Racism not UnHeard of on Campus

The University of Oklahoma severed school ties with a national fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, on Monday, March 9, and ordered that its campus house be closed down, after several members took part in a racist chant caught on video. The video, posted online, shows several fraternity members on a bus shouting and chanting, "There will never be a ni**** SAE. You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me."

The video was brought to the schools attention Sunday afternoon, and by Sunday night, SAE’s national chapter had suspended the University of Oklahoma members and threatened lifelong suspensions. SAE apologized for the video and said it did not reflect the views of its 15,000 members nationwide. However, President David Boren took it a step further. He called for zero tolerance. He issued this statement:

"To those who have misused their free speech in such a reprehensible way, I have a message for you. You are disgraceful. You have violated all that we sand for. You should not have the privilege of calling yourselves "Sooners". Real Sooners are not racist. Real Sooners are not bigots. Real Sooners believe in equal opportunity. Real Sooners treat all people with respect. Real Sooners love each other take care of each other like family members.

"Effective immediately, all ties and affiliations between this University and the local SAE chapter are hereby severed. I direct that the house be closed and that members will remove their personal belongings from the house by midnight tomorrow. Those needing to make special arrangements for positions shall contact the Dean of Students.

"All of us will redouble our efforts to create the strongest sense of family and community. We vow that we will be an example to the entire country of how to deal with this issue. There must be a zero tolerance for racism everywhere in our nation.

President Boren”

The video was first brought to Boren’s attention by Unheard, an African American student group at the University of Oklahoma. Their group is devoted to fighting and ending racism on campus. A large crowd of students attended a protest at the university, some of them arriving with tape over their mouths with, “Unheard” written across it. Members of the Oklahoma football team, and head coach Bob Stoops also protested, instead of going to practice. Boren also took part in these protests.

Boren has expelled two students identified as leaders of the chant in the video. All of the members have been evicted from the house, and the Greek letters have been removed from the house. The University has cut all ties with the fraternity.

Since the incident, there has been an outpouring of tweets saying, “Racism is alive at the University of Oklahoma.” The harsh reality of the situation is that racism is alive at universities across the country. There have been an uncountable number of racial incidents across campuses. Oklahoma Universities immediate response and reaction sets the standard for other universities. President Boren and the University have stood for zero tolerance when it comes to racism, and that’s exactly how it should be.

Oscars So White

This year’s Oscars were the whitest Oscars since 1998. There was some uproar after the nominees were announced. That day, the twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite started trending, with 95,000 tweets per hour. It was obvious that many people weren’t happy about it.

Last year, 43 million people watched the Academy Awards. This years ceremony reached more than 200 countries around the world. It’s supposed to be a celebration of filmmaking. Regardless of how unintentional, it puts the message across that certain voices matter more than others. So who’s in the academy? White people. The Academy is 94% white, 76% male, and the average member age is over 60.

It would be safe to say that everything about the Oscars is white. Since the first Academy Awards were held in 1929, just 7% of winners in the Best Actor category have been black men. Halle Berry won it in 2002, making her the first, and currently the only, black woman to win the Best Actress award. That same year, Denzel Washington received the Best Actor award. Before him, the only other black actor to have won it was Sidney Poitier, 39 years earlier.

Not only are most of the awards given to white males, most of the nominations for awards are for films centered on white male protagonists. The Academy has overwhelmingly awarded the Oscars to white male-centric films in its 87-year history. So you could argue that the oscars are white and male. It’s an issue that african americans aren’t represented, but it’s also an issue that almost every other race, and women, aren’t equally represented.

The host of the 87th Oscars, Neil Patrick Harris, opened the night with a cringe-worthy joke. “Tonight we honor Hollywood’s best and whitest — sorry, brightest,” Harris said. However, the lack of diversity in the Oscar’s is no laughing matter. Instead of using the diversity issue as a source of humor, it should be seen as a serious issue. The Academy Awards reaches many viewers, and they have the ability to influence people around the globe. This awards show had the opportunity to address diversity and face it head on with a positive, and forthcoming attitude, and they failed to do so. 

