See DACA p. 2

In a high school auditorium off of 11th and Highway 169 in East Tulsa, several dozen people listened intently as an attor-ney, speaking through a Spanish translator, outlined the U.S. immigration system. Once the speaker reached the subject of President Obama’s most recent immigration executive action, hands shot up across the room. The community had a lot of questions about the coming changes.

In November 2014, President Obama an-nounced his Immigration Accountability Executive Action, altering the enforcement of current immigration law and granting federal legal status to millions of undocu-mented immigrants.

“Deferred action changes someone’s fed-eral status. Those people are no longer ‘in line’ for deportation,” according to Okla-homa Policy Institute policy analyst Kate Richey. “The federal authorities reserve the right to deport them at anytime, but they will not initiate deportation proceedings while deferred action is in effect.”

Deferred action recipients are granted three-year work permits and, in most states, including Oklahoma, can now obtain driv-er’s licenses.

President Obama had already granted de-ferred action to those who did not have legal status that came into the country as children in an executive action known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2012. In his most recent immigration execu-tive action, he granted deferred action to the parents and nuclear families of U.S. citizens and green card holders, in a program that is being referred to as the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA).

Life after DACA

While those newly eligible for deferred action cannot apply for work permits until May, DACA has been in effect for over two years.

Tulsan and immigrant advocate Ivan Go-dinez came from Veracruz, Mexico with his mother when he was 14, to join his father who had initially migrated so that he could earn money to send Ivan to college.

“Before (DACA) I worked in fast food and restaurants, the only places I could work outside of construction,” said Godi-nez. “After I received DACA, I was able to apply anywhere. I remember having a job

interview everyday for a whole week. I ap-plied to work at places I didn’t ever intend to work for just because I could apply.”

According to the Immigration Policy Center, Godinez is like the 61 percent of DACA recipients who obtained a new job as a result of their new documented status.

“First I got a job at Natural Grocers, until I applied for my current job at the Commu-nity Action Project as a translator. For the first time I felt like I had a job where my po-tential was put to good use,” said Godinez.

Godinez has also been able to get a driv-er’s license, his first bank account and his first credit card. He is able to rent a car and go out and travel without fear that a routine traffic stop could initiate deportation pro-ceedings.

Godinez’s family had not been able to travel since moving to the United States. They have been more willing to do so since DACA. “I think this summer my parents were more willing to travel because I had a license. Kansas City was only four hours away, but that was a small accomplishment for our family. We were able to get out and say we weren’t afraid.”

While the exact guidelines of who is new-

ly eligible for DAPA have not been released, it is likely that both of Godinez’s parents will be eligible for deferred action.

Completing the community

Christina Starzl Mendoza, a community planner for the Community Service Council believes DACA has had a two-fold impact on the Tulsa community.

“DACA provides the ability for immi-grants to fully contribute and fully engage in the community,” said Mendoza. “There is so much talent in Tulsa that we’re missing out on. We’re always talking about bringing in geniuses from New York or Portland and to me it’s really disappointing because we have so much talent here. Why don’t we in-vest in the people that are growing up here and have that loyalty to Tulsa?”

“I think that it’s really helped inspire a lot of kids who initially thought they didn’t have any options available. We have one kid who was undocumented and grew up with an expectation that he wasn’t going to be able to go to college or work. He became very disengaged in school. He started to get

Up to 39,000 undocumented immigrants in Oklahoma could benefit from President Obama’s latest immigration executive order. Two years ago, the Obama administration implemented Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, permitting certain undcoumented immigratns to apply for legal status. Over 3,800 Oklahoma residents have already applied. DACA recipients are eligible for work permits and driver licenses, giving them freer access to commerce and public services. News Editor Nikki Hager reports.

a student newspaper of the university of tulsa january 20, 2015 issue 13 ~ volume 100

involved in gangs,” said Mendoza. But now, “along with other supports, he was able to apply for a work permit. He says, ‘I can’t get in trouble because I have a work permit now.’ He’s a real example of a turnaround.”

Mendoza and Godinez both spoke of the multi-faceted impact fear of deportation has on undocumented immigrants, which often results in a fear of institutions.

Undocumented immigrants are less able to be involved in their children’s education. Undocumented parents of U.S. citizens are afraid to sign their children up for health insurance or social assistance. Crimes go unreported because immigrants are afraid of revealing their immigration status.

Godinez also speaks of a different kind of fear, “Anytime I see someone pulled over, my first thought is I hope that they make it back home. I start picturing what if there is a family waiting for them back home and they don’t have any idea they’re not going to make it back.”

DAPA could have a profound impact on the education system in Tulsa. Latinos make up the largest ethnic group in Tulsa Public Schools. “In Oklahoma, 89 percent of La-tino students are U.S. citizens. I would be

surprised if less than half of them had par-ents who are undocumented,” said Mendo-za. “The largest ethnic group of your school district is suffering from the traumatic stress of fearing that their parents will be deported and the concern that their parents won’t be able to find consistent work. Thinking about that, the impact of DAPA is huge.”

YWCA director Mana Tahaie agrees that fear of deportation affects the decision mak-ing process of undocumented immigrants.

“There’s this way in which feeling a lack of belonging and a lack of worth, feelings of living in the shadow, being a permanent apologist for who you are, can have serious psychological effects,” said Tahaie. “What is the impact of flipping that switch? Now you are somebody, you can take up space, you can dream.”

Not there yet

Obama’s executive order will expand

the number of people eligible for deferred action from 9,000 to 30,000 in Oklahoma, according to the Center for American Prog-ress.

DREAM Act Oklahoma, a community-based immigrant advocacy organization, co-founder Kasey Hughart celebrated the deferred action programs, but he is not com-pletely satisfied.

“The same number of people will benefit from this as the number of people will not

benefit this. Of the 11 million undocument-ed immigrants in the country, it will only help around 5 million,” said Hughart.

There is a lot of confusion surround-ing DAPA. Hughart described immigra-tion lawyers who are reaching out to the undocumented, telling the immigrants that for $1000 the lawyers will place them in the “front of the line once the executive action goes into effect.”

Lawyers peddling impossible legal mir-acles are representative of the exploitation

the immigrant community often faces, ac-cording to Hughart.

Mendoza highlights other challenges in the immigrant community. “There are cul-tural differences between the immigrant community in Tulsa and immigrants in other cities,” said Mendoza.

Immigrants predominately immigrate from rural communities in Central America and “it affects their abilities to navigate sys-tems, especially the education system.” This results in an inability to reach many of the people who could benefit from DACA or DAPA.

Particular Oklahoma state laws have ex-acerbated this disconnect between institu-tions and the immigrant communities. For example, the 2007 law HB 1804 made it a felony to give anyone a ride that is suspect-ed of being undocumented, placed harsh new regulations on employers, restricted the issuing of state IDs and made it harder for undocumented immigrants to access public services.

“Any time there’s an (immigration bill) in the Oklahoma legislature people keep their kids at home,” said Tahaie. “They hear leg-islation and they think, ‘they’re coming af-ter us.’ Because it’s happened before.”

NEWSthE CollEgiaN : 2 20 jaNuary 2015

Continued from DACA, cover

My dad came in 1999, and his plan was to come and work and make some money and then go back to Mexico and start a business. He was trying to save up money so that he could go to college.

He would call me and tell me stories about working at construction sites along-side people who had graduated college in Mexico. He said he was working with a pilot, a teacher and an engineer and that they were all doing the same thing. It was his way of telling me that even if you go to college there, it was very hard to find op-portunities.

Sending back money wouldn’t solve the problem he was trying to solve. He decided he didn’t want to be alone anymore. He sent money back so that my mom and I could join him in Tulsa. My dad had a friend who could get us across. I was 14 at the time, so I don’t really know how that worked. My mom and I crossed the border somewhere in Arizona.

We crossed the border with 12 other peo-ple we didn’t know. My mom and I were the only ones who knew each other. The people were from all over Mexico and Cen-tral America and were of all different ages.

We walked an entire night. We started walking when the sun went down, and we got to our destination when the sun came up. It was a night full of running and crawl-ing, trying to avoid border patrol and cross-ing fences. I remember the first fence and

thinking “we made it.” We kept crossing fences over and over again.

One of the people we traveled with didn’t make it to his destination and had to turn back. One of the older guys cut his eye crossing one of the barbed wire fences, We hope he found border patrol and that they took him back. I was fortunate enough not to run into any dead bodies, especially based on some of the stories I’ve heard in the past. I hope that guy wasn’t one of those people who ended up like that.

The initial journey ended at a trailer in a small Arizona town. Now it’s clear to me that they were criminals. Upon arrival, there was this big, tall guy with a gun in his desk. He said to the group that we knew what was going to happen to us if we told anyone how we got across.

My dad paid a guy to take us in a truck back to Tulsa. We were still full of para-noia. It made me scared of traveling at night and traveling in general. Even outside of the border you still feel like you’re flee-ing. You feel like you’ve never really made it. You’re always on the run.

It’s naïve to think that people making it harder to cross will keep them from com-ing. People come from rough places, and they know that one difficult night is worth the opportunities. People are fleeing from hunger and violence; I don’t think there is much to stop them. There are going to be a lot more deaths than there are already.

Ivan Godinez is an immigrant advocate and highly active with DREAM Act Oklahoma. Ivan came to the United States illegally with his mother when he was 14 from Veracruz, Mexico. Here is his account of his journey from Mexico to Tulsa. This story has been edited for clarity and brevity.

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Immigration ResourcesFrom Veracruz to Tulsa: One man’s story

DREAM Act Oklahoma http://www.dreamactok.org/Kasey@DreamActOK.orgMeets every Saturday at 6:00pm at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, located at 8730 E Skelly Drive.

Catholic Charities of Tulsa (918) 508-7180 http://www.catholiccharitiestulsa.org information@catholiccharitiestulsa.org

University of Tulsa College of Law Legal Clinic http://www.utulsa.edu/immigrantright-sprojectelizabeth-mccormick@utulsa.edu918.631.5799

YWCA Multicultural Center (918) 663-0377http://www.ywcatulsa.orginfo@ywcatulsa.org

Unauthorized immigrant percentage of population, by state (2012)

Graphic courtesy Pew Hispanic Center

“DACA provides the ability for immigrants to fully contribute and fully engage in the community”

With the new year comes new legislation. One of the proposed bills in the Oklahoma State Legislature raised quite a few eye-brows across the country. Republican State Senator Don Barrington is proposing a bill that would make illegal the wearing of any hood or covering that would conceal one’s identity.

Barrington claims to be “(making) busi-nesses and public places safer by ensuring that people cannot conceal their identities for the purposes of crime or harassment.”

It has long be illegal “to wear a mask, hood or covering, which conceals the iden-tity of the wearer during the commission ofa crime or for the purpose of coercion, intimi-

dation or harassment.” The new bill would make it illegal “to in-

tentionally conceal his or her identify in a public place by means of a robe, mask or other disguise.”

There are exceptions to the law. These exceptions should come as no surprise, with examples such as religious garments, Hal-loween celebrations and inclement weather.

Though the bill does not specifically men-tion a hooded sweatshirt, the public consid-ers the bill a “hoodie ban.” Many relate it to the recent police brutality controversy. Oklahoma City Rev. Jesse Jackson, with a group of other Oklahoman ministers, has been wearing hoodies to the pulpit in protest of the proposed bill.

The punishment for breaking this pro-posed law will be a misdemeanor, with a fine between $50 and $500 dollars or up to a year of county jail time. The bill is set to go into the Oklahoma state legislature upon the opening sessions in February.

