Wednesday, June 12, 2024
NC State transfer Amanda Hasler commits to Oklahoma State Parker Gerl Assistant Sports Editor
environment. The OSU community made me feel like family. I am excited to play for Coach G because he’s the best in the business, and I’m excited Oklahoma State to play in front of the best landed its second transfer fans in the country.” of the offseason. Hasler spent the first On Friday, NC State two seasons of her career catcher transfer Amanda with the Wolfpack. As Hasler committed to OSU, a freshman in 2023, she as she announced her started 50 games and bedecision on X. came the second catcher “I chose Oklahoma in school history to call State for a multitude of pitches. reasons,” Hasler said, per This past season, release. “The coaching Hasler posted a team-high staff, academics and the 52 hits with 45 RBIs and
18 home runs. She hit .351 on the season and finished in the top 10 for multiple NC State single-season records: on-base percentage, slugging percentage, home runs, total bases, hit by pitch and sacrifice flies. Hasler is the Cowgirls’ second transfer portal pickup, joining Washington pitcher Ruby Meylan, who committed to OSU on Thursday. “Amanda is an elite athlete,” Gajewski said, per release. “She’s had tremendous success in her two years at North
Carolina State. We have a position that needs depth; the catching spot became a major need, and she was the best catcher in the portal. It made sense for us to go after her, and we feel like we’re a good match. She’s a hard worker, committed on the field and in the classroom, and seems like she’s a perfect fit for our program and the Cowgirl Way.”
Courtesy amandahasler3 on X/Twitter
sports.ed@ocolly.com NC State catcher transfer Amanda Hasler committed to OSU on Friday.
Stillwater woman arrested in highspeed traffic pursuit did not obey, continuing to drive and continued south at a high speed. She drove east onto 6th Avenue, then continued south on Perkins Kennedy Thomason Road at a high speed. Wilkins stopped the veEditor-in-Chief hicle at the 600 block of East 32nd Avenue. She was taken into custody A Stillwater woman without incident. Monday was arrested Wilkins was arafter evading police in a rested and entered into high-speed chase. custody at the Stillwater Ashley Wilkins, Police Department jail. 42, is facing charges Per Oklahoma law, of assault and battery, Wilkins will be brought eluding a police officer before a judge for an and reckless driving. initial appearance, She was driving a where she can enter a gray sedan when a Still- plea and bail will be water police officer atset. tempted to pull her over at McElroy Road and news.ed@ocolly.com Main Street. Wilkins
When space meets water An OSU student’s work with NASA Courtesy of OSU News Originally from Aspen, Colorado, Katie Yocum’s journey to Oklahoma State University was unexpected. In fact, she was not planning on earning a postgraduate degree at all. Now, she’s working on cutting-edge technology for environmental science, including a groundbreaking project that measures water levels from space. Before graduating from the University of Denver in 2023 with a degree in environmental science, Yocum had the opportunity to study abroad in South Africa to research water resource issues in local communities, one of her areas of interest. OSU professor Thomas Lavanchy, a human-environment interaction scientist with an interdisciplinary background in geology, social science, and physical geography, also made the trip on an unrelated endeavor. Yocum and Lavanchy met at the airport when they landed
for their trek in South Africa and made a connection immediately. Both passionate about climate change, water resource management and water issues, Yocum and Lavanchy were excited to spend the next 10 days studying how water affected culture in different South African townships. Once they returned from South Africa, Yocum was unsure about where she would earn her master’s degree. A phone call from Lavanchy would change that. Lavanchy and other OSU Environmental Science Graduate Program professors were approached by NASA in 2023 to install a device that would read lake water levels in Lake McMurtry on subcentimeter levels from a satellite from space. This technology is the first of its kind and has the opportunity to provide environmentally changing information for lakes and reservoirs, allowing engineers to know when to reduce or increase water levels more accurately. See Space on page 3
Courtesy of ODU Strome College of Business OSU accounting alumnus Dr. Royce Burnett is the new dean of Morgan State University’s business school.
Alumni Q&A: Dr. Royce Burnett Courtesy of OSU News
1 as dean of the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management at Morgan State University, a historically Black Dr. Royce Burnett university in Baltimore stepped onto Oklahoma that is rapidly growing as State University’s campus a research hub. He previas an accomplished busi- ously held positions at Old nessman with 17 years of Dominion University, the accounting experience. University of Miami (Fla.) The Sam Houston and Southern Illinois State University graduate University. had not only worked for Burnett taught busitwo Big 4 firms and two ness courses and won Fortune 500 companies, awards while obtaining but also started an achis doctorate in accountcounting practice, reach- ing from OSU in 2003. He ing what would have been credits his OSU profesthe pinnacle of success for sors for inspiring him to many young professiontranslate his real-world als in the 1990s. Instead, skills to university setBurnett was nowhere tings. close to his magnum opus. “Oklahoma State was OSU’s Spears School committed,” Burnett said. of Business, then known “And Oklahoma State as the College of Busimade sure that they made ness Administration, a difference in the world.” introduced him to a new, Burnett talked to gratifying career path Spears about his OSU at age 37. His enduring journey, achievements and love for academic leader- connection to the “Power ship has guided him to of Personal” motto. his new role starting July
Q: After years of working for major accounting firms, what inspired you to come back to academia and go to OSU for your Ph.D.? A: After having worked for 17 years, I started to look around for Ph.D. programs. The PhD Project is a program that really, in the early ’90s, was focused on populating more African Americans into the roles of business academia. They reached out to me, and I just kept ignoring them. Then I was like, “OK, well, let me see what this is all about,” and when I got more exposure to the project, I was like, “Well, this is really interesting.” Then I started the sojourn of looking for Ph.D. programs, and a really good friend of mine, Dr. Margaret White, was at Oklahoma State. She was in the management department, and she came to me and said, “Royce, why
don’t you look at Oklahoma State?” I was like, “Where is that?” and she said, “It’s in Stillwater.” When I got there, it was just wonderful. The people were nice. They were very, very committed to my success, and when I was interviewing with them, they were very gracious to me. They wanted me. They had a very good track record of not only attracting minorities, but matriculating them, and that’s a big thing. A lot of schools just left you on the vine — they got you in, and they bubbled you in terms of numbers, and that was it — but Oklahoma State didn’t do that. I took all of these very, very difficult courses that prepared me to be able to be successful in my academic pursuits, so much so that I won the Outstanding Dissertation
See Burnett on page 2