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Regents approve tuition increase5-percent hike keeps OU as one of Big 12 Conference’s most affordable educations

CHasE CooKThe Oklahoma Daily

ARDMORE — Students will be seeing an in-crease in their bursar bills this fall after the OU Board of Regents approved a 5-percent tuition increase.

The regents, who met Monday through Wednesday at the Noble Conference Center and Pavilion in Ardmore, voted in favor of mandatory fee increases totaling $5.65 and a 5-percent tuition increase. The combined tu-ition and fees increase will cost resident un-dergraduate students about $170 more each

semester while non-resident, undergraduate students will pay about $431 more each se-mester for a student taking 15 credit hours, OU President David Boren said. This is the second increase since tuition went up 4.5 percent last year.

Tuition increases aren’t the only method the university has used to deal with state-funding decreases. Boren asked for 5-percent budget cuts university-wide and a partial hiring freeze that is still in effect, according to the agenda.

The tuition increase has been expected since early March when OU told Fitch Ratings — one of the biggest credit-rating companies in the world — a 4.5-percent tuition increase would be a way to pay back debts after the credit com-pany evaluated OU’s bond rating, according to

Daily archives. The final 5-percent increase is higher than OU anticipated.

This tuition raise still leaves OU in the top two most affordable institutions in the Big 12 Conference, Boren said.

Graduate Student Senate chairman Derrell Cox attended the meeting and spoke with Boren. Cox said he was worried fees would in-crease more than they did, and that it is harder to subsidize fees than it is tuition.

“Reasonable people understand [a tuition increase] is inevitable,” Cox said.

The tuition increase is in part a response to a decrease in funds distributed by the state and federal governments to higher education.

SEE TUITION PAGE 2

money

Salary freeze over for nowPay increase approved Wednesday by OU Regents for full-time faculty and staff

CHasE CooKThe Oklahoma Daily

ARDMORE — The three-year sal-ary freeze on OU staff and faculty thawed Wednesday after salary increases were approved by OU officials.

The OU Board of Regents ap-proved raises for the Norman cam-pus, the Health Sciences Center and the OU-Tulsa Schusterman campus during its June retreat meeting in Ardmore.

The decision will give a 2-per-cent raise to full-time staff across all three campuses. Faculty at the Schusterman and HSC campus-es will receive a 2-percent raise as well; however, faculty at the Norman campus will receive a 3-percent raise starting July 1.

The College of Law, located on the Norman campus, will see a 4-percent increase for faculty and a 3-percent professional staff com-pensation increase.

OU President David Boren said the university is glad to have the funds to give raises to faculty and staff, implemented to curb the compensation erosion that has oc-curred over the last three years.

“[The university] has fewer peo-ple doing more,” Boren said.

These raises will take place across the board at the Schusterman and Norman campuses, but the raise at the HSC will be merit-based.

A provision also placed into the approved agenda will ensure staff receive at least a $1,000 raise. This provision protects the staff that make $20,000 a year, Boren said.

If these staff members, which in-clude staff from the custodial and landscaping departments, receive a 2-percent raise on $20,000, that’s about $400 a year.

That isn’t enough, Boren said.

SEE SALARY PAGE 2

mUsic

End of this month jammed with jazz3-day festival to attract jazz and blues musicians nationwide, offer live performances and clinics

alyssa GrimlEyThe Oklahoma Daily

Jazz will flood the city of Norman from today to Saturday for the 28th annual free Jazz in June festival.

The three-day-long festival will attract musicians from Oklahoma and beyond, according to the Norman Arts Council website.

Included in the lineup are jazz artists Larry Coryell, Poncho Sanchez and the Norman North High School Jazz Choir.

In addition to numerous live performances, there will be four back-to-back jazz and blues clin-ics from 11 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. on Saturday, Program Chair Jim Johnson said.

In these clinics, people will be able to chat with jazz legends and these musicians will relay music history and provide tips on how to play certain instruments, Johnson said.

“It’s a cool meet-and-greet opportunity,” Johnson said. “You can learn first-hand from a jazz idol.”

stUdent goveRnment

Student leaders use email for duties while working, interning this summer

HalEy o’HaraThe Oklahoma Daily

Busy with jobs and internships this summer, the University of Oklahoma Student Association president, vice pres-ident, and Campus Activities Council chair are still fulfilling their responsibili-ties to the student body.

After a busy semester of campaign-ing for the UOSA President and Vice President positions, Hannah Morris and Laura Bock are still hard at work during their summer vacations.

Hannah Morris, UOSA president said she is currently in Washington D.C. where she is participating in the Ewing Public Service Fellowship Program. The program has put Morris right in the mid-dle of politics.

Morris is directly working for con-gressman Tom Cole at the U.S. Capitol building. Cole represents Oklahoma’s 4th District. Morris’ daily duties include running errands and answering the phone.

Although Morris is in Washington D.C., she would like the OU community

Morris, Bock still active while away

to know that she is keeping an eye on OU, and if anyone has any questions they can email her at UOSApres@ou.edu.

Since Morris is at the Capitol and Laura Bock, the UOSA vice president, is spending the remainder of her summer

in Norman, the two have been commu-nicating through email.

“Laura Bock can sign off in my ab-sence,” Morris said about issues that re-quire a signature.

SEE UOSA PAGE 2

Daily arChiVESUoSa Vice President laura Bock, left, and President hannah Morris have stayed active by using email to complete their duties over the summer.

