp Chapel for the theft of an I Pad. A staff member reported the missing items. Officers have the suspect on video and will attempt to ID the suspect.

4:30 p.m.

Officers were called to security office for a missing guitar report from a student. The student stated the item was taken between 08 Oct 12 and 22 Oct 12 from the BSU. There were no signs of forced en-try.

10:15 p.m.

A student left a flash drive at

MLIB. That student received an Email that appeared threatening. Officers will review the video of MLIB in an attempt to ID the sus-pect.

Lost and Found

A student turned in a brown hat to security.

oct. 24

5:40 a.m.

Officers were on foot, patrolling north campus when they observed a male burglarizing a nearby busi-ness.

TPD was called and after a short vehicle pursuit by TPD. TPD ar-rested the suspect who was an ex-con.

2:20 p.m.

Officers were called to ACAC to take a report that a male non-student left a business card on the windshield of a female guest to the university. This made the guest uneasy.

Security contacted the male subject who stated he did not want to upset anyone and would not leave anything on cars on campus in the future.

State ballot questionsSQ 758

What it would do: Reduce the cap on the maximum annual tax valuation increase for homestead properties and agricultural land from five percent to three percent.

OK Policy analysis: Lowering the allowable increase in property valuations helps only those whose property values are increasing quickly enough to exceed the cap. Okla-homans living in poor communities, rural areas and small towns would get little to no benefit, since their homes values will not increase nearly as much as homes in wealthy, suburban communities. Meanwhile, everyone could end up paying higher rates to meet fixed expenses that are funded with property taxes, such as school bond payments.

SQ 759

What it would do: Ban affirmative action in state employment, education and contract-ing.

OK Policy analysis: Supporters of SQ 759 oppose practices that are already illegal in Oklahoma or never existed in the first place. Public hiring quotas and contract prefer-ences have been illegal in Oklahoma since the early 1980s. SQ 759 would make illegal in the public sector practices that are voluntarily and widely adopted by many private sector companies.

SQ 762

What it would do: Remove the governor from the parole process for less serious, non-violent offenses.

OK Policy analysis: Oklahoma is the only state in the nation where the governor must personally approve every parole, and Oklahoma’s parole rates have tended to be far lower than most other states. Well-managed probation and parole systems have been shown to reduce crime and recidivism. Parole offers those released from prison an inter-mediate period to rebuild their lives, where they can be monitored and assisted to find a job, obtain a degree, and stay out of trouble, at a fraction of the cost of incarceration.

SQ 764

What it would do: Create a $300 million bonding authority for the Oklahoma Water Resource Board in the case of water and sewage treatment loan defaults.

OK Policy analysis: The OWRB is already constitutionally authorized to purchase and issue bonds, and SQ764 does not change this. The new fund would be drafted only if an Oklahoma municipality or city defaulted on a loan and only if all other OWRB reserve funds had been depleted (a scenario that has never occurred in the 27 years since the in-ception of OWRB’s financial assistance program). Reinforcing OWRB’s loan programs is important for small Oklahoma towns that do not have the capital to fund water infra-structure projects on their own.

SQ 765

What it would do: Eliminate the commission overseeing the Oklahoma Department of Human Services and transfer its powers to the Legislature and Governor.

OK Policy analysis: Ambiguities in the legislation and ballot title language make it appear as if DHS itself could be abolished if voters approve SQ 765. Meanwhile, the Legislature’s decision to repeal the constitutional provision that created DHS without re-placing it with specific statutory language recreating the Department leaves some doubt about the Department’s status should SQ 765 pass.

SQ 766

What it would do: Exempt corporations’ intangible property from property taxes.

OK Policy analysis: SQ 766 would provide a large tax cut to centrally-assessed corpo-rations, such as utilities, airlines, railroads and telecommunications companies. It would cost local governments an estimated $50 million in property tax revenue, 60 percent of which goes to schools. For budget items that cannot be cut, such as bond issues and legal judgments, local assessors will have to increase property tax rates to offset lost revenue. As a result, most homeowners and small businesses could see their property taxes go up. The failure of SQ 766 would not mean a significant tax increase for business, because the Legislature has already created a $25 Business Activity Tax (BAT) as a “tax in lieu of intangible personal property tax. This tax will continue if SQ 766 fails.

November 6. is fast approach-ing. Of the major components of the Oklahoma ballot are six state

question initiatives.

The Oklahoma Policy Institute provides a succinct summary and non-partisan analysis of

each initiative.

For more information, visit www.okpolicy.org.

variety the Collegian : 629 oCtober 2012

1. In Ireland and Scotland, turnips were originally used for carving; pumpkins weren’t introduced until they were discovered in North America.

2. The first reported trick-or-treating in North America was in 1911 in Kingston, Ontario.

3. Back then, trick-or-treating was called “guising,” because of the costumes.

4. Originally, you were only supposed to dress as something scary and supernatural. Princess costumes came later. 5. If you think your costume is ridiculous and inappropriate, consider these doozies: sexy Nemo, sexy Big Bird, zombie fetus costume, child’s “pimp” costume and Honey Boo-Boo (Please don’t treat these as suggestions!).

6. If you want to have the fun of trick-or-treating without being looked at strangely, try “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” (United Nations Children’s Fund).

