LGBTQ programs seek to increase campus visibility for community

Photo: The rainbow flag, a symbol of LGBTQ pride, waves through an opened door that was constructed at the National Coming Out Day resource and information fair Monday on the South Oval.
Audio clip: LGBTQ Advisory Board member Bobby Mace talks about the board's programs this month. Monday's National Coming Out Day fair (which he discusses in this clip) is the first the group has organized, and worked with other campus/community groups to co-host events throughout October.

   OU's LGBTQ community will recognize National Coming Out Day Monday morning with a resource and information fair for students on the South Oval, starting OU's observance of Norman's GLBT History Month.

   The program, which lasts from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., is the first National Coming Out Day program that the Student Affairs' Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) Advisory Board has planned for the nationally annual event, during which closeted students are positively encouraged to come out.

   The National Coming Out Day resource fair is one of the several events the board has planned with other campus groups in October. Future programs include booked Sooner Ally trainings on Tuesday and Nov. 6, a candlelight vigil for LGBTQ acceptance on Wednesday and a showing of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" on Friday, Oct. 29. 

Audio Clip: Mace says how organizations should 

reach out to all students on campus.

   This month's LGBTQ programs come on the heels of UOSA and the Norman City Council both passing proclamations last month declaring October to be GLBT History Month. According to the Oklahoma Daily, Student Congress passed the resolution with unanimous consent and the city council 7-1.

   The advisory board collaborated with other local organizations, including OU student organizations GLBTF, United Students and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association, to give students as many resources as possible about Coming Out Day.

   The advisory board started planning more events this year, one member said, after previous years' have lacked involvement and visibility with other groups on campus. 

   Bobby Mace, who works in the Women's Outreach Center office as an LGBTQ Affairs intern, said the program's members realized the board needed to reach out to other communities after it did a campus climate survey earlier this year.

   "So we're basically taking what the students have told us what they wanted, and doing those things," said Mace, an adult and higher education graduate student. "If you're going to program to just the students of GLBTF, then it ignores so many different groups of people."

Students talk about the program with members of the LGBTQ 
Program Advisory Board at Monday's fair.

   Mace became involved in the center through the Sexperts program his sophomore year. As a then-resident adviser, he was the only openly gay employee on staff. But Mace said things have changed so much for the community since he was a freshman because there was not as much visibility on campus and the GLBTF student organization was more divided. 

   "We've just been doing so much in this past semester alone that the change from my freshman year to now ... it wouldn't even seem like the same universe to me," he said.
   Mace said it is especially important for all campus organizations to meet students' needs when they are in college. To accomplish this vision of improving overall student life, the advisory board has specific goals that reach the entire OU community, like more visibility and programming.

   "It's obviously important that we [in the LGBTQ community] recognize our allies, because without our allies, we obviously wouldn't have a lot going on for us at OU," he said."I know that doesn't really seem like a way to get people to realize, but having the increased visibility and the increased programming on campus really does help people to realize that OU is a safe place."

   Mace said he has already contacted more than 40 student groups to get involved with Wednesday's candlelight vigil, which will be in the Unity Garden on the South Oval.

Updated: Monday at 6:30 p.m. with photos of Monday's National Coming Out Day resource fair.

Current list of student organizations

Check it out: Student Organizations Coordinator Carmen Bao sent this link today of the list of current student orgs. on OU's campus.
There are 432 different organizations for interested students to choose from.

Marching band takes Sooner Pride to Texas

Pride Director Brian Britt conducts the students as they practice their OU-Texas field show Wednesday, Sept. 29.

Britt said during rehearsals to the band: "It's like when you bowl: Sometimes it's a strike, sometimes it's not. That time it wasn't."

   As thousands of crimson and cream-colored fans descend onto Dallas this weekend for the OU-Texas game, more than 300 Sooners — members of the marching band Pride of Oklahoma will bring their OU spirit to the Red River Rivalry for the first away game of the season.

   The Pride, which performs about six shows each season, will play music from movies including “The Mummy Returns,” “The Incredibles” and “King Kong” at the pre-game and half-time shows.

Pride members load sound equipment onto the trailer Thursday.

   The band practices two hours a day four days a week — on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, as well as on game days before games start. 

   Pride Director Brian Britt said the show is going to be exciting this year for the crowd to watch, because the show always has something for everyone.

   “We do a little bit of everything, just to try to reach a different part of the fan base if we can,” Britt said. “I think [the music] is stuff that will be inspirational to the people that watch and listen to what we're doing, and the students seem to really enjoy performing it.”
   But while freshman Kevin Price is most looking forward to the Texas state fair corn dogs this weekend, he said the energy of the music is what makes this show his favorite so far. 
   “It's just really fast-paced,” said Price, who plans to be a computer science major and plays the cymbals for the drumline. Price said he joined the Pride because he wanted to keep playing percussion after high school.

   One of the drumline section leaders Shanna Hestilow said unlike in high school, all the students in the Pride work to make the shows sound as good as they can be.

Senior Shanna Hestilow practices "The Incredibles" 
music with her section Wednesday.

   “In college, everyone that's in Pride auditioned and wants to be here, and is making an effort to do well,” said Hestilow, an international/area studies senior. “[The band] takes up so much of your life, that it develops this bond between people — you're appreciating music and appreciating art and spending time doing that.”
   Hestilow said this hard work pays off at games for the students when they perform for thousands of Sooner fans. 
   “Traveling to away games like we do ... you can tell the difference that we make in the football team and in the crowd and in the way people react to [the music],” she said. 
   But the OU-Texas games are always the most interesting — to say the least — English junior Jon Lowry said.