Enjoli Di PatriTop: the gold dome was placed on the Masjid an-nur last week. the mosque is being built to help promote a dialogue between all religions and cultures in the norman area. Right: an inside look at the mosque’s gold dome. the mosque, near campus on lindsey Street will be completed by February 2012.

See page 2 to read the full story about the new mosque.

A NEW PLACE TO PRAY | MOSQUE CONSTRUCTiON CONTiNUES

Carmen Forman, managing editordailynews@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-3666

2 • Thursday, June 23, 2011

newsOUDaily.com ››Camp Crimson prepares to host more than 500 incoming students with freshman orientation program

“This is an attachment to protect ... to show sensitivity to our [staff ],” Boren said.

Faculty Senate chairwoman Georgia Kosmopoulou said in an email that Boren discussed the upcoming raises with Senate committee members. These times have been tough for all, but the faculty will continue to try to provide the high-est quality education, Kosmopoulou said.

“The faculty members of OU are appreciative of receiv-ing a 3-percent raise after a salary freeze for three years,” she said.

Salary increases still have occurred for staff and faculty, but all of these instances were special cases brought before the regents, according to Daily archives. One special case was the increase of full-time staff to $9 an hour from mini-mum wage, according to Daily archives.

The current salary increases come when the university is receiving about $14 million less from state and federal funds than the last fiscal year. The university also has experienced multiple cost increases that have totaled up to $80 million through three years, Boren said.

This salary increase doesn’t mean the university will re-turn to its former yearly compensation increases, Boren said, adding that the university has to evaluate how much money it will have each year before it can determine if a sal-ary increase is possible again.

The university will probably operate with the expectations of cuts coming next year, he said.

“We have to be cautious and frugal,” Boren said.

SALARY: Increase will not continue annually

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One of our main goals this summer is to “get organized,” Bock said. “We want to be ready to hit the ground running when school starts.”

In the midst of communicating back and fourth with Morris, Bock recently returned from Honduras.

Bock and an OU student group par-ticipated in the medical branch of Global Brigades. They helped set up medical clinics and provided staffing for the clinics.

“It was a neat experience,” Bock said. “I am now more interested in global

medicine.”Bock is currently interning at

Deaconess Hospital in Oklahoma City and will continue her internship through the end of June.

Come July, Bock will serve as a tour guide for OU’s Student Services depart-ment as well as help out with Camp Crimson.

Melissa Mock, who recently fin-ished campaigning for CAC chair, is in Norman for most of the summer.

Mock began her summer by going on a trip to Atlanta in order to attend a

conference about human trafficking in Cambodia. “I hope to go [to Cambodia] over winter break,” Mock said.

Since getting back from Atlanta, Mock has spent her weekdays work-ing on the operation staff for Camp Crimson and her weeknights relaxing at her house.

Mock keeps in touch with the execu-tive council by emailing every other week. She is also laying down the groundwork for an arts festival that she hopes to incorporate on campus next fall.

UOSA: Student executives prepare for fall

While OU has seen steady increases in state funds during the last decade, the previous two years have been decreases as state and federal funds distributed de-crease, according to Daily archives. The university received about $15 million less from state funds this year compared the last fiscal year.

Boren said he does not yet know if tuition will increase again next year because it is difficult to predict whether the state’s economy will re-bound enough to increase state appropriations.

“I am guardedly opti-mistic that there will be an economic recovery,” Boren said.

University of Oklahoma Student Ass ociat ion press s ecretar y Joe Sangirardi was glad the regents ap-proved such a low number, and he said UOSA fully trusts Boren with the univer-sity’s budget.

“We recognize the necessity to find pragmatic solutions to budget woes,” Sangirardi said. “We are grateful to the regents for helping us with these issues.”

In other business, the regents approved the bud-get for the 2012 fiscal year, which housed the faculty and staff salary increases and the tuition and fees increase.

Boren gave a long speech about the budget and said current trends in politics to move public money away from schools jeopardizes the nation’s ability to pro-vide equal opportunity to all

its people. If money isn’t invested back into the schools of America, school will be privatized, and it could be difficult to afford, he said.

The tuition increase will not be final-ized until approved by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

Religion UniveRsities

Mosque to unify cultures Tuition calculator to be added onlineNew mosque to be

finished by January or February 2012

Enjoli Di PatriThe Oklahoma Daily

Construction of a new Islamic mosque on East Lindsey Street is underway after furthering dome con-struction with gold paneling last week.

Located on 420 E. Lindsey Street, the two-story Masjid An-Nur will include male a n d f e m a l e f e l l o w s h i p rooms, warming-up kitch-ens, a library and a bathroom to wash up before prayer, ac-cording to the Islamic Society of Norman website.

Project manager Siddiq Karim said the nearly 7,000 square-foot mosque also adds 31 parking spaces to ac-commodate attendees who had to park on George Street.

Expansion fundraising began in 2007 for the nearly $800,000 construction.

Nearly half of the people who attend Masjid An-Nur are OU students, Karim said.

“The mosque is a place that brings different nations and cultures together,” OU alumnus Suhayb Anwar said.

Other approvals» Multiple changes to and approvals of construction projects such as the Sooner Center athletic housing, the Physical Sciences Center Lecture Hall 201 renovations, the Max Westheimer Airport and Cate Center #1 renovations

» Approval of multiple personnel actions (resignations, firings, promotions and new hires) which included a contract extension for Women’s basketball coach Sherri Coale

» Changes to the employee benefits plans

» Changes to the staff handbook which included adding notations on breastfeeding and changing the grievance process

» Salary raises for staff and faculty across campus

» Renewed the contract with the Elton B. Stephens Company which supplied the university library with scholarly journals and periodicals

“It will be a community cen-ter for all religions and faiths for dialogue.”

