The Oklahoma Daily

Professors, students, discuss causes, impact of nation’s ongoing protests

CARMEN FORMANThe Oklahoma Daily

Students for a Democratic Society hosted a panel dis-cussion Monday intended to educate students on the cur-rent turmoil in Egypt.

“ We a re f o c u s i n g o n a l l of the Middle East because E g y p t ha s b e e n d o m i nat-ing the media ... but we want people to know this isn’t just a n E g y p t m ov e m e nt ; t h i s happened in Tunisia, Jordan,

Algeria, Yemen, everywhere,” said Lauren Brentnell, senior psychology, English and po-litical science major at OU and Students for a Democratic Society member.

The discussion, which took place in the Associates Room in the Oklahoma Memorial Union, was led by Director of the Center of Middle East Studies Joshua Landis, Judaic Studies Program Director Norman Stillman and gradu-ate student Nancy El Gendy.

Students for a Democratic

University profi ts from agreement with credit-card companies

NICHOLAS HARRISONThe Oklahoma Daily

Editor’s note: Nicholas Harrison is a former Daily opinion columnist who became a news reporter this semester. As a columnist, he wrote about this subject in a previous semester. This piece is fact based — not opinion — and has been edited to assure its objectivity.

When OU agreed to provide student infor-mation to credit-card companies five years ago, university administration intended to in-crease student activities funding with the pro-gram’s revenue.

Of the $8.8 million received since 2007, none of the money has gone to student activities, ac-cording to university cash-flow statements.

OU entered into two 10-year credit-card

Fallin calls for higher education to receive 3-percent cut

NICHOLAS HARRISON The Oklahoma Daily

Gov. Mary Fallin called the State Regents for Higher Education to cut $30.1 million from its budget Monday, constituting a 3-percent reduction from last year.

During her State of the State address Monday at the Oklahoma Capitol, Fallin cited a $600 mil-lion budget shortfall and said she would be asking all state agencies to take similar cuts.

“Some of the cuts and the re-forms I am proposing will be painful,” Fallin said. “But I am not asking our state agencies to do the impossible. I don’t be-lieve there is anyone, either in

WHAT’S INSIDE

Campus ................. 2Classifi eds ............. 6 Life & Arts .............. 5Opinion ................. 4Sports ................... 7

TODAY’S WEATHER

Tomorrow: 70 percent chance of snow, high of 18 degrees

VOL. 96, NO. 91© 2011 OU Publications Board

THE OKLAHOMA DAILYA LOOK AT WHAT’S ON

Country musician Miranda Lambert will perform April 7 at Lloyd Noble Center with Justin Moore and Josh Kelley. www.OUDaily.com

www.facebook.com/OUDailywww.twitter.com/OUDaily

38° | 19°

Spring albums to keep an eye onThe Daily breaks down the music releases slated

this spring that students should check out, including Lady Gaga (shown right).

All-Star system in need of changeAlthough deserving players like former Sooner Blake

Griffin (shown left) made the NBA All-Star team, The Daily’s RJ Young thinks the process is flawed.

LIFE & ARTS • PAGE 5SPORTS • PAGE 7

www.OUDaily.com Tuesday, February 8, 2011 Free — additional copies 25¢

The University of Oklahoma’s independent student voice since 1916

STATE GOVERNMENT

Education budget back on chopping block

OU cashes in with credit cards

SEE CUTS PAGE 2

SEE EGYPT PAGE 2

SEE CREDIT PAGE 3

University spending

University & Alumni Affairs — $145,823Athletic Department — $150,000Fred Jones Museum of Art — $6,000,000Arezzo Monastery — $445,595Other Institutional Commitments — $691,980

— Source: OU cash-fl ow statements

Election Board signups extended

The UOSA executive branch is extending the application deadline for the UOSA Election Board to 5 p.m. Thursday.

The deadline was pushed back due to last week’s campus closures. The UOSA Election Board oversees spring elections to ensure candidates are following rules, Election Board chairwoman Natalie Jester said in an e-mail.

“We want people with integrity because that’s obviously an important part of the election process,” Jester said. “We want a balance between those who are a part of UOSA and outside of UOSA to bring a different light ... An interest in political processes is also helpful.”

Jester will appoint at least three people to the board, but said she is looking for five to six members.

So far, she has received four applications to her personal e-mail, but does not know how many have been turned in at the Union.

Members of the Election Board receive a $60 stipend at the end of the election process, depending on how well they did their job and how much they contributed, Jester said.

— Kathleen Evans/The Daily

Career fair rescheduled due to icy weather

The Multicultural Career Fair will be held at 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Feb. 24 in the Kerr McGee Stadium Club.

The career fair was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but due to impending weather conditions the date has been changed.

All other arrangements for the fair remain unchanged, however it has not been determined whether all of the representatives set to attend Wednesday will be able to attend.

“We are going to give the organizations the opportunity to see if they can come at the later day,” said Betty Scott, Career Services director.

The event will be sponsored by Career Services, American Indian Student Life, African American Student Life, Latino Student Life, and Asian American Student Life. Representatives will provide information on their various organizations before spring on-campus interviews.

— Sarah Martin/ The Daily

OU will do everything possible to keep school open during this week’s winter weather, professors encouraged to use D2L

KATHLEEN EVANSThe Oklahoma Daily

Students can expect more winter weather and snow starting late today and lasting through Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Norman is expecting 6 to 8 inches of snow, said Lamont Bain, meteorology senior and National Weather Service volunteer.

“There is the potential for some areas to get maybe upward of 10 inches,” Bain said.

OU spokesman Chris Shilling said admin-istration will do everything in their power to avoid closing campus this week.

“The last thing we want is for classes to be canceled again,” Shilling said. “We are keeping an eye on conditions and doing everything we can to safely keep campus open.”

The Provost’s office is advising professors to use Desire2Learn to keep in touch with students in the event of campus closures, ac-cording to e-mails sent to faculty.

Instructors were sent three guides about how to manage content on D2L and how to e-mail students enrolled in classes.

During last week’s storm, provost Nancy Mergler also e-mailed professors telling them to use D2L to keep courses on track during campus closures.

“When bad weather occurs during the semester that necessi-tates canceling face-to-face meeting, I ask faculty to move their classes into an electronic Desire2Learn medium and keep making

progress on the course learning goals,” Mergler said in an e-mail.

The storm will not be as bad as last week’s blizzard, but students should still take precautions, Bain said.

“There is the possibility for blowing snow, so visibil-ity will be limited,” he said. “Wind chill may be zero to 10 below. The big difference is that the wind will not be as bad this week as it was last week.”