   “You can hear the cheers and everything from our side, and as we go to the other side it’s just heavy boos and everything from the Texas fans. So you really get to feel the rivalry,” Lowry said. 

   A trumpet player for the Pride since he came to OU, Lowry said he has loved performing at games since his first show.

   “It's as close to a rock star as I'm ever going to be,” he said.
   The Pride of Oklahoma's next away game is at Texas A&M on Nov. 11. 

Q&A with Student Life Student Orgs. Coordinator Carmen Bao

Student Organization Coordinator Carmen Bao answered some questions through e-mail about how clubs work at OU:

Question: Can students register new clubs throughout the school year?

Carmen Bao: Yes, they can. The benefit to registering before the fall deadline is eligibility for UOSA funding for the next fall. A student organization has to be registered for a year before applying for UOSA funding.

Q: What can student organizations at OU offer to new students (this includes both freshmen and transfers)?

B: Student organizations offer students a place to foster current interests or develop new ones. They also bring students with common interests together.   

Q: What do a lot of student orgs. have in common as far as activities, exposure, membership, etc.?

B: While each student organization is unique and created to fit a certain set of students' needs, I have noticed that many of our student organizations take up philanthropic projects and fund-raise to help benefit a nonprofit or charity.

Q: Why do clubs have to re-register constitutions, and why are registration deadlines staggered by year? Do some clubs not re-register constitutions?

B: Every organization must re-register every fall to maintain its active status and remain eligible for UOSA funding. We do stagger the submission of constitutions because we found it was not necessary to resubmit a constitution every year. 

   We ask organizations to resubmit constitutions every three years. Every new organization must submit a constitution upon registration.

Q: What would inspire someone create a club, for groups ranging from Christians on Campus to Latin Dance Club?

   Students form organizations to meet their interests and to create a place to meet other people with a common interest. Many student organizations also wish to share their interest to others on campus who aren't a part of their organization.

Getting the word out: Publicity at OU

   Writing messages with chalk on the ground is a popular publicity method for OU student organizations. So-called "chalking," which Student Life must approve first, can be found primarily along the South Oval and on the sidewalks to the Union and the Bizzell Library, with messages about student events or meetings, elections and public service announcements.

   Below are photo examples of the most popular student publicity forms: chalking and fliers. 

Students often walk past chalk messages, also known as "chalkings,"
on the South Oval while going to class around campus.

OU students have until Thursday to register campus organizations

Students listen to Dr. Eric Day speak about applying 

to graduate school at the OU Psychology Club's 

meeting Thursday, Sept. 23.

OU students looking to start or re-register a student organization have until this Thursday, Sept. 30 to submit the online registration to Student Life.

The required registration information comprises having at least 10 student members, an OU faculty adviser, an organization president, a current constitution and statement of purpose and alcohol event management information.

According to Student Life’s student organization section, the University of Oklahoma has more than 420 student organizations, with interests that include academic, religion, culture, honor societies and hobbies. 

“With such a large number of organizations to choose from, you can be sure to find one (or several!) that you will enjoy,” the website states for those looking to join an organization. The website also suggests students start a group if they don’t find one that fits their needs.

Registered student organizations receive benefits including an OU website and e-mail address, a mailbox in the Oklahoma Memorial Union, department sponsorships and the ability to reserve university facilities and publicize on campus through chalking and fliers.

OU’s Psychology Club President Victoria Carrasco said she joined clubs her freshman year because she loves being involved and finding connections outside of class through professors.

“I love that feeling of letting people know what else is out there … and [what] they don’t get from just coming and having that major and going to class,” said Carrasco, a psychology junior who is also in OU's Young Democrats, Pre-Law Club and Hispanic-American Student Association. “I think people really do get surprised when they do come and they actually learn valuable information they can take with them.”

The Psychology Club, which reaches out to psychology students to provide them with opportunities at OU and after graduation with guest speakers and forums, has already turned in its registration and constitution.

More than 45 undergraduate students attended the club’s Thursday, Sept. 23 meeting to hear associate psychology professor Dr. Eric Day talk about getting into graduate school.

The club meets every other Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in Dale Hall Tower room 908. Its next meeting on Oct. 7 will have graduate students speaking about life in grad school.

Carrasco said starting a new club, however, is a lot more difficult at OU than running an existing organization like the Psychology Club. The best advice she has is getting to know people through other clubs to find the potential membership and to get an idea of how a club runs.

“The second you get involved in other clubs, you’re just meeting people right there, and you get that experience,” she said. “[Running a club] is a big responsibility…but obviously you gotta love doing it.”

If students are looking to join an existing club, Student Life encourages them to use its list of student organizations to contact the organization’s president or adviser and attend its next meeting or event. 

Look for a Q&A about student organizations at OU with Student Life’s Student Organization Coordinator Carmen Bao sometime Monday. 

Mona Eltahawy's "Happy Muslims" video

Eltahawy showed her audience at her discussion Sept. 15 last Wednesday one of these video blogs she made with Time about how she confronts the usual "Muslim stereotypes" she faces when discussing the Islamic world. Take a look!

Mona Eltahawy's flier for her discussions.
Her final one is Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Union.