In the meantime, mosque attendees meet at a leased space in the Lindsey Street and 24th Avenue shopping center, Karim said.

Two houses built in the 1950s made up the pre-ex-isting mosque, according to the society website. The old houses became inadequate for the needs of the Muslim community in Norman, how-ever, Karim said.

The Islamic Society of Norman has grown from 25 attendees to more than 150 since it began in 1976, Karim said.

The mosque will be com-pleted in January or February 2012.

Enjoli Di Patri/thE Dailytodd henson from Wade Electric finishes up work for the day at the new Masjid an-nur on E. lindsey Street in norman.

New tool should provide more accurate financial information for students, university official says

alyssa GrimlEyThe Oklahoma Daily

Starting in the fall, U.S. universities will be required to add a tuition-price calculator to their websites so as to pro-vide more accurate tuition information.

Federal regulations require the calculator to be imple-mented by October 2011, but OU has decided to have it added by August 2011 for the benefit of those enrolling in the fall, Matt Hamilton, vice president for enrollment and student financial services, said in an email.

“My hope is that through the net price calculator, many more students will understand what a great value OU is for both Oklahoma residents and non-residents,” he said.

This development is good news for prospective students because it helps make enrollment decisions easier than in the past, nursing junior Brittany Arlington said in an email.

“I often found that it was difficult to find out a good esti-mate of the tuition directly from the university’s website,” Arlington said.

Arlington said when she was looking into different col-leges, she ultimately relied on www.collegeboard.com for necessary tuition information.

“It was easy to access the info from collegeboard.com in-stead of trying to scour the prospective university’s website for oftentimes unclear answers,” she said.

Even after she decided to attend OU, Arlington said tu-ition cost was an area that was not cleared up until the bills were due.

“It was not until I got my first bursar statement that I knew the exact tuition,” Arlington said. “Up until then, it re-ally was a gray area.”

Liz Tomichen, psychology junior, said in an email that adding a price calculator would also make it easier for stu-dents to factor scholarships into the cost of tuition.

“I think adding a price calculator will make choosing a university a lot easier because sometimes you see an ini-tial number and it scares you away from a university, but it doesn’t take into account any scholarships you might get,” Tomichen said.

In addition to the price calculator, Hamilton said that OU’s Financial Education and Counseling Center created a new program to make parents and prospective students more aware of tuition costs.

“Through this program both prospective and current students [and their parents] are presented with additional information about costs and financial aid opportunities to help cover them,” Hamilton said.

TUiTiON: Boren unsure of future increases

David Boren

Success can be attributed to Boren’s efforts, scholarships, university director says

alyssa GrimlEyThe Oklahoma Daily

OU’s undergraduate graduation rate has increased by more than 20 percent in the last two decades due to ef-forts by OU President David Boren’s efforts and scholar-ship campaign, an OU office director said.

Much of the high graduation rate, 64.5 percent, can be attributed to President Boren’s efforts, OU Graduation Office Director Beckey Heeney said in an email.

Boren’s $250-million scholarship campaign dramatically increased the scholarships that OU could award students, which Hennsey said contributed to the higher rate. The creation of more services for transfer students has also contributed to the upswing in graduation rates, uni-versity spokesman Chris Shilling said.

“When people find a home and find a community, that’s going to help them be more successful with school,” Shilling said.

Read the fUll stoRy on oUdaily.com

edUcation

Graduation rate at all-time high

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COLUMN

Modest increases acceptableOur View: OU’s tuition increase is acceptable, but Oklahoma should focus on education to protect its future.

A 5-percent tuition and fee increase was ap-proved Wednesday, which will cost residents $170 more each semester while non-residents will pay $431 more each semester.

We do not like this. It is always bad when students are forced to pay more for their education. Having an educated population brings good jobs to Oklahoma, so anything that discourages students from getting a degree is bad.

That said, times are tough. OU faculty and staff will be receiving a raise for the first time since the end of 2008. Faculty and staff retire-ment benefits were also reduced. All OU depart-ments have made 5-percent cuts to their budget. Class sizes are up. Internet courses are increasing. Times are hard, and everyone has made sacrifices.

Faculty and staff deserve their raises. We would even go so far as to say raises are necessary to main-tain the quality of the faculty and staff here at OU.

The tuition and fees hikes could be worse. In many schools around the country, they are worse.

So we don’t like it, but we can accept a tuition in-crease. What we can’t accept is the consistent trend toward defunding education while cutting taxes.

There has been a lot of talk about reducing

deficits so future generations will not be saddled with debt, but cutting education spending is mort-gaging our children’s future on an entirely different level. As technology continues to grow, so will the demand for an educated workforce. If Oklahoma cannot meet that demand, jobs and tax revenues will go elsewhere.

However, the lack of respect for edu-cation is not reserved for higher educa-tion. When the new budget for 2012 was released for the Norman school district, it was revealed area schools had lost $5.1 million of state and federal funding from last year. The deficit will be made up by dipping into reserves the school district saved up from previous years.

The point stands though that we would rather cut education spending than raise taxes. These priori-ties make no sense. Businesses benefit from an ed-ucated populace, and unless we want the Chinese sending jobs here for our cheap labor in 50 years, we need to do more to stay competitive.

Students will play their part and accept tuition increases if it becomes necessary, but that point hasn’t been reached yet. We hope in the future our state and federal governments will be more willing to consider a modest tax increase before they make it that much harder for us to get an education.

