Month: November 2021

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First Amendment

The first amendment is widely recognizable. It contains the rights that define our freedom as Americans. People take great pride in the freedoms guaranteed by this amendment. Over the break, I interviewed friends and family about their views of the specific freedoms guaranteed by this amendment. 

“I think those are guaranteed human rights,” my friend Rylie Jo McDonald said. Then she corrected herself: “nothing is guaranteed, but [these are] rights that every human should be given.” 

Rylie, a high school senior, recognized these freedoms as the first amendment. 

My cousin, Emery Hassebroek, is a few years younger. As an eighth-grader, she just learned about the constitution at school. 

“Those are rights that everyone should have, and some of those are also in the constitution.”

When I asked her if she thought any of the freedoms went too far, she expressed the limitations and the importance of freedom, especially free speech.

“I don’t think you should be able to say, like, whatever you want cause some of those things might be bad. There’s things causing harm to people and stuff causing a lot of fear…but I do agree they should have the right to be able to talk.”

My aunt, Paige Larson, a member of an older generation, had a similar response. 

Her simple answer was yes, these freedoms are good. However, she recognized nuances of different situations.

“It’s kind of hard to know exactly…there’s none of those that I disagree with at face value without knowing more about the details. Anything can be distorted or twisted.”

These issues that my family members pointed out are the reasons the country has had supreme court cases specifying the limitations of the freedoms established in the first amendment. 

My mom, Lizzie Zimmerman, also recognized the amendment and supported the freedoms it provides.

“Yes, I would agree with those things,” she said. “I think everyone should be able to voice their opinion without repercussions…is this a real law or are we talking about, or the first amendment?”

Another peer, my cousin Evie Larson, also agreed with the freedoms.

“It’s America; you can’t have too much freedom. It’s what we live off of…I have always followed this law. No one is stopping me from saying what I want.”

She did, however, recognize questions about these freedoms in regard to the internet.

While there were different levels of confidence in recognizing the first amendment, everyone I interviewed was familiar with it and in favor of it, regardless of age. 

As Americans who have grown up with a reverence for these freedoms, my interviewees were quick to point out their value. This pattern shows that these rights are not something people take lightly. I was impressed with the thought put into the responses, especially in regards to the limitations of these freedoms. This thoughtfulness shows true respect for freedom and the issues that must be recognized in order to uphold it.

In a recent national survey of views on the first amendment, some similar recognition of the need for limitations was expressed, though in general, there was increased support of the amendment. 

In summation, these responses show the power of the freedoms in the first amendment, as well as the importance of wielding this power responsibly. 

Sources: https://knightfoundation.org/reports/high-school-student-views-on-the-first-amendment:-trends-in-the-21st-century/

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Election Questions to Be Answered by Superior Court

Last night, the SGA Superior Court heard an appeal regarding the recent election for student body president. The Castellano-Hepburn campaign brought forward questions about the campaign expense report presented by the Lissau-Akuffo ticket. Zack Lissau won the election for student body president. However, there were concerns that his campaign video, though produced by another student, should have fallen under the category of a professional service. If this was determined to be true, the video should have been accounted for on the expense report. This conflict raised questions about the lack of specificity in the campaign rules and codes. It drew attention to issues that need to be dealt with in the future. 

Samantha Akuffo presented the arguments for her campaign, and Zack Lissau defended himself. The election commission chair, Isaac Kabrick, also spoke before the court. Several people from the SGA congress shared their thoughts on the court proceedings.

Congress Vice-Chair Sidney May gave her opinions on the validity of the case.

“I think that there was valid concern, and I do think that everybody deserves to have their concerns heard, especially in this context where it is reasonable a question that needs to be clarified.”

The Castellano-Hepburn campaign brought forth their complaint after the time for appeals had already expired. This complicated the situation a little. The election commission reviewed the issue and decided that no penalty needed to be brought against the Lissau-Akuffo campaign. This is how the appeal ended up before the court. 

“The timing of the petition did cause some issues with it being late,” Sidney explained. “However, it was heard, and now the question will be answered which is the most important thing.”

Sidney agrees that there is a need for clarification. She said she does not believe the motivation behind the appeal was to overturn the election.

“I think if that was an overall outcome of this petition, then it wouldn’t have been upsetting to [Castellan]. However, I think the clarification was just as important.”