The Oklahoma Policy Institute (OK Pol-icy), which describes itself as “a non-par-tisan independent policy think-tank,” will be hosting a summit in Oklahoma City on Jan. 29 about the condition of the state and federal budgets. The title of the summit is “Mind the Gap: Sensible Budget Policy in Challenging Times.

The first part of the summit will focus on state budget matters. OK Policy notes that there is a growing gap between state rev-enues and the costs of services. David Blatt, Executive Director of OK Policy, will be the first speaker. He will give an overview of Oklahoma’s tax and budget systems and discuss reasons for “the fiscal gap stemming from policy decisions, demographic trends, economic changes and other factors.”

The next part of the summit will be a panel discussion about the economic de-velopment of Oklahoma. The panelists are Shelley Cadamy, Executive Director of Workforce Tulsa; Dr. Micky Hepner, Dean of the College of Business at the University of Central Oklahoma; Chuck Hoskin, Jr., Secretary of State for the Cherokee Nation and Dr. Dan Rickman, Regents Professor of Economics and Oklahoma Gas and Elec-tric Services Chair in Regional Economic Analysis at Oklahoma State University. The panel will discuss trends in Oklahoma that

include both positive developments like low unemployment and high personal income growth and negative things like a relatively high poverty rate, low educational attain-ment and low funding for state services when compared to pre-recession levels.

After lunch, E. J. Dionne will give the keynote address. Dionne is a progressive columnist for the Washington Post and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. His address will focus on the federal budget. Specifically, he will talk about the budget under divided and polarized government.

The final part of the summit will focus on reforming Oklahoma’s special-interest tax breaks. OK Policy notes that “putting in place formal mechanisms to evaluate tax breaks and limiting or eliminating those that cannot be justified remains a priority for key legislators and statewide officehold-ers.” There will be both a presentation and a panel. The presentation will be given by Jeff Chapman and Parry Carter, who focus on state fiscal policy and economic growth at the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The panelists will be Rep. David Dank, chair of the Oklahoma House Revenue and Tax Subcommittee; Rep. Scott Inman, Okla-homa House Minority Leader; Hon. Gary Jones, Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspec-tor; John Estus, Director of Public Affairs for the Office of Management and Enter-prise Services, a state government agency and Mark VanLandingham, Vice-President for Government Relations at the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber.

The summit will be held at the Will Rog-ers Theater in Oklahoma City. Admission cost is $60, but scholarships are available. To purchase tickets or request a scholarship, go to okpolicy.org

A few days before the start of the semes-ter, residents of TU’s apartments received an email announcing that the university has opted out of Oklahoma’s EMSAcare pro-gram.

EMSAcare is a state-wide program wherein an addition of $5.45 is charged to the city’s monthly utility bill to make any EMSA services free to the user. All residents who pay monthly utilities are enrolled in the program, and the monthly payment waives the $1,300 ambulance fee in the event that one is needed.

Though residents who pay monthly utili-ties are automatically enrolled in the pro-gram, the city of Tulsa allows property own-ers the choice to opt out of the program. In the event a “multi-family utilities customer” opts out of EMSAcare, the management is required to “obtain a signed acknowledg-ment form from every tenant” announcing that they have elected not to participate.

The email sent by TU housing assures

residents that, in the event that EMSA ser-vices are necessary, “The University of Tulsa’s student health insurance (covers) 90 percent of the emergency transport costs once the deductible has been met.” For those who are covered by insurance other than that provided by the University, individuals are encouraged to “refer to (their) policy to see the correct coverage.” This covers cost for any location in Tulsa, not just your home address.

As is stated on EMSAcare’s webpage, “For individuals NOT enrolled through a city water/utility bill fee, such as individu-als living in nursing homes, apartment com-plexes or rural areas, an EMSAcare mem-bership may be purchased directly with EMSA.”

For residents of the TU apartments cov-ered by a policy other than TU’s, housing provided a link in its email for residents who would like to sign up for EMSAcare. EM-SAcare’s annual membership costs $45.

EMSAcare is not a program which covers any individual injured on a business’s prop-erty. In cases where an individual is injured on a business’s property, issues of compen-sation are left up to each party’s legal repre-sentation, regardless of either party’s enroll-ment in EMSAcare.

On Jan. 7, the first session of the 114th Congress began. John Boehner was also reelected as Speaker. However, Tulsa-area Congressman Jim Bridenstine voted for Texas congressman Louie Gohmert. This is the second time that Bridenstine has backed another politician over Boehner. Last year he voted for then majority leader Eric Can-tor.

Bridenstine had originally planned on voting for Boehner this year. He published an op-ed in the Tulsa World arguing that any vote against Boehner was unlikely to suc-ceed. Boehner’s support for the CR/omni-bus spending bill that passed in December changed his mind. Bridenstine believes that the bill, which funds most of the government through September, essentially gives away Congress’s power of the purse. Bridenstine is also displeased that the bill continues to fund the Affordable Care Act.

Additionally, the bill funds the Depart-ment of Homeland Security, which over-sees immigration policy, through February.

Bridenstine wanted Congress to prevent President Obama from implementing his executive actions regarding immigration that were announced Nov. 20. Those actions will protect around 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, at least for the remainder of his term. Bridenstine believes that President Obama’s actions are unconsti-tutional and represent a unilateral amnesty.

Congressman Bridenstine will continue being on the House Armed Services Com-mittee and the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. With regard to the latter, he has been selected to be the chair-man of the Environment Subcommittee.

Since beginning the new session of Con-gress, Bridenstine has introduced two bills and is cosponsoring at least four. On Jan. 6 he introduced a bill entitled the “Domestic Prosperity and Global Freedom Act.” If en-acted, the bill would expedite the process of liquefied natural gas exports. The purpose of the bill is to aid countries under threat from Russia. Bridenstine also introduced a con-stitutional amendment on Jan. 12 that would allow Congress to set term limits for itself. He is cosponsoring legislation that would enact the FairTax (a national sales tax that would replace most other federal taxes, no-tably the income tax), repeal the medical de-vice tax from the Affordable Care Act, allow the export of crude oil and repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990.

NEWS thE CollEgiaN : 320 jaNuary 2015

What has Bridenstine been up to?Congressman Jim Bridenstine began his second term by sponsoring several bills, voting against John Boehner for Speaker and attaining a new committee chairmanship. Politics Reporter Brennen VanderVeen reports.

OK Policy to host budget summit

The Oklahoma Policy Institute will be hosting a discussion about both the state and federal budgets on Jan. 29. Experts from around the state and a Washington Post columnist are scheduled to attend. Politics Reporter Brennen Vanderveen reports.

OK proposes hoodie banState Senator Barrington proposed a bill banning hoods or coverings that conceal an individual’s iden-tity. The bill will be debated this upcoming legislative session. Sports Reporter Wade Crawford reports.

Shots fired near home of U.S. VP

Switzerland revalues its currency

Boko Haram kills thousands in Nigeria

Russian ruble tumbles

Around 8:25 Saturday evening, several shots were fired from a moving vehicle near Vice President Joe Biden’s New Castle, Delaware residence. The vice president and his wife were not home at the time.

According to the Secret Service, the shots were fired from a public road several hundred yards away from the house. At press time, it was unknown whether any rounds struck the Bidens’ home.

The ripples of Switzerland’s latest financial policy change are rapidly spreading through the Eurozone. Though the small alpine state had long kept the value of its currency pegged to the Euro, the 16th of January saw Switzerland’s central bank lift the cap on the Swiss franc. Now the two currencies are going separate ways.

In one day, the franc shot up 39 percent against the Euro. European holidaymakers face even pricier vacations in already expensive Switzerland. The prices of Swiss exports are ex-pected to go up. Two days after the change, central bank officials said they would consider intervening to weaken the franc.

Reports indicate that as many as 2,000 people were killed by the Islamist insurgency group known as Boko Haram from Jan. 3 to 7. The massacre took place in the town of Baga, a small settlement near the shores of Lake Chad in northeastern Nigeria.

The attack is widely cited as Boko Haram’s deadliest to date. In a statement issued a week following the attack, Nigeria’s government said that the high casualty reports are mis-leading. Boko Haram’s ongoing campaign is expected to have a major impact on Nigeria’s upcoming elections, which are themselves poised to trigger more violence.

In the wake of Western sanctions and a glut in the oil supply, Russia’s ruble has taken a major hit, declining 50 percent against the dollar. But Russia isn’t the only country hurt by the ruble’s lackluster performance.

Several countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia rely heavily on rubles sent home by nationals living and working in Russia. 25.1 percent of Tajikistan’s GDP relies on money from Russia. For other countries, that number is lower but by no means insignificant. For Kyrgyzstan it is 24.8, Uzbekistan 11.7, Armenia 9.1, Moldova 9.3, and Georgia 4.5 percent.

Kyle Walker Editor-in-Chief

TU opts out of EMSAcare program

TU decided against participating in a program that waives ambulance fees for a monthly fee. University News Reporter Cailtin Woods reports.

Graphic courtesy Pew Hispanic Center

Killing is bad. So naturally, when terrorists attacked

the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing twelve of the magazine’s staff, the world flocked to give support to the French publication.

I saw an incredible amount of sup-port go out to France and those affected by the attacks, culminating in a cadre of world leaders marching through the streets of Paris.

The magazine printed nearly five mil-lion copies of its “Survivors Issue,” a drastic increase from its usual prints of sixty-thousand issues.

But with the world’s attention focused on this small satirical magazine, ques-tions have come up about whether or not we as a human race should be supporting the ideals upheld, portrayed and promot-ed by Charlie.

A quick look through the comics in question reveals several depictions of Muhammad, with occasional attacks on Islam in general.

The magazine has faced much oppo-sition for publishing offensive comics before, which has led to several court cases as well as an attack on their office in 2011.

Common complaints include accusa-tions of racism, because the magazine associates all Muslims with Muslim ter-rorists.

Muslims often take offense at Char-lie’s depictions of their prophet, which are not flattering, and generally not ac-cepted in Islam.

And although the images are essen-tial to the understanding of the story, the controversy has raised a good point.

How should the content of and ideals of the magazine affect our response?

The mentality behind some of Char-lie Hebdo’s comics may be flawed, but is this a good enough reason to withhold support during a tragedy?

A possibly offensive piece is an image that depicts Muhammad hiding a bomb in his clothes. This image is something could further stereotypes and racism. An image of Jesus picketing with the West-boro Baptist Church would certainly raise some objections.

A number of other news outlets, such

as CNN, ABC, Associated Press and the New York Times, chose not to show the magazine’s images or cover.

But the idea that such an image, or a comic depiction of Muhammad, could be cause for a lessening of support of those suffering from an attack is nothing short of ridiculous.

There are merits of debating the issues of pushing the envelope of satire, but there is a significant difference between satire and murder. When free speech is threatened through violence, that is per-haps the best time to unite behind it.

So Je Suis Charlie.People should be able to say what they

wish without fearing for their life. We all have opinions and we all expect to be able to express them without having to fear death around every corner.

We all are Charlie.

thE CollEgiaN: 4 20 jaNuary 2014barricade

Moves towards the normalization of re-lations and the relaxing of sanctions would rightly be less controversial and more wide-ly celebrated had the United States achieved more in the deal with Cuba.

Changing policies is a bargaining chip with the Castro regime. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything that the United States has re-ceived for doing so. The prisoner swap was a separate deal.

Critics of America’s last half century of policy against Cuba often point out that it’s a vestige of the Cold War that failed to pro-duce a democratic regime on the island that respects human rights.

The embargo is often contrasted with American policy towards other human rights violators such as the People’s Repub-lic of China (PRC), Saudi Arabia and Egypt. These reasons are used to support President Obama’s moves to normalize relations with the Western Hemisphere’s only communist state.

