Sept. 30, 2020 by MediaOCU

THE CAMPUS

PAGE 2 Opinion Troy Freeman, arts & entertainment editor, reviews the new “Mulan” movie.

September 30, 2020 – Volume 114 Issue 3

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Cou�tesy o� the Libra�� o� Cong�ess

Stephen Jackson Student Publications

OCU deletes student Facebook group Francesca Iacovacci

NEWS EDITOR

PAGE 3 Life Students remember the life of former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Cou�tesy o� OCUspo�ts.com

PAGE 4 Sports The athletics department announced the postponing of fall sports.

Stephen Jackson Student Publications

The university’s social media team has suspended the official OCU Facebook group for students after the group’s guidelines were violated. Christin Byrdsong, music alumnus, was in the Facebook group and said there were a series of events that led to the group being suspended, starting with a post by a student about someone writing “Trump 2020” in chalk during the OCU Scholar Strike. For more on the Scholar Strike, go to MediaOCU.com. “What caused it all was that someone wrote ‘Trump 2020’ over something that was intended to stand in solidarity with victims of police brutality, and someone in the Facebook group responded and said that hate doesn’t stand at OCU,” he said. “Someone else then posted they felt they were discriminated against for being a Trump supporter, and I thought it was completely insensitive and disrespectful.” Before suspending the group, the “Oklahoma City University” Facebook page posted in the group

acknowledging the opinions shared on the post and in the comment section by students and alumni. The post said the university takes a neutral stance on political matters. “A University is a place for expression of ideas, and both conservative and liberal viewpoints are welcome at the University. Just like in this forum, expression of ideas are welcome, but not at the expense of attacking others with differing viewpoints. That is not the practice we want on social media or in person on our campus. Hate speech in any form will not be tolerated,” the post said. The post said any comments made on the post that incited division and hate would be deleted. It also said students should speak confidentially to a member of the university’s administration or contact socialmedia@okcu. edu if they feel they are being, or have been, discriminated against because of their political viewpoint. The Oklahoma City University Facebook page later suspended the OCU group. Kevin Windholz, vice president for enrollment management and university communications, said the social media team declined to

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

A new gallery has opened in the Nora Jean Hulsey Gallery.

Jessica Vanek Student Publications

PAGE 6 News Students have joined protests in OKC to support the Black Lives Matter movement.

M MEDIAOCU.com

move coming from a university that tries to preach discussion and cooperation.” He said different opinions are naturally found on social media. “Everybody has their opinions, and people who want to are going to be more inclined to share their opinions. It doesn’t really matter what page they’re on. Not everyone on the same Facebook page is going to have the same opinions because we all have different experiences, and that’s no one’s fault exactly. It’s just how the world is,” Bressler said. Bressler also said it’s important to voice concerns to the university. “You can’t have a decently working organization or university without some type of feedback,” he said. “Sometimes it can be less constructive and more critical, and I think that’s something we can work on. Overall, I think if the university can’t take feedback from its students, then there’s something wrong with the intake of information.”

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Facebook group continued on 6

OCU clarifies Title IX updates, regulations Paul Dower

PAGE 5 Arts & Entertainment

comment on the suspension and creation of these Facebook groups. Byrdsong said he thought it was the wrong decision to suspend the group after discussion of politics and the Black Lives Matter movement in the group. “OCU has a history of running from uncomfortable conversations rather than facing them head on, and by refusing to say, ‘Black Lives Matter,’ OCU ran from the conversation,” he said. “The Methodist Church has already stood in support of Black Lives Matter, so for OCU to make a statement saying they were neutral was a complete slap in the face to the students of color at OCU.” Brian Bressler, cell and molecular biology senior, said he didn’t think hate speech was shared in the posts or its comments to warrant suspending the page. “I don’t know if ‘hate speech’ would be the right word for it. I know a lot of sensitive subjects were discussed, and people’s feelings were hurt because of other opinions that didn’t really match their own, but I think hate speech is definitely the wrong word to describe what happened,” he said. “Honestly, it was kind of a weird

OCU’s Title IX Resource Team sent out an email informing students, staff and faculty about the U.S. Department of Education’s updates to Title IX regulations. On Aug. 17, Joey Croslin, Title IX coordinator, sent out an email to the campus announcing that Title IX updated its definition of sexual harassment and changed the processes for the initial intake meeting, live hearings and informal resolution process. These changes went into effect Aug. 14. Kristi Pendleton, civil rights investigator, said there were a lot of changes in the Title IX updates, but the email highlighted the ones that pertained most to students. She said one of the biggest changes came from the updated definition for sexual harassment becoming more exclusive. “That definition has changed in the sense that it is unwanted sexual conduct that is so severe, so pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies a person access to the education program or activity that is happening on campus,” Pendleton said. “You may think, ‘well, I remember that wording before,’ but there is one little word that changed in that definition. It used to be severe, pervasive or objectively offensive, and that change to ‘and’ means that all three components have to be met in order to satisfy the definition of sexual harassment from the Title IX perspective.” Pendleton said the process for the live hearings were updated to require the person filing the complaint to have an advisor, where previously the advisor was not required in the process. “Before, if there was a hearing process, let’s say I was brought up on a Title IX charge, and I

had a hearing. I would have to make the cross examination questions,” Pendleton said. “Now with the new regulations, what the Department of Education said is, ‘we’re not going to make the students do that now. Now it is the advisor’s responsibility.’” Another change made by the Department of Education is the decision to have a board of impartial people to decide the responsibility of the alleged harasser instead of the civil rights investigator. “As before, the Civil Rights Investigator will investigate complaints by conducting interviews to gather evidence and then will compile an investigative report. However, the investigator will not enter a finding of responsibility; that determination must now be made by impartial decision-makers after a live hearing,” the email read. The final change made by the Department of Education was implementing an informal complaint process. Pendleton said OCU already had this kind of process before the update. “If students say, ‘I don’t want to go through a formal hearing. That’s too much stress for me,’ or, ‘I just don’t feel like that’s what I want to do, but I’d like to find some type of resolution. I’d be willing to sit down with someone and talk about “are you willing to take responsibility for what happened to me, and what are some possible conflict resolution that we can do?”’ Those are also available,” Pendleton said. “Students have the right to change their mind and say, ‘I don’t want to go through a formal process,’ or change their mind and say, ‘I do.’” Pendleton said since the update to the definition for sexual harassment was made on the federal level, OCU is required to follow these changes. The Aug. 17 email highlighted the initial

OCU should say to students that every situation that you feel uncomfortable in, you should come forward with it.

Catherine Brown

music junior

intake meeting not because there were any changes made, but to emphasize the importance of that meeting, Pendleton said. “In our initial intake meeting, anytime a student makes a report or someone makes a report on behalf of that student, I always reach out to that student as soon as possible to talk to them,” she said. “We are going to go over all those options in the very first meeting.” Pendleton said the update that made the definition for sexual harassment stricter was made in response to previous regulations that some policy makers thought leaned too far to the victim side. “It is a narrowing of the definition. It’s a much stricter definition, for sure, and it’s not necessarily something I would say that colleges and universities were looking for,” Pendleton said. Catherine Brown, music junior, said she thinks the changes can be unfair to people who experience sexual harassment in a university setting. Title IX continued on 6

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