Because of the wind last week, the Weather Service does not have an accurate count of how many inches of snow Norman received, Bain said.

The National Weather Service recommends people stock up on food and water and avoid traveling, starting Tuesday night. If people need to travel, they should drive carefully and bring blankets and water in case they are stranded.

When going outside, people should dress in layers, Bain said.

COLLIN SIMS/THE DAILY

Students pass piles of snow while walking to class Monday evening in front of Nielson Hall. Norman may see 6 to 8 inches of snow starting today and lasting through Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

More snow headed for campus

WEATHER | SNOW SEQUEL TO HIT NORMAN

The last thing we want is for classes to be canceled again.”

— CHRIS SHILLING, UNIVERSITY SPOKESMAN

Egyptian revolution sparks discussion

JALL COWASJI/ THE DAILY

Egyptian graduate student Nancy El Gendy addresses controversial issues regarding the ongoing Egyptian revoluntion at an Egypt panel discussion Monday night in the Union’s Associates Room. The event was hosted by Students For A Democratic Society.

Society members mediated the panel, which discussed the origins of the Egyptian protests.

“Tunisia was the inspiration for what happened in Egypt,” Stillman said.

The panel agreed that protests in Egypt and Tunisia began because w o rke r s i n b o t h nat i o n s w e re n ’ t paid enough to support themselves. According to the panel, 40 percent of workers in Tunisia and Egypt live on two dollars a day or less.

The panel also asserted that people of Egypt are generally unhappy about Egyptian President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak’s rule. The speakers were in agreement that the government was mainly able to stay in power in Egypt because the army continues to back Mubarak.

The panel also discussed the role of social networking in the revolution, including the ineffec-tiveness of Mubarak’s decision to shut down the Internet

and cut off cell phone service. “I personally think it hasn’t negatively affected the rev-

olution,” El Gendy said.Stillman agreed and said, “there was much more shock

about that [shutting down the Internet] than sending in troops to break peoples heads.”

The speakers also discussed American involvement in Egyptian politics.

Landis said the United States gives $2 billion annually to the Egyptian govern-ment, and a large portion of Americans fear democracy in the Middle East.

The rise of democracy in the Middle East would mean more Muslims in power, which would scare Americans due to “rampant Islamophobia,” Landis said.

The panelists agreed that removing Mubarak from power is just the begin-ning of stabilizing Egypt, and though the speakers don’t know what the revolu-tion will bring, they are optimistic that the revolution will better the disjointed nation.

As El Gendy said in reference to the Middle Eastern na-tion, “freedom is not free.”

government or the private sector, who does not be-lieve that our state agencies can’t find more ways to save money.”

Fallin said she believed Oklahomans had sent a mes-sage in the last election, and she was working with her administration and legisla-tive leaders to implement the changes they expect.

“They reminded our gov-ernment officials that when hard times hit, the public expects a leaner, more effi-cient government, not one that raises taxes to avoid making tough decisions and sacrifices,” Fallin said.

On Friday, Fallin told the Oklahoma Press Association

she would ask all state agen-cies to take 3 to 5 percent cuts.

Certain priorities such as education, however, would receive smaller reductions, Fallin said.

The budget she presented today reflected a 5 percent overall reduction in state spending.

Previously, the state re-gents had requested $115.6 million in additional funds — including $59.8 million to replace stimulus spend-ing, $16.5 million to replace debt ser vice reduction, $30.9 million for operating obligations and $5.6 million for endowed chair bond debt service, according to the regents’ website.

Oklahoma State Regents f o r H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n Chancellor Glen Johnson said he was pleased Fallin did not propose across-the-board budget cuts.

“Clearly, we are pleased that higher education is one of Fallin’s priorities,” he said.

CUTS: Education would receive smallest cutContinued from page 1

EGYPT: Class conflict inspires revolt, riotsContinued from page 1

Chase Cook, managing [email protected] • phone: 405-325-3666

2 • Tuesday, February 8, 2011 The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

CAMPUS

Mary Fallin

Other proposals

» Reforming the worker’s compensation system in order to take care of injured workers more quickly

» Create a governor’s closing fund to entice businesses to work with Oklahoma in opposed to other states

» Require the state to move from paper to electronic billing in order to save around $3.5 billion

» Encourage citizen’s involvement through the website www.ideas.ok.gov

Student Congress to discuss intercollegiate conference

UOSA Undergraduate Student Congress will consider a Bedlam Student Government Conference during their meeting at 7 p.m. today in the Governor’s Room of the Oklahoma Memorial Union.

The proposed conference would host the Oklahoma State University student government association in a meeting that would be a chance for the two governments to collaborate with and learn from each other, according to the agenda. At OSU’s last student government association meeting they showed interest in meeting with UOSA, according to the agenda.

A proposition to extend the faculty mentorship program into spring and to upperclassmen is also on the agenda. The bill states this program has been so effective that it should be extended.

Award-winning author to speak during associates dinner

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gordon Wood will deliver a lecture at the President’s Associates dinner at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 28 in the Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Molly Shi Boren Ballroom.

Wood will deliver the keynote speech, but the topic of his lecture is yet to be determined. Before the dinner students may take part in a discussion with Wood at 5 p.m. in the Fred Jones Museum of Art’s Sandy Bell Gallery.

Wood won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1993 and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize for his book, “The Radicalism of the American Revolution.” Wood is also the author of “Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815” and “The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787.” Wood was a professor at Brown University for 40 years and has served at five other universities.

The dinner is being held for the President’s Associates, a group comprised of donors to the university. Most President’s Associates members are alumni of the university, said Tara Malone, OU Public Affairs writer and editor.

The dinner also will be available by reservation to some students and faculty, and a limited amount of overflow seating will be available to the public.

For more information or reservations contact OU Office of Special Events at 405-325-3784.

— Sarah Martin/The Daily

We want people to know this isn’t just an Egypt movement, this happened in Tunisia, Jordan Algeria, Yemen everywhere.”

— LAUREN BRENTNELL, STUDENTS FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY MEMBER

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affinity agreements with Bank of America and Mid-First Bank on Dec. 5, 2006, at a regular meeting of the regents.

These agreements are contracts made between banks and organizations like OU to provide increased access to credit cards for students, faculty, staff and alumni. Within these arrangements, the organizations receive commis-sions and royalties on all sales and new members acquired, according to the contract.

