Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022
REVIEWS Reporter Matilda Harvey follows Taylor Swift’s newly released album, “Midnights.” Pg. 8
Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022
Volume 120, Issue 8
VISTA The
“OUR WORDS, YOUR VOICE.”
Open to debate
Gubernational canidates talk abortion, marijuana and education
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) listens as Joy Hofmeister (D) speaks during a debate in Oklahoma City on Wednesday. (Sarah Phipps/Oklahoman/AP)
Quinn Daugherty Reporter Incumbent Republican Governor Kevin Stitt clashed with Democratic challenger and State Superintendent for Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister on issues like corruption, tribal concerns, medical marijuana and abortion during last Wednesday’s gubernatorial debate. The 90-minute debate at the Will Rogers Theater was hosted by News9 and NonDoc, an independent Oklahoma journalism publication operated
by the Sustainable Journalism Foundation, a nonprofit entity. NonDoc’s Editor-in-Chief Tres Savage and News9’s Storme Jones moderated the debate. “You know, we’ve gone from budget deficits to a record savings account. From four-day school weeks and teacher walkouts to now the largest investment of education and teachers in the history of our state,” Governor Stitt said in his opening statement. “Folks, Oklahoma’s turnaround is working. We cannot go backwards.” Hofmeister said in her opening statement that for Oklahoma to flourish, Oklahomans need to respect
one another and work together. The first question was addressed toward Governor Stitt. “You campaigned for office in 2018 on making Oklahoma a top 10 state. I think everybody’s heard that. But four years later, we remain ranked around the bottom 10 states on key education and health care issues,” moderator Savage said. “As you make your case for reelection. Tell us specifically where have you moved the needle the most on making Oklahoma top Continued on Pg. 4
hall meeting reveals desire to issue Central offense Town ‘no confidence’ vote against UCO president Former track and cross-country coach alleges firing for speaking out on UCO facilities Jocelyn Schifferdecker Contributing Writer
The University of Central Oklahoma is facing allegations of retaliation in a Title IX lawsuit for firing the head coach of the women’s varsity track and cross-country team after student athletes took legal action, and for not filing papers on time to allow the team to start practicing at the beginning of the school year. Former Head Coach Martha Brennan had been at UCO as the head coach for the varsity track and cross-country team for 13 seasons when she was fired in June 2022. She noticed her team received fewer opportunities and support than other athletic teams. Brennan said in the 13 seasons she was at UCO, she couldn’t remember one time an athletic director or administration official was at a track or cross-country event. Whenever Brennan started at UCO, she knew there were no on campus facilities, but she thought they were going to build the team together. She said the athletic department had a different project every year, but they never got to track or cross country. “Over time, there was just this erosion process. It wasn’t overnight but I could feel it and I knew. Especially this last year, I thought, ‘I don’t think this is gonna change,’” said Brennan. She decided to take action to try to improve the situation. In Spring 2022, Brennan was working on creating an outdoor park area behind the sports performance center that she hoped would fix some of these problems and provide her team, as well as others, with more space. This outdoor park would include an area for jumps and throws and would
include an obstacle course, pickleball courts, and a big turf area for intramurals and overall campus use.This project was never approved, but the university knew she was working on it. Brennan met with multiple people about the park, including the university’s architect. She also had donors and investors who were interested in helping carry out the plans. She told everyone she met with it wasn’t an approved plan, just an idea she was working on in her own time. “My job is to advocate for my women based on Title IX. It is my job to advocate for them if I do not feel like we are being treated equally like other teams,” said Brennan. At the same time, female student athletes of the track and cross-country team began to communicate with the university about the unfair treatment they were receiving. In February 2022, some members of the team met with UCO Athletic Director Stan Wagnon and compliance director Sheridan Leakes to raise their concerns about the unequal support and opportunities their team was offered. Wagnon told them the only reason their team was reinstated in 2009 was to comply with Title IX regulations and they “weren’t really wanted.” He said he would hire someone to evaluate the program and come up with a solution. He told the women to give him until mid-May to do this. When the athletes heard nothing back, they decided to take legal action. The plaintiff ’s head counsel emailed UCO President Patti Neuhold-Ravikumar detailing the Title IX violations on May 16, 2022. UCO sent an email back May 19, 2022, saying an investigation began and on June 14, 2022 UCO sent
Continued on Pg. 4
Sam Royka Managing Editor
In a Faculty Town Hall held Oct. 5 in the College of Liberal Arts Lecture Hall, faculty members were invited to ask questions about proposed faculty reductions and recent enrollment shortfalls. Before the meeting ended, the proposal of a no-confidence vote for President Patti Neuhold-Ravikumar received a round of applause. Many questions centered on faculty responsibility for solving budget imbalances and other campus issues. “Why is recruitment being put on the shoulders of faculty?” one town hall member asked. The question was greeted with enthusiastic applause. Enrollment is dipping this semester, said Alyssa Provencio, moderator of the town hall. This lowers income for the school. Recruitment is one initiative to bring enrollment back up. Freshman enrollment is down ap(The Vista/ Logan Gassett) proximately 6.3 percent as compared to last ing plan included broad representation across year, Provencio said. the university and was intended to develop a Meanwhile, the current number of total framework for the path ahead. students is 12,311, down 7.7 percent from last While this inclusive plan was being year, she said. developed, President Patti Neuhold-Ravikumar Of all current students, 9,389 are attendhired another group to create another method. ing at a rate equivalent to full time. This means Now leads from both plans are being worked on, 12 credit hours or more in a typical semester. Provencio said. This number is down a similar 7 percent from Members of the faculty senate are part last year. time senators, also working their other jobs at So not only are there fewer students, UCO. they are also taking fewer credit hours this “Last year, the senate passed a proposal semester. This brings revenue down for UCO as suggesting that there should be a full-time faculty well. member on the cabinet that would be integrally Credit hours produced this semester involved as a full time faculty member because have seen a decline of approximately 8 percent at the moment the provost is the only VP on the since last year, meaning fewer classes are being cabinet,” another senator said. produced overall. This was rejected by the President on With these updated statistics in mind, the grounds that a yearly reappointment would town hall held a discussion of strategies to plan be disruptive. ahead. In other words, the plans for the plans. Applause surfaced after support for a According to the faculty senators, limited no confidence vote on Neuhold-Ravikumar was groundwork for a strategic plan to increase voiced at the town hall. enrollment exists from years past. Though some The discussion also reviewed backframework exists, there is no comprehensive ground information that may point toward the plan at this time. faculty’s emotional climate. Apart from strategic plans for enroll“Last year, the Kansas Board of Rement, a strategic plan for the institution as a whole was also discussed. gents voted to implement a policy that would In particular, there was a benefit group allow state universities to fire tenured faculty in tasked with creating an institutional plan. They responding to financial constraints caused by the met for two years and worked with a hired conCOVID-19 pandemic,” Provencio said. sultant to no avail. Work began on the inclusive community strategic plan about 18 months ago. The work- Continued on Pg. 4