7. Alternatively, put on a mask and pretend that you are a preternaturally tall child.

8. Halloween was probably derived from Celtic pagan festivals concerned with the harvest and the dead before the Catholic Church declared it All Hallows’ Eve.

9. But it is now celebrated all over the world, even in places such as New Zealand, Japan and continental Europe.

10. Halloween is on a Wednesday this year. In an unrelated note, class attendance is predicted to be lower on Thursday than usual.

By HeLen pattersOn

Things You Didn’t Know About Halloween

“Homestuck,” one of the longest webcomics of all time, has recent-ly hit the mainstream, garnering mentions from CNN, KnowYour-Meme and PBS—who called it the “Ulysses of the Internet.” In a

recent campaign on Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative proj-ects, “Homestuck” raised over a million dollars in less than a week, about 2.5 million in its total run, and became the sixth most suc-cessful Kickstarter campaign ever.

“Homestuck” is a webcomic—or at least that is the closest suc-cinct description—written by Andrew Hussie. However, “web-comic” may be a misnomer be-cause many of the nearly 6,000 pages are animated gifs, flash ani-mations ranging from five seconds to nearly 16 minutes long, massive blocks of text, sound tracks and in-teractive games.

“Homestuck” started as “story-quest,” or interactive fiction, like Hussie’s previous works “Jail-break,” “Bard Quest” and “Prob-lem Sleuth,” where readers would send in suggestions for the actions that the characters would take.

Hussie had to abandon that

method after the first of seven acts when the readership neared 10,000. After this point, the story settles down slowly into a more conventional narrative, though some readers never make it that far.

However, the self-referential style and the interaction between Hussie and readers—collectively called the “player”—have re-mained. Fans have responded overwhelmingly to this quirky, nerdy, confusing story with over a million unique views to mspaint-adventures.com daily.

“Homestuck” is not for the weak-of-heart, or the short-on-time. Its word count is comparable to Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” and its animated sequences add up to nearly a feature length movie all

on their own. Some have even claimed that

the title “Homestuck” no longer refers to the main characters’ situ-ation—but to the situation of new readers who are stuck at home reading the massive archive.

And even more than that, “Homestuck” is confusing. The narrative focus jumps from char-acter to character sporadically, and hops through time like a bounce house.

Characters and fans are force to juggle complex relationships and romances, called “ships,” between different characters—and some-times different races—that seem to be in a constant state of flux, made worse by the labels Hussie invented to describe “new” forms of romance.

Characters die and come back to life more often than in George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire,” and thanks to time travel, the afterlife and “dream bubbles,”

characters from completely differ-ent timelines are allowed to affect the story.

Many drop “Homestuck” either because of its slow pace—the first act contains nearly 1,000 pages of “dinking around” in John’s room—or because it is confusing.

However, some embrace the challenge that is “Homestuck” and find great satisfaction in the “comic.”

And yet there is a great deal to like about “Homestuck”: its ref-erences to internet subculture are wide reaching enough to interest many.

Additionally, for a work of this size, Hussie has managed to keep it incredibly consistent. Some jokes are set up for a punchline or call back that happens several

thousand pages later, and many crucial details are hinted at hun-dreds of pages before they are ac-tually relevant.

While what Hussie explains is interesting, equally fascinating is what he conceals. “Homestuck” requires a lot of effort from the readers. “Players” draw their own conclusions to explain some of the detail in what they are reading, and eventually establish their own “headcanon.” But Hussie has cre-ated a world rich enough in detail to develop and test theories.

The bottom line is “Homestuck” is a long and heady work and re-quires effort to read. But there is a great deal of satisfaction to be gained from conquering the ad-venture that “Homestuck” pres-ents.

If there is a list of what will be-come the “classic literature of the internet,” “Homestuck” is certain-ly on it.

“Homestuck” absorbs readers

steven BucHeLeStudent Writer

With a readership of more than 10,000, “Homestuck” has transformed the traditional concept of a webcomic into something much more interactive.

The Tulsa Ballet’s performance of “Dracula” (choreographed by Ben Stevenson and staged by Li Anlin) astounded audience members with high technical skill, brilliant acting and magical special effects.

The ballet begins with a screen depicting dark and mysterious woods. A spotlight shines behind the screen, revealing that it is not opaque after all. Only the border remains as the rest appears to melt away.

The screen raises before Dracu-la’s crypt, where his 18 brides ea-gerly await his return. They dance like waifs—sometimes light and ethereal, sometimes heavy and clearly undead.

Dracula (played by Alfonso Martín) flies down from the raf-ters with giant cape-wings, much to the ecstasy of his brides. While he cannot pay attention to all of them, he has a pas de trois with two (Chelsea Keefer and Bea-trice Sebelin), slipping effortlessly and indifferently from one to the other. In this interpretation, it is a sad fate indeed to become one of Dracula’s brides.

Renfield—the only other char-acter from the original novel—soon arrives with fresh prey in tow. Beautiful young Flora fights back against the count, but his powers of mind control overcome her.

In the second—and prob-ably weakest—act, young Svet-

lana (played by Madalina Stoica and Diana Gómez) and Freder-ick (Ovidiu Iancu and Jonathan Ramirez Mejia) establish their love. Svetlana teases Frederick and comically demands that he propose to her. After some persua-sion and trickery, he does, and the pair share one moment of bliss.