Revenues have gone to University and Alumni Affairs, the Athletic Department, the Arezzo Monastery Project, and other “institutional commitments,” with $6 million devoted to the Fred Jones Museum of Art in the past year, according to the cash-flow statements.

Some of the money the museum re-ceived went toward exhibits and pro-gramming aimed at students, university spokesman Chris Shilling said.

“In the past few months, the art mu-seum has opened exhibits exclusively for thousands of students and created pro-grams that support art and art education,” Shilling said.

Shilling did not disclose the nature of the other institutional commitments.

OU was guaranteed $12.1 million over 10 years, according to the terms of the agreement made by the regents in 2006.

Since the contract took effect May 1, 2007, the university also has recorded almost $700,000 in interest earnings on the proceeds under these agreements with another $1 million payment due May 1, according to an open records request.

The first credit-card affinity agreement was developed as a source of additional revenue for student activities, and OU Business Affairs later accepted bids from national banks, said Richard Hall, former OU Student Affairs vice president.

The original program had controls built into the appli-cation process, including a credit limit of less than $500 for first-time borrowers and parental approval for stu-dents under 18, said Hall, who developed the original agreement.

“At the time, there was less concern for student over-bor-rowing and more concern for opportunities for students to begin to establish their own credit history,” he said.

There are no similar restrictions in the university’s cur-rent affinity agreement with Bank of America.

“The monetary gains for the univer-sity, by my recollection, were sizeable and there were likely more decisions driven by a substantial new revenue stream than by worry over student debt load,” Hall said.

To prepare students who were hop-ing to use credit cards for the first time, OU offers educational outlets to help prevent credit-card abuse and poor money management, Shilling said.

“Credit cards provide a variety of benefits and associated responsibili-ties for college-student borrowers,” Shilling said. “Credit cards are widely available in our soci-ety, and we believe that most of our students will use credit for the benefits it may provide them.”

Colleges and universities are prohibited from selling stu-dent information to credit-card companies, according to state law.

OU complies with this law, Shilling said.However, the university agreed with Bank of America to

provide updated contact lists containing the last-known mailing address and phone numbers of alumni, donors, faculty, staff and “other potential participants,” according to the terms of the affinity agreement. These other potential participants have always included students, Shilling said.

In return for these contact lists and other forms of sup-port and assistance, the university receives $1 for each new student credit-card account opened, $1 for each an-nual fee paid on student credit-card accounts, 0.40 percent on all retail transaction volume for all student credit-card

accounts and other royalties.Student information was not being sold because the

university is required by law to provide student-directory information to anyone who tenders an open records re-quest, unless students elect to withhold their information, Shilling said.

However, OU treats this information as confidential, according to the contract. Neither the university nor the bank may provide these contact lists to other parties un-less forced to do so.

When an open records request is filed, the university has agreed to consult with the bank and the OU Foundation “on the advisability of taking legally available steps to resist or narrow” requests for this information submitted under the Oklahoma Open Records Act, according to the contract.

The university does not disclose its agreement with Bank of America in its policy regarding the release of student in-formation on its website. It also does not give students the option to simply with-hold their information from being shared for commercial purposes.

Students must fill out a request to place a hold on all of their directory informa-tion and there is a warning that reads, “If anyone calls or contacts the University, no information will be released verifying your attendance, withdrawal or gradua-tion from the University. This information will be released only upon your written authorization. Even if you call personally, none of this information can be provided without your written release.”

Affinity agreements were criticized shortly after the sui-cides of two Oklahoma college students were featured in a 2007 independent feature-length documentary film, “Maxed Out.”

Sean Moyer was a National Merit scholar from Norman and an OU transfer student who was headed to law school when he committed suicide because of credit-card debt in 1988 at age 22. Mitzi Pool was an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Central Oklahoma who committed sui-cide in 1997 in her dorm room with credit card bills scat-tered across her bed.

As a result of these suicides, UCO no longer allows credit cards to be marketed on its campus. It also has incorporat-ed a personal-finance course as an elective in its general-education requirements.

UCO schedules 10 to 20 sections of its personal-finance course every semester and encourages students to learn

about these issues, Randal Ice, Personal Finance Department chair-man, said.

“I can’t speak on any credit-card affinity programs, but here at UCO we take financial literacy and per-sonal financial education very seri-ously,” Ice said.

OU has taken neither of these steps.

A bill that would have banned credit cards from state college and university campuses was introduced in 2008. However, the bill was cur-tailed when OU protested the mea-sure because of its contract with Bank of America, according to sev-

eral media reports.The State Regents formed a task force to study the issue of

financial literacy shortly after the bill was introduced. After studying the issue for more than a year, the group released a 14-page document in September recommending no changes to the state’s general-education requirements.

OU’s chapter of Students for Democratic Society con-ducted a similar study and released a 172-page document in November 2009 that described how a personal-finance course might be incorporated into the general-education requirements as an elective.

On its website, the society noted, “This needs to stop. When students agree to allow the university to share their enrollment information and other information to po-tential employers or various honor societies, they do not ever intend that to be consent to have their information sold to banks and credit card companies without their knowledge.”

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 • 3The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com NEWS

CREDIT: Funding not spent where promisedContinued from page 1

Today around campus» Tickets for the Pink and Black Ball will be on sale for $15 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Oklahoma Memorial Union’s main lobby.

» The Student Learning Center will host a free seminar on success in online courses from 4 to 5 p.m. in Wagner Hall, Room 245.

» The African Student Association’s Africa Week continues with a cultural fair at Crossroads in the Union.

» Christians on Campus Bible study will be held from noon to 12:45 p.m. in the Union’s Traditions Room.

» SIAS Career Workshop Series is putting on a free workshop concerning government jobs from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Hester Hall, Room 170.

» This day in OU history

Feb. 8, 1961Bud Wilkinson files for name change

Former football coach C.B. “Bud” Wilkinson filed a petition to legally change his name to Bud Wilkinson. He had been called “Bud” for years, but was officially Charles Burnham. The petition would allow his name to appear as “Bud Wilkinson” on the Republican side of the senate ballot. Wilkinson spent 17 years as a coach at OU and set a national record of 47 consecutive victories.

— Source: The Oklahoma Daily archives

Wednesday, Feb. 9» The Student Learning Center will host a free seminar on money management from 1 to 2 p.m. in Wagner Hall, Room 245.

» Tickets for the Pink and Black Ball will be on sale for $15 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Union’s main lobby.

» Free health and fitness seminar and brown-bag lunch from noon to 12:45 p.m. at the Huston Huffman Fitness Center conference room.

» The OU Multicultural Career Fair will be held at 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Kerr McGee Stadium Club.