However, this ignores clear differences between Cuba and those other states. Rec-ognition and diplomatic relations with the PRC were given for entirely different rea-sons than a desire for democratization and liberalization. They were given to counter the influence of the Soviet Union.

By the 1970s, the Soviets and Chinese communists were no longer strong allies and were even adversarial towards one an-other. President Nixon went to China in or-der to exploit this development and weaken the Soviets. Neither democracy nor human rights had ever been a goal.

Today, the PRC is a great power with the world’s largest population and the sec-ond largest nominal GDP. Saudi Arabia is a major oil power. Egypt is the largest Arab country in the world. Both exist in a region that is quite volatile, to say the least.

Cuba, in contrast, is poor and an island. The reality of the situation demands that the United States keeps from taking too strong of a stance against the PRC, Saudi Arabia and other countries like them. This isn’t the case for Cuba.

Implementing our current measures today would be a mistake, but the policies already exist. Relaxing those policies should have been used to induce at least some greater recognition of human rights in Cuba.This may be impossible under the Castro broth-ers, they won’t be around forever. Fidel is 88 and Raul is 83. The United States could have relaxed policies against Cuba after they are gone in order to have greater influ-ence during the power transition.

Still, even if more human rights recogni-tion was out of reach, there are other things Cuba could have given the United States. Cuba is believed to be giving asylum to Joanne Deborah Chesimard, who is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Terrorists list. She is convicted in the murder of a police officer in 1973.

Surely her extradition would have been a reasonable request on the part of the United States in exchange for beginning the process of reversing decades of policy against the regime, especially considering that a prison-er swap was worked out as a separate deal.

Finally, some have argued that relaxing our policy might be beneficial to the United States in and of itself since it could expose Cuba to the benefits of freedom and a market economy. This is unlikely. Cuba has normal trade relations with other countries, includ-ing Canada and those of Western Europe.

Also, despite good relations with the United States, neither the PRC, Saudi Ara-bia nor Egypt are a bastion of human rights. True, the communists have liberalized some of their economic policies, and the Egyp-tians have kept peace with Israel. But the only real political change among the three of them was in Egypt, which the United States did nothing to initiate. There is no reason to believe that Cuba would be different.

The wrong policy for

CubaThough President Obama is correct about the Cuban embargo’s lack of success, Politics Reporter Brennen VanderVeen maintains that he could have used the normalization of relations more to his advantage.

Making a mockery doesn’t necessarily make a difference.

In recent months, James Franco and Seth Rogen’s comedy “The Interview” created a stir when its release was cancelled after parent corporation Sony was hacked (supposedly by North Korean hackers, although North Korea has denied involvement while still praising the deed).

The film was eventually released in theaters across the country and is now causing a new bout of controversy—this time among those who have an issue with its subject matter.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, “The Interview” focuses on TV personality Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer (Seth Rogen) who are viewed as a joke in the entertainment world until they arrange a TV interview with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

The United States CIA seizes the opportunity to recruit the two for an assassination attempt on Kim, and from there the movie follows their bumbling efforts to carry out the CIA’s orders and find television success.

At first glance, it’s easy to see why some have an issue with “The Interview”—it’s a movie that takes a very real, very dire situation and represents it in a movie that features crude humor and sexual references.

The very fact that it exists is a bit insulting to those who are suffering in North Korea.

However, supporters of the movie counter-argue that it brings awareness to an important issue in an accessible way and that “it’s supposed to be satire.”

It makes sense, at least in theory. It’s true that satire often takes an approach similar to that of “The Interview”, combining a fictitious plot with fact in order to prove just how ridiculous and wrong the facts may be.

It can be a very effective tactic, but “The Interview” fails in that it takes things just a tad too far.

Any satirical purpose the movie intended to accomplish is far overshadowed by its format and cheap humor.

The fatal flaw of “The Interview” is that it presents the facts in such a way that they seem too absurd to possibly be real.

Instead of actively considering the dire situation in North Korea, the audience’s

“The Interview” a gag movie, not successful satire

Satire is meant to criticize and bring attention to a real situation, but Student Writer Hannah Kloppenburg warns that “The Interview” is so ridiculous in general that the casual viewer may not realize how much of the movie’s portrayal of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is actually real.

Devrais-je être Charlie? While French magazine Charlie Hebdo did not use its freedom of speech in the most ideal way, Student Writer Samuel Beckmann argues that this should in no way lessen our support of the publication.

Graphic by Oscar Ho

Courtesy abcnews

“There is a significant difference between satire and murder”

attention is drawn to slapstick gags and outlandish scenarios (Skylark partying with Kim Jong Un, a battle with a tiger, and a cheesy action-movie-esque escape from North Korea).

This makes it difficult for viewers to realize the significance of the information that’s being presented to them.

Believe it or not, much of “The Interview”

is strongly based on actual conditions in North Korea.

For those wishing to get a nice overview of the situation, I would recommend a Frontline documentary called “Secret State of North Korea,” which can be found on the PBS website.

Through hidden-camera film and a number of firsthand testimonies, it highlights some of the seemingly outlandish facts that are featured in “The Interview,” down to the widely held belief that Kim Jong Un is so godlike that he doesn’t pee or poop. This is where satire functions well—the presentation of ridiculous facts in a fictitious setting can call attention to them with the proper blend of comedy and truth.

Viewed objectively, I can honestly report that “The Interview” is a pretty good movie, ideal for fans of the Hangover-esque genre.

Despite some cheap laughs and crude humor, the movie’s comedic timing and creativity make it enjoyable to watch—of course, that’s only if you can remove yourself from the fact that the starvation, oppression, and human rights violations mentioned in the film are all horribly real.

For “The Interview” to truly make a difference, it needed to put proper weight on the inhumane conditions in North Korea along with the comedic aspects. As it is, I don’t see this movie changing much of anything.

Graphic by Elias Brinkman

Graphic by Elias Brinkman

And now for a different view of U.S.-Cuba relations …

“Je Suis Charlie” has become the rallying cry of the movement supporting Charlie Hebdo magazine.

When satire is done poorly, despots can become cute and eccentric. This is exactly happens in “The Interview.”

Ineffective tortue, lying to government oversight, hacking the Senate Intelligence Committee’s computers, destroying evi-dence, imprisoning innocent people, pro-viding false evidence in support of the Iraq war—the CIA has really done nothing right in regard to its torture program.

The CIA has used waterboarding, anal forced feeding and keeping prisoners awake for over 180 hours (one week), among other methods, to torture its detainees.

This was revealed in a report by the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). The report covered CIA torture methods referred to as “enhanced in-terrogation techniques” in U.S. government communiqués.

The report was prompted when the CIA Director of the National Clandestine Ser-vice, Jose Rodriguez, was found to have destroyed almost 100 video recordings of interrogations in 2005.

The SSCI believed he was covering up illegal activities by the CIA, although the committee had initially been told by CIA of-ficials that Rodriguez was not engaging in “destruction of evidence.”

No one disagrees that these interrogation methods are torture. The argument is on

whether such methods are necessary. The report’s most important conclusion

is that “The CIA’s use of its enhanced in-terrogation techniques was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gain-ing cooperation from detainees.” In other words, such methods are not necessary.

In addition to the Senate report’s conclu-sion, Jane Goodman-Delahunty’s research on interrogation, according to BPS Research Digest’s summary, revealed that “Disclo-sure was 14 times more likely to occur early in an interrogation when a rapport-building approach was used.”

Furthermore, “confessions were four times more likely when interrogators struck a neutral and respectful stance. Rates of detainee disclosure were also higher when they were interrogated in comfortable phys-ical settings.”

In fact, in 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte wrote a letter to Major-General Berthier stating that the“barbarous custom of whip-ping men suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this method of interrogation, by putting men to the tor-ture, is useless. The wretches say whatever comes into their heads and whatever they think one wants to believe. Consequently, the Commander-in-Chief forbids the use of a method which is contrary to reason and humanity.”

In other words the knowledge that torture is ineffective is not new. Yet the CIA found it necessary to threaten to rape and murder

the family of detainees and keep people awake for more than 180 hours.

Of course, the senate report and psycho-logical study are published after the fact, and how reliable is Napoleon Bonaparte anyway?

Is it possible the CIA didn’t realize how

ineffective forcing prisoners to stand on broken feet and permanently traumatizing them was?

Or the CIA could just have lied. In fact, that’s exactly what it did!

The CIA’s directors (George Tenet, Porter Goss and Michael Hayden) lied to members of the U.S. Congress, the White House and the Director of National Intelligence about the program’s effectiveness and the number of prisoners that the CIA held, as reported by the New York Times.

Vox reported that the CIA lied about the value of information extracted from prison-ers subjected to torture. Bloomberg wrote that the CIA lied about the methods of inter-rogation it was using against prisoners.

One reason that torture is ineffective is that false confessions occur frequently.

Dustin Volz wrote an article in the Na-tional Journal stating that the report suggests torture was the source of a false confession by Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi linking Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda that was cited in Co-lin Powell’s address to the UN in advance of the 2003 Iraq War.

Fortunately, that address was discredited and the U.S. shifted its reasoning to its sec-ondary motivations.

Torture in and of itself is disgusting, but the most appalling fact about the whole ordeal is that the detention program had at least 119 prisoners and at least 26 (22 per-cent) of those people are innocent, and most of them were tortured.

One person was forced to stand without sleep for 66 hours only to be released later

because the CIA had mistaken his identity. Oops.According to the New York Times, on

March 11, 2014, Senator Feinstein, chair-woman of the Intelligence Committee, said the CIA unlawfully searched the Intelli-gence Committee’s computers to determine how the committee staff obtained the review documents.

John Brennan, Director of the CIA, de-nied the claim, stating, “When the facts come out on this, I think a lot of people who are claiming that there has been this tre-mendous sort of spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong.”

Four months later, an internal investi-gation at the CIA confirmed Feinstein’s statements, and Ron Wyden, a senator for Oregon, used its conclusion to condemn Brennan: “The CIA Inspector General con-firmed what Senators have been saying all along: The CIA conducted an unauthorized search of Senate files and attempted to have Senate staff prosecuted for doing their jobs. Director Brennan’s claims to the contrary were simply not true.” Yet another lie by the CIA.

As the torture report says, “The CIA’s De-tention and Interrogation Program damaged the United States’ standing in the world, and resulted in other significant monetary and non-monetary costs.”

The endless deception surrounding the program is despicable, the lack of account-ability disgusting and the sloppiness of the CIA reprehensible.

This program never should have been created in the first place, particularly be-cause there was no evidence that it would be effective, and much evidence that it would not be. It is general knowledge among crim-inal interrogators that good cop works better than bad cop.

20 jaNuary 2014 thE CollEgiaN: 5barricade/Commentary

CIA Torture Report reveals disturbing, ineffective practicesAfter five years of research, the Senate Intelligence Committee has released a report detailing the methods of torture the CIA used and admitted those methods did not work to obtain information. Student Writer Nate Beckemeyer describes the CIA actions that wasted government resources and tarnished this country’s reputation, not to mention causing unconscionable pain and suffering.

If you live in an apartment, you were at some point in the past week probably asked to sign a form acknowledging that the University of Tulsa has opted out of the EMSAcare program.

The program adds $5.45 onto residents’ monthly utility bill, so that those who need EMSA transportation aren’t burdened with the $1,300 charge.

That the University decided to opt out of the program without consulting the students who live here or even making a conscious effort to educate us about the program seems a bit selfish.

Surely out of the $3,052 I pay for my apartment each semester, $27.25 could be allocated to pay for the EMSAcare program. It could even be added on to my apartment charge.

It’s not like anyone would actually notice the 25 dollar addition once the cost went beyond $3,000.

