Thursday, January 15, 2015 by OU Daily

L&A: Look ahead to this spring’s movie releases (Page 3)

Sports: Red River Rivalry: Find out who won when Texas came to town last night (Online)

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VOICES HEARD

Boren to meet with Unheard group today AMBER FRIEND AND ANDREW CLARK • NEWS REPORTERS

U President David Boren has accepted a request from student group Unheard to discuss their grievances against the university after a protest march Wednesday. TONY RAGLE/THE DAILY

Top: Students tape their mouths shut and link arms as they walk to Evans Hall on Wednesday afternoon. OU’s black community organized the event over social media to draw attention to black students’ issues. Bottom: Students embrace each other as they gather outside of Copeland on Wednesday afternoon to march to Evans Hall.

Unheard led a unity march Wednesday afternoon down the South Oval and through Evans Hall to spread awareness of the group’s complaints about lack of black representation, culture and support at OU. Before the march, senior and Unheard member Naome Kadira greeted the group and spoke of its mission. Graduate student Russell Bouyer sang to the group briefly.

U n h e a r d m e m b e r s a n d s u p p o r ters dressed in black and put tape with “Unheard” written over their mouths. “[The tape] represents the silence we have as black people as a community,” said Keith Logan, Unheard executive. Marchers also held signs as they walked with phrases SEE MARCH PAGE 2

COMMUNITY

HUMANITIES

Hookah brings people together

From nothing to a full Ph.D program

The story behind Norman’s only hookah lounge PARIS BURRIS

Campus News Editor @ParisBurris

Aaron Nelson didn’t know how the decision to quit his job as a cruise ship magician two days before setting sail to his dream destination — Australia — to buy a small hookah lounge in Norman, Oklahoma, would turn out. Two years later, Nelson is happy he made that decision. Sheikh Hookah Lounge, located at 117 N. Crawford Ave, is more than an opportunity for the Tuttle native and OU alumnus to work with Sheikh Hookah hookah. Owning the lounge, Lounge which opens at 8 p.m. every day except Sunday, has given When: Monday through him a chance to reconnect Wednesday, 8 p.m. with people. to midnight; Thursday Hookah is a way of smokthrough Saturday, 8 ing tobacco that was develp.m. to 2 a.m. oped in India around the Where: 117 N end of the Renaissance era. Crawford Avenue One in three current college students has smoked hookah, according to a study published in 2012 by Brian Primack, professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. More than 50 percent of those students were non-cigarette smokers, the study also found. Nelson realized he had lost his connection with people when a couple of nurses, who he worked with during his time as an emergency medical technician, told him he was “the

WEATHER Sunny today with a high of 52, low of 28. Follow @AndrewGortonWX on Twitter for weather updates.

DAISY CREAGER News Reporter @DaisyCreager

TONY RAGLE/THE DAILY

Aaron Nelson stands in his hookah lounge. Nelson bought his favorite hookah lounge when it went up for sale.

coldest bastard” they had ever met. “I was like ‘Whoa, hold on, self realization here,’” Nelson said. “Working trauma, you can’t get connected to the patients because you’re working gun shots, car wrecks, overdoses, suicides, heart attacks, things like that on a daily basis.” SEE SMOKE PAGE 2

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theoklahomadaily

A decades-spanning passion for advocating the study of Native American art has earned the director of OU’s School of Art and Art History state-wide recognition. Regents professor and director emeritus Mary Jo Watson was surprised when she found out that she would be inducted into the hall of fame for the Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society, an organization that promotes research and history in higher education. “The idea is to have someone who dedicated their academic life to a quality of learning and studying in Oklahoma,” said Rozmeri Basic, interim co-director of the MARY JO WATSON school of art and art history. Watson’s interest in educating people about Native American culture inspired her to teach the first Native American art history course at OU in 1980, she said. “There are still pockets of great poverty, bad health and a lack of information about Indians nationwide,” Watson said. More online at OUDaily.com

INDEX

@OUDaily

Professor honored for progress of Native American art curriculum

OUDaily