Thursday, Feb. 10» A research librarian will be available to help students with research questions from 1 to 3 p.m. in Wagner Hall, Room 280.

» Emily Brodsky will present a lecture titled “Earthquakes Triggered by Seismic Waves” from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Sarkeys Energy Center, Room A235.

» The African Student Association is hosting the Taste of Africa at the Henderson Tolson Cultural Center.

Friday, Feb. 11» Men’s Wrestling will compete against Wyoming at 7 p.m. in the McCasland Field House.

» A Film Comedy Conference which is free and open to the public will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Union’s Heritage Room.

Saturday, Feb. 12

» The Pink and Black Ball 2011 will be held from 8 to 11:45 p.m. in the Union’s Molly Shi Boren Ballroom. Tickets are $20 at the door.

» Women’s Basketball vs Missouri at 2:00 p.m. in Lloyd Noble Center.

» Wrapping up Africa Week, the African Student Association is holding African Night in the Union’s Meacham Auditorium.

Have a Twitter account? Follow The Daily

@OUDailyNews and information about

the Norman community

At the time, there was less concern for student over-borrowing and more concern for opportunities for students to begin to establish their own credit history.”

— RICHARD HALL, FORMER OU STUDENT AFFAIRS VICE PRESIDENT

Credit cards provide a variety of benefits and associated responsibilities for college-student borrowers. Credit cards are widely available in our society, and we believe that most of our students will use credit for the benefits it may provide them.”

— CHRIS SHILLING, UNIVERSITY SPOKESMAN

OUR VIEW

OU selling students out

4 • Tuesday, February 8, 2011 The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

OPINION Jared Rader, opinion [email protected] • phone: 405-325-3666

THUMBS UP ›› Fallin proposes 3 percent cut for higher education (see page 1)

Meredith Moriak Editor-in-Chief

Chase Cook Managing Editor

Chris Miller News Editor

Jared Rader Opinion Editor

James Corley Sports Editor

Ashley West Photo Editor

Chris Lusk Online Editor

Michael Lloyd Multimedia Editor

Judy Gibbs Robinson Editorial Adviser

contact us 160 Copeland Hall, 860 Van Vleet OvalNorman, Okla. 73019-0270

phone:

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[email protected]

The Oklahoma Daily is a public forum and OU’s independent student voice.

Letters should concentrate on issues, not personalities, and should be fewer than 250 words, typed, double spaced and signed by the author(s). Letters will be edited for space. Students must list their major and classifi cation. Submit letters Sunday through Thursday in 160 Copeland Hall. Letters also can be e-mailed to [email protected].

Guest columns are accepted and printed at the editor’s discretion.

Our View is the voice of The Oklahoma Daily Editorial Board, which consists of the editorial staff. The board meets at 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday in 160 Copeland Hall.

Columnists’ and cartoonists’ opinions are not necessarily the opinions of The Daily Editorial Board.

Recent studies suggest that the majority of recent studies are false, according a December article by Jonah Lehrer pub-lished in The New Yorker. In “The Truth Wears Off,” he points to a frighteningly disparate set of accepted scientific findings that are now becoming uncomfortably difficult to replicate, including research on the benefits of widely-prescribed anti-depressants, or on what birds like to find in their mates.

Though much of his piece is spent holding up some sensa-tionalist examples which are calculated to unground our faith in the scientific method — and we know that enough odd co-incidences exist in the world that a journalist might find a few freak studies — Lehrer has also interviewed re-spected scientists.

One of them is John Ioannidas, whose “Why Most Published Research Findings are False,” cited hundreds of times since 2005, includes lines like “It can be proven that most claimed research findings are false,” and a statistical argument about how, if 10 teams independently researched 100,000 genetic factors to determine which ones cause a predisposition towards schizophrenia, then any one factor identified by any one team would be about as likely to be a true link as if the team had picked it out of a hat.

To make his claims, Ioannidas points to numerous flaws in the way research is currently conducted. We all know that bias can do mighty things in the way of seeing what we want, even in the most fair-minded and honest of us, and that journals — unless there is a new theory to be debunked — generally prefer findings over “we looked, but we didn’t see anything. Yet there are other thorn-covered obstacles which we see less often while they turn us back from truth.

Towering and yet forgotten among these problems is that scientists are looking for too many things at once, so some of them are statistically certain to turn up with a false positive. Even worse, if they don’t find anything they were looking for, they might search after anything they can publish, any statisti-cally significant correlation related to something in their field.

Great discoveries have in-deed come from this. But by the very way statistics are mea-sured, if I take two random groups of 1,000 people, giving one of them a new drug and the other a placebo, there is a 5 percent chance that I will find a statistically significant differ-ence between the two groups in the number of blondes.

Another difficulty lies in the tiny effects that are often searched for with today’s acute tools for measuring. Lehrer’s

example is the study of risk factors for disease. Again, due to the way statistics are gathered, if most factors based on diet or genes change your odds by less than 5 percent, “then genetic or nu-tritional epidemiology would be largely utopian endeavors.”

All of our medicine and physics students al-ready know these dangers, of course, and they will now march gloriously into their fields, brains overflowing with healthy skepticism, ready to rig-orously apply the remedies that Ioannidas pre-scribes, so there is no use telling them.

This is, rather, something that needs to be known more generally, so that when some insipid magazine cites outrageous studies, like eggs will kill you, or that men and women think entirely alike, you’ll know it’s probably nonsense, and either examine the literature yourself, or ignore it.

Not to say scientific research is totally pointless — they’ll get the truth in the end — but there’s no point being upset about last month’s tenure-seeking tome by somebody in Women’s and Gender Studies. Instead, realize what many others have said before: Science is human.

— Gerard Keiser,

linguistics and classical languages junior

Comment on this column at OUDaily.com

As I sit here at my computer on what would be the 100th birthday of our 40th president, I cannot help but find myself in absolute awe of what Ronald Wilson Reagan accomplished.

A man who sat at the helm during a disastrous peri-od marked by ludicrous economic policy, skyrocketing debt, a dramatic increase in poverty, a ridiculous tur-key shoot in Grenada, U.S. support of Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, the Savings and Loan crisis and the Iran-Contra scandal has successfully duped the American people into thinking that he was actually a competent leader. Astounding.

Reagan swept into the White House in 1980 with a campaign in which he promised to never negotiate with terrorists and to restore Christian values to our nation.

Once in office though, he proceeded to seek the counsel of an astrologer while overseeing the executive branch’s conducting of illegal arms sales to Iran (and funneling profits to glorified drug cartels) in exchange for the release of American hostages.