At the very end of the act, Drac-ula sweeps in, bringing darkness and lightning crashes in his wake, to kidnap Svetlana. He succeeds, and the act ends.

Act II establishes well how much will be lost if Svetlana be-comes a shadow of her former self, and it pretends to be a clas-sical ballet, but it may feel a little slow for some audience members.

In Act III, Flora—now fully transformed—begs for affection from her master. In a moment both eerie and heartbreaking, she danc-es with him. When he has finished with her, he stands impassively as she dances with great passion and vulnerability.

Svetlana—dressed in a gown and tiara—is left to fend for her-self with the count until her entire village comes to her rescue.

Act III features a great deal of excellent dance-combat and some of the more impressive special ef-fects (including flying and even an onstage firework), but the real highlight is Renfield’s solo. Ren-field, driven mad by Dracula, has resorted to eating insects.

His dance includes some very broken lines and unusual move-ment, incredible athletic stunts (such as triple turns in mid-air), and the occasional stomped-bug snack. The audience cheered over and over again.

For those who missed Martín’s final performance as Dracula, it is an experience that can never be duplicated. After this year, Martín will retire. His grace, skill, and command of the stage will all be missed dearly.

“Dracula” enchants

kaeDi LOveStudent Writer

The Tulsa Ballet’s rendition of “Dracula” leaves audience members on the edge of their seats.

Owing a friend 10 dollars, I decid-ed that he should be repaid ASAP. We chose an Asian restaurant as a mutually agreeable method of re-payment.

Before heading to the restaurant, we walked around Utica Square, trying out neon-colored ice cream from Russell Stover’s, and posing near an anomalous statue or Brit-ish phone booth.

Of course, there was a reason for this short escapade into a shop-ping center that we could not pos-sibly afford: Te Kei’s happy hour did not start until 4 p.m.

The restaurant, located at 1616 S. Utica, typically opens at 11 a.m., and closes at 9 p.m., or 10 p.m. on weekends.

Once there, we perused the menu and ordered waters, a healthy yet frugal beverage. The interior of the building was very impressive, and was enchantingly dimmed, with whirling panels near the en-trance and pine cone-shaped lights suspended above dark, wooden ta-bles. Magnificent carvings on the walls of a private roomed peeked through an unmistakably imperial-style entryway, which was slanted and gaping.

Te Kei’s prices are reason-

able, and run from around $6-$20. Since I was low on spending money, my friend ordered General Tso’s chicken, while I decided to try the signature Te Kei sushi roll in its fried form. We shared some lettuce wraps, taking advantage of the reduced-price appetizers.

Reducing the use of utensils is always appreciated and lettuce wraps do just that—by employing broad leaves instead of tortillas. The Thai peanut sauce definitely enhanced the seasoned chicken, while the white squiggly noodles were fun but tasteless.

Then, our entrees were served. My friend’s helping was generous and tantalizing, featuring clumps of saucy poultry, a pile of steamed rice and roasted red peppers. I slowly consumed my sushi with its crunchy exterior, drizzled with spicy mustard, shrimp and an ac-

companiment of wasabi with gin-ger.

Having the roll fried made all the difference, a notion reaffirmed by every bite I took. Even better, the restaurant had the red rooster sauce, Sriracha, available on every table. I had to utilize streaks of it to pleasantly burn my mouth.

I paid $6.75 of the check in quarters, proving that the wait staff is very considerate and patient, and my fortune cookie only made my time at Te Kei’s that much more enjoyable. This experience could only be possible through a chain restaurant though, right?

Surprisingly, Te Kei’s has only one exceptional location, near high-class Utica Square. To top it all off, Te Kei’s accepts Hurricane Gold Dollars, a convenient propo-sition for TU students.

Te Kei’s Asian cuisine envelops the senses

Located at 1616 S. Utica Square, Te Kei’s Asian kitchen features delicious Chinese food at an affordable price.

ryan martinezStudent Writer

Ryan Martinez / Collegian

Aside from its traditional entree menu, Te Kei’s also features an extensive sushi menu. The restaurant’s signature fried sushi roll (pictured above) is comprised of shrimp, spicy mustard and a small garnish of wasabi and ginger.

“There is a great deal of satisfaction to be gained from conquering the adventure that

‘Homestuck’ presents”

The Electoral College is one of those enigmas in that unique sys-tem we call American federalism that really defies explanation.

Trying to sort out its purpose is like calling Microsoft support, tiresome and more often than not, mostly useless. In rhetoric, the Electoral College has seen the subject of some nasty allegations. At best it is vestigial, detractors charge. At worst, it is downright anti-democratic. But perhaps this less-than-stellar reputation is un-deserved. After all, the Electoral College must have some func-tion—why else would it have been agreed upon in the first place?

Now, I’m not some staunch con-stitutional originalist who would claim that the sole function of government is to interpret the in-tent of America’s founding fathers when they laid down the Constitu-tion. After all, man is fallible, and it would be ludicrous to argue that all of the problems of modernity could be sufficiently addressed by the 300-year foresight of a group Enlightenment revolutionaries.

I will, however, posit that know-ing this intent might clear up some of the muddle regarding the Elec-toral College’s purpose, if not why we should keep it around. James Madison, in his Federalist Papers, pointed out that, just as the legis-lature is comprised of members chosen by both the people and the states—that is, representatives and senators—so the executive must be elected on the premise of this basic compromise.

