Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Volume 120, Issue 19
VISTA The
David Macey steps down. Page 6
Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022
“OUR WORDS, YOUR VOICE.”
Volume 119, Issue 19
The votes are in for UCO’s student government Harman-Adams presidential ticket wins UCOSA Sam Kozlowski Contributing Writer
Two new leaders of the University of Central Oklahoma Student Association won election last week, in post-Spring Break campus-wide voting. Lauren Harman and Saveion Adams were elected UCOSA’s 2023-24 president and vice president, respectively. UCOSA’s purpose is to carry out the needs of students by addressing their concerns, allocating funds for school organizations and improving the quality of life for all at UCO. Both campaigns faced off to answer questions about their goals at a forum held March 10, just prior to Spring Break, at Constitution Hall. Harman and Adams were selected to answer questions first at Constitution Hall. The Harman-Adams campaign is pushing to enhance equity, strengthen transparency and cultivate a sense of community that is inclusive for all. Building a strong relationship with interim President Andrew Benton is essential to their campaign, they said. Harman and Adams said they hope to strengthen transparency, including holding conversations with people directly affected by the ongoing problems. This would include
Marijuana plants are pictured at a growing facility in Oklahoma City, Feb. 26, 2020. (ASSOCIATED PRESS/SUE OGROCKI)
meeting with disabled students and hearing their voices, similarly with foreign students on foreign-related issues and more. Harman, a junior, has previously served as a public relations senator and secretary for UCOSA. She is majoring in professional sales with
a minor in leadership. Her aim is to actively listen to students after empowering them to speak up about problems on campus. Adams, vice president and junior, plans to be a voice for those too intimidated to speak up and for those without the means to reach out.
“I work with high schoolers with dreams of going to college and graduating,” Adams said. “With TRIO, I mentor these students and give them tips to maneuver through college.” TRIO was established by the U.S. Department of Education in 1965 to assist students from disadvantaged backgrounds. As vice president, Adams wants to improve the college experience for African-Americans and increase awareness about UCOSA for those who may be intimidated by civic involvement. Student engagement is an important issue to tackle, and Harman-Adams aims to get more people involved in events. “It starts with student engagement,” said Logan Boyd, the election commission chair. “If students are not involved, it starts to taper off and the university dies. We are already seeing that with our numbers in retention and enrollment.” Students running for president and vice president — Harman, Adams, Izzi Barry and Lauren Berry — are all members of Leaders of Tomorrow. Both campaigns discussed improving marketing and advertising for UCOSA to increase student knowledge about the organization and upcoming events.
Rep. Turner urges rural marginalized citizens to enter politics Sam Royka Managing Editor
On March 7, the state House of Representatives voted to censure State Rep. Mauree Turner, the first Black, nonbinary Muslim state legislator in U.S. history, after Turner offered a protester the use of her office during protests at the Capitol against anti-transgender legislation. Turner, D-Oklahoma City, said it is important for everyone, especially marginalized communities in rural areas, to become politically engaged if they do not see themselves represented by their legislatures. “Get involved, because there is a good chance that your rural representation isn’t even talking to your community about the things that matter to your community,” Turner said. “The best time to get started is yesterday, the second best time is today,” they said, emphasizing that the officials who make up the legislature are not a representation of the actual population.” Turner said that many officials are making it more difficult to access the same rights held by cisgender white men. “That is inherently political, and so even if you don’t feel like you are being directly attacked, it doesn’t mean you don’t join the fight. It doesn’t mean that you wait until they bring it to your front door,” they said. Turner stresses that in the movement, “there is a place for everybody.” “The sooner you get involved on that rural level, the more you get to provide that for other folks in your
community, but also because the folks who work in the Oklahoma legislature specifically – because this is where I work – they are not indicative of the people who make up Oklahoma,” they said. Turner said there are pockets of progressivism everywhere in Oklahoma. “Some of the most progressive conversations I have had have been at doors, knocking doors in rural Oklahoma, because when you meet people where they are with language, and you will hear from a lot of the other elected officials in the legislature that don’t actually talk to their constituents,” they said. It is not required of elected officials to have conversations with the people who live in their communities. “A man gave a retirement speech in 2022 last session, and he was proud about the fact that he had only knocked seven doors and he termed out, so he worked all 12 years and only knocked seven doors,” they said. Mauree Turner, D-Oklahoma City, said it is important for evIn response to hearing numbers like this, eryone, especially marginalized communities in rural areas, to Turner’s office “started doing a little research become politically engaged if they do not see themselves repreon everybody who voted for or authored sented by their legislatures. (PROVIDED) and instead, we are making sure that Oklahomans have anti-trans legislation, trying to see what their quality of life in the districts that they represented less access to healthcare overall, right, because we ban looked like,” they said. trans healthcare, we ban healthcare for all OklahoMany of those districts had quality of life scores of mans,” Turner said. “Cs and Ds at a national level,” Turner said. “There are resources that we could be providing to Oklahomans,
Oklahoma Supreme Court rules constitutional right to abortion in life-threatening situations
Sam Royka Managing Editor
On March 21, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in favor of a petition that would protect abortion under life-threatening circumstances. The new ruling struck down SB612, which was previously known to news outlets as ‘the nation’s strictest abortion ban.’ While the new ruling also upheld an abortion ban from 1910, this old law still upheld the right to terminate a pregnancy in cases where it would threaten the life of the pregnant person. Under Article II, section 7 of the Oklahoma Constitution, it states that “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty,
or property, without due process of law.” Both historic abortion cases, Roe and Casey, were overturned by Dobbs in 2022. Here’s a brief history to recap the current situation. When Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, SCOTUS ruled that a right to privacy in the Fourteenth Amendment’s definition of personal liberty included the choice whether to end or keep a pregnancy. It trimester were an “undue burden” on the legislature. Throughout Roe and Casey’s effect on abortion rights, the right to terminate has always been protected “for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.”
House bans corporal punishment for students with cognitive disabilities Georgina Jones Contributing Writer
The Oklahoma House passed House Bill 1028 on March 20, a bill seeking to ban corporal punishment on students with intellectual disabilities. The measure failed the first round of voting, when verbiage only included students with “significant cognitive disabilities,” which would’ve been determined by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. The bill then passed when the language was revised, and now includes any student with any disability identified in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2015. The measure was authored by Rep. John Talley (R-Stillwater), who said physical punishment on students with special
needs does not belong in the classroom. “I don’t think corporal punishment is beneficial in any way. It really shouldn’t be used on students with disabilities,” said Evan, a former student who asked The Vista not to use his full name. “While some of them might understand why they’ve been smacked, some of them would have no clue why they had been hit.” Corporal punishment is physical punishment intended to cause pain to a person. When inflicted on minors, in home or school settings, its methods can include spanking or paddling. Oklahoma currently only prohibits corporal punishment when a child has “the most significant cognitive disabilities,” unless a parent or established guardian signs a waiver allowing the physical Continued on Pg. 4