Sadly, shameless hypocrisies such as these were not the exception, but rather, the norm for the Reagan presidency.

Iran-Contra, in which 14 administration officials including the Secretary of Defense were indicted (11 convicted), was not the sole incident in which Reagan showed his flexibility when it came to the whole “ter-rorist” thing.

In 1982, he had Iraq removed from the State Department’s list of terrorist supporting nations, de-spite the fact that Iraq was supporting Palestinian mili-tant groups.

He then proceeded to extend credit to Iraq, which provided them more money for chemical and biological weapons.

Then, in 1983, he ordered the CIA to begin sharing in-telligence with the Iraqi mil-i tar y so they would know where to target the weapons that the U.S. was publicly denouncing.

Oh, and he also ramped u p s u p p o r t t o a c e r t a i n Saudi “freedom fighter” in

Afghanistan.Skipping over the utterly unjustified invasion of

Grenada, the true legacy of the 40th president was reflected in the concept that bears his namesake: Reaganomics.

Reaganomics was pretty simple: If you institute enor-mous tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the country, then the amount of money that the federal government takes in will magically increase.

Furthermore, if you deregulate banks, eviscerate the Environmental Protection Agency (“Trees cause more pollution than automobiles”), and bust up labor unions, then the quality of life for all Americans will improve.

This was an idea so shamefully stupid that Reagan’s own vice president, George H.W. Bush, referred to Reagan’s policies as “voodoo economics.”

The results of these unconscionable policies were perfectly predictable. The rich got richer, while the poor got poorer. Toxic industrial wastes were dumped into our waters and spewed into our air. National debt tripled to over $2.19 trillion (when the Democratic Congress passed less than $50 billion total in in-creases over Reagan’s proposed budget spread over 8 years). And banks declared open season on finan-cial regulations that had been in place since the Great Depression.

Most people don’t remember that we’ve had to bail the banks out before. But that is exactly what happened during the Savings and Loan crisis — to the tune of $130 billion taxpayer dollars. And once again, it was the re-sult of the stripping of New Deal initiatives designed to protect consumers from the overtly risky practices of an unregulated Wall Street. It took us 50 years to forget the first time, and only 20 the second. We had better start lubing up for round three at this rate.

Reagan’s legacy consists of propagating the myths of tax cuts paying for themselves, national debt being inconsequential, welfare queens (which reporters dis-covered he simply made up), free markets being self-regulating panaceas and that Jesus doesn’t want us to help the destitute because the homeless are homeless “by choice.”

This is not a man who deserves a 21-gun salute or wistful recollections of days past. This cretinous vermin ought to have had his casket chucked into the surging rivers of waste that once again flow into our oceans as a result of his stripping of environmental protections. We ought to hold in contempt this unabashedly incom-petent swine for his legacy of irresponsibility and igno-rance. It’s a long way down to hell, but in the spirit of charity, I suppose the road The Gipper walks might be paved with good intent.

Goodbye, Ronald Wilson Reagan. Let us hope your time never comes again.

— Travis Grogan,

political science and communication senior

Comment on this column at OUDaily.com

GUEST COLUMN

Good riddance, Gipper — a tribute to Reagan

Gerard Keiser

STAFF COLUMN

This is not a man who deserves a 21-gun salute or wistful recollections of days past.”

Scientific method has its flawsCOLUMN

We all know that bias can do mighty things in the way of seeing what we want, even in the most fair-minded and honest of us.”

OU has made an incredible amount of money with its credit card affinity agreement with Bank of America and Mid-First Bank, but at what cost to students?

Since it took effect on May 1, 2007, the university has made $8.8 million by releasing student contact information to banks. OU makes commission and royalties on all pur-chases made on the cards and when the bank acquires new members.

The original idea was to put that money toward student activities. Unless constructing and acquiring majestic buildings is a form of student activities, then the university has stuck with the original terms of the agreement.

The money made off of this deal has not gone toward student activities. Rather, the bulk of it has gone to the Fred Jones Junior Museum of Art, which received $6 million from the agreement in the last year alone.

The Arezzo Monastery in Italy that OU purchased for a study abroad program has received the second big-gest chunk of change from the agreement — $445,595. While that’s a far cry from $6 million, it’s still a significant amount.

And then there’s the nebulous “Other Institutional Commitments,” which uni-versity spokesman Chris Shilling refused to disclose, receiving $691,980.

While it generates mil-lions of dollars — OU was guaranteed $12.1 million over 10 years, according to the terms of the agreement — it comes at an overlooked cost to students.

Many students receiving credit cards don’t know how to use them, and the OU administration only pays lip service to making sure its students will use the cards wisely.

Shilling said the university offers students educational outlets to help prevent credit-card abuse and poor money management.

This is news to us. Just what does OU offer in terms of fi-nancial literacy for students? The most significant offering we could find doing a simple search of “financial literacy” on search.ou.edu is an OU High School course in Personal Financial Literacy. However, this no longer exists seeing as the administration decided to quietly discontinue its OU High School courses this year.

Learning how to use credit cards and build credit can be beneficial for students, but the university needs to do its part to offer students programs or courses in this area. If there are financial literacy programs on campus, they need to be advertised. Right now, it seems like the administration could care less.

Allowing banks to target students can have serious con-sequences. In 1988 and 1997 two Oklahoma students com-mitted suicide because of the crushing credit card debt they acquired. While this happened before OU made its affinity agreement, many have pointed to these deaths as reasons why OU should be more transparent about its agreement, modify it, or get rid of it completely.

More recently, student credit card debt has increased.

On average, students leave college with $3,000 in credit card debt, according to an April 2009 report by student loan provider Sallie Mae. That’s a 41 percent increase from 2004, according to the report, and this doesn’t even count debts accrued from student loans.

Students should be expected to take responsibility for their own actions, but the problem has grown to a point that the university must do more to protect the student’s inter-ests. The administration should start by being more honest and transparent about its affinity agreement.

Right now, the agreement is hidden away. There is no mention of it on the OU website in its policy regarding the release of student information.

To keep their information from being released, students have to go through the trouble of filling out a request to withhold their information, an action that has strings at-tached as well. The university will release no information “verifying your attendance, withdrawal or graduation from the University” unless a student consents with a written re-quest. So if there’s any benefit to allowing the university to release your information, you must acquiesce to allowing it to provide your information to the banks.