In the email that was sent out to apartment residents students were asked to “please note” that “the University of Tulsa’s student health insurance does cover 90% the emergency transport costs once the

deductible has been met.” Great. That would be fantastic if I used

the University’s health insurance and had met my deductible.

As it stands there are students on campus who have insurance plans that would still make an ambulance ride a financial burden because of deductibles, copays or a lack of insurance.

And yes, it is possible to go to the University without any kind of health insurance.

For example, being a registered Native American waives the insurance requirement.

These students who need the program for these reasons are also the most likely to be affected by a hefty EMSA bill.

While it is possible to buy a separate EMSAcare enrollment for $45, most students are not here the entire year, or even the entire academic year and the University opting into EMSAcare.

Rolling the charge in with housing would allow these students to cover the charge with their scholarships in an easy way, thus making it much more likely that they would be able to stay at TU after a medical

emergency.All in all, the University should have done

a much better job educating its residents as to what EMSAcare is, what it can do for us and why they are choosing to opt out.

With the University’s 2013 endowment reaching upwards of $893 million, the fact that it is opting out of EMSAcare and trying to brush it under the rug seems like the kind of bullshit I went to a small school to avoid.

Bring back EMSAcare, safety net for uninsured studentsEMSAcare is a useful program that the university got rid of without thinking of all its students, according to Variety Editor Abigail LaBounty. For more news and facts about EMSAcare, see page 2.

“The CIA damaged the United States’

standing in the world”

“The CIA’s use of its enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of

acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees”

Gra

phic

by

Elia

s Br

inkm

an

WHY aren’t you writing for The

Collegian?

CAT got your tongue?

Meetings, Monday at

5p.m., Oliphant 110

EMSAcare will no longer be covering ambulance rides for TU students, because the administration has opted out of the program.

thE CollEgiaN : 6 20 jaNuary 2015variety

Usually when a pop star utters anything resembling the phrase, “This is the album where I show the real me,” it’s time to run. “The Pinkprint,” ambitiously titled af-ter Jay-Z’s creative watermark, was created by Niki Minaj hoping to return to the urban roots that launched her and appeasing the ra-pheads who had turned on her for “going pop.”

The album takes an overtly bio-graphic tone, and while she has boxed up the alien mother wigs that defined her, it’s more dramatic than the goofy voiced “Monster” feature that put her in the great-est rapper alive conversation. It’s good to think of this album as “Nicki Minaj: A Dramatic Life in Five Acts.”

The opening trio of songs are the 15 most captivating minutes of a modern star’s album since “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” It begins with “All Things Go,” describing the rubble left behind by romantic and familial rela-tionships ending, and the album’s highlight comes with Jessie-Ware-assisted “The Crying Game,” a unique play on the poker game/relationship metaphor that shows

Minaj can still crack a punch-line when she’s sad. (“Hit you with the Ace of Spades, in your face, and shrugged/ Blood drippin’ out your arm on my Asian rugs/We was—just planning a wedding, Caucasian doves.”)

Once she sets the scene, the rest of the album isn’t so smooth. The next group of songs features her most famous label-mates (Drake, Lil’ Wayne) and the foremost R&B

divas in music right now (Ariana Grande, Beyonce, Chris Brown) on subjects such as sex, masturba-tion and Young Money inter-label sexual relationships.

Grande is the only guest star who nails it here, while Drake and Lil Wayne seem to be having a “who can embarrass themselves more?” contest on “Only.” (Lil Wayne takes the win with, “I piss greatness, like goldish yellow.”) None of it’s as particularly capti-vating or sexy as it wants to be.

It gets better around the middle of the album. The loose flow “Four Door Aventador” shows that Nicki Minaj is the closest thing alive to Notorious B.I.G., and dancehall-infused “Trini Dem Girls” is a jamming club track that makes you wonder why Minaj is just now musically harvesting her Trinida-dian heritage. “Anaconda” is still weird even in the context of the rest of the album, but at least it’s kind of clever.

The end is not exactly a whim-per, but it’s definitely not a bang. There’s the Dr. Luke selections (“The Night is Still Young,” “Pills N Potions”), which are fun but sound half-finished. “Bed of Lies” features some of Minaj’s best rap-ping, but one of the weaker hooks (the snoozy Skylar Grey somehow snuck out from underneath Emi-nem’s thumb onto this album).

The bonus tracks are for the most part wacky and interest-ing, featuring probably the first ever rap shoutout to Manu Gino-bili. A couple of the songs (“Win Again,” “Truffle Butter”) sound like far better revisions of songs

“The Pinkprint” moves away from Nicki Minaj’s pop past, back to rap roots

Relaciones con Cuba: una oportunidad o un error?

En el 12 de enero, el gobierno de Cuba anunció que liberó una cantidad de 53 prisioneros políti-cos estadounidenses. Este acto es parte del intento para arreglar las relaciones entre los dos países. Los Estados Unidos y Cuba an-unciaron en diciembre un acu-erdo para reintegrar las relaciones diplomáticas, después de más que 50 años de un embargo de los Es-tados Unidos contra Cuba.

También, los Estados Unidos permitió la libertad de tres es-pías cubanos que estaban encar-celados en Florida. Todavía, las identidades de estos presos están desconocidos, porque el gobierno del presidente Barack Obama de-cidió mantener la lista de los 53 nombres en secreto.

La liberación de estos prisione-ros señala un cambio en la historia

entre los dos países. En el 17 de diciembre, presidentes Obama y Raúl Castro anunciaron sus deseos de normalizar las relaciones entre los países.

Otras temas de preocupación para los estadounidenses es la cuestión de derechos humanos en Cuba. La portavoz del departa-mento de estado en los E.E.U.U. dijo que este asunto es una priori-dad de importancia por los Estados Unidos durante sus discusiones con Cuba.

Todos los estadounidenses no apoyan esta decisión. Un crítico visible es Marco Rubio, el senador republicano en Florida. Rubio cree que el presidente Obama necesita posponer sus conversaciones so-bre el terminación del embargo hasta la liberación de todos los presos políticos en Cuba. Otro

razones incluya el hecho que la política de Obama podría mejo-rar la economía de La Habana y el resto del país mientras viola los derechos humanos.

Muchos piensan que Rubio y otros miembros cubanos del Con-greso estadounidense trataran blo-quear la normalización de las rela-ciones con la isla caribeña.

Una cuestión por muchos como el senador Bob Menéndez de Nueva Jersey, es el secretismo de la gente liberada, especialmente porque de la historia de arrestar activistas políticas exhibieron por la familia Castro en Cuba.

Algunos políticos apoyan la de-cisión del presidente, como Hill-ary Clinton, quien llama el embar-go “el mejor amigo” de la familia Castro y su régimen.

El embargo comenzó cuando

Fidel Castro se hace presidente de Cuba por la fuerza, y nacionalizó más que un billón dólares. En los pasados dos décadas,sóloo los Es-tados Unidos y Israel ha votado a mantener el embargo contra Cuba durante las reuniones de los Na-ciones Unidas.

El resto del mundo piensa que el embargo es una regulación injusta. Por muchos años, los refugiados cubanos que viva en los estados fueron los críticos más severos de un arreglo en las relaciones entre los dos países. Ahora, el 70 por ciento de cubanoamericanos apoya una conciliación en las relaciones. Muchas creen que puede mejorar condiciones en Cuba, un país que ha perdido más que 5 trillones de dólares desde el inicio del embar-go, y mejorara las economías de Cuba y E.E.U.U.

On Jan. 12, the Cuban govern-ment announced they would re-

lease 53 US prisoners as part of an effort to repair relations between the US and Cuba, fifty years after the US embargo against Cuba be-gan. In return, the US freed three Cuban spies who were incarcer-ated in Florida.

Not all US citizens support this decision. Some want to wait until all political prisoners are freed, or until the human rights violations are addressed. Indeed, human rights will be a top priority dur-ing the US discussions with Cuba about repairing relations.

The US and Israel are the only countries who have maintained this embargo against Cuba for so long. The rest of the world thinks this embargo is unjust. For years, Cuban refugees living in the US have been the strongest critics of repairing relations with Cuba. But now, 70 percent support it, be-cause they think it may improve conditions in Cuba.

“Are You My Mother?”: an existentialist fever dream

Late one night, Managing Editor Conor Fellin was visited in his sleep by the ghosts of a few of the great so-called existentialists. They shared with him unspeakable tales about the banality and meaninglessness of the afterlife. Additionally, each shared his own adaptation of the children’s book “Are You My Mother?”, with which the ghosts showed a mysterious obsession. The stories are reproduced in part below.

Dostoevsky: “The Lost Rob-in” (a very short excerpt)

“Are you my mother?” the baby robin approached the dog and asked it.

“No, I am not your mother!” the dog exclaimed.

“If you are not my mother, then by what means do you derive the authority to tell me this?” asked the Robin, suddenly impetuous. “Indeed, if we have denied the ex-istence of God, then we have abol-ished all authority, even maternal authority!”

“Let me tell you a story about a pig my sister’s master’s es-tranged boyfriend used to own,” the dog said in response. “The pig was born over thirty years ago, to a family that was very happy, at

least for a time. But I get ahead myself. In the first months of its life, the pig would frequently ven-ture down to a creek at the south-ern edge of its farm”...

Camus: “The Myth of the Robin” (excerpts)

There is only one really serious problem in children’s literature, and that is orphanhood. Such di-verse characters as Harry Potter and Huckleberry Finn all serve to prepare children for the fact that they one day will leave their parents. “Without the guidance of your parents,” these charac-ters ask, “how can you live your life?”...

The gods had condemned the robin to ceaselessly searching for

her mother among various crea-tures, only to have them all turn her away. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than perpetu-al orphanhood...

Kafka: “Yet Another Fable” (the entirety)

“Are you my mother?” asked the baby robin. “Indeed, we know my mother must be after my im-age, but having no mirror, I know not my own image. Thus I have been forced to question all sorts of creatures—tiny and mercurial, long and cartilaginous, groaning and metallic.”

“I am not your mother,” said the old robin. “I have been barren my whole life.”

Madeline Woods / Collegian

As a way of embracing the multicultural nature of the university community, the Collegian prints articles in languages that reflect the international makeup of our student body. Student Writer Eric DiGiacomo discusses Cuban American relations and recent events. A short English summary follows.

that made the non-deluxe edition, which might be a Minaj Corpora-tion strategy for getting you to buy the deluxe edition.

A lot of the criticism of Minaj is that she doesn’t seem really aware of where her strengths lie, often preferring to sing when she should just be rapping. Minaj’s voice was weak, generic and colorless on her early albums, but she sounds bet-

ter here. Her voice, while still thin, sounds bruised and wearied by the events leading up to this album, and on songs like “Grand Piano,” it’s a pretty effect.

“The Pinkprint” as a whole is a whole lot better than the first two albums. Nicki Minaj is clearly a great rapper, and she can soar with the right material. Minaj’s peeling away of the kooky bubble gum

rap queen veneer that glossed over her previous albums might end up costing her pop radio play (there is nothing as instant as “Super Bass” here), but she’s made one of the more interesting rap albums of re-cent years. Winning is the topic du jour of most rap, but Minaj soars creatively here when she focuses on what she lost in exchange for being famous.

Student Writer Eric DiGiacomo reviews Nicki Minaj’s most recent al-bum “The Pinkprint,” in which Minaj chronicles her life and pulls on her musical background, including more rap than singing and a tribute to her Trinidadian heritage.

Courtesy mypinkfriday.com

The title of Nikki Minaj’s new album “The Pinkprint” alludes to Jay-Z’s seminal 2001 album “The Blueprint.”

