Wednesday, April 30, 2014 by OU Daily

Opinion: Opinion Keep religion out of curriculum (Page 3)

L&A: Norman expands community art project (Page 4)

Sports: Taylor Spears closed out her career with a national title (Page 5)

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MONEY

Growing deficit threatens tuition OU looks to fill deficit without relying on raising tuition rates MIKE BRESTOVANSKY Campus Reporter @BrestovanskyM

As the Oklahoma legislature discusses a bill that would cut OU’s budget by 5 percent, OU officials are wondering how to fill the deficit, OU President David Boren said during a presentation Tuesday. If the budget cut is approved, it would bring the university’s deficit to $15 million, when added to flat-rate expenses,

Boren said. “(This deficit) is one of the biggest problems OU has faced in a long, long time,” Boren said. “And as of now, we don’t have any definitive answers.” Boren said OU received 15 percent of its budget from state appropriations for the 2014-2015 school year, as opposed to 32 percent 10 years ago. Conversely, in 1995, tuition accounted for only 16 percent of the budget, while today it accounts for 34 percent. “This is a problem that practically every school in the nation is facing,” Boren said. “And if it is not resolved, the U.S. will go from being first in the world in terms of college attendance to being 14th in just 10 years.”

Boren hopes that the 5 percent cut will be reduced or erased completely in the state legislature, but for now OU must operate under the assumption that it will not. As such, OU faculty members have been working to minimize department operating costs by whatever means necessary, Boren said. If OU were to pay for the $15 million deficit only through tuition costs, it would require a tuition hike of 10 percent, Boren said. However, Boren said this would be an absolute worst-case scenario and that the university would explore other options. SEE MONEY PAGE 2

ENGINEERING COMPETITIONS

OU Rocket Club exceeds expectations Students in the recently founded engineering club beat out competition AMBER FRIEND Campus Reporter @amberthefriend

Wakeam, electrical engineering senior and team member. This year, the competition will take place from May 12 to May 14. The competition is spread out over three days. The first day is designated for track set up, Tech and practice. The Tech component of the day is when race officials perform a technical inspection of the car to make sure it conforms to the various race specifications. The inspection considers the make

On a stormy September day in Pawhuska, Okla., several OU students stood among competitors at a contest hosted by the Tulsa Rocketry Club. It was the newly founded Sooner Rocket Team’s first contest, and its expectations were fairly low. As it came time for launch, the Sooners set up the bright red Minie-Magg rocket. Within minutes they would win first place, kicking off a year of collaboration, learning and success. During summer 2012, aerospace engineering junior Hunter Pemberton, aerospace engineering senior Data Condulle and several of their peers realized, while OU’s College of Engineering had many clubs for building race cars, bicycles, aircrafts and canoes, there was an unrepresented area: rockets. Throughout the 2012-2013 school year, with the help of engineering professor David Miller, they spread the word, recruited friends and peers and began working through the process of becoming an official OU organization, team president Pemberton said. Now finishing its first year as a registered club, the Sooner Rocket Team members reflect on its unprecedented success and what is to come. The team has been successful at both contests this year, even when competing against other university teams that have been organized for nearly 20 years, Pemberton said. The team earned first place at its first competition in September and recently won second and third place at a competition earlier in April. The team worked approximately a month in advance for the September contest, and the members spent most of the year preparing for the April competition, vice president Condulle said. Most of the fall semester was spent planning and designing the rockets, and the spring was spent building and testing them, Condulle said. To prepare, especially during the fall semester, team

SEE RACE PAGE 2

SEE BLAST OFF PAGE 2

CHRISTOPHER MICHIE /THE DAILY

Members of the Sooner Electric Racing work on two vehicles in the Rawl Engineering Practice Facility. OU will be entering two electric vehicles in the Purdue EV Grand Prix.

Sooners to race electric car A team of engineers preps for annual contest EMMA SULLIVAN Campus Reporter

n May, Sooners will race electric cars in the annual Purdue EV Grand Prix, a competition that will test the cars they’ve spent the spent the semester building. The weight of the cars the teams are racing, and the drivers of those cars, can be no more than 625 pounds. The cars are fueled by battery packs that

cannot be more than 50 percent of the vehicle’s total weight, according to the Purdue Collegiate 2014 Vehicle and Team Equipment Specifications manual. OU’s car is a low-to-the-ground red machine, with wheels that look like they could move a lawn mower. The car is called “Spirit of Oklahoma,” and the team is currently working on the eighth version of the car for the Grand Prix. The Sooner Electric Racing team won last year’s competition and placed third two years ago, said Joshua

FREE FUN

Forty countries come together for Wild West experience OU Cousins host their 18th barbecue EMMA SULLIVAN Campus Reporter

Students can get a taste of the Wild West at the 18th annual OU Cousins barbecue, which will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Whinery Ranch. The event will include free food, a live country band and square dancing and line dancing lessons, according to a mass email. The event is open to all

WEATHER Sunshine along with some cloudy intervals. High 64F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph.

OU students, and free transportation will be provided from either the northeast corner of the Lloyd Noble Center or in front of Couch Restaurants. Buses will begin loading at 5 p.m. and will leave at 5:15 p.m. Students are required to take university-provided transportation, according to a mass email. The ranch gives the students the “Wild, Wild West” atmosphere that is a classic American experience, Wolber said. “The barbecue is a blast

every year,” said Raymond Wolber, student director of OU Cousins. The barbecue has been held every year since OU President David Boren and his wife, Molly Shi Boren, started the program in 1996, Wolber said. OU Cousins was created to give a better experience to students studying abroad at OU. Through the OU Cousins program, students are matched with international and exchange students based on similar interests, hobbies and countries of

interest, according to the OU Cousins website. Matched students are encouraged to spend time with each other outside of official OU Cousins events, according to the OU Cousins website. Forty countries will be represented at the barbecue, giving students the chance to meet people they might not have otherwise, Wolber said. Emma Sullivan emmanic23@gmail.com

INDEX

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Campus......................2 Classifieds................4 Life&Ar ts..................4 Opinion.....................3 S p o r t s ........................ 5, 6

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DAILY FILE PHOTO

Students country-style line dance inside a barn at the Whinery Ranch during the 2013 OU Cousins BBQ.