Thursday, August 21, 2014 by OU Daily

Opinion: Avoid headache of campus parking with other options (Page 4)

Sports: Some OU football players may face suspensions (Page 6)

ESCAPE: Look for the weekender in the stands Friday

The University of Oklahoma’s independent student voice since 1916

W W W.O U DA I LY.C O M

2 013 PA C E M A K E R F I N A L I S T

T H U R S D A Y , A U G U S T 2 1 , 2 0 14

MARIJUANA

Pot petitioners seek monetary help Issue didn’t make ballot this year, but supporters are hopeful for next year DANA BRANHAM News Reporter @danabranham

Although medical marijuana legalization won’t be on the state ballot in November, the group peddling the petition registered over 24,000 new Oklahoma voters during their campaign throughout the early summer. Once the July and August registration numbers are accounted for, the number of new registered voters is expected to grow to over 40,000, said Chip Paul, chairperson for Oklahomans for Health, who led the petition push. Over the summer, members from Oklahomans for Health asked citizens to sign a petition to put the issue of medical

marijuana legalization on the November ballot. The petition needed over 155,000 signatures, but thousands of signatures were rendered invalid due to improper formatting of many of the petitions, Chip Paul said. As the signature pages came in via mail, it became “painfully obvious” that many of them were not properly formatted, Chip Paul said. “There’s all these formatting rules, so if pages aren’t formatted correctly, they’re just immediately thrown out and don’t count,” he said. “So, we have numerous amounts of those, regrettably.” Chip Paul’s wife, Cindy Paul, who worked as the treasurer throughout the campaign, described the frustration they faced as they tried to recover from numerous invalid signatures. “We tried everything we could. We even tried calling some

over

24,000 Oklahoma voters registered from campaign

SEE POT PAGE 2

FINDING A NICHE

ACADEMICS

Number of misconduct cases rising Increase in misconduct may be because of new reporting system GLORIA NOBLE News Reporter @glorianoble_

TONY RAGLE/THE DAILY

The International Advisory Committee set up a table on the South Oval Wednesday afternoon. The group supports other specific international organizations and helps them organize meetings and activities.

HOWDY WEEK

Jump to page 4 to see what fellow students think about free Howdy Week food.

‘‘

Over the last five years, the number of reported academic misconduct case, which includes cases of cheating and plagiarizing, has increased by 130 percent. In 2008, the number of reported academic misconduct cases was 226. Since then, the numbers have risen every year, with the exception of 2009 when cases dipped to 220. Part of the system In 2013, the number of is ownership. We reported cases was 520, said Breea Clark, associ- are trying to make it ate director of Academic personal. Why would Integrity Programs. Created in 2004, the you want someone Integrity Council enables to make a better s tu d e nt s a n d f a c u l t y members to oversee and grade than you did?” manage possible cases of BREEA CLARK, academic misconduct. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR The r is e in rep or ts OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY doesn’t necessarily mean PROGRAMS students are cheating or plagiarizing more. Faculty and staff have told Clark they have more confidence in the new reporting system and are now more likely to report academic misconduct, Clark said.

Go to page 8 for a photo gallery of the Involvement Fair Wednesday.

SEE INTEGRITY PAGE 3

‘‘

PEOPLE TO KNOW

Sooners — meet President Boren’s new right hand man OU hires new university press secretary, assistant MEGHAN WHITING

News Reporter @heyitsmeghanwhiting

President David Boren has a new right hand man who, in the spring, was roaming the South Oval just like any other student. Corbin Wallace was hired as the new press secretary and assistant to Boren, following the departure of previous secretary Michael Nash. Wallace graduated from the Price College of Business in May with an undergraduate degree in business administration. At OU, the press secretary is responsible for all communication with the president’s

WEATHER Sunny today with a high of 95, low of 74. For weather updates, follow @AndrewGortonWX on Twitter.

up to me kind of smiling and told me that he had applied and gotten the position,” Hosseini said. Wallace was a top 12 sophomore and junior and named Big Man on Campus. He also volunteered at a Christian summer camp as I have always had a very wide range of interests in my life and a counselor, and served as vice president of have tried to take advantage of different opportunities. Since I finance and vice president of public relations in his fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon. had so many different interests, I tried a lot of different student “I have always had a very wide range of interests in my life and have tried to take adgroups and activities out before college ... ” vantage of different opportunities,” Wallace CORBIN WALLACE, NEW OU PRESS SECRETARY said in an email. “Since I had so many different interests, I tried a lot of different stuoffice. The secretary also coordinates the Before Wallace got the job, Bijan Hosseini, dent groups and activities out before college, president’s media availability and helps one of Wallace’s friends and fraternity broth- which allowed me to get involved in a lot of other university departments work with er, said he would joke around with Wallace different organizations.” the media, according to the official job and suggest he apply for the job. description. “Then I remember one day Corbin came SEE SECRETARY PAGE 3

INDEX

@OUDaily

Campus......................2 Classifieds................5 Life&Ar ts..................5 Opinion.....................4 S p o r t s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

theoklahomadaily

OUDaily