Hepburn presented the argument that the Lissau-Akuffo campaign had knowingly exploited the lack of clarification in the rules to get around adding the video to the expense report. Lissau’s defense mostly centered on trying to explain why the video should not be considered professional.

Both tickets represented themselves before the courts. The chief justice acknowledged the fact that neither side had experience presenting legal arguments. It was good to appreciate this and to recognize the effort that went into correctly addressing the situation.

Sidney concurred that this was a big undertaking, but did not believe it was an unreasonable challenge.

“Whatever side you’re on, if you’ve done your duty to be honest and fair with your campaign, you shouldn’t have any reason for worry,” she said.

Nevertheless, both sides were lacking in a few of their arguments.

Lissau had trouble sticking to a single definition of “professional”. This made his argument difficult to follow.

Congress Chairman Crispin South shared his observations concerning this.

“I think Samantha’s definition of professional services was better than the definition offered by Zack simply because it was backed up by logic. Zack’s definition changed many times over the course of the hearing to the point where it was not coherent.”

Samantha Hepburn, on the other hand, did not get the chance to fully clarify what her campaign meant when it accused the Lissau-Akuffo ticket of “exploiting” the rules.

Crispin described this as “a bit of a hole in the argument”. 

“I think they would have defined it further if they had time,” he noted. “I think as far as the oral arguments go they did not really have a solid definition of exploitation.”

One important question is whether the Lissau-Akuffo campaign was intentionally going around the rules. Sidney does not believe they were.

“Quite frankly, I think it could boil down to the vague nature of the code.”

She noted that Zack is very well versed in the code, and she believes he is smarter than to try to take advantage of it.

Though this appeal was an exception in the fact that it was presented before the court, Sidney pointed out that there are often disagreements in any given SGA election.

“[It] is full of ‘let’s file every single infraction under the sun to make sure nobody gets away with anything’.”

The hope is that the appeal will initiate effective changes to avoid conflict in the future. Crispin discussed the points Election Chair Kabrick brought up.

“I think he pointed out a lot of issues with current law and pointed to plenty of inadequacies which currently exist within SGA elections.”

The court could clarify these issues, Crispin noted, but ideally, the situation will bring about legislation within congress that will offer a solution. 

The hearing itself was a big deal. There has not been one like it since 2013. The issues have been made known. Now the decision rests with the court.

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Student Worker Spotlight: The Hive (Secret Drink Order Included)

If you spend much time on campus, it quickly becomes clear how important coffee is. When free food is passed out on the South Oval, it often includes coffee. The line at Starbucks in the Union is miles long at any given time of day. Luckily, I have the advantage of living right next to The Hive coffee shop at Cross. I can see it from my window, and all it takes is a quick trip down the stairs to have easy access to some “proudly served” Starbucks coffee. While OU Housing and Food is often short-staffed, I can always rely on The Hive to be full of eager student workers ready to give me that much-needed dose of caffeine.

Austin Hammons is one such worker. He is a freshman studying computer science, and he shared his campus coffee shop experience with me. 

“I’ve never actually worked in foodservice,” he told me. “I’ve worked for the city, and I’ve worked construction.” 

Austin does not even consider himself an avid coffee drinker. However, his experience working at The Hive has been a positive one. I asked him if he finds it difficult to balance work and school.

“It’s probably a better thing honestly,” he said. “It’s a learning thing with figuring out your time and your schedule.” 

Austin expressed the fact that he feels this balancing act has been a good life skill to gain. Working on campus makes this easier.

“It’s only like a five-minute walk to get here….usually I have to get up at seven.”

The Hive opens at eight, which may seem late for a coffee shop, but this is college. It’s usually pretty empty when I choose to grab a drink right when it opens. 

“Usually the morning time til probably like two, it’s really busy,” Austin described. “After that, it slows down, and after five, it’s really slow.”

After five is Austin’s favorite time to work.

Nevertheless, Austin is very good-natured about his job. I asked if there were any complicated drink orders he found particularly annoying, and he could not think of any. Some drinks he simply does not know how to make, but it is never a huge issue.

“There is usually always one person who knows how to do everything.”

There was a learning curve to making perfect coffee drinks, but it was not too difficult.