Tulsa native Ronald Radford is called the American Master of Fla-menco. He has performed on his guitar in 15 countries and on four

different continents. Radford gave a successful show

at the Lorton Center last Thursday for a packed auditorium.

Radford grew up in Tulsa.

Though he always knew he want-ed to be a musician, he learned to play several instruments, includ-ing the cello, before he found his passion in the guitar.

While a bit daunted by the in-strument, Radford said, “I knew I could do it, all I had to do was start and practice.”

Radford dabbled in jazz, blues and rock and roll. He didn’t know Flamenco existed until his mother brought home a vinyl record of Carlos Montoya. Radford con-fessed that when “I saw the word Flamenco, I thought of a pink bird out at a zoo.”

Flamenco is a traditional folk art that developed in Southern Spain. It is the product of an organic pro-cess that blended music of Spanish Roma people (popularly known as Gypsies) with music of the Moors and Jews over several centuries.

Radford moved to New York with his “guitar and 35 bucks in (his) pocket.” He practiced Fla-menco music on his guitar for eight to ten hours a day.

His practice paid off, and he went on to play in Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.

Radford is the only person to have received a Fulbright Scholar-ship in Flamenco.

He quickly realized, however, that there were no universities spe-cializing in Flamenco. In order to master Flamenco, he traveled to

Southern Spain and lived with the Spanish Gypsies.

Once in Spain, Radford’s strat-egy was simple. He would choose a strategic spot, play his guitar and look lonely. More often than not, he would be joined by other musi-cians, told where a Flamenco mu-sician could be found, or invited home with a passerby.

This spontaneous method of teaching uniquely suits Flamenco. In this type of folk art, Radford said “the dancer doesn’t follow the music, the music follows the dancer.”

One of his greatest teachers was El Sabio, the wise man. He was an old Gypsy who gave Radford in-valuable lessons as well as sound advice. When Radford asked El Sabio to play his best variation, the man replied, “Every variation I play is the best, because it’s the one I’m playing right now.”

That seems to be the rule the Gypsies live by, according to Rad-ford. To them, “every moment in life is the best moment, because it’s the only one you have.”

Radford learned to “escuchando con corozón,” or to “listen with heart” by stripping away the in-tellectual filters that Radford said are barriers between you and the music.

El Sabio’s lessons followed that theme. He told Radford, “the most important ingredient is not what your fingers do on the strings. . .it’s what you feel in your heart.”

Radford ended the concert with a bit of advice. If you ever find yourself in a Flamenco bar in Southern Spain, stay at least until 3 a.m. Because it is only after the tourists go home, that the true Fla-menco artists come out to play.

thE CollEgiaN : 720 jaNuary 2015 variety

Ronald Radford: a history and a review of Tulsa-born Flamenco guitarist

Student Writer Meagan Collins found Ronald Rad-ford’s performance intimate and eclectic.

The Flamenco guitarist Ronald Radford performed for an older audience on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at TU’s School of Music. Growing up in Tulsa as a child, he didn’t have any experience with Spanish music, especially Flamenco, until his mother brought home a vinyl record of the great guitarist Carlos Montoya. He was in love with the instrument and style of music from that moment on and has devoted much of his life to the art form.

Radford’s performance was more than just a concert, including voice and storytelling spun from the heartland of Spain. It was like being at home listening to your grandpa tell a story you’d heard a thousand times before, but never grew tired of listening to.

You could feel the weight of his old fingers on each string and for a moment it felt like the room was filled with a vagabond spirit. Some rhythms he tapped on his guitar, and the reverberations were like hearty laughter. His encour-agement for everyone to say “ole” while he played made the perfor-mance feel less stuffy and official.

The program detailed his eclec-tic performance, down to even the mood and backstory of each piece, but there was no formality to his storytelling and guitar playing; the concert was completely spontane-ous and organic.

This American and Spanish connoisseur also gave inspiration-al advice on the way to live life as if each moment is the only one you have. Radford claimed that “the heart includes the mind, but the mind doesn’t always include the heart” and “an artist is a mirror.”

The whole atmosphere was that of a revival, a spiritual awakening, for the love of music.

With his one guitar, Radford created an entire processional march, sang about being under the moonlight more times than I can remember, gave a condensed auto-biography, translated a lamenting poem from Spanish to English and received three separate standing ovations.

Features Editor Morgan Krueger sheds light on Ronald Radford’s backstory and his path to Flamenco.

Courtesy communityseries.net

“He would choose a strategic spot, play his guitar and look lonely”

“Big Eyes” a relatable, thought provoking film that retains Burtonesque qualities

Student Writer Hannah Kloppenburg reviews Tim Burton’s “Big Eyes.” She finds that the film offers a new, more relatable side of Burton that still retains the dark edginess he is known for. The film also profits from thought provoking performances by lead actress and actor Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz.

Tim Burton’s recent film “Big Eyes” is, unsurprisingly, worth seeing, but not for the reasons you may have expected.

“Big Eyes” is based on the life of Margaret Keane, an aspiring artist and single mother who mar-ried fellow artist Walter Keane af-ter meeting him at a gathering of art vendors.

Realizing that Margaret is a much more talented artist than he and driven by intense insecurity, Walter begins passing her work off as his at a local nightclub and sell-ing it under his own name.

When Margaret finds out, he convinces her to go along with him. For the next ten years, Mar-garet’s paintings, which all figure waifish figures, usually children, with abnormally large and expres-sive eyes, become a sensation in the art world- all under Walter’s name.

“Big Eyes” is a refreshing change of pace for director Tim Burton, who you may recognize as the creative force behind ani-mated films such as “The Night-mare Before Christmas” as well as live-action films such as “Alice in Wonderland” and “Edward Scis-sorhands.”

Burton tends to adopt a dark, strange and fantastical quality in his films, and while “Big Eyes” is set in the somewhat lighter atmo-sphere of 1950s–1960s America, it doesn’t lose the bite that’s found in his previous work. Incidentally, Burton is actually a collector of Margaret Keane’s art, and the skel-etal, doe-eyed figures featured in his art and animation are strongly reminiscent of her works.

The movie is aesthetically pleasing, incorporating the bright colors and bustling streets reminis-cent of ’50s–’60s America while still maintaining a faint, shady un-dercurrent. This contributes to the plot of the movie rather than over-whelming it.

At the forefront of “Big Eyes” are stunning performances by both Cristoph Waltz and Amy Adams. While the role of an emotionally

manipulative, troubled and vola-tile antagonist may not be a first for Waltz, he fills it well as always and manages to convince us of both the human weakness and ma-licious brutality in Walter Keane.

As Walter and Margaret attempt to further their careers and their marriage, it becomes apparent that Walter is a sly man; a talented salesman and a pro at smoothing any sort of deception into a rea-sonable-seeming prospect.

Similarly, Amy Adams is a pro at emanating vulnerability, overwhelming emotion and quiet strength in turn. Margaret, the protagonist of “Big Eyes,” is not a rough-and-tough hero, nor is she a token “strong female character”; rather, she’s scared, weak and suffers from a deficit of self-con-fidence for much of the film. Far from making her an unappealing hero, these characteristics make her a more compelling character.

A good movie is supposed to emotionally invest the viewer, and “Big Eyes” is outstanding in its ability to do just that. While I iden-tified with Margaret’s fear, I was equally frustrated with her lack of action.

I groaned every time Walter made a slippery move to manipu-late Margaret and felt a pang of pity for him as I realized the truly pathetic nature of his insecurities. For someone who entered the the-ater expecting to be only mildly entertained, I was sufficiently im-pressed.

It’s especially incredible when you consider that the film is based on an entirely true story (and after doing some additional research, I was delighted to find that the movie stays very true to the actual events of the “Big Eyes” scandal).

In conclusion, I recommend “Big Eyes” to Burton fans, art lov-ers, aspiring offbeat film critics and bored college students alike. Enjoyable, aesthetically pleasing, thought-provoking, “Big Eyes” is a worthwhile experience.

Courtesy ramascreen.com The promotional poster for “Big Eyes,” a movie about the life of Margaret Keane starring Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams.

Ronald Radford, a Tulsan Flamenco Guitarist, poses with his instrument.

As the confetti fell around Cardale Jones and the victorious Ohio State Buckeyes, I took the time to reflect on the inaugural College Football Playoff. What would’ve been a national title game between the Ala-bama Crimson Tide and the Oregon Ducks turned into a chance for Ohio State to cap off a spectacular season with a thrilling win over the Ducks. That was one of the major high points of the playoff, and there were several more. However, there are multiple ways that the newly-installed postseason could improve.

The playoff brought a drastic change to the upper echelon of college football. The postseason matchups were left in the hands of former athletic directors and coaches, and even a former Secretary of State (Con-doleezza Rice), who met and debated thor-

oughly until a final ranking was created. This was a welcome change in comparison to the shaky computer polls and the human polls—ten dollars to whoever can make sense of Drew Sharp’s final AP Poll. Go ahead, give it a shot.

There were several positives to take out of the new change. The obvious one is allow-ing more deserving teams to compete for the trophy. Like I mentioned, Ohio State’s im-pressive win would’ve been the headline of the Rose Bowl, and we would’ve had to deal with Alabama winning yet another champi-onship or Florida State going back-to-back. The four-team bracket also caused a gigan-tic spike in viewership. The National Cham-pionship Game, Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl now sit as the top three television programs (by viewership) in cable television history.

With all the good that the playoff provid-ed, it still has plenty of room for improve-ment. The first is the prospect of the New Year’s Six bowls and the subsequent rota-tion between them. For the next two years, both semifinal games will be held on New Year’s Eve, which will surely hinder view-

ership with more people working during that time. Additionally, while having semi-final games on the same day is somewhat understandable, having a first game in the middle of the afternoon cuts out a bit of the viewer base as well.

Timing aside, the issue that is incredibly more controversial is expanding the play-off. Six teams deserved to compete for the National Championship this season, and a credible argument for eight could also be made. While eight is a popular choice, I’m a fan of six—a simple addition of games near the beginning of bowl season (maybe two or so weeks after the conference champion-ship week). This gives an incentive to the top two teams of not only a choice of home field, but also an extended period of rest, re-covery and preparation.

The BCS is dead and gone, and a new college football postseason is upon us. The new final four brought a new angle of com-petition and entertainment to the football universe. While there’s ways that the play-off can be better, it’s absolutely a step in the right direction.

thE CollEgiaN : 8 20 jaNuary 2015Sports

John Moss, a sports director at KTUL, tweeted, “A player on the UConn bench just looked at his teammate and said, ‘This place is crazy!’” This single tweet brought many a tear to this bleacher creature’s eyes.

A player from a national championship-winning program, which undoubtedly has hopping crowds attend its home games, called our lowly Reynolds Center “crazy!” That’s like Albert Einstein commending a physics major’s homework, or Freddie Mercury congratulating me on my falset-to. Nonetheless, over 6,000 fans filled the Reynolds Center for the men’s basketball matchup against Connecticut, the defending national champions.

While the game earlier in the year against OU had a higher total attendance, last week’s contest certainly had more TU students. In recent years, TU basketball has struggled to attract fans the way Bill Self did around the time of the Reynolds Center’s inception.

However, a new conference, a return to the NCAA Tournament and a prestigious coach have all slowly begun to help refill Reynolds. Even so, the matchup against the Huskies was especially raucous.

So what about this game grabbed so many students out of their apartments on a Tuesday night? It was the perfect hurri-cane, er, storm of corny t-shirts (which read “UCONN’T but HurriCANe”), the bien-nial festival known as syllabus week and a chance to knock off a basketball program that ESPN knows of.

In addition to the win, congrats to the men’s basketball squad and the athletic department on not committing any NCAA violations! Celebration is certainly in order because non-compliance is all but an inevi-table certainty on any half-decent basketball or football team.