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LulzSec Internet hacking is not harmless fun

?Are the FDA’s new health warnings on cigarette packs too graphic?

» Poll question of the day

To cast your vote, visit

Andrew Slagle, opinion editordailyopinion@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-3666OPINION

� ursday, June 23, 2011 • 3

� umbs up ››OU faculty, sta� salaries to be increased after three-year salary freeze (see page 1)

Let me just get this out there: I’m a smoker. Many of my closest friends are smok-ers. Many more of my closest friends enjoy a casual ciga-rette from time to time.

There. Now that the air is clear (I may or may not have intended that pun), let’s get down to business: The Food and Drug Administration’s latest health warnings, which will take up a little more than half the back of cigarette packs starting next year, are ridiculous.

In standard government-issue, pub-lic-service-announcement formats, pic-tures of throat holes, black lungs, heart-attack victims and cadavers will soon decorate one of America’s favorite dirty pastimes, the FDA revealed today. To what end? People already know smok-ing is bad; I know smoking is bad.

I’m fully aware of the dangers of smoking to me and those around me, a big reason why I try to be as conscien-tious as possible to avoid harming any-one else from secondhand smoke.

Do I want to be a smoker the rest of my life? No. Do I think I’ll quit in the next five years? Yes.

Do I want to quit now? No.Get the FDA and its dirty, disgusting

photos away from me. It seems like the FDA took a note out of the tea party handbook: If we put offensive,

horrible images in plain sight, maybe people will change their minds. Nope. How’s that worked out for anti-abor-tionists? Is abortion still alive and kick-ing? (... OK, that was bad.)

So I wonder why the FDA thinks this will work for smokers.

Smokers don’t choose to smoke be-cause we hate ourselves and hope to enjoy the side effects of increased heart risk and potential for cancer, but we’re well aware of them. There’s no reason to remind us with nasty photos plastered all over cigarette packs.

The FDA’s campaign is not going to force me to quit smoking. And smok-ers will find ways around this. If I were a smart, business-minded individual, I’d push out into the open market a simple plastic case to hold cigarette packs that would conveniently cover up the FDA’s latest screw-up. Cases like this already exist, and those companies likely will switch up their marketing campaigns to reflect the new obvious advantage of

FDA’s new health warnings go too farSTAFF COLUMN

James Corley

COLUMN

The Brit ish govern-ment, the Brazilian gov-ernment, multinational corporations, U.S. defense contractors and the CIA — that’s one ambitious target list.

But whose? The Russians, the Chinese, the (gasp) ter-rorists? Who do we send James Bond after?

Turns out it’s a 19 year-old, among others.On May 21, Ryan Cleary was arrested in alleged con-

nection to recent hacker attacks by a group known as “LulzSec.” Cleary, a former member of another “hacktiv-ist” group, was picked up in an operation conducted by Scotland Yard and the FBI, BBC reported.

But what is LulzSec, and why does it matter? Their web-site, lulzsecurity.com, describes them as “a small team of lulzy individuals who feel the drabness of the cyber com-munity is a burden on what matters: fun.” That’s what “lulz,” a variant on LOL, means: It is an expression of gen-eral amusement.

Lulzsecurity.com oozes self-absorbed amusement. The text contains mocking references to Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” a truly horrible music video that took the Internet by storm, and an image of a longboat dubbed the “Lulz Boat” accompanied by the theme from “The Love Boat” cheerily playing in the background.

The group’s activities, however, go far past this gener-al silliness. Earlier this year, Sony’s PlayStation Network, the online service for its PlayStation 3 game console, was offline for more than a month following a LulzSec-connected intrusion into their network. Millions of sub-scribers’ personal data was stolen, including credit-card information.

Their exploits also have included a (reportedly failed) hacking attempt on Lockheed-Martin, a U.S. defense con-tractor responsible for building the F-22 and F-35 fighter jets, among other things. The CIA’s public website suffered an outage, and PBS found itself with a defaced main page after they ran a documentary critical of Julian Assange, Wikileaks editor in chief. Other targets have included on-line game servers.

While I write this, the Brazilian government’s website is offline, with LulzSec’s Twitter feed claiming responsibil-ity. Operations like this are mostly just an inconvenience, though I do not know what services Brazil offers through that website. More governmental and corporate websites are certain to suffer similar problems in the days ahead.

It is also certain that these organizations will attempt to fight back, as the above-mentioned arrest demonstrates. The members of LulzSec, whomever they may be, rely on the anonymity of the Internet and their own knowledge of how people are tracked across it. If and when they make a big enough mistake, or if the powers that be have bet-ter-skilled people in their employ, the group will eventu-ally be found out and its members arrested, as was Ryan Cleary. It is important to note that LulzSec has denied his involvement in their operations, though it is unknown if that’s true. Regardless, this apparent failure on the part of law enforcement is fuel for ever more lulz.

And rightfully so. These illegal actions have no cause, no message behind them. Even if they did, it would be an inappropriate way of expressing discontent. This is the new face of modern vandalism and little more. What is amazing is the potential scope of the problem: millions of credit card numbers stolen. Multiply that by thousands of dollars worth of credit each, and you’re looking at the potential for billions of dollars’ worth of fraud.

Whether that data has yet been used maliciously is not known — credit card fraud is difficult to track. Regardless, the potential is there for information crimes of surprising magnitude.

LulzSec is a narcissistic bother, childishly lashing out at authority because it can. I hope it will be found out and disciplined before it grows into a sullen teen.

