Oklahoma News Report

TULSA - This fall students attending 25-state colleges and universities across Oklahoma will pay a lot more for tuition, nearly ten percent at OU and OSU. At those schools the average student like Mohammad Masood taking 15-credit hours will shell out an additional estimated $586 per semester. He says, “It’s still outrageous but there’s nothing we can do about it.”

While students are paying more, philanthropists like Boone Pickens, and George Kaiser are rushing to donate hundreds of millions of dollars to the institutions before a state law expires tonight that requires the state to match dollar for dollar gifts endowing faculty chairs at state colleges and universities.

Pickens has given his alma mater, OSU, about $400-million dollars.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has given at least $75-million spread among several schools. By giving the cash before July first, the State is required to match the donation. That doubles the already huge gifts.

Gary Trennepohl is President of OSU Tulsa. “This is something that’s unheard of certainly in the history of OSU and probably for any institution I can think of.” With all that cash coming in many student and parents wonder why tuition is going up. Mohammad Masood says, “It should have been less tuition.”

Trennepohl says tuition is up is because the gifts are not intended to cover immediate campus expenses like higher utility bills. “It’s not money to be spent this year. It’s dollars to be invested to generate money for the future.”

Interest earned on the endowments is intended to pay the salaries necessary to attract top professors to Oklahoma colleges and universities. And it’s why the Legislature originally required the state to match faculty chair endowment gifts dollar for dollar.

Because of tight budgets the State has failed to meet it obligation to match those faculty chair endowments. So, starting tomorrow, the rules change and a new law goes into effect.

The Legislature has suspended matching dollars until it clears its backlog of funds that have to be matched. After that time the dollar for dollar match will only take place on gifts are $250-thousand dollars or less. If it’s larger the State will only match 25-cents on the dollar and it will only match up to $5-million dollars a year.

(Cathy Tatom provided this story)

Jerrye Broomhall is an inmate at the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud. Her story is not uncommon; she started college 20 years ago, but dropped out and fell in with the wrong crowd. She ended up in prison after committing two armed robberies to support a drug habit.

After seven years in prison, Broomhall recently earned a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University. She has 11years left to serve. Next she’ll be working toward a master’s Degree. She says her two sons, ages eight and 11, keep her on-track.

“I know I can’t be there during their early formative years, I can be there to get them through college and be a role model for them so they can see that no matter how many mistakes they make, there’s always tomorrow. And I just want them to be able to be proud of me,” Broomhall says.

She’s one of several inmates earning diplomas at the women’s prison this year. Another inmate earned an associate’s degree and more than 60 earned high school diplomas.

Class valedictorian Christian Carpenter said, “Having an education will reopen doors that were closed for me due to my conviction. I’m not another statistic. I won’t be coming back to this place. And with education on my side, I’m going to make something of myself.”

Warden Millicent Newton-Embry said, “We see a dramatic change in their behavior, their head is held higher, they feel good about themselves, they feel like they have accomplished something that they may not have believed they could accomplish before.”

Politicians are accustomed to giving speeches, just not to groups of people who aren’t eligible to vote. State representative Kris Steele, who’s also a Methodist pastor, gave the graduation address.

Many of these women credit faith as their motivation to further their education. Prison staff and educators point out that with few employment opportunities for uneducated ex-convicts, the recidivism rate is about two out of three.

Tom Larman, the prison’s school principal, said, “I know that education in some shape or form cuts that in about half. That’s a motivator to see that person succeed and not come back.”

Formal education isn’t the only opportunity available for these women. Peggy Tyler earned a journeyman plumber’s license in addition to an associate’s degree from Rose State. Three other women earned electrical journeyman licenses.

Funding for inmate higher education comes from a variety of sources, including income earned in prison, inmates’ families and Indian tribes. Federal legislation is being considered that would extend some funding for youthful offenders from age 26 to age 35.

Almost everybody is doing something these days to handle the skyrocketing price of gasoline. Here at the Oklahoma News Report, we have four employees who have taken a proactive approach to gas prices. Two who live within blocks of each other are now car-pooling (we adjusted one employee’s work schedule to make that possible).

And, two others are saving on gas by riding scooters to work, instead of driving cars. It’s an adjustment, but everybody likes the changes…and the extra money they’ve saved.

What are you doing to save at the pump? Let us know by posting a comment on our blog, or by sending us an e-mail at onr@oeta.tv.

Until next time,
Dick Pryor

Today marks an important anniversary in the history of journalism. Maybe not on a par with the invention of the printing press or cathode ray tube, but significant nonetheless.

On this day one year ago, MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski refused to read a gossip news story about celebrity socialite Paris Hilton. Actually, Mika did more than refuse. During a news segment on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, she tried to set the story on fire with a lighter, then she tore up the script. The next time the story was scheduled to be read she left the news desk and ran the script through a paper shredder.

Brzezinski’s objection was that stories about Paris Hilton’s latest escapades are not really “news.” And, she made her point. Brzezinski’s “meltdown” became an Internet sensation, seen more than 3.5 million times on You Tube. Brzezenski herself became a hero to many, a journalistic icon, for standing up for journalistic integrity.

I write this because we, too, believe in journalistic integrity. The Oklahoma News Report is dedicated to providing “news that matters to all Oklahomans.” We believe in community journalism, focusing on issues that affect people in their daily lives. We try to provide depth and context, so each person who watches can become a little better informed, better connected, and hopefully, a better citizen. We believe that we, as journalists, have a civic responsibility to provide news and information that enlightens our viewers and enriches their lives. Journalism has an important role in our participatory democracy, and we take that role seriously.

So, you won’t find any stories about Paris Hilton here. Mika Brzezinski made her point about journalistic principles with a cigarette lighter and a shredder. We take a different approach: we do not even write Paris Hilton gossip stories to begin with. You can count on it.

We hope you appreciate our approach to news, and we’d like to hear what you think. Join the conversation on this blog. And, to watch Brzezinski’s ground-breaking “statement” click the You Tube link below.

Thanks for your time…. DP

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - A University of Oklahoma graduate is embedded with U.S. soldiers in Iraq and will teach a fall class for OU students from a war zone.

Mike Boettcher will co-teach journalism and international studies with OU associate professor Zach Messitte. He plans to teach live via teleconferencing using mobile satellite systems. He’ll feature guests like soldiers, Iraqis and other journalists.

Boettcher has covered wars for 28 years as a broadcast journalist for CNN and NBC and will be embedded with the U.S. troops for 15 months - the same amount of time as a soldier’s deployment. Boettcher says he approached OU President David Boren with the idea and Boren connected him with Messitte and Joe Foote who is dean of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communications. The class called “War and the Media” will be made up of half international studies students and half journalism students.

Boettcher’s reports will be available on-line at www.noignoring.net