Just ask SMU’s Larry Brown. Last week, the NCAA levied allegations of academic improprieties against SMU’s basketball program. The allegations revolve around sophomore Keith Frazier’s eligibility.

The candle is burning on both ends for Frazier, who carries a miniscule GPA and whose grades were inflated prior to attend-ing SMU. Apparently, the SMU athletic de-partment has grown a little cocky since its football team received the “death penalty” in the late ‘80s.

After winning a national championship with Kansas in 1988, Larry Brown received three years’ worth of punishments from the NCAA for recruiting violations. So don’t worry, SMU fans; Brown’s done this before.

NCAA referee Karl Hess has been re-lieved from reffing any more AAC, ACC, and SEC men’s basketball games after mak-ing a racist remark toward a former Wake Forest board member.

During a matchup between Wake For-est and Louisville, Hess said to Mitt Sah, “When I’m older, I want to sit in your seat and watch your Egyptian ass ref a game.” Hess committed the oh-so-typical racist er-ror of misattributing someone’s race.

In fact, Sah is of Indian descent and hails from the far-away land of Winston-Salem, North Carolina (the home of Wake Forest). Furthermore, our misinformed antagonist fails to distinguish Egyptians from Indians.

For reference, Cairo is 2,750 miles from New Dehli. In terms of distance, mixing a Pole with an Egyptian would be a less egre-gious comparison. And, personally, I have never heard anyone accuse the late Pope John Paul II of being Egyptian.

Jesse Keipp is…

Greg Diskin / Collegian

With their most recent victory over con-ference opponent USF, the Golden Hur-ricane men’s basketball team (12–5, 5–0 American Athletic Conference) continues their hot play as they bring their win streak to 7 games.

Tulsa ended non-conference play on a high note, winning their final two games against Missouri State (74–70) and Incar-nate Word (76–47). Guard Shaquille Harri-son paced the offense in those games, scor-ing over 20 in each of them. The wins gave the Golden Hurricane a 7–5 non-conference record, with the beginning of their season featuring highlights such as a win over Creighton and blemishes such as losses to Southeast Oklahoma State and Oral Rob-erts.

Conference play began on New Years Eve, as the Golden Hurricane were in Orlan-do to face the University of Central Florida. Tulsa saw a 15-point advantage slip away in the second half, but managed to hang on and win a close game, 56–54.

Back at home for their second conference game, the defense again held their opponent, the University of Houston, to 54 points, but the offense found its footing once more to give them a comfortable margin of victory in a 72–54 win.

The streak was brought to three games in a trip to Temple University in Philadel-phia. Similarly to the game against UCF, one team pulled ahead for a double digit lead; the Golden Hurricane were on the op-posite end of that lead in this game, though.

Shaquille Harrison scored 19 points in the second half, however, and Tulsa came back from 11 points down to win 63-56.

The fourth conference game saw de-fending national champions the University of Connecticut visit Tulsa. In a packed Reynolds Center, forward James Woodard paced the team with 21 points to help Tulsa stop a UConn rally and to give the Golden Hurri-cane a 66–58 win over the Huskies.

The Golden Hurricane then trav-eled back to Florida, this time to Tampa to play the University of South Florida. Woodard scored 21 points for the second consecutive games, and TU pulled ahead from a five point halftime lead to win 75–58, giving them their fifth conference win in as many games.

With their 5–0 record in conference play, Tulsa is in first place as the only re-maining undefeated team in the American Athletic Conference. They lead SMU (5-1 in the AAC) by half a game. The team’s defense has played strong against confer-ence opponents; no conference team has scored 60 points in a game against the Golden Hurricane so far. Harrison and Woodard have paced the offense, as they have each been averaging 15 points per game this season.

The Hurricane look to keep their hot streak going and go for their 17th straight conference win (including their 11 game winning streak last season in Conference USA) against the Tigers of Memphis, who are fourth on the American and on their own 3-game winning streak, on Wednesday evening at the Reynolds Center.

The Golden Hurricane has been the perfect storm in conference play thus far. Sports Writer Joseph Edmunds reports.

The Golden Hurricane wom-en’s basketball team is still looking for traction as their season moves into conference

play.This season, Tulsa has yet to

have a winning streak or a losing streak longer than two games. Fittingly, their last three non-conference games resulted in a loss, a win and then another loss. After los-ing to Arkansas 64–53, the Golden Hurri-cane bounced back with a resounding win over New Orleans, 78–55. However, they couldn’t keep the momentum going, and fell to Arkansas-Little Rock in their final

non-conference game, 66–59.

Conference play started off well for the Golden Hurricane, as they won their first game 74–52 in a home game against Cincin-nati. In their next two games, however,they did not continue the strong play from the first game, as they dropped a close contest to UCF 76–70, and then were handed a big loss from the No. 2 ranked team in the na-tion, UConn, 98–60.

Their next three games, all at home, re-sulted in a win, loss and another win to continue the up-and-down trend of the season. Tulsa beat Memphis 79–69, lost to East Carolina 77–68, and then won against Houston, 74–52.

Tulsa (8–9, 3–3 American Athletic Con-ference) sit in the middle of the AAC stand-ings at 3–3. The team has yet to find con-sistency on both sides of the ball, as many games have seen either the offense of the defense struggle. TU travels to New Orleans to play their next game against Tulane on Jan. 20.

Hurricane report: Tulsa’s defense key to winning streak

The college football season has finally ended for everyone, with a thrilling championship game to wrap up the inaugural College Football Playoff. Sports Writer Wade Crawford reports.

The Golden Huricane women’s bas-ketball team has had a rocky first year in their new conference. Sports Writer Joseph Edmunds reports on how their season has been unfold-ing thus far.

A look at the new and “improved” College Football Playoffs

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Photo courtesy wikipedia.org

Look at this building. It’s windows, beautiful shrub-berry and seemingly peaceful exterior serve much the same purpose as a Venus Fly-trap. It lures its prey in, after which it devours them for nutrients ... er beats them in basketball. Yeah, same thing.

Photo courtesy newhavenregister.org

*Editor’s note: I have no idea why the Bleacher Crea-ture seems to think that these shirts are corny. For starters he didn’t even mention that they glow in the dark which pretty much seals the deal for me. Also they are obviously grammatically sound.

Collegian exclusive future features!In the upcoming couple weeks the Collegian Sports Page will have some brand new features including;• an exclusive new interview with new head football coach Philip Montgomery• interviews with a different athlete every week in a new “Get to know your TU athletes” column• and more, so be sure to keep reading!

thE CollEgiaN : 9 20 jaNuary 2015 Sports

Tuesday, Jan. 20Women’s Basketball @ Tulane; New Orleans, LA; 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, Jan. 21Men’s Basketball vs. Memphis; Reynolds Center; 6:00 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 23Track @ DeLoss Dodds Invitational;

Manhattan, KS; All Day

Saturday, Jan. 24Men’s Basketball @ East Carolina;

Greenville, NC; 11:00 am.

Women’s Basketball @ East Carolina; Greenville, NC; 1:30 p.m.

Men’s Tennis vs. Purdue; Columbus, Ohio; 2:00 p.m.

Women’s Tennis vs. Utah; Michigan; 2:00 p.m.

Track @ DeLoss Dodds Invitational;

Manhattan, KS; All Day

Sunday, Jan. 25Women’s Tennis @ ITA Kickoff; Michigan; TBAMen’s Tennis vs. Ohio State/Auburn; Columbus, Ohio; TBA

Harrison Tops AmericanJunior guard Shaquille Harrrison has been an instrumental part in helping the Hur-ricane start of undefeated in conference play, and along the way he has earned the American Athletic Conference’s Player of the Week honor. This is mostly due to his performance against Temple last week where he helped orchestrate TU’s come from behind win on the road, where he scored 24 points.

Eye on the Football TeamIn what I’m sure for many of you is old news, Tulsa has had some recent success with their football recruiting class. The biggest name is Chad President, a four star recruit who committed to Tulsa after Montgomery’s hiring. What you may not have heard or been reading about is the plethora of new coaches that Montgomery has brought in. On the offensive side the new coaches are: Sterlin Gilbert (co-of-fensive coordinator, QB, and WRs), Matt Mattox (co-offensive coordinator and of-fensive line), Justin Hill (running backs) and Calvin Lowry (receivers). On the defensive side: Bill Young (co-defensive coordinator and and defensive line), Brian Norwood (co-defensive coordinator and safeties) and Jermial Ashley (defensive line).

Top 25 PickTulsa senior forward Akeill Barrett was drafted by Orlando City during the MLS Superdraft on Thursday. Barrett was the fourth pick of the second round and the 25th overall pick in the draft. Barrett was instrumental in the Hurricane’s champi-onship season, scoring 6 goals and record-ing 2 assists for this season and 20 goals and 14 assists during his career at Tulsa.

Recruitment Picks UpAll Tulsa sports are in the middle of re-cruiting and getting ready for the 2015-2016 season of sports. Football of course has Chad President and a handful of other recruits, women’s basketball has attracted some attention from transfers and wom-en’s volleyball has signed two new play-ers for the next season. The recruiting is not limited to players though, as many different sports have recruited new assis-tant coaches as well. Sarah Bradley, was hired as the new women’s golf assistant coach and Eli Sharping as the new assis-tant coach for volleyball.

Left to right: Junior guard Rashad Ray (#5) goes up to the hoop against the University of Connecticut during the Golden Hurricane’s win over the defending national champion Huskies last Tuesday. Junior guard James Woodard attempts a lay-up against Connecticut. Woodard led the scoring for the Hurricane with 24 points.

‘Cane Calendar Jan. 19 – 24

When people outside of Tulsa look at the Golden Hurricane’s win against UConn this past Tuesday, they are going to point to the fact that UConn has been up and down all year and that it is not the same team that won the championship last year. All of this is true, but when you ask somebody from Tulsa about that game all they are going to say is, “We just beat the fucking defending national champions!”

This was the biggest win for TU in my four years here. I’ve never seen the Reyn-olds Center get that crazy. For most games, the Reynolds Center is like a giant tomb

with a really nice scoreboard, but against UConn it was something else. It was a le-git college basketball arena, and hopefully it will stay that way now that people besides me and my friend Token know we are good at basketball.

TU’s basketball team reminds me of America during the Revolutionary War. Those first three wins in conference play were like the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Everyone thought, “Oh that’s cute the thirteen colonies want to be a country.” Or in TU’s case everyone was thinking, “Look at Tulsa, they think they are a real basketball team just because they are atop the standings after three conference games.”

But when TU beat UConn in front of a packed Reynolds Center, that was like the Battle of Trenton. After the Battle of Tren-ton, the British realized that America was for real, and after that win against UConn America realized that Tulsa is for real.

Tulsa’s style of play is also a lot like the guerilla warfare that the continental army used to defeat the British and gain our inde-pendence. It’s scrappy and not always easy to watch, but it gets the job done.

I’ve said this before and I think we proved it on Tuesday: TU was made to be a basketball school. We do not have enough students to make our football stadium loud, but we definitely have enough to make the Reynolds Center rock, especially with sup-port from local Tulsans at the games too.

You could tell that the players were feed-ing off the crowd’s energy the whole game, and they were definitely thankful afterwards when they jumped on the press table in front of the student section to celebrate with us.

This win over UConn may not have made Tulsa basketball relevant to the country, but the win cemented what we did last year by making the tournament and made Tulsa bas-ketball relevant to Tulsa once again.