Thus, we have the Electoral College sys-tem. The people cast their vote for presi-dent—the popular vote—and the electors account for this in their own vote—the state vote. With this method, sovereignty is main-tained for both the people, as we are a democracy, and the indi-vidual states, as we are a federal republic.

The question of state sover-eignty, then, is a concern worth addressing before we impulsively motion to axe the long-lived Elec-toral College. If the president is elected by pure popular vote, what then becomes of the individual state’s position? State lines would become null and void with respect to presidential elections, and, in effect, the states would have no place in the confirmation of a new executive.

This is an alarming prospect in a country where, in almost ev-ery case, one governmental body

holds some check over the next. More importantly, even the for-mality of states having a direct role in the election would further tip the scales of power in favor of a centralized government—which, while not necessarily an awful structure, is certainly one rather far removed from the decentral-ized federalism America is accus-tomed to.

The Electoral College has been criticized for being anti-democrat-ic, and I won’t pretend that it’s not. It very clearly impedes direct pop-ular election and, as in the case of the Bush-Gore contest, can even conflict with the will of the ma-jority. But its place in the election process is key in preserving the federal nature of the country.

After all, we are the United States of America—united, yes, but also clearly identifiable, clear-ly distinguishable in that unity as one state or another. If we destroy the Electoral College outright, the states lose any power over the ex-ecutive, upsetting some serious federal feng-shui.

So how do we both maintain state sovereignty and eliminate, to the largest degree, conflict with the popular vote? Well, as a matter of fact, the Electoral Col-lege is not actually required, by the Constitution, anyway, to be a winner-takes-all system, where the electors in one state vote unanimously. Two states—Ne-braska and Maine—have already discarded the winner-takes-all system in favor of allowing votes to be split from Congressional dis-tricts. In this system, the two elec-tors representing the state senators vote according to the state major-ity vote. The electors representing individual congressional districts, meanwhile, can vote for which-ever candidate they please if there is a discrepancy between them and the state vote.

In this manner an urban center in an overall rural state or vice ver-sa could be better represented, and the power of “swing states” would be greatly lessened, as candidates

would have to vie for indi-vidual districts. While this method removes power from the states, as well as, more importantly, some of the symbolic solidarity of a state voting as a unit, it at least pre-serves some of the formal power of the states while remedying most of the anti-democratic faults.

So while I agree that the Elec-toral College isn’t a perfect sys-tem, especially in its winner-take-all form, its purpose as a state check on the executive really is too important to simply get rid of it entirely.

But in all earnestness, if we are to address the Electoral College at all, let us do so in a reformatory manner, not a murderous one.

When we vote on Nov. 6th, we won’t actually be voting for the president of the United States, rather, we will be voting for some-one that will vote for the person we want to be elected the next president.

The Constitution gives states as many electors as they have seats in Congress—that is at least three electors—and the District of Co-lumbia is given three electors be-cause of the 23rd Amendment. In total, 538 electors are chosen on election night.

Some electors actually end up representing more voters than others because of the way elec-

toral votes are awarded to each state. States get a minimum of three votes, even though some states are so small that one or two electors would represent them if the num-ber of electors were distributed by population.

Because some states are award-ed extra votes, votes in some states are actually less valuable. For ex-ample, if Electoral College votes were distributed by population, Texas would receive an extra six electors and California would re-ceive another 10. These 16 votes from only two states are redis-tributed to smaller states such as Rhode Island and Wyoming. That is a redistribution of wealth behind which I am unable to stand.

As certain states are valued more, the value of a person’s vote is decreased in larger states and increased in smaller ones. The

Electoral College values those people voting in Oklahoma, Kan-sas and Arkansas more than those voting in Texas and Missouri. As a Missourian, I am very upset that my roommate from Arkansas has more say in outcome of this elec-tion that I do. Votes should count the same in a democratic society.

The Electoral College system was created to prevent the candi-dates from only campaigning in and introducing policies that sup-ported the larger cities and states. The goal of the founders was to create a system that would pro-tect the smaller states from larger states.

Each political party in every state must pick a pool of people that they would like to vote for their candidate. In nearly every state, these people, supporting

whichever candidate wins the popular vote, become that state’s electors. All except two states award their electors in a “winner takes all” manner.

By removing this “win-ner take all” system, we could ensure that our candidates are campaigning to people by increas-ing the number of undecided vot-ers that still have value from just a select few in some states to ev-ery undecided voter. We have 51 metropolitan areas with more than a million people. The candidates would have to visit many hundreds of cities to reach all of these unde-cided votes he or she needs.

Even if you believe that smaller states need “affirmative action,” the Electoral College has failed to make small states rel-

evant. In the last two months of the 2008 election, Barack Obama and John McCain only visited 18 different states, and nearly half of the campaign events were in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania.

Of the 18 states visited, most of the small states were skipped over. Big states such as New York, Texas and California were also skipped. Candidates will not campaign as much or at all in states that are traditionally “red” or “blue” because they already know the states are either won or lost and they will receive the same number of electors no matter how many more votes they receive.

This leaves “swing states“ for the campaigns to canvass. Even though the races are close in these s t a t e s ,

each state will award its

electors to only one candidate, adding a large value to the few remaining undecided votes.