“It took me maybe two weeks to get down how to make all the drinks,” Austin reported. He described it as a “learn as you go” situation. The hardest part was learning how to close in the evenings and remembering everything that has to get cleaned.

Of course, Austin also has the inside scoop for the best secret menu items. One of his friends invented a drink called the White Rose.

“It’s hard to explain,” Austin prefaced, but he described it to me pretty well.

“Two carmel, two hazelnut, two salted shots, a line of sweet cream, fill the cup up with milk up to the third line, and then you put ice.” 

The next part is more complex.

“Then you get two pumps of white mocha, pour hot water in it, dissolve it, stir it, and pour it over the drink.”

Admittedly, another Starbucks would probably have no idea what you meant if you ordered a White Rose, but to all you student Hive-lovers, this might be one to try!

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Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature

This week, I competed in the press competition for Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature. This organization hold mock legislation sessions twice a year, allowing college students from across the state to practice writing, debating, and passing legislation.

The experience was very intimidating at first, but everyone involved was very encouraging. I was a member of both the press and the House of Representatives. My role as press also allowed me to observe the senate and provided me with opportunities to talk to people competing in the Moot Court competition.

I enjoyed having the chance to see how legislation works. I have interest in government, but it is hard to know what that would actually be like. OIL gave me a little bit of insight.

I recorded many of my experiences and conversations in the articles I wrote over the course of the week. They were posted on the OIL Reporter, along with the articles of the other members of the press. Go check out my articles and take a look at some of the bills we saw this week!

https://okoil.org/oil-reporter/

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Sustainability on Campus

I have always been interested in environmental issues, but since I arrived at OU I have already gained a much more in-depth understanding of how to be an effective steward of the environment. Much of this knowledge has come from my environmental studies class, but there are many resources on campus to create a more sustainable university. This week I talked to the chairman of the Sustainability Committee in SGA Congress. Jake Lange answered some of my questions about our campus’s recycling, sustainability initiatives, and more. 

One of the important roles Jake’s committee plays is monitoring the actions of other groups on campus to make sure environmental responsibility is being upheld. 

Jake explained this as making sure there are “no lapses in sustainability that are in our power to fix.”

One example of this is when they passed a funding bill to stop the SGA budget from supplying student organizations with confetti and balloons since these items usually end up as litter. 

“The other side of it,” he explained, “[is] letting our members identify what they want to work on and pursue that.”

The sustainability committee provides an opportunity for students to investigate and solve environmental issues on campus. 

“Often what our committee does is it serves as a portal,” Jake told me. “[It lends] a lot of credibility and access to resources in pursuing [environmental] interests.” 

The big project Jake has worked towards is getting reusable food containers on campus. The project got put on hold because of the pandemic, but I was fascinated to learn about the impact the sustainability committee could have on reducing campus waste. Already, campus dining has moved away from using styrofoam for to-go cups and containers. Jake has worked to take this a step further. Jake described the project as “the hill I will die on.” The project was very close to going into effect before the pandemic put it on hold. 

“[The] cost is way lower,” Jake told me. The university had everything set up to partner with a company called OZZI, which Jake explained uses vending machines and tokens to dispense and return reusable to-go containers. It would be a big change that would have a big impact, and it has already been successfully implemented at several other universities across the country. Hopefully Jake will get to see the plan put into action before his time at OU comes to an end. 

When I expressed my interest in recycling, Jake was able to give me some insight into campus recycling. OU has a partnership with a contracting company that picks up recycling on campus. 

Because of this, Jake explained, “what you can recycle through the city of Norman is different than what you can recycle through OU.”

One of the main issues I have noticed with recycling is people’s awareness of what and how they should recycle. 

“That’s something we have kind of tried to work on,” Jake told me. “The Department of Energy and Sustainability has also been working on new signage.”

As far as knowing what is recyclable, Jake assured me, “It’s actually pretty easy…Plastics one and two are recyclable. On campus, glass is recyclable in the city of norman it is not…things like aluminum cans…paper that is not contaminated with food waste… it’s not actually that complicated.”

When you work towards a more sustainable campus, it is pretty easy to see positive change go into effect. 