OU also makes sure to place the interests of the bank above students, as out-lined in the agreement. If an open records request is filed regarding the agreement, the contract states that the university will consult with the bank “on the advisabil-ity of taking legally available steps to resist or narrow”

such requests. Why would OU try to block out open records requests on the affinity agreement unless it knew how de-ceitful it really is?

If students knew how the university allows banks to tar-get naive students with credit card opportunities, people would likely call for change. But OU uses every loophole in the book to make sure students remain unaware so that its lucrative program can remain in place.

The student who killed herself in 1997 was Mitzi Pool, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Central Oklahoma. She was found dead in her dorm room with credit card bills covering her bed.

To make sure this didn’t happen again, UCO banned banks from marketing credit cards on its campus and incor-porated several sections of a personal finance course into its general education requirements.

While we don’t think banks ought to be completely banned from soliciting to students on campus, OU should be honest about its agreement and make it easier for stu-dents to withhold their contact information from being given to banks.

And the administration should definitely take a leaf out of UCO’s book and get serious about providing financial liter-acy courses to students. As suggested by the millions raised from the agreement, it’s not like OU couldn’t afford it.

Comment on this column at OUDaily.com

If students knew how the university allows banks to target naive students with credit card opportunities, people would likely call for change. But OU uses every loophole in the book to make sure students remain unaware so that its lucrative program can remain in place.”

RJ Young, life & arts [email protected] • phone: 405-325-5189

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 • 5The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

LIFE&ARTS OUDAILY.COM ›› Visit the Life & Arts section to readmore album reviews and previews

CUT COPYZonoscope

(Modular Recordings)

Rating:

Cut Copy is an Australian band considered to be a blend of synthpop and 80s music. “Zonoscope,” the band’s third album, was re-leased today.

The band has enough sound to provide a relaxing evening while being able to establish a mood for a laser-filled dance party.

With more than an hour of music, Zonoscope keeps the party going without seeming drawn out or overdone.

Cut Copy is a prominent band within the indepen-dent music scene, and while “Zonoscope” is still authen-tic, it has commercial appeal and the songs transfer into multiple genres.— Leesa Allmond/The Daily

STEEL MAGNOLIASteel Magnolia

(Big Machine Records)

Rating: 1/2

With an even mixture of twangy chords and upbeat riffs, Steel Magnolia’s debut album has enough substance to satisfy die-hard country fans and southern popsters.

Included on the album are the singles, “Keep On Lovin’ You” and “Just By Being You (Halo and Wings).”

Fans of the singles and the band’s cutesy style won’t be let down by the rest of the debut effort.

“Steel Magnolia” may not be an Earth-shattering ad-dition to Nashville, but the duo’s musical ability certain-ly has the potential to develop into something more original down the road.— Emily Hopkins/The Daily

THE DECEMBERISTSThe King is Dead

(Capitol Records)

Rating: 1/2

Despite its penchant for all things involving the sea, The Decemberists is one of the more well-known indepen-dent bands in the U.S.

On its new album, “The King is Dead,” the band sticks to telling stories using ob-scure maritime vocabulary. The best songs on the album are those that address issues within relationships.

However, the tension be-tween telling stories for the stories’ sake and actually try-ing to get a message across is something The Decemberists still need to work on.

— Janna Gentry/The Daily

Have any music news? An album suggestion for our writers? Questions? E-mail us at [email protected].

REVIEWS, PREVIEWS AND MORE

THE DAILY’S

NEW MUSICTUESDAY

Read more at OUDaily.com

Now that the ice has thawed, The Daily provides its list of new music slated for release this semester

MATT CARNEY AND RYAN QUERBACHThe Oklahoma Daily

Spring needs Fleet Foxes like flowers need ad-mirers. Because really, what’s the point of natu-ral beauty if nobody celebrates it with art?

Luckily enough, we will have such a record just in time to divert our attention away from studying for midterms to notice the little plant life blooming all across the South Oval garden. Plenty of other artists will be vying for our col-lege-aged attentions as well — be they electron-ic, acoustic, pop, indie, hip-hop or rock ‘n’ roll.

Two of The Daily’s music fiends got together and compiled a list of our most anticipated re-leases this semester. So, break out your calen-dars and headphones and let’s get to it.

FLEET FOXESHelplessness Blues

(Sub Pop)

Judging by how snarky he was between songs at his band’s 2008 Austin City Limits set, lead singer Robin Pecknold is probably the one tweeting from the @Fleetfoxes account. Unfortunately, he’s not as forthcoming as

@kanyewest, so we can only speculate on the sequel to the band’s lovely eponymous debut.

Expect plenty of multi-part harmonies, classi-cal instruments and lyrics about natural beauty. Date to be announced.

Albums to pick up this semesterJAMES BLAKEJames Blake

(R & S)

Don’t freak out if you haven’t heard of this 21-year-old Londoner, but do circle that release date on your calendar with your boldest, bright-est pen. Blake’s trio of 2010 EPs showcased a lot of talent in the fields of sampling, dubstep and minimalist dance music.

If the initial singles making the rounds online, “Wilhelms Scream” and the Feist cover “Limit To Your Love,” are any indicators, then we may just have 2011’s greatest work of high art on our hard drives.

Released Monday.

LUPE FIASCOLasers

(Atlantic Records)

Largely due to label disputes, Lupe Fiasco hasn’t dropped an album in more than three years. He’ll change that in March with his third studio album, “Lasers.” The Modest Mouse-inspired first single, “The Show Goes On,” has had quite a buzz since its release in October and subsequent video in December.

Lupe said the album will be a little more com-mercial than his previous works, but don’t ex-pect that to hamper his outstanding lyrical abil-ity. This is the album hip-hop fans should look forward to most in 2011.

Due out March 8.

R.E.M.Collapse Into Now

(Warner Brothers )

After 15 studio records, R.E.M. probably ap-peals more to college faculty than students. But that doesn’t make early releases like “Überlin” and “Mine Smell Like Honey” any less meaningful.

Bassist Mike Mills told Spin magazine to expect an introspective record with a lot of personality in the characters. “There are some really slow, beautiful songs; there are some nice, mid-tempo ones; and then there are three or four rockers,” Mills said. An impressive list of collaborators in-cludes Canadian singer Peaches, Patti Smith and Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder.

Due out March 7.

KANYE WEST AND JAY-ZWatch the Throne

(Def Jam Recordings)

Kanye West isn’t just on top of hip-hop right now, he’s on top of music following “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” Jay-Z (shown left) has always been near

the top. With that in mind, these two should combine for a solid project with “Watch the Throne.”

