Friday, May 9, 2025
2025 graduation edition
Oklahoma State seniors David Anderson (left) and Sam Settle created a crazy bucket list to complete together before graduation.
Payton Little
Two seniors reimagine the bucket list
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seniorâs final spring semester is full of last times. The last time cramming for a letter grade; the last weeknight bar crawl âjust becauseâ; and maybe the last time living within walking distance of their best friends. It can be exciting but also understandably sentimental as seniors watch their college hourglass run out and prepare to say goodbye to Stillwater. While most seniors spend this se-
BY MEGAN ROY
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mester savoring all those âlast times,â Oklahoma State students Sam Settle and David Anderson took a different route. They decided the best way to spend their last semester was to embark on a journey of âfirst times.â For all intents and purposes, they call it a bucket list â but this might be the strangest bucket list to ever be put to paper. To get an idea: Ride a camel, start a band, go to a palm reading, make moonshine, play an organ and participate in a police officer ride-along are just a few examples.
S TA F F R E P O R T E R
âWe realized that our time was ticking,â Settle said. âOnce we started doing stuff, more ideas just started coming up.â Settle and Anderson are a dynamic duo. It is easy to see the best friends feed off each otherâs energy. The two interacting is like watching Saturday Night Live writers hash out their next bit, glimpses of mischief and the next best punchline on their faces. Each graduates this week, settle with a degree in aerospace administration and operations and Anderson in marketing and sales.
âIt was so easy, especially my senior year, to get in a rut, Anderson said. âGo to class, come back, hang out, not really do anything.â After a few weeks of suffering this monotonous schedule, Anderson and Settle knew they had to switch things up, and so the bucket list brainchild was born. The list didnât have a visible organization or theme to it. A stranger would be hard pressed to try to group the items in a category, but that didnât matter.
See BUCKET on page 6A
OSUâs historic piano is sitting in Bennett Hallâs basement; people want to give it purpose ASHTON SLAUGHTER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF @ASHTON_SLOT
Oklahoma State is preparing for an approaching drop in college attendees.
Hayden Alexander
OSU prepares for enrollment drought, initially withholds recruitment strategy
The piano sits, with its keyboard covered and locked, in a basement. Its 88 keys are quiet now, but one person who was there said Elton John once performed âthe finest piano playing Iâve ever seenâ on them.
Oklahoma State students who live in Bennett Hall could walk past the aged nine-foot Steinway, unaware of who performed on it. After all, its resting place is in the common area â if one could even call it that â of a dormitoryâs bottom floor. Duke Ellingtonâs fingers once danced on its keys. It accompanied Louis Armstrong and his trumpet. Elton danced on the piano. More on that later.
See PIANO on page 4A
HAYDEN ALEXANDER NEWS & LIFESTYLE EDITOR
enced three years of record enrollment. However, last fallâs freshman class led to an on-campus housing shortage, and new OSU President Jim Hess isnât eager to build a dorm to accommodate a growing number of students. Oklahoma State officials said they In early April, Hess said spendare prepared for a predicted nation- ing money on a new dorm would be wide drop in high school graduates. âfinancially irresponsible.â A key element of OSUâs plan is continuing the push for higher enrollment numbers. OSU has experiSee ENROLLMENT on page 5A
Payton Little
Kent Taylor plays âTiny Dancerâ on the Steinway piano, famously played by Elton John in 1972.