— Keith Anderson,English graduate student

Z a c S m i t h’s c o l u m n “President Obama is not a socialist” clearly delineates how Obama is anything but a communist, capitalism-hater the right-wing media loves to portray him as.

Although I disagree strong-ly with Smith’s apparent so-cialist leanings (more on this in a later column), I thought an interesting juxtaposition could be presented to further his point that Obama is not a socialist.

In many respects, Obama is more conservative than the Republican demigod Ronald Reagan.

I n d e e d , a n M S N B C segment called “Obama vs. Reagan: Who’s More Conservative?” points out several examples of how the “communist” Obama is actu-ally more conservative than the staunch anti-communist Reagan.

The first example given is in regard to amnesty. Reagan

granted amnesty to all ille-gal immigrants who entered the United States before Jan. 1, 1982 in a bill called the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Obama wouldn’t dare make such a claim or legislative effort.

The next example given is in regard to negotiating with-out preconditions. While conservatives always rail against those of us who are more peace-minded when we bring up the thought of sitting down and talking with these people who hate us (rather than bombing their villages and making them hate us more), the Reagan administration actually did negotiate with terrorists.

In what has been termed the Iran-Contra Affair, the

Reagan administration trad-ed weapons for hostages, inadvertently aiding in the importation of cocaine from Nicaragua. Obama, mean-while, has done nothing even remotely resembling negoti-ating with terrorists without preconditions.

Yet another Reagan/Obama juxtaposition is in regard to war in the Middle East. In 1983, President Reagan decided to “cut and run” from Lebanon when U.S. forces were killed en masse. Obama, meanwhile, initiated a 30,000-troop surge in Afghanistan.

Fiscally, the Obama ad-ministration caved amaz-ingly quickly in extending the Bush tax cuts to those mak-ing $250,000 and more a year. Reagan, on the other hand, raised taxes almost every year after 1981, implement-ing four significant increases.

Finally, on the social front of family values, Reagan was

the first U.S. president to allow an openly gay couple to sleep in the White House.

With all that said, who’s the conservative?

While MSNBC was hor-rendously slanted in their presentation of these sce-narios, the point is well-tak-en. I certainly wouldn’t say Obama is more conservative than Reagan; however, the juxtaposition furthers Smith’s point that Obama is anything but a hardcore left-winger.

These comparisons, com-bined with the watered-down “Obamacare” bill, the bailout of the financial sector — ac-companied with virtually no new regulation — expanded gun rights (that’s right, there are fewer gun restrictions under Obama than Bush), it’s a pretty tough sell to anyone paying attention that Obama is a socialist.

— Jerod Coker,journalism senior

STAFF COLUMN

KeithAnderson

STAFF COLUMN

Anderson

COLUMN

Obama isn’t a hardcore socialist

Jerod Coker

STAFF COLUMN

Jerod Coker

STAFF COLUMN

their products, but I could make some money throwing my hat in that ring.

Either way, scare tactics and gross-out campaigns have not worked and will never work. The only way I will quit smoking is if I’m damn good and ready.

— James Corley, journalism senior

PHOTO PROVIDED

Sarah Palin needs to do more before she could be considered a legitimate Republican frontrunner, Keith Anderson says

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DEADLINES

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APTS. UNFURNISHED

Thursday, June 23, 2011

CANCER (June 21-July 22) -- Under no circumstances should you permit an outsider to become involved in your personal family disagreements. If you want to muddy the waters further, you couldn’t fi nd a better tactic.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) -- Regard-less of any strong inclinations you may get to respond to some fi ery comments made by another, be above it all. You’ll be far more effective by simply ignoring what was said.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- Because your sales resistance tends to be a bit lower than usual, either avoid stores or be acutely aware of your weakness and keep your purse strings tight.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) -- A seri-ous argument could erupt between you and your mate if you allow a subject to surface about which you both have divergent opinions. Keep a lid on what you can’t resolve.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) -- The ineptness of an interfering busybody could create problems for you. Be kind to others, but not to the point of allowing just anybody to stick their snoots in your business.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) -- An acquaintance with a chip on his or her shoulder could cause a nasty scene if you’re not careful. Don’t do anything to antagonize this person any further.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- Being an assertive person can have both good and bad results, depending on how you use that quality. Take care that you don’t come off as being bossy to others.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- Without realizing it, if you’re not careful you could easily overreact to someone’s opposing viewpoint. You know better than most that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) -- Ensure no one makes a fi nancial commitment on your behalf without your consent, or it could cost you a pretty penny, and an only mildly attractive one as well. You don’t want to pay for another’s mistake.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) -- Choose a partner wisely so that you don’t get involved with someone who doesn’t appreciate the value of teamwork. If you spot any hint of self-serving ways, go it alone.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -- Adopting a poor mental attitude will make all distasteful assign-ments even more repugnant and harder to accomplish than they actually are. Don’t let a bad mood get in the way of the hammer.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -- Instead of making light of life as usual, you may tend to take everything far too seriously. Start looking for problems and you’ll fi nd them.

HOROSCOPE By Bernice Bede Osol

Copyright 2010, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.

ACROSS 1 Doggie 6 Site to speak

your piece? 10 Stylish Brit-

ish teens in the ‘60s

14 Rubber ducky-loving Muppet

15 Father Time’s garb

16 Grp. that rolls out the barrels?

17 Mojave Des-ert neighbor

19 Victim of a con

20 Series of band gigs

21 Dried grape 23 Tit-tat con-

nection 25 Certain tense 28 “There

oughta be ___!”