The importance of beating UConn

Student Writer Pat Fox writes about the win over Connecticut that he thinks will redefine the opinion of basketball on Tulsa’s campus, much the same way that the Revolutionary War redefined what it meant to be an American.

editor-in-chief—Kyle Walker

managing editor—Conor Fellin

news editor—Nikki Hager

sports editor—Matt Rechtien

variety editor—Abigail LaBounty

commentary & barricade editor—Giselle Willis

satire editor—Fraser Kastner

apprentice editor—Sara Douglas

photo & graphics editor—Elias Brinkman

feature & layout editor—Morgan Krueger

copy editor—Amanda Hagedorn

business & advertising manager—Jesse Keipp

distribution manager—Walker Womack, Katie Hill

web manager—Sam Chott

The Collegian is the independent student newspaper of the University of Tulsa. It is distributed Mondays during the fall and spring semesters except during holidays and final exam weeks. The University of Tulsa does not discriminate on the basis of personal status or group characteristics including but not limited to the classes protected under federal and state law in its programs, services, aids, or benefits.

Inquiries regarding implementation of this policy may be addressed to the Office of Human Resources, 800 South Tucker Drive, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104-9700, 918-631-2616. Requests for accommodation of disabilities may be addressed to the University’s 504 Coordinator, Dr. Tawny Taylor, 918-631-3814. To ensure availability of an interpreter, five to seven days notice is needed; 48 hours is recommended 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, email The Collegian at collegian@utulsa.edu or jesse-keipp@utulsa.edu. The deadline for advertising is 12 p.m. on the Friday 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. While we do not require it, letters sent via e-mail to the Collegian are encouraged. Under no circumstances will anonymous letters be published. The name of the person submitting the letter must be published with the letter. We reserve the right to edit or reject all letters. The deadline for letters is 5 p.m. on the Saturday prior to publication.

Sam Beckmann / Collegian

Greg Diskin / Collegian Left to right: Junior Carlos Bautista returns a volley against Texas this past weekend. Tulsa, ranked 40th in the country, played a close match against Texas, ranked 9th in the country, losing by a score of 4–3. Senior Alejandro Espejo returns a serve against the Longhorns during Friday’s match.

This past week the men and women’s ten-nis teams started their regular season after playing in tournament around the country

last fall. The 40th ranked team nationally men beat Illinois State 4–0 in both matches of their double header to start off their sea-son in dominating fashion taking the dou-bles point and all three of the singles.

The Hurricane then hosted the 9th ranked Longhorns of Texas on Friday night. Going for the upset, Tulsa won the doubles point

and 2 of the 6 singles points. Texas, after being pushed to the brink of being upset, rallied back and won 4–3 in a heartbreaking loss for Tulsa. Next up for the men is Kick-Off in Columbus, Ohio where they will face Purdue.

The 27th ranked women were firing on all cylinders in their first two matches on Sat-

urday, sweeping both cross-town rival Oral Roberts University and Arkansas-Pine Bluff by a score of 7–0.

After their next two matches on Sunday (of which results were not posted at print-ing), the women will travel to Michigan for the ITA Kick-Off to play against Utah, and some undetermined opponent.

Tennis returns for men and women with wins, a heartbreaking lossTennis resumes play in Tulsa after a month-long hiatus. Sports Editor Matt Rechtien reports.

thE CollEgiaN: 10 20 jaNuary 2014From the archives

Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. It has been just under 47 years since Dr. King was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee, while supporting the strike of 1300 black sanitation workers.

In honor of Dr. King’s vision of a world that is just in both law and spirit, we turned to the Collegian’s archives and found these pieces chronicling the long history of race at TU.

Distribution Manager Walker Womack compiled these stories.

A Man is Dead.And the United States of

America continues to claim it is a civilized nation. It is not, if judged by the actions of its peo-ple.

In the past 100 years, more po-litical leaders have been killed by assassins’ bullets in the United States than any other one country in the Western hemisphere.

Even more disgusting is the reluctance of this country to let a man die. He lives post-mortem for three or four days on nation-wide television, until he is finally buried in a media-istic carnival atmosphere, sponsored to the grave by Gulf Oil, Lay’s Potato Chips, or whoever can capitalize on a man’s death to sell a prod-uct.

Those close to this man did not ask for fanfare, and his wid-ow’s and children’s grief was only multiplied by the media monsters.

It seems that those who knew this man best would have been more favorably impressed by quiet sincerity than by con-science-inspired eulogy. Sorrow, after all, is an individual emo-tion.

What he stood for, however, should not and most certainly will not be buried with him. Ide-als are not so easily killed. They will live a dynamic, aspiring life, although severely crippled by the wounds of ignorance.

Yes, ignorance was the psy-chopathological cause of his death. The assassin merely pulled the trigger—the weapon was loaded and the conspiracy was conceived by societal igno-rance, manifested in mass psy-chosis.

In death, Dr. Martin Luther King became that which he and most Americans cannot or will not become—FREE.

The Hurricane won a hollow victory last Saturday, for always in the minds of Wichita root-ers will remain the idea that if Sexton had been here, the score might have been different. That question is certainly not fair to the Golden Hurricane, who would have defeated the Shock-ers, Sexton or no Sexton. But we can’t prove that.

Why did this university al-low itself to be placed in such a predicament? Contrary to some opinion rife on this campus, Wichita students were bitter over the exclusion of Sexton. The Shockers dedicated the Tulsa game to Sexton and named him honorary captain for the day.

So, once again the University of Tulsa has missed the boat on a Negro problem. Instead of be-ing a leader in the field of racial relationships, we are just another follower of the general herd.

When will this cease?Wichita can play Drake and be

at full strength for the game, but when the Shockers drop below the border, players of a different race must be left behind. This makes for a very peculiar confer-ence standing. If you will pardon the expression, it smells.

The fans were deprived of the chance to watch a well-publi-cized star perform, and the news-papers had a field day levelling criticism at the University of Tulsa. All in all, our reputation took a beating this past week.

The Collegian wants Wichita students to know that the pre-dominating sentiment on this campus was to forego the racial bar. Better than seven-out-of-ten students wanted to watch Sexton in action. It will probably take another war, but someday we may see democracy mean some-thing around these parts.

This letter is in explanation of the posters which have recently saturated the school. The posters are headlined with the question: RACE? and the answer: HUMAN; they request the student body to fill in the space on their enroll-ment forms designating race with the word human.

We (several members of the student body) find the question of race totally irrelevant for enroll-ment purposes. When a man joins the armed forces the knowledge of race is valid because race is a valu-able means of identification if he is mutilated in battle. But there are no such dangers at The University

of Tulsa. By proudly proclaiming himself to be a human, each indi-vidual student will be able to pro-test the color conscious society in which he lives.

We admit it is a small action, but any step out of the depths of assininity is important. We there-fore urge all enrolling students to forget their pigmentation and remember that above all they are humans.

We do not wish to sign our names because we feel that what is important is not who begins the project, but that the project is be-gun.

The administration appears to be ready to meet squarely the problem posed by the applica-tions of two Negro women for admission to the University of Tulsa.

The two, Mrs. E. L. Hairston and Henri Mae Pete applied re-cently for admission to the grad-uate division and the law school respectively. Mrs. Pete, applicant for a law degree, probably cannot be admitted since it is against the policy of the law school to admit freshman students at mid-year. Many of the school’s courses are full year courses; these courses are begun in September and not repeated until the following year.

“This matter will of necessity take time to form policy,” Presi-dent C. I. Pontius told the Col-legian. “First the applications must be referred to the faculty committee on advanced standing for appraisal. Then they will be taken to the administration and

Board of Trustees for policy de-cision.”

The two applications are the first ever received at the uni-versity from Negroes. The ap-plications raise legal, as well as social, questions.

The University of Tulsa is a non-profit Oklahoma corpo-ration. As such it is subject to the state laws and constitution. These include traditional south-ern Jim Crow laws which may make it impossible for Negro students to attend TU legally on a non-segregated basis.

Tulsa has a somewhat differ-ent legal status from Okla. A&M and the University of Oklahoma. The US Supreme court recently ruled that segregation was legal so long as equal educational op-portunities were offered to all races. Graduate work has been opened to Negroes at the state schools to conform to this deci-sion. Tulsa, as a private school,

would not be affected by the decision. The university might successfully be prosecuted for allowing Negroes to attend the school on a non-segregated ba-sis. This is a distinct possibility under current state laws.

Ultimately the 15-member Board of Trustees will decide how the university will handle the applications. Dr. Pontius pointed out the school is a pri-vate institution, and as such may accept or refuse anyone admis-sion.

Student reaction to the appli-cations was varied, but tended to favor admission of the Ne-groes, if qualified. A poll of ap-proximately 600 students taken two years ago by the Collegian showed student sentiment then favored admission of “qualified” Negroes to the university by a two to one margin.

Two would-be TU Negro stu-dents were refused admission by the board of trustees Tuesday.

Mrs. E. L. Hairston wanted to do graduate work in education in the downtown division and Mrs. Henri Mae Pete sought admis-sion to the law school. The trust-ees pointed out Oklahoma laws permitting the enrollment of Ne-groes on a segregated basis in state owned or operated schools.

TU is privately endowed. Since Negroes cannot enter ei-ther the downtown division or the campus, the trustees suggest-ed that some courses of study at the graduate level of the down-town division should be made available in a separate unit.

Such a unit might be estab-lished at Booker T. Washington high school or some other suit-able location.

While Martin Luther King Jr.’s death was not mentioned in the Collegian issue published the week after, the murder of the civil rights activist had shaken the campus by the time of this editorial, written by Ronnie Berner two weeks after the fact.

Appearing in the same issue of the Collegian as “Free At Last” (above), this letter details student measures to pro-test even simple racial categorization, such as that found on university enrollment forms of the day.

Wichita State halfback Linwood Sexton faced numerous challenges throughout his 1946–1948 college football ca-reer on account of his race. Despite his established skill and importance to the team, he was often denied the opportunity to play in matches south of his home state due to strict racial segregation laws. Tulsa students reacted to their school’s re-fusal to allow Sexton to take the field with this editorial.

In the era of Jim Crow, the University of Tulsa was subject to state laws denying African-Americans the opportunity to study alongside white students. This 1950 article and the one below entitled “Door closed for Negroes” document the first attempts by black students to gain admission to TU.

“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”

~ Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 3, 1968, one day before his death.

thE CollEgiaN : 1120 jaNuary 2015

Mech. eng. to build robotic hand

The Department of Mechanical Engineer-ing received about $440,000 from the Na-tional Science Foundation in August 2014 in order to research and develop a robotic hand. Dr. Joshua Schultz of the Mechani-cal Engineering Department is leading the research.

Rather than create a hand capable with opposable fingers, as has been the focus in other projects, such as the Vanderbilt hand, Dr. Schultz hopes to create a hand that cop-ies the most useful hand gestures as a more cost-effective alternative to such hands.

Dr. Schultz’s design involves two motors for the thumb and then a few more motors for the rest of the hand. “By adding those (motors) up,” he says, “you can produce the most common hand poses while keeping the hand very simple, keeping the number of motors to a minimum, keeping (the hand) low maintenance and reliable.”

A lot of the work has been mathematical

and analytical, attempting to solve some of the central questions of the grant: How does the web of tendons and muscles in the hand interact to create actions, and how do we synthesize those actions?

Springs “will keep the motors from fight-ing one another, and instead have the motors add to one another,” said Schultz. This will aid the hand in allocating force properly.

Robotic hands have many applications. The National Institute of Health could im-plement the hand in prosthetics, as a cheaper and more stable alternative to a fully actuat-ed finger individuated hand. The hand could also have applications in space, such as performing spaceship maintenance without risking astronauts, holding on to tools that fly around, or shaking hands with aliens.

Most significantly, as Dr. Schultz said, “The goal for robotics is always to reduce the more mundane tasks that humans have to do,” such as folding towels or doing the dishes.