How to Avoid the Freshman 15

As summer ends, fall is right around the corner and thousands of soon to be college students are packing their bags, eager to finally have their first taste of freedom. As the leaves start falling, these students are partying, snacking, pulling all nighters, and about to pack on the infamous Freshman 15.

Although it is called the notorious Freshman 15, this doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll gain 15 pounds. In fact, there is nothing significant about the number 15, it somehow, just kind of stuck. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t gain any weight. It could be called the Freshman 5, 10, 20, or 40. Many students gain less than fifteen pounds, while many also gain more than fifteen pounds. And, you’re most likely going to gain weight throughout your entire college career. So, you could possibly even call it the Sophomore 20, Senior 40, etc. But is the dreaded Freshman 15 really inevitable?

It’s all about finding a balance. Between sports, activities, clubs, work, fitness, and diet, skipping out on your diet seems to be the easiest. Sometimes it feels as though there aren’t enough hours in the day, and between school, work, activities, and sports, it seems easiest to grab whatever food is available to move forward with your day.

Dixie Robinson, sophomore, saw the effects of being busy, “I didn’t notice when I was a freshman in college, since I was out doing stuff all the time with school and work,” she said, “It wasn’t necessarily that I was eating so much, but what I was eating was so crappy.”

It’s easy to eat crappy. It’s been a long and stressful day, and you have to finish your homework, the last thing you want to do is cook a healthy meal. Sometimes crappy is the easiest. And when most of us are broke college students, crappy seems to be the cheapest. 

“I don’t pick good food,” Robison said, “there was a distinct time where I ate two mcdoubles a day every day for lunch. All bad. But it was cheap and it was good.”

In college it seems easiest to grab whatever is hot and ready. In between games, in between classes, and even in between studying. And on top of that, let’s face it, a lot of us eat when we’re bored. While many college students seem to gain a few pounds, there are ways to avoid gaining excessive weight. Changing your eating habits and trying to stay active can keep your body healthy and keep you from gaining excess weight. However, changing your eating habits and staying active could make you gain weight too.

“I gained 10 pounds,” Madi Johnson, freshman basketball player, said, “but that’s mainly because I was working out and that was muscle from the weight room.”

The Tunnels

You’re about to finish high school and you’re considering going to Avila University, so you arrange a tour. The campus is nice, a bit smaller than you were expecting, but it’s refreshing. Then your guide turns to you and says, “have you seen our tunnels?” You get confused and think to yourself, “your what!?” Next thing you know you’re walking around under the school in the somewhat intimidating, yet eerily enchanting tunnels.

They may seem confusing at first, but navigating through them is fairly simple. The West Tunnel connects Blasco Hall, O’rielly Hall, and the Whitfield Center. The East Tunnel connects the Marian Center, Hodes Hall, and Dallas Center. However, while the tunnels are extremely useful, many students agree that it would be better if the two tunnels eventually connected.

“The two tunnels don’t connect to each other, “ Gracyn Reed, freshman, said, “you can’t go from one tunnel to the other tunnel.”

However, there’s not much to complain about. Avila University’s campus is 50 acres. That’s less than a square mile. To put that into perspective, the University of Kansas is over 1,000 acres. So, while we all complain about walking across campus when it’s cold, it’s nothing compared to other universities. However, the tunnels come in handy when the weather is bad. Especially when Missouri decides to have brutal winters with low windchill’s. 

“I use them quite frequently,” sophomore Joy Branch said, “when it’s cold, or raining!”

If you don’t know much about the tunnels, they can be confusing and after taking them, you may think you’re headed towards one building, and end up on the other side of campus. Don’t worry, the tunnels have arrows. And as a last resort you could always just turn around. Whatever the case may be, I’m sure many students can recall the first time they stumbled upon them.

“The first time was by accident,” Branch said, “I hit the ground floor on the elevators in the dorms and I thought they went to the first floor but they actually went underground. I had no idea where I was and then I figured out they were tunnels.”