30 Roll-call vote 31 Derma-

tologists’ subjects

32 Civil rights target

35 Polygraph detections

37 Last-imagin-able item, in a way

41 Van Halen or Trebek

42 Hay fever symptom

45 Possessive pronoun

49 ___ Speed Wagon (vin-tage auto)

51 Watches carefully

52 Witches 56 Word

between

“game” and “match”

57 Thompson’s Plaza-dwell-ing pixie

58 Enlightened Buddhist

60 The motion of the ocean

61 Alternative to a towelette

66 Matches a poker bet

67 Shallowest of the Great Lakes

68 Wrist-to-elbow bones

69 Start for “while”

70 What weight-lifters count

71 Silly birds?DOWN 1 Identify, so to

speak 2 Hockey great

Bobby 3 Like a

narrowly fo-cused mind

4 Sicilian goodbye

5 Plenty per-turbed

6 Harsh and metallic

7 Word before “Alamos” or “Angeles”

8 Sash for a geisha

9 Action or drama, e.g.

10 Tweak 11 Musical

works 12 Show a

picture of 13 Blood-

hounds follow them

18 Woman’s un-

dergarment 22 Trig function 23 “Away”

partner 24 Suffix with

“pay” 26 Outdated

communica-tions

27 “No ___, no gain” (gym saying)

29 Nintendo de-but of 2006

33 Oddballs may draw them

34 1150, to Cato

36 Winding road shape, often

38 Where you are on a map?

39 Born, in the society pages

40 Kops of comedy

43 Alphabet ender

44 “To the max”

suffix 45 Fly over

Africa? 46 ___-than-

thou 47 Gradually

wears away 48 Most dan-

gerous, as winter roads

50 Certain Mid-western tribe members

53 Send else-where, as to a specialist

54 Poet’s palindromic “before”

55 Express indifference without speaking

59 Well-quali-fied

62 Pique condi-tion?

63 Tuck’s part-ner

64 Used to be 65 Gettysburg

general

Universal CrosswordEdited by Timothy E. Parker June 23, 2011

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

© 2011 Universal Uclickwww.upuzzles.com

WATER BEARER By Kenneth Holt6/23

6/22

Instructions:Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.

Previous Solution

Monday- Very EasyTuesday-EasyWednesday- EasyThursday- MediumFriday - Hard

number crisisline9

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This year, more than172,000 people will be diagnosed with lungcancer, and more than163,000 will die—making it America’sNUMBER ONEcancer killer.

But new treatmentsoffer hope.

Join Lung CancerAlliance in the fightagainst this disease.

lungcanceralliance.org

is nothing to celebrate.

NUMBERONE

Being

A drunk driver ruined somethingprecious. Amber Apodaca.

Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk.

Pho

to b

y M

ichael M

azz

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Cameron Jones, advertising managerclassifieds@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-2521

4 • Thursday, June 23, 2011

Classifieds

James Corley, campus life editordailysports@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-3666SPORTS

� ursday, June 23, 2011 • 5

OUDaily.com ››OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said he believes the NCAA’s investigation into the Sooner men’s baskebtall program is almost over

James Corley, campus life editordailyent@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-5189LIFE&ARTS

OUDaily.com ››� roughout the weekend, Daily sta� ers will review shows, interview artists and talk with spectators at Jazz in June

B o u n c e - b a c k p e r f o r-mances are not uncommon in sports.

But in golf, a game where the modus operandi truly is mind over matter, one bad performance can put a golfer in a funk that sends him on a long streak of bad play.

When Tiger Woods pulled out of the U.S. Open because of leg injuries, everyone as-sumed it would be just an-other golf tournament with no one to gun for; no one would be the standard for the rest of the field to follow.

Without Tiger, few — if anyone — expected a pletho-ra of records to be shattered. It was, after all, the U.S. Open. Going low was not something that was supposed to happen at this tournament.

Then came Rory McIlroy, a 22 year-old from Northern Ireland who, just two months ago, had collapsed at The Masters to the tune of historic proportions.

Everyone was wondering how McIlroy would respond after such a gut-wrenching collapse in the biggest round of his young career.

Would he play well? Would there be a hangover or more disaster?

I don’t think anyone could have predicted what actually happened this past weekend at Congressional.

Instead of a continuation of the catastrophic perfor-mance at Augusta, McIlroy looked like the second com-ing of Tiger Woods.

He obliterated virtually every scoring record in the history of the U.S. Open en

McIlroy’s play bodes well for PGACOLUMN

route to a 16-under, 268 final score.

Oh, and he won by eight strokes.

McIlroy already had prov-en he wasn’t suffering too badly from his Masters per-formance. He finished fifth at The Memorial and third in a tournament in Malaysia the very next week after The Masters.

However, the U.S. Open is historically the most dif-ficult of the four majors. The combined scored of the past 10 champions was -14. The 2006 and 2007 champions won with +5s.

What McIlroy did this past weekend has never been

done in the history of golf. Sure, you could say it was

an easier-than-normal U.S. Open course and his win wasn’t as impressive as peo-ple are making it out to be.

If it was easy for McIlroy, then it should have been equally easy for the rest of the field. And it was, to a much lesser extent.

20 players finished under par for the tournament, which is pretty crazy for the U.S. Open. It’s not like McIlroy shot his ridicu-lous score while everyone else shot normal U.S. Open scores.

Ultimately, it’s the mar-gin of victory that makes

McIlroy’s victory so remark-able. The opportunity was there for every single player in this tournament to shoot a low score, but not everyone did.