Dr. Schultz hopes to start building the hand this summer. The hand is set to be functioning by next summer, at which time analysis and testing will begin.

The project was funded through the Na-tional Robotics Initiative, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, NASA and the National Institute of Health.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering is working to design a robotic hand that utilizes the most useful hand gestures for a cost ef-fective alternative to more expensive models. Student Writer Nathaniel Beckemeyer reports.

Get the TULE’s for your success

as a leader!TU Leadership

Experience Conference

January 24, 2015

10:00 a.m. — 2:15 p.m.

Student Union Great Hall

Free Food and T-Shirts provided!

You can register online at:http://orgs.utulsa.edu/sa/

What is TULE?

TULE is a half-day leadership conference for TU students. There are workshops for you that help you with social justice, leadership

styles, leadership in the workforce, resumes, and more. Our speakers include faculty,

staff, TU Alumni, and successful leaders in the Tulsa community.

Join our unique leadership conference to help you grow

as a student leader!

December 510:20 p.m. Officers located and identified an unauthor-ized solicitor near Rayzor Hall. The solicitor was identified as belonging to a non-existent charity organization seeking cash donations from students. The solicitor was issued a Trespass Warning and escorted off-campus.

10:45 p.m.Officers are investigating a non-aggravat-

ed assault that occurred at 4th Pl. & Gary Pl. A non-TU male threw a traffic cone at a TU student’s vehicle, breaking a fog lamp. When the victim got out of the vehicle to move the cone, the suspect pushed the vic-tim causing him to cut his finger on the broken fog light. The suspect left the cam-pus prior to Officers arrival but was identi-

fied by a witness as a student of a local high school. The investigation is pending.

December 612:15 a.m.Officers were dispatched to the 3500 build-ing in Mayo Village for the second noise complaint of the night shift coming from apartment #3512. When officers entered the apartment it was determined that there was underage drinking. On duty PSM was con-tacted and officers conducted a party shut-down.

2:30 a.m. Officers responded to an ill student. When they arrived they found a student intoxicated and throwing up in Fisher South Hall who stated they had been at a Kappa Sig party. After being interviewed by EMSA person-nel the student declined to go to the hospital for further treatment and evaluation.

10:20 p.m. Officers went to the 7th St House to tres-pass ban 3 persons not affiliated with the university. While attempting to contact the 3 persons the odor of marijuana was no-ticed from a room occupied by a TU student

and 2 of the 3 non affiliated persons. A room search was conducted and the 3 persons were trespass banned.. The investigation is pending.

December 91:30 p.m.Officers were dispatched for a physical plant employee who became stuck inside an elevator at the H.A. Stadium. A physical plant employee was able to get the eleva-tor back in working order. Once the elevator was back in working order the individual in-side was able to get out of the elevator. The individual that was stuck inside the eleva-tor sustained no injuries and did not want to seek medical treatment.

December 104:50 p.m.An Officer on patrol observed water running from a vacant University owned house at 2540 E. 6th St. Upon further investigation, it was determined that unknown suspects had broken into the house and removed a water line that caused the flooding. Physical Plant workers were able to shut the water off at the street.

1:00 p.m.Officers conducting a follow-up investiga-tion to the supplemental information pro-vided by a sexual assault victim learned that the two new allegations of sexual assault involved the same suspect and occurred in November of 2013 in Stillwater, OK and in June of 2014 at the US West Apartments. The suspect, who is not affiliated with the university, is known to the victim. The sus-pect in this incident has been contacted by Campus Security and has been banned from campus. Tulsa Police are investigating the criminal aspect of the allegations.

3:45 p.m.Officers are investigating hate mail directed towards a campus student organization. The student representative picked up the orga-nization’s mail at the Student Union and opened a package containing rotten food and a threatening letter. Tulsa Police are also investigating.

December 135:00 a.m.Officers responded to a report of an alcohol violation in LaFortune Hall. Upon arrival, Officers identified 2 students who admitted to drinking alcohol in their room despite not being of legal age to drink alcohol. Officers ensured they did not possess more alcohol and disposed of the rest.

December 181:40 p.m.This rape report has been investigated by Campus Security and the victim has filed a report with the Tulsa Police Department. The known suspect is not affiliated with the University.

December 3011:05 p.m.Officers responded to Brown Village Apart-ments for stolen property. Upon arrival, Of-ficers spoke to the victim of the residence. The victim stated she was gone for one week and on her arrival back at her residence she noticed several of her items were stolen. Of-ficers questioned the victim and had her fill out a statement form. Officers advised the victim that a report would be filed. All Of-ficers then cleared the scene with no further incident.

January 119:15 p.m.An Officer was flagged down by a student’s parents. The parents believed the student to be on campus and they had been unable to contact or locate him for several hours. Offi-cers assisted the parents and know acquain-tances were contacted, however, the student was not located. The parents received infor-mation that led them to believe he was pos-sibly in Broken Arrow, OK with a friend.

January 148:05 a.m.A TU Staff member was approached by an unknown suspect while parking her vehicle on an off campus residential street. The re-porting party stated the suspect was yelling at her but did not follow her onto campus. Officers were unable to find the suspect due to the time lapse of the call..

This dummy’s all alone because it didn’t advertise its event with the Collegian.Don’t be a dummy.

Starting next week, the Collegian will be publishing a calendar of on-campus events.

If you have an event that you’d like to see in the Collegian, e-mail the event’s name, time and a brief description to collegian.eventcalendar@gmail.com.

With the beginning of a new se-mester, many students are return-ing from studies overseas. Though we weren’t planning on running an article about it, one student ap-proached us about her time over-seas and wouldn’t shut up until we promised to write about it.

Returning this semester from a study abroad in Brazil, Sophia Pri-ma detailed her trip as “an experi-ence which (she) would not trade for the world.”

“The experience was life-changing,” Prima commented, proceeding to speak for thirty completely unprompted minutes about “the indomitable Brazilian people,” “the beautiful landscape” and “the wonderful food.”

After spending an entire four months in Brazil, Prima claims that she is “practically Brazil-ian now.” “It’s weird not to hear people speaking Portuguese!” ex-claimed Prima when she followed us into the student union. “I’m used to having to speak Portu-guese everywhere—it’s like, I can finally relax now but at the same time I was just starting to get the

hang of it!” she regaled us excit-edly, speaking so loudly that we couldn’t hear how much our meal at Chik-fil-A cost and had to ask the cashier to repeat it.

“Everyone should spend some time overseas,” Prima comment-ed, adding that “The people you meet will change your life forever; they’re just so inspiring!”

While it cannot be argued that spending time overseas won’t broaden one’s horizons, and that immersion is the best way to learn a new language, for the friends and classmates of those who have re-cently returned from trips abroad, nothing is more annoying than lis-tening to them talk.

“Sophia’s a great friend and all,” commented Prima’s room-

mate, Lauren Smith, “But I kinda wish she would stop comparing everything here to what it was like in Brazil.” Smith’s boyfriend, Ste-ven Jones, concurred. “My friend actually used to date Sophia,” said Jones, “But he said the trip totally ruined their relationship. All she ever wants to do is eat, like, cas-sava and roasted pig or whatever.”

Smith added that her roommate has had a hard time staying in her room at night, and is always com-plaining about how boring Tulsa is compared to Brazil. Smith went on to say, “Yeah, we know the culture is different there, that’s why she left in the first place.”

Graphic by Elias Brinkman

State-Runthe

mediaWe’ve changed, constituency. You gotta believe us.

thE StatE-ruN MEdia20 jaNuary 2015

“All she ever wants to do is eat, like, cassava and roasted pig or whatever”

AbigAil lAbountyForgot to Bring the Snacks

Oklahoma Attorney General really needs to chill out, man

There was a time when TU sophomore Lou Reese trusted Buzzfeed to provide him with sim-ple facts that required no critical thinking. That time is gone.

“I remember my first Buzzfeed article, way back in 2013,” Reese reminisced. “The title was ‘Amy Poehler has The Best Response to Tom Cruise’s tweet.’ I was really impressed that they had exhaus-tively searched every response to Tom Cruise’s tweet and definitive-ly determined which was the best. Those were the days.”

Reese similarly expected that the article “You Won’t Believe what this Father of 2 did” was in-tended to leave readers with the

impression that the writer was ly-ing.

“I got to the end and real-ized that, without the headline, I wouldn’t have known the story was fake,” Reese explained, some-what teary-eyed from nostalgia. “I just kept thinking to myself, ‘I’m so gullible.’”

Reese’s disillusionment with the internet started when he came to college and discovered that his language professor didn’t actually hate a gruff-looking twenty-some-thing in a combover.

“If that “Language Professors Hate Him” ad had lied to me, then what could I believe on the inter-net?” Reese shouted. “Have soci-ologists actually not demonstrated that 90’s kids are objectively better than the current generation? What does better even mean?

“What Reese is going through is becoming more and more common among millennials,” said White House intern Anna Lyse, who did

research for the official report on millennials “10 Reasons Millenni-als Have It the Worst (Obama <3 the ‘90s).”

“As millennials grow older, they come to realize that social media won’t fulfill the expectations they had as a child,” Lyse elaborated. “Some cope with this by relying on a Past That Never Was and pin-ing about what cogent arguments they used to have on Facebook.”

Others lose all hope. “They stare at their news feed, eyes glazed over, fingers mechanically tapping the mouse, reading with no expectation of satisfaction,” Lyse murmured in an increasingly withdrawn tone.

“I believed you Buzzfeed!” Lyse finally exploded. “I thought you knew me!”

Lyse did not answer any further questions, as she was rambling incoherently about the Buzzfeed listicle “20 Things only Introverts Will Get.”

Conor FellinThe Worst

You won’t believe what this TU sophomore learned when he used critical thinking in everyday life.

Cynical man no longer takes Buzzfeed articles at face value

Graphic by Elias BrinkmanGaze into the face of knowledge better left unlearned. See through the eyes of regret. CLICK HERE

Over the holiday break, Attor-ney General of Oklahoma Scott Pruitt announced that he, along with Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, is suing Colorado for legalizing arijuana, stating that marijuana flow from Colorado is undermining their states’ mari-juana bans.

When asked for comment, Col-orado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman replied that Pruitt “just really needs to chill out, man.” Coffman went on to detail every funny moment in the most recent Seth Rogen movie while eating food from a lunchbox that looked suspiciously like Taco Bell. She later invited Pruitt and Bruning to her movie marathon next Friday.

During Pruitt’s most recent “business trip” to Denver, he was seen at a ski resort with Coffman,

but sources report that they never came out of the main buildings ex-cept to make the occasional con-venience store trip. Pruitt was seen returning with Mountain Dew, Doritos, ice cream and a couple of frozen pizzas.

When we spoke with his family, his grandmother told us that when he came home for Christmas he was really torn up about something and must have been out hunting this week because “his eyes were always red and he smelled like a skunk.” She went on to wonder if he was getting enough to eat since he wouldn’t stop snacking the whole time.

In a statement a week later, Jon Bruning spent the entire hour asking “why no one invited me. I mean, I’m a pretty cool guy. I go rollerblading on weekends and do my crosswords with a pen. Why doesn’t anyone ever invite me to these things?” Bruning went on to state that he would fight Colo-rado’s new legalization laws to his last breath.

CAitlin WoodsOnly Drinks Domestic

According to reports from friends and loved ones, a TU student returning from a semester abroad really needs to tone it down.

Student who studied abroad won’t shut the fuck up about it

Courtesy telegraph.co.uk

The city of Rio de Janeiro which, while beautiful, is really not that fucking interesting to hear about every Goddamned day.

Activists call for greater...what were we talking about?

The attorneys general, deep in a debate about which Chinese place to order from.