The biggest failing of this insane system is that we are actu-ally able to elect a president when he or she has actually not won the popular vote. Excluding the elec-tion of 1824, in which the popular vote was not tallied and some state legislators chose the electors, three times in our country’s short history a candidate has won the popular vote yet lost the election. The first time in 1876, again in 1888 and most recently in 2000 when Al Gore lost to George W. Bush.

As pointed out by C.G.P. Grey, this means that for about every twenty elections we hold, there is one election that goes to the candi-date that lost; a failure rate around five percent.

We should pass an amendment to the Constitution changing the way we elect a president. Every vote should counts the same, and the winner of an election should be the winner of the people’s vote each and every time.

opinionthe Collegian : 7 29 oCtober 2012

How relevant is the Electoral College?

wiLL

BramLett Student Writer

With the Electoral College, votes in some states count more than in others.

waLker

wOmack Student Writer

The Electoral College represents the neccesary divide between the people and the states.

SA’s homecoming survey a useful gauge of student interestThere has been plenty of buzz around campus about the student interest survey that was sent out to the entire student body along with the homecoming ballot.

As the chairperson for the Stu-dent Investigative Committee, I would like to, on behalf of the Student Association Senate, share a little bit about who we are, and how you benefit from our work.

We would like to start off by thanking everyone who took the survey. We received a record num-

ber of responses, over 900. This sample size is extraordinary, and we take the responses very seri-ously.

The specific issues that were brought up in the survey are in-dicative of the ideas and concerns that fellow students suggested. Through interactions with stu-dents, we received several ideas, and SIC took a few of them and investigated further.

We try to decide which issues are most pressing and which would

have the greatest positive impact. Surveying is an extremely im-

portant aspect of this exploration. Our intention with the surveys that we send out is to gauge students’ interests and feelings about these issues. The responses give us a good perspective on where we should focus our efforts.

If the survey results show strong enough support, we will research it further to see if there is a feasible solution. If so, we will formalize all our findings in a resolution. A

resolution is simply a recommen-dation for the administration to do something based on our evidence. Even if a resolution passes on the Senate floor, it can still be vetoed by the president of the university. Through this process, SA acts as a bridge between the student body and the administration, and there-fore, we cannot make policy our-selves.

The results of the survey

Brett

Baumgartner

Student Writer

A member of SA tells why they put important questions about parking and guns into the Homecoming survey.

See Survey page 8

Romney and Obama have spent a combined $2,275,036 in Ohio, while they have only spent combined $367,089 in Oklahoma. Though only about two thirds the size of Oklahoma, candidates have spent six times as much money in Ohio than in Oklahoma. Hence, Ohio has been scaled to six times Oklahoma’s size.

“Because some states are awarded extra votes, votes in some states are

actually less valuable”

the Collegian: 829 oCtober 2012 opinion

editor-in-chief—Kalen Petersen

managing editor—J. Christopher Proctor

news editor—Kyle Walker

sports editor—Aubry Midkiff

variety editor—Stephanie Hice

opinion editor—Patrick Creedon

photo & graphics editor—Jill Graves

staff writers—Helen Patterson, Victoria McGouran

business & advertising manager—Liz Cohen

distribution manager—Tyler Magill

web editor—Mary Carol Franko

adviser—Kendra Blevins

The Collegian is the independent student newspaper of the University of Tulsa. It is distributed Tuesdays during the fall and spring semesters except during holidays and final exam weeks. The University of Tulsa is an equal opportunity employer and institution of higher education and does not discriminate on the basis of personal status or group character-istics including but not limited to the classes protected under federal and state law in its programs, services, aids, or benefits. The Associate Vice

President of Human Resources and Risk Management has the responsibility for implementing and monitoring the Affirmative Action Plan at The University of Tulsa and assisting with the application and interpretation of pertinent laws and policy. For additional EEO/AA information, contact Wayne Paulison in the Office of Human Resources and Risk Management at 918-631-2616. For disability accommodation information, contact Dr. Jane Corso at 918-631-2315. Requests for an interpreter must be made seven days in advance of an event and at least 48 hours for all other accommodations. Advertising Policy: Advertising appearing in this publication does not imply approval or endorsement by the University of Tulsa or the Collegian for the products or services advertised. For advertising information, call the Collegian Business Office at 918.631.3084. The deadline for advertising is 5 p.m. on the Thursday prior to the publication. Editing Policy: The Collegian reserves the right to edit all copy submitted by all writers. 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, typed and double-spaced. While we do not require it, letters sent via e-mail to the Collegian are encouraged. A SIGNED hard copy with a telephone number is required if a letter is accepted for printing. Under no circumstances will unsigned 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 Thursday prior to publication.

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Debates do not inform voters adequatelyBecause of their lack of accountability, debates are less useful for voters than they could be.

myriaH

DOwns Student Writer

Presidential debates give voters the opportunity to compare can-didates and their policies side-by-side. They are an efficient way to educate the public on important issues as well as a chance to in-crease voter awareness prior to the election.

However, the system of debates raises three main concerns: can-didates’ ability to skew the truth

during the debates, the shaky way audience questions are staged and the two-party format.