However, the first single “H.A.M” was far from outstanding. The song has a cool beat, but the lyrics in the rappers’ verses seem rushed and sloppy.

One has to hope that Kanye and Jay don’t let their egos get in the way of working hard on this project. Fan expectations are high, but if “H.A.M” is any indication, those expectations might be shattered.

Date TBA.

THE STROKESAngles

(EMI Records)

“I remember when we used to play this song in empty bars,” Julian Casablancas said a split-second before his band kicked into the nostal-gia-snorter “Someday” in front of tens of thou-sands of fans at Austin City Limits last fall.

It’s been that kind of bar band-to-rock gods journey for The Strokes, who named Angles after its approach to recording the band’s first record in five years.

“It comes from five different people,” guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. told Rolling Stone maga-zine. Rolling Stone critic David Fricke called it “reassuring” for fans of the band’s debut album, “Is This It.” Good news, indeed.

Due out March 21.

THE LONELY ISLANDTBA

(Universal Republic)

Only two comedy albums in and Andy Samberg’s gang are already rehashing the same song structures with new collaborators and lyr-ics. Good thing that doesn’t make their antics any less funny. T-Pain and Akon might as well be interchangeable on “I’m On A Boat” and “I Just Had Sex” but that’s the point — pop music is always fundamentally the same, even when the names and faces change.

As long as they keep employing collaborators like Rihanna and Jack Black properly, these guys will keep bringing the funny.

Date TBA.

LADY GAGABorn This Way

(Interscope)

If you thought Lady Gaga was just some dance-pop freaker with a penchant for Muppet-poaching, then read what she told the BBC about “Born This Way” in January. “The album’s music combines electronic music with these sort of major, epic, I dare to even say metal, rock ’n’ roll, pop, anthemic styles-melodies with really sledgehammering dance beats,” Gaga said.

If she makes good on that promise, the rest of the world may just join up with her “little monsters.”

Due out May 23.

Other releases to hear

» The Beastie Boys — “Hot Sauce Committee, Vol. 2” (TBA)

» Bright Eyes — “The People’s Key” (Feb. 15)

» Dr. Dre — “Detox” (April 20)

» Drive-By Truckers — “Go-Go Boots” (Feb. 15)

» The Go! Team — “Rolling Blackouts” (Feb. 1)

» Jay Electronica — “Act II” (TBA)

» Lykke Li — “Wounded Rhymes” (March 1)

» Wye Oak — “Civilian” (March 8)

KANYEWa

the combiThrone

Howoutstalyrics isloppy

Onetheir egprojectis any shatter

Date

Jay-Z

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Being

6 • Tuesday, February 8, 2011 The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

CLASSIFIEDS Cameron Jones, advertising managerclassifi [email protected] • phone: 405-325-2521

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Instructions:Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.

Previous Solution

Monday- Very EasyTuesday-EasyWednesday- EasyThursday- MediumFriday - Hard

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Universal Crossword

NOISE REDUCTION by Oscar Puma

ACROSS 1 Hit a type of

single 6 Post-shovel-

ing feeling10 ___ by Dana

(fragrance)14 Synagogue

reading15 Denials16 Winged17 Quiet show

of approval?20 “Miracle on

Ice” chant21 Wealth22 Said twice, a

Latin dance25 Scrambled

or poached item

27 Triple-layer cookies

28 Group of six30 Fail to heed

the “Measure twice, cut once” adage

34 Defendant’s story

35 Curved part of the foot

36 Stein fillers40 Aloof refusal

to speak43 Guinness

book adjective

44 Unimaginably long time (Var.)

45 Valuable violin

46 Wispy clouds47 Puzzling

problem48 Perform

ineptly52 Unmannerly

man54 60-min.

periods 55 Working

(with) 59 Launching

platform 61 1982 Meryl

Streep thriller 66 Scholarly

book 67 Unrivaled

rating 68 River

conveyance 69 Snippy

comeback 70 1917

revolution casualty

71 Slip through the clutches of

DOWN 1 “Takin’ Care

of Business” group, to fans

2 Silent film star Chaney

3 Get a lode of this

4 Where “Lost” was filmed

5 Introduced gradually

6 Addition word 7 Nickname for

late night’s O’Brien

8 Album that included “Ticket to Ride”

9 Biblical twin 10 Narrow down 11 Dress with

some flare? 12 Baccarat call 13 Impulses 18 Henpeck 19 Move force-

fully (through) 22 Yawning

fissure 23 Prefix

meaning “sun”

24 Angles between twigs and stems

26 Gadget for cheese

29 Whistle when the cops come, e.g.

31 Goof 32 Pretty as

a picture postcard

33 Unmasker’s cry

36 Bullets and such

37 Rover’s restraint

38 Invitation from within

39 Removes lumps from batter

41 ___ chi 42 Hoof with a

heel and a

toe? 46 Stocking

stuffer for a naughty child

48 Moistens a fern

49 Fly ___ rage 50 Goes down

a few dress sizes

51 Removes from text

53 Do the same as

56 Tin-can- eating animal, supposedly

57 Unaccounted- for radar blips

58 Volcano near Messina

60 Clock face 62 Title for a

queen: ___ Majesty

63 Prey for a pride

64 Mason’s brick carrier

65 What your driver may hit

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

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James Corley, sports [email protected] • phone: 405-325-3666

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 • 7The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

SPORTS OUDAILY.COM ›› Free throws were a major factor in OU’s 81-75 loss to Oklahoma State on Sunday

The current system for se-lecting NBA All-Stars is re-grettable, repugnant and in need of an overhaul.

For years, we have been subject to over-the-hill NBA statesmen treating the NBA All-Star game like their own personal pick-up game.

We only have ourselves to blame. According to the NBA, nearly 2.5 million votes were cast during this year’s All-Star balloting, and we still managed to get it wrong.

The prominent example of the most flagrant flaw in the system is Yao Ming.

There is no doubt Yao was once a premier player in the NBA. The 7-foot-6-inch cen-ter was selected No. 1 over-all in the 2002 draft by the Houston Rockets. In Yao’s first 246 games, he missed just two due to injury. Fans remember that.

The 2008-09 season was Yao’s best by far as he av-eraged 26.8 points, 9.7 re-bounds and 2.7 blocks per game. He’s also been select-ed to five NBA All-Pro teams. Fans remember that.

Fans don’t remember the 25 games Yao missed during the 2005-06 regular season and the 34 games he missed during the 2008-09 season.

But even that doesn’t mat-ter much because, after all, the 2011 All-Star selection should only take into account statistical performance from this season.

