Page 6A Friday, September 13, 2024
O’Colly
News OSU kicks off first ‘Land-Grant Week’ HAYDEN ALEXANDER NEWS & LIFESTYLE EDITOR
Lilian Easter A student held the American flag in front of the Palestine protesters at the Student Union Garden on Thursday.
Rally
met with OSU President Dr. Kayse Shrum in May about their demands. Continued from 1 “It wasn’t very successful,” they said. “She wasn’t Triton Snodgrass, a student very supportive of any of the watching the protest, said he things that we really wanted to see from the university. So understood what the prowe’ll continue being out here testers were going for, but and just continue on with the he thinks they need to do more research on the Israel- movement until we get the Palestine conflict. He said he divestment and the genocide thinks they should question ends soon, God willing.” OSU issued a statement the British, researching when following the protest: “The the British partitioned the event was organized by Middle East after WWI and further partitioning Palestine students. The university supafter WWII instead of “going ports free speech and a roafter the U.S. and people who bust public discourse, which is protected by the First support Israel.” “I think this entire protest Amendment. The university is a way for them to feel like expects all staff, faculty and students to remain peaceful they’re doing something and respectful and adhere without leaving their comfortable, privileged lives over to the university’s codes of here and actually going and conduct and the principles of the Cowboy Code. helping,” Snodgrass said. It is important to note that Silva Torres, a student who OSU tuition and fees, as well supports Palestine, stopped as state and federal fundto watch the rally while she was on campus. She said she ing, are the primary funding thinks we are living through sources for the university’s a genocide, and she supports operations. These funds are not used for investment OSU SJP’s demands. purposes. “I think it’s (the rally) Over the past months, stusomething small, but it is dents have conducted several kind of, it is kind of inspirpeaceful vigils or demonstraing,” Torres said. OSU SJP organized its first tions related to the events unfolding in the Middle rally in support of Palestine East. All have been without in May, and OSU SJP’s vice incident.” president said the group news.ed@ocolly.com
A TRIUMPHED END! “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering , and the time of my departure Is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that Day, and not to me only but to all who have loved His appearing.”. (2 Tim.4:6-8 NKJ) Here is a man who has lived a life in serving the Lord Jesus and others. He is in a prison cell, expecting his execution at any time. According to history, Paul was beheaded at Rome. In his last words to a young man and minister, Timothy; Paul was looking ahead to greater and lasting judgement that would come from Christ himself. A
OSU celebrated its status as a land-grant university this week with “Land-Grant Week.” Initially limited to the Ferguson College of Agriculture, now Land-Grant Week is a university-wide initiative. The Morrill Act of 1862 granted federal land for educational purposes. Universities built on this land offered the general public access to an education. “The whole mission of land-grant was really providing education to kids and students that didn’t really have the traditional opportunities to go to colleges,” First Cowboy Darren Shrum said. “They were developed to help everybody have the opportunity to be able to become a college-educated person.” Oklahoma A&M was founded in 1890 under the Morrill Act. Its mission was three-pillared: teaching, research and extension. Now Oklahoma State University continues to pursue that mission. “Initially it was for agriculture and mechanical, but then in the ‘50s it transferred to Oklahoma State University as we added more and more classes and more and more majors,” said Jordan Bishop, an editor for OSU Brand Management. Although a Ferguson tradition, now every college on campus gets in on the fun. Different colleges and organizations hosted events throughout the week from scavenger hunts to tablings, educating students on what a landgrant university is. “I went to school here 10 years ago, I knew OSU was a land-grant university, but I know now what it actually means,” Bishop said. Bishop said the university is still working to make OSU a more acessible campus to students and to the state of Oklahoma. A key part of that
is OSU’s extension programs. The different programs at OSU allows the university to build a community on-and-off campus. “We have more branch campuses in the state than any other university in the state and we also have a presence in all 77 counties,” Bishop said. The programs help students get hands-on education outside of the classroom through four major programs, family and consumer services, community development, agriculture and natural resources and economic development. Senior Hailey Spray studies food science at OSU and said the opportunities OSU offers enhance her learning experience. “As a student, it definitely comes down to those opportunities, especially being in the Ag college, we have all the farms around us,” Spray said. “There’s the dairy, horses, sheep, cattle, swine, everything is around us so there’s a lot of opportunities with those.” Senior Baylee Bowan studies agriculture business at OSU and said that though students knowing that OSU is a land-grant university, is not enough. “As an Oklahoma State student it is important to know what your university goals are and what your university’s mission is as a whole,” Bowan said. ”I feel like a lot of land grant is what we strive to be and the things we aim for.” The university is continuing to make OSU more accessible. Student debt is a constant issue, and OSU is working to help students overcome it, Bishop said. OSU’s land-grant status is an essential part of the school’s identity. The week commemorates the achievement, but land-grant is a year-round endevor. Shrum believes that the OSU’s landgrant standing is more than just a title. “Land grant is really to me, when I think about it, it’s for the people as a whole,” Shrum said. “The whole purpose of land grant is to serve not only the college and the students, but your state and beyond.” news.ed@ocolly.com
Hayden Alexander Land-Grant Week went university-wide this week, taking inspiration from the Ferguson College of Agriculture.
well done to a good and faithful servant. We all can take encouragement from his life of service to the Lord and his vision of something much better that awaited him. As Jesus neared the end of his life. He prayed:to God “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me...with the glory which I had with you before the world was.” (Jn.17:4-5 NKJ) Brother and Sister in Christ: Let us set our goal for a triumphed ending by finishing the work God has called us to do. If it be large or small to our eyes; no matter! Let’s be faithful to that calling and receive a greatly blessed entery into the eternal presence of God. Remember, this life is not the end. It is only a short beginning that will last for eternity.