One major criticism is that it is easy for a candidate to distort the truth during the debates, because there is no opportunity to fact-check the claims the other debater is making. If one candidate calls the challenger’s statements false-hoods, one can simply cry “liar” in return, and then offer a competing interpretation of the truth.

Unfortunately, that leaves vot-ers in the tough position of having to decide who to believe. Presi-dential debates should be about deciding which platform they pre-fer, not having to decipher which one is lying more.

People argue that journalists of-ten critique the positions of politi-cians in the debate speeches, but this is only helpful to the popula-tion that reads the articles, often published by partisan sources. The

articles rarely lend any helpful in-formation to uninformed or swing voters.

Another issue is the staging for the audience questions. Audience members are not allowed to ask follow-up questions, and the mod-erator sometimes selects which questions reach the candidates. This means candidates can basi-

cally say whatever they want in response.

This is an all-too-common sce-nario: an audience member asks a provocative question and the candidate avoids the issue of the question. One example is Mitt Romney’s now-infamous “binders

full of women” comment. In this example, a voter asked about pay equality for women. Romney re-sponded in a manner that not only insulted women, but confused the general public and failed to answer the question in the first place.

Because of the lack of account-ability, the bulk of the debate boils down to finger pointing, staggered

by factual accusations and topped off with personal anecdotes about women and binders.

Nonetheless, debates still pro-vide a unique chance for the American people to view the can-didates prior to voting. For many Americans, this is the only time

they seek out any additional infor-mation regarding a candidate.

Because of the party-line voting system in America, many do not consider the opposing side’s argu-ments, and the debates are meant to give the audience a chance to hear both viewpoints.

With the respect of increasing voter awareness, the debates are effective because they create an enormous amount of hype right before the elections.

Yet, all things come with a grain of salt as the newly energized masses often are led by emotional appeals and half-truths. Presiden-tial debates, like most things in politics, come down to preference.

Whether the debates are effec-tive depends on whether which we prefer: a general public uninter-ested in politics or a public voting with a good heart and a head full of misconstrued versions of the truth.

State Question 766 detrimental to schools

anDres

gOmezStudent Writer

Oklahoma State Question 766, which outlaws intangible property taxes, would devastate public programs.

Currently, Oklahoma’s tax rev-enue is drawn from many forms of taxation, including property taxes. Property taxes, at the moment, ap-ply to both physical property—which includes land, buildings and equipment—and intangibles, which range from patents and in-ventions to brand names.

State Question 766 proposes to amend the state constitution to ban the taxation of intangible items,

those from the second list.Those in support say that it will

lead to businesses making more money. Without having to pay for more than the physical aspects of a business, business owners would likely profit. Supporters of the state question argue that if it fails to pass that it will impose major

tax increases on all businesses in the state. Additionally, the de-creased tax on business owners would lead to economic growth and would help Oklahoma recover from the recession.

I can see the validity in the points they make, since Oklahoma is suffering from the recent na-

tionwide economic downturn. De-creased costs would result in more profit for businesses, which could mean higher wages for employ-ees and most likely an increase in money being put into the economy by those businesses.

Opponents of the question say that much of the state’s funding for

public goods such as schools, po-lice departments, fire departments and other tax funded programs comes from tax dollars.

Without this revenue, the state’s tax revenue would severely de-cline. This could be a major issue down the road, as the state already has an extremely poor record in

funding public schools. There have been a growing

number of school closures, cuts to the arts and extracurricular pro-grams, and faculty cuts because of the poor funding.

A decrease in tax revenue would cripple the school system even further, which Oklahoma cannot

afford. The second consequence of the

question being passed would be a potential increase in homeowners’ property tax, which would crip-ple the Oklahoma economy even more.

The question poses an interest-ing dilemma for Oklahomans be-

cause the question’s passage or failure would could both have det-rimental effects on the state. The question then becomes, “Which side would have more positive ef-fects than negative?”

I think that the question should be opposed because it would cut school funding. Oklahoma is se-riously behind on public school funding, one of the worst states in the nation for spending per stu-dent.

As a Tulsan, I have seen the schools close and class sizes in-crease to prevent teachers from being fired from local schools.

This trend can only continue to a certain point before the system collapses. If imposing the tax will generate more revenue for public-ly funded programs, then there is a merit to the tax.

It will cause some lost profit to businesses, but the point is moot if there is not any money to pay for students to go to school.

showed a lot of positive feedback for a number of issues. 87.3 per-cent of respondents are interested in opening an indoor lap pool with 46 percent completely in favor of the idea. In addition, 84.3 percent of respondents who park on cam-

pus think that the parking policy needs to be updated.

The data shows an overwhelm-ing support on these two subjects and gives us a green light to exam-ine them more thoroughly.

However, the questions con-cerning the matter of concealed carry showed too much conflict on that subject, and its resolution was

promptly failed in committee.We try to represent the entire

student body as accurate as pos-sible, and we would love to hear from you. Senate holds open meet-ings on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. in John Rogers Hall, room 202. All stu-dents are welcome to attend, and if it is something you find interest-ing, we hold elections for new sen-

ators and would love more people to run.

In addition, we have committee meetings every week for each of the four different committees. If you have an idea of how to make campus better, SIC meets Wednes-days at noon in the SA confer-ence room on the second floor of ACAC.

We welcome all feedback and will take into account anything that comes our way.