Meanwhile, McIlroy just destroyed the course and vanquished any demons that remained from Augusta.

And he seems to have picked up a few fans in the process.

Not only did McIlroy seem like the second coming of Tiger Woods in his play, but the gallery was going nuts for him.

If his play continues, there is no doubt in my mind McIlroy will become the

most popular player on tour, especially in light of Tiger’s fall from grace.

McIlroy is young, he’s col-lected, he has a good head on his shoulders and — as he proved this weekend — he’s a darn good golfer.

Golf fans have been look-ing for a dominant player to cheer for, a standard by which the rest of the PGA is measured.

McIlroy’s performance gave a lot of fans hope that maybe, just maybe, a new standard has been established.

— Luke McConnell,journalism junior

MARK J. TERRILL/APTiger Woods, left, watches his tee shot next to Rory McIlroy on the first hole at the Chevron World Challenge on Dec. 3 in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The way McIlroy won last weekend’s U.S. Open made comparisons to Woods inevitable.

Those of you who haven’t yet heard the buzz about Pottermore must have spent the week hiding under an in-visibility cloak and not read-ing The Quibbler.

Pottermore.com is Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s current secret project, which sports a countdown clock to Rowling’s announcement of what Pottermore really is.

Since the truth will be re-vealed by 6 a.m. today — well after press time — we’ll al-ready know what it is by the time you read this.

However, I had been think-ing about what possible an-nouncements J.K. Rowling might make, and here are a few of the top ideas I had.

The alternate-reality optionRowling could re-release

all of the Harry Potter books in a choose-your-own-end-ing format. If readers didn’t enjoy events in the originals, like Harry marrying Ginny, they could simply choose an alternate path.

Sadly, there still would be no path in which I could end up married to Harry.

This option is not likely considering it would be dif-ficult for Rowling to connect seven books together with readers continually choosing alternate story plots.

The TV show optionWhen the secret behind

Pottermore is reveled, the site could show a preview for a Potter television series.

The show could follow the children of Harry, Ron and Hermoine through their trials and tribulations at Hogwarts

BOOKS

— think “The Wizards of Waverly Place,” but with less of a Disney vibe to it.

In order to milk the televi-sion show for everything pos-sible, the show could have a companion reality show that goes through the process of selecting the actor to play Harry’s son in the television series.

The contestants could be forced to compete in a Triwizard Tournament with all the tasks and more than were included in “The Goblet of Fire.”

The awesome optionRowling could be writing a

new book series with George Weasley as the main char-acter. The plot could follow George as he attempts to find a way to bring his beloved twin, Fred, back to life.

Considering George only has one ear, bringing his twin back to life could be quite the arduous task, but the mood could easily be lightened by a silly Weasley joke or the in-troduction of a new toy from Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes.

Since the twins were my

FridayFICTION

These four walls were all I saw. They are like a guardian watching over

me. Penance, I pray, to redeem my soul for the wickedness I have done.

Visit OUDaily.com on Friday to read the full story

Learn how to submit stories for publication at

Want to share your short story?

favorite characters from the novels, I think basing a spin-off set of novels around them would be perfect.

The please-be-this optionPottermore could an-

nounce Rowling is building a real Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the English countryside.

Rowling is richer than the Queen of England, so it easily could be a viable option.

The most likely optionEntertainment Weekly re-

ports Pottermore.com was trademarked two years ago by WarnerBros. In the trademark application, WarnerBros. called Pottermore.com a website “providing multiple-user access to a global com-puter information network, online chat rooms and elec-tronic bulletin boards ... [and] online facilities for real-time interaction with other com-puter users concerning top-ics of general interest.”

Online rumors speculate Pottermore stands for Potter Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Experience. If these rumors are true, “World of Warcraft” would have some steep competition.

Online rumors also spec-ulate it could be a social-networking site — basically Facebook for Potter fans, where they can unleash their inner Harry Potter craziness.

Whatever the announce-ment, I look for ward to something more from J.K. Rowling.

— Carmen Forman,journalism sophomore

KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/APBritish author J.K. Rowling interacts with Harry Potter fans on July 20, 2007, at the Natural History Museum in London.

BON IVER“Bon Iver”(Jagjaguwar)

Rating:

With Bon Iver ’s second album — simply titled “Bon Iver” — we find Justin Vernon venturing out of the win-try cabin in the woods he lived in to record his debut album, “For Emma, Forever Ago,” hesitantly ready to embrace the world at large again.

The album is what one comes to expect from a fol-low-up to a highly acclaimed first release. The scope is larger, more ambitious, yet strives to retain the inti-mate qualities that were inherent to the prior album’s critical success.

The album as a whole is somewhat more off-putting than those expecting a “For Emma Part II,” particu-larly the closing track “Beth/Rest,” which feels less like a song written by a performer of emotional, stripped-down songs and more like one created by a product of ‘80s mainstream pop.

However, as evidenced with the song “Michicant,” if one gives the album more than one listening, they will be treated to a deeply layered, thoughtfully craft-ed piece of work that has already garnered almost as much acclaim as Bon Iver’s debut LP.

— Casey Wright/The Daily

REVIEWS, PREVIEWS AND MORE

THE DAILY’S

NEWMUSICREVIEWS

Sooners reveal tough schedule

OU announced Tuesday the Sooners’ 2011 schedule, which features 17 home games and two nonconference tournaments.

Volleyball coach Santiago Restrepo said the team will play the toughest nonconference schedule since he’s been at OU.