So far in 2010-11, Yao has played in five games.

How can you reward a player with an All-Star se-lection if he has only played in five games, one of which he played just six minutes in, scored zero points and brought down one rebound?

The vast majority of NBA fans found a way to reward him again.

This is Yao’s eighth straight selection to the Western Conference All-Star team, his seventh as its starting cen-ter, meaning...Yao has been selected to more Western Conference All-Star teams than he has played games this year.

The NBA is home to the biggest, most eclectic group of elite basketball players in the world, yet a seven-footer on injured reserve for a team that sits at the bottom of the

Southwest Division is the best the Western Conference has to offer at center?

Not likely.The majority of NBA fans

aren’t paying attention. They would have been bet-ter selecting the ghost of Wilt Chamberlain to start this year’s game.

I’m glad the NBA believes in its fans enough to solicit their opinion in the middle of the regular season for a game that doesn’t matter and has

become the backdrop to the slam dunk contest.

These selections can’t be taken seriously anymore; not when some of the best play-ers in the game today have to receive mercy votes from 30 NBA coaches on to a team they deserved to be on in the first place.

Democracy at work, I guess.

— RJ Young,

journalism grad student

Starters key in men’s wins

The OU men’s basketball team is relying heavily on the starting five this season.

Starters have scored 345 of the Sooners’ 380 total points, more than 90 percent.

Each of Oklahoma’s starters also averaged at least 12.0 points during the last five games.

Robinson moves up record books

OU women’s basketball senior guard Danielle Robinson moved into fifth in career points for the program.

Robinson (1,926) has scored six more than previous No. 5 Stacey Dales (1998-2002).

Robinson also needs 74 points, 35 assists and 16 steals to become just the third NCAA Division I women’s basketball player to total 2,000 points, 700 assists and 300 steals in a career.

OU gymnasts stay dominant

The No. 5 OU women’s gymnastics program extended its nation-leading regular-season win streak to 22 on Sunday.

The Sooners, still unbeaten in 2011 at 8-0, topped their fifth ranked opponent already this season by beating No. 10 Nebraska over the weekend.

Tennis upsets top opponents

The OU women’s tennis team continues to surprise by upsetting a pair of higher-ranked opponents in its last two matches.

The 31st-ranked Sooners (3-1) beat No. 14 Arkansas on Sunday after downing No. 29 UNLV on Jan. 28.

OU’s only loss this season was to top-ranked Stanford, winner of last season’s national championship.

— Daily staff reports

COLUMN

NBA All-Star voting needs overhaulNOTEBOOK

2011 NBA All-Star Rosters

EAST

StartersLeBron James (Miami)Amar’e Stoudemire (N.Y.)Dwayne Wade (Miami)Derrick Rose (Chicago)Dwight Howard (Orlando)

ReservesRay Allen (Boston)Chris Bosh (Miami)Kevin Garnett (Boston)Al Horford (Atlanta)Joe Johnson (Atlanta)Paul Pierce (Boston)Rajon Rondo (Boston)

CoachDoc Rivers (Boston)

WEST

StartersKevin Durant (OKC)Carmelo Anthony (Denver)Kobe Bryant (L.A. Lakers)Chris Paul (New Orleans)Yao Ming (Houston)*

*replaced by Kevin Love (Minnesota) due to injury

ReservesTim Duncan (San Antonio)Manu Ginobili (San Antonio)Pau Gasol (LA. Lakers)Blake Griffi n (L.A. Clippers)Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas)Russell Westbrook (OKC)Deron Williams (Utah)

CoachGregg Popovich (San Antonio)

NBA All-Star Schedule

FRIDAY, FEB. 18

» ESPN6 p.m. — Celebrity Game

» TNT8 p.m. — Rookie Challenge8:30 p.m. — Slam Dunk Contest

SATURDAY, FEB. 19

» TNT7:30 p.m. — All-Star Saturday Night

SUNDAY, FEB. 20

» TNT6 p.m. — All-Star Game

WILFREDO LEE/AP

Los Angeles Clippers forward and former Sooner star Blake Griffin (32) guards Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6) during the first half of the Clippers-Heat game Sunday in Miami. Both Griffin and James were named to the 2011 NBA All-Star team Thursday.

Bradford to return to Norman

Former OU quarterback Sam Bradford will be at Wednesday’s Oklahoma-Texas men’s basketball game.

Recently named the AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, the St. Louis Rams field general returns to Norman as part of “Cheer Like a Champion” Night at Lloyd Noble Center.

All fans will receive a “Cheer Like a Champion” T-shirt to help “white-out” Lloyd Noble for the rivalry game, which will be broadcast on ESPN2.

The first 5,000 fans at the game will receive commemorative Sam Bradford posters, and randomly selected fans will win autographed Bradford posters and merchandise.

Griffin to headline dunk contest

Former Sooner basketball standout Blake Griffin will compete in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest during the All-Star Weekend.

The Los Angeles Clippers forward, who sat out all last season due to injury, has made frequent appearances on ESPN SportsCenter’s Top-10 Plays for his dunks already this year.

Griffin will join Milwaukee’s Brandon Jennings, Washington’s JaVale McGee and Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka in the competition.

— Daily staff reports

MEN’S BASKETBALL NBA

STAFF COLUMN

RJ Young

UMN

Don’t Missthe Chance to Nominate anOU Professor, Staff Member

or Student for a $20,000 prize!

The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution.

All undergraduate, graduate and professional students aswell as full-time faculty and staff members on OU’s Norman,Oklahoma City and Tulsa campuses are eligible to benominated for the $20,000 Otis Sullivant Award. Onlymembers of the OU community are eligible to be consideredfor the prize.

The award is funded by a $500,000 endowment established byEdith Kinney Gaylord of Oklahoma City shortly before her death in2001. It is named in honor of the late Otis Sullivant, the chiefpolitical writer for the Daily Oklahoman who for 40 years was one of the state’s most influential journalists.

Nominees should exhibit intuitiveness, instant comprehension andempathy, be observant and interpret from their experience. Thebenefit to society and the broader community, which comes fromthe nominee’s insight, also will be considered.

Nominations for the Sullivant Award may be made by callingSherry Evans at the President’s Office at 325-3916, writing to Evansat the Office of the President, 660 Parrington Oval, Room 110,Norman, OK 73019-0390, or by picking up forms at the President’s Office. Applications must be submitted no later than 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18.

- THE PRIDE OF OKLAHOMA

8 • Tuesday, February 8, 2011 The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.comADVERTISEMENT