Emails are another great way of getting ahold of us and our contact information is located on the SA website. Our goal is to help give students the best collegiate experi-ence possible.

“The bulk of the debate boils down to finger pointing”

“If imposing the tax will generate more revenue for publicly funded programs, then

there is a merit to the tax”

From Survey page 7

Although families have different Halloween traditions, our rather our view of this very American holiday has changed drastically from when we were children.

Some might accuse me of nostalgia for a fantastic holiday from my childhood, when adults would coo, “Aren’t you just ador-able!” but this goes beyond that. Holidays evolve and change, and Halloween has be-come a fest of immorality.

Halloween is based on pagan traditions celebrating the fall solstice, when ceremo-nies were performed to ward off evil spir-its for the coming winter. These traditions faded away but are still inadvertently cele-brated through the carving of pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, the wearing of costumes and other long-standing traditions.

The move away from the pagan rituals is a good one. It shows that as a society we have moved beyond the superstitious need to believe in magic to protect us from imagi-nary evils.

However, the loss of the traditions has ruined the holiday for many people who would rather see a backslide into those su-perstitious traditions than the advent of a new, more sordid kind of festival. For adults, Halloween practices tend to include drunken parties, trashy costumes and chil-dren more focused on candy than on having fun.

In other cultures, similar celebrations, like El Dia De Los Muertos, actually serve a purpose. While based on the pagan ritu-als, this holiday also honors ancestors and others who have died. Not only does this annual tradition help with the healing pro-cess because it helps keep positive memo-ries of loved ones alive, but also it provides a forum for talking about those who have

passed, and from a religious standpoint, what happens after death.

This has created a rich cultural heritage for many people groups. These holidays are more about celebrating life, death and fam-ily than buying a costume to get candy or partying.

The American tradition of Halloween had more to do with pranks and candy than other cultures, but sometimes the culture we seem to miss—where innocent little kids went door to door for fun, or waited all night in a pumpkin patch for the great pumpkin—may never have existed beyond the silver screen.

Trick or treating itself has a place in pop culture that feels too good to be true. In “E.T.,” the children go trick-or-treating to get out of the house; in “Meet Me in St. Louis” the trick-or-treaters dress like hobos and prank people who do not give them candy. A century ago the words “trick or treat” meant “please give me candy or I’ll do something awful to you or your home.”

This is a positive transition away from threats of pranks like soaping windows, throwing flour into the faces of people who answer the door, or egging a house.

Children used to create their own cos-tumes. Not only did this save families mon-ey, but it encouraged creativity, imagination and a little ingenuity. Kids today seem ob-sessed with being the latest pop idol or some cartoon character.

This transition from a fun, creative pro-cess to literal idol worship has turned what could have been a useful celebration into to a highly commercialized holiday where children cry for candy.

the Collegian: 929 oCtober 2012

1. Nominations may be made by any undergraduate who expects to graduate in May, 2013. 2. Nominations are due by 5:00 PM on December 8, 2012 and should be via-­email as follows: College of Arts and Sciences: Stephanie-­Boulden@utulsa.edu

College of Business Administration: Chante-­clarkson@utulsa.edu College of Engineering & Natural Sciences: Dottie-­Smith@utulsa.edu

3. Teachers selected will receive a $2,000 award and their high schools will receive $1,000. The teachers will be recognized during the May commencement ceremony. High school teachers throughout the USA are eligible. 4. Students whose nominated teachers are selected will receive $500. 5. For more information including the nomination criteria go to the Student Affairs website: http://www.utulsa.edu/studentaffairs.

May  2013  Graduates  Nominate  a  Secondary  School  Teacher  

For  The  Prize  for  Inspiration  

The way Halloween is celebrated now reveals a disturbing trend in society. It has become overly commercialized and empty.

Beate

HaLL Student Writer

Halloween wanders away from origins

Graphic by Cody Green

During the 2012 presidential de-bates on Oct. 3, 16 and 22, Gov-ernor Mitt Romney and his some-times sparring partner, former CEO Willard Romney debated numerous issues plaguing this na-tion.

Although the debates were spir-

ited, the sound bites given by the two men left audiences feeling less than certain about the candidates.

The audiences were collectively taken aback by the constant bar-rage of zingers between the two men as they presented their vastly differing thoughts on issues sur-rounding this year’s election.

Gov. Romney stated that “hope is not a strategy in the Middle East” whereas Mr. Romney said in

relation to issues in Pakistan that “you hope for some degree of sta-bility.”

When asked about the former Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, Gov. Romney said that when he first heard of the policy he thought “it sounded awfully silly.” This state-ment contrasted with Mr. Rom-ney’s assertion that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has worked well.”

The two men were able to reach

common ground on healthcare issues but differed vastly when asked about previous Republican policies, Mr. Romney said that he was not “trying to return to the Reagan-Bush eras” but Gov. Rom-ney informed the audiences that Ronald Reagan was his hero.

Inevitably, the issue of abortion was raised which caused the rift between the two men to deepen into a veritable chasm. Gov. Rom-ney stated “I respect and will pro-tect a woman’s right to choose” but Mr. Romney asserted that he had “never really been called pro-choice.”

In discussions about wage infla-tion the two Romneys remained staunchly opposed to each other, with Gov. Romney saying “I think the minimum wage ought to keep pace with inflation” and Mr. Rom-ney stating that “there is no ques-tion that raising the minimum wage excessively causes a loss of jobs.”