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SGA Elections

It’s election day! On campus, this means the two-day long Student Government Association elections. Today we are voting for student body president and college representatives. This blog has featured several SGA voices already who spoke specifically over free speech. This week, I spoke with Aiden Dodd, a freshman running for University College representative. Many people, especially freshmen, are completely unaware of SGA, much less the elections going on today and tomorrow. Aiden was happy to share some background.

“SGA is the union for the students – basically the advocate to the higher-ups of the university for the students.”

For those who do not think elections affect them very much, Aiden was able to clarify the impact the SGA has on undergraduate students.

“Elections are a big deal,” he emphasized. “You need someone who’s not afraid to stand up to the people in charge.”

Additionally, Aiden pointed out the influence the students elected will have.

“A rule I make now could still be affecting [you],” Aiden explained. For freshmen on campus, the policies put into place this year could potentially affect them for three more years. 

On top of that, some of the fees every student pays go to SGA.

“You’re paying $115.75 for it per semester,” Aiden reported.

Since Aiden is running in the election, he has been campaigning. This has included everything from making graphics and posters, taking headshots for the candidate pamphlet, and, of course, talking to his potential constituents. 

“I have big ideas and see the changes that need to be made for the university to thrive,” Aiden told me. 

Aiden has received positive feedback as he has gone through the process of encouraging his peers to vote. 

“They are excited after I explain it to them.”

Across the country, it is election day. At the University of Oklahoma, we are lucky to have our own elections as well. If students take advantage of opportunities to keep up with campus events and elections, they can learn to uphold their civil responsibility in life beyond college. 

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Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a spooky and fun Halloween.

To help get us all in the Halloween spirit, our class worked on a set of scary short stories this week. Every student wrote a piece centered around the fictional Greenbriar House. From the long and detailed history of the house we were given, I chose to write a narrative set in the early 40s. The background we were given and my story make up the rest of this post. Enjoy!

“1939—the house is sold again, only this time it’s turned into a home for the mentally ill. The house is renamed the Donald Haynes Institute of Mental Health after the director of the home. The establishment takes care of wealthy patients families want hidden away.”

“1941—World War Two begins and stories are told about the various inmates at the hospital. Reporters constantly try to penetrate security to get pictures of the famous inmates. Some of those reporters go missing, as well as orderlies and staff. More than a dozen deaths happen there over the next ten years. Some are suicides. Some are murders. Other people disappear. And there are constant ghostly sightings.”

Greenbriar House 1945 – by Jessica Zimmerman

They shouldn’t have brought me here.

I have my room, my chair, my bed, and my sink. I have the bland food, the pale pills, and the dull nurses that arrive at my door on a regular schedule four times a day if I behave. I do not have my knives and tools, my books and diagrams on the human body, nor my lists and ledgers and bottles and chemicals for mixing up strange and fascinating concoctions. 

That matters not, because I have my large, dusty window that looks over the back of the grounds – my window covered with ivy and carelessly crafted metal bars – bars that are hardly more substantial than the ivy itself. The windowpane rattles in the wind, and in the winters the cold seeps in at the seams. When it rains, puddles collect under the sill, and in the humid summers the moisture feeds the dark-colored mold that clings to the wall. But I love my window because when the wind howls, the sterile, white-clad figures that guard the halls at night can’t hear the scrape of the glass being raised open, nor the squeak of the bars being twisted aside. And if I hide my pills properly, the nurse assumes they’ve been consumed, and I have a peaceful, unbroken timeframe of six hours before they’ll bother to check my room. I squeeze my thin limbs through my treasured window and into the shadowy night. 

They shouldn’t have brought me here.

Here, where the outsiders say you’d hear voices and see whisps of those who once had been.

Here, where any havoc I care to wreak is dismissed because the nurses would rather not have to investigate the “mysterious forces” that might cause such occurrences. I do not fear the mysterious forces. The only mysterious forces at play are my own ruthlessness and cunning.

They say this house has a history of ghosts. I say it is only a history of people who care more for their own ambitions than for the well-being of their fellow man. Which is to be feared more?

They say you’ll hear voices. I hear them too, but I know they are only the voices in my head and the voices of my victims. I’ll be here for years, free to soak in the glory of my reign of terror. Freedom is simply a game of blending in and biding my time. 

They shouldn’t have brought me here, where they call me crazy and brush me aside, leaving me with all the power my heart desires.