“We’re hoping to do great things this year,” Restrepo said. “We’re playing teams that have consistently been in the NCAA Championship, and it’s important to us in order to be successful in conference play.”

The Sooners host SMY, Oral Roberts and Missouri State in the Nike Invitational on Aug. 26 and 27 before facing Colorado State on Aug. 29. OU also hosts the Oklahoma Invitational on Sept. 16 and 17.

Oklahoma opens Big 12 play Sept. 21 at Baylor before returning to Norman for its Big 12 home opener against Texas on Sept. 28.

It will be the first season the Big 12 Conference schedule doesn’t include Nebraska or Colorado, which left for the Big Ten and the Pac-12, respectively.

“We’re going to be fresher and more prepared for matches with the new Big 12 schedule,” Restrepo said. “At the end of the year, we’re going to be better prepared for the NCAA Championship.”

OU returns five starters from last season’s 23-11 team that finished third in the Big 12 and advanced to the NCAA Championship third round.

— Daily staff reports

VOLLEYBALL

STAFF COLUMN

Luke McConnell

The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution.

A LETTER TO OU STUDENTSDear OU Students,

�ank you for the input which you gave to me during our open forum on the OU budget held in the Beaird Lounge in May. I also appreciated the thoughts you shared with me in other discussions including the “Pizza with the Prez” events in residence halls. In many ways this has been one of the greatest years in the history of the university. Our freshman class broke all academic records and for the �rst time ranked number one in the nation among public universities in National Merit Scholars enrolled in absolute numbers. �e university ranked in the top �ve among all universities ranking ahead of such private universities as Yale, Princeton, Stanford and MIT. Sarah Swenson became OU’s 28th Rhodes Scholar. No other Oklahoma college or university has had more than two in total. OU students also won Truman and Goldwater Scholarships in math and science. Our debate teams have won the national championship for three of the last �ve years and won the Henry Clay Tournament this year. Once again OU Drama students swept the Kennedy Center awards and our Petroleum Engineering students again won the National Petro-Bowl title. Business entrepreneurship and City Planning teams also won national honors. Football player Quentin Carter won the national trophy for outstanding leadership in charitable activities by a student athlete. Our students continued to set records in volunteerism. Intellectual vitality has never been stronger. �e Honors College has organized over thirty informal student book clubs. A new College of International Studies has been launched. In the last ten years, the proportion of OU students studying abroad has increased from one in ten to almost one in four. More funds have been raised for scholarships to enable more students to take advantage of study abroad programs. Our faculty and sta� members have received unprecedented national and international recognition. �e university realized a goal set more than 40 years ago by achieving the top tier ranking of research universities which are scored by the Carnegie Foundation. Our research continues to help create new jobs for our graduates. Even in these di�cult times, private giving to the university has totaled over $144 million this year and our scholarships campaign has reached $180 million in total gifts. �is progress has taken place in spite of a $500 million shortfall in state revenues. OU has undergone severe budget cuts for three straight years. While holding tuition and fee adjustments to levels near the bottom nationally, OU has absorbed in the last three years about $80 million in budget cuts and uncompensated �xed-cost increases including those for health insurance. �is year, for example our state appropriation was cut $7 million and uncompensated �xed costs rose almost $15 million. In 2009 Oklahoma was one of only two states in the nation which did not raise tuition.

It is simply not possible to continue budget reductions of the magnitude which we are facing without some adjustments in tuition and fees. We have sought to keep these increases as low as possible without sacri�cing the high standards of excellence and the course o�erings which our students deserve. In order to remain competitive with other universities and to retain our best faculty and sta� the university set its priorities in a way that made possible a modest increase in compensation for faculty and sta�. �is action was necessary after a three-year freeze in employee compensation. �is compensation adjustment was made possible by increased support from private donors through the OU Foundation. Financing also came from cuts in other areas including a 5% cut in the budgets of all units at OU, a continued partial hiring freeze, delaying purchases of equipment and other items, a one-year voluntary pay cut by several top administrators, and savings from privatizing operations of our utility system. In addition the athletics department continued to contribute to the university budget the proceeds of an academic ticket surcharge on football tickets. �e budget approved by the OU Board of Regents yesterday provides for an increase in tuition and fees of 5%. As you can see from the attached charts, OU ranks near the bottom in total costs in our conference. With those adjustments OU will remain among the most a�ordable institutions in the nation. �e increased cost will average $170 per semester for an in-state student taking 15 hours. �e budget will provide for an increase in tuition waivers for low-income students to o�set the increased costs. Scholarship growth for students with �nancial need has kept pace with cost adjustments in recent years. I would urge parents and students to contact Financial Aid Services for information. It is located in Room 216 of Buchanan Hall and can be reached by telephone at 405-325-4521. A few years ago we started a new scholarship program to help middle-income families, the Sooner Heritage Scholarships. �e deadline for making application is July 20th. Applications for Sooner Heritage Scholarships can be completed online at www.�nancialaid.ou.edu by clicking on the Sooner Heritage link. We will also continue to appropriate $200,000 to purchase reserved textbooks for our 400 largest courses. �ese books will be held in the reserved section of the Library so students can use them at the Library and avoid the cost of purchasing them. All across the nation, families, students and universities are facing very di�cult �nancial challenges. �ank you for all that you are doing to help us continue to build a truly great public university. Your sacri�ces and your commitment to excellence are deeply appreciated. Even in these tough times, together we are moving forward.

Sincerely,

David L. Boren President

6 • Thursday, June 23, 2011 ADVERTISEMENT