As the debates progressed, the two hopefuls even began to differ in their views about inconsequen-tial things - such as their personal life experiences.

Gov. Romney said “I saw my

father march with Martin Luther King” while Mr. Romney assert-ed “I did not see it with my own eyes.”

In the end, neither candidate appeared to gain the upper hand, which begs the question—which Romney will you vote for?

the State-run media22 oCtober 2012

State-Runthe

mediaAll tricks, no treats.

After realizing that it was basically the only state that mattered in the 2012 presidential election, Ohio began to slowly devour the rest of nation. The crazed, anthropomorphized state swallowed all of New England in a wild frenzy before moving on to consume the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains and West Coast.

Graphic by Martin the Intern

Mitt Romney debates Willard RomneyvictOria mcgOuranMitt Romney

Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama have been aggressively campaigning in recent months to win the position of the president of the United States of Ohio.

This battle has brought them to many of the major population centers of the nation, including Cleveland, Cincinnati and Dayton, Columbia.

The candidates have focused on issues of national importance, de-livering countless stump speeches which address many of the prob-lems faced by people from Toledo to Youngstown.

Romney has been sharp in his criticisms of Obama’s manage-ment of the economic crisis, say-ing to a crowd in Middletown that “this has been the slowest eco-nomic recovery in the history of Ohio.”

He went on to say that “a seven percent unemployment is sim-ply unacceptable for the Buckeye state.”

Obama countered those remarks with his own attack at a rally in To-ledo, saying that his plan “worked for all Ohioans,” while his oppo-nent “would only stand up for 53 percent of Ohio.”

Both men have also addressed the problem of immigration, with Romney suggesting that “undocu-mented workers from Michigan and Pennsylvania self-deport” in order to protect “jobs for the good, hard-working people of Ohio.”

Obama took a different ap-proach, supporting a plan that would allow those brought to Ohio as children to obtain citizenship, allowing them to become “produc-tive members of the Ohio commu-nity.”

Obama’s campaign has attempt-ed to court the minority vote, in-cluding the key demographics of

Latinos and African-Ohioans.The hopefuls were able to find

some common ground on the is-sues of education and foreign poli-cy, with both men agreeing that we need to invest in vital programs like The Ohio State University football team.

Both men have been aggressive in promoting their foreign policy ideas. “Ohio will be a staunch ally of Israel,” Romney said.

With just a week left until the election, both men have been working hard to energize their base to get out and vote on Nov. 6.

Obama told an Akron crowd that “we are going to need Ameri-cans from all corners of Ohio to show up to the polls to win,” and Romney telling a group of stu-dents at Kent State University that “the entire election is literally in your hands.”

“Thank you, God bless you, and God bless Ohio,” he added.

Ohio decides election, eats nation alive

Entirety of debates in one image

Obama, Romney campaign for swing votersJ.cHristOpHer prOctOrOctober Surprise

If you missed the debates, this about says it all.

Graphic by Jill Graves

Graphic by Jill Graves

king

There’s going to be an election!You should probably vote,for the candidate of your affectionSo when it ends you can gloat

Democracy is very strangeI like despotism bestAll your silly hope and change just give monarchy a test!

Elections are better with just one manno need to fuss and fighteveryone can follow my master planand just admit I’m right

So pretend your vote counts, as it does notand ignore Ohio and cast your lot

—King John I

It’s a beautiful day in the

True Blue Neighborhood!TU Rallies Against HungerJoin Athletics, APO, and the True Blue Neighbor Volunteer Center as we rally against hunger. Hunger is a growing epidemic, not only in the Tulsa area, but nationwide. 44% of children go to bed each night without dinner, not because they are being punished but because they have no food. The noticeable Blue Tubs will be placed across campus collecting food for the Food for Kids Backpack Program. Help us, help hungry children. Art o� the SquareArt o� the Square is a fundraising event bene�tting the Kendall Whittier Community Food Bank. Volunteers are needed at 2:00 October 11th, for setup. This event showcases Tulsa’s art culture and community with local artists. There will be entertainment and food. Volunteers make these events possible. Be a Zooper TrooperIf you love animals and enjoy walking on the wide side, you can be a Tulsa Zoo volunteer. This is a low-commitment opportunity, you choose the event and times that work best with your schedule. Special upcoming events to volunteer at: ZooRun, Saturday, Oct. 6th; HallowZOOeen, Sat. Oct. 27th – Wed. Oct. 31st. Marcy Lawless Service AwardsMarcy Lawless Service Award applications/donations are now being accepted. Application/nomination forms may be picked up in the Registrar’s O�ce, O�ce of Student A�airs, the Housing O�ce, and the True Blue Neighbor Volunteer Center. The deadline for registration is Friday, October 19th.

A BIG THANK YOU to the students at the BCM who helped with last week’s food drive for the Kendall-Whittier Emergency Food Pantry. They placed the True Blue Tubs out and picked them up. This is a tremendous help to the True Blue Neighbor Volunteer Center.

For more information about these or other volunteer opportunities, contact Kathy Shelton in the True Blue Neighbor Volunteer Center in Holmes Student Center, room 25.

from the O�ce of Public A�airsand Ecenomic Development