105th Student Art Show
Bernadette Krawczyk presents the Michael Krawczyk Award, named for her late husband, to OU student Andrea Burnsworth at the 105th Annual OU School of Visual Arts Student Exhibition. The competitive, juried show highlights the diversity of work produced by OU visual arts students. A select few are awarded cash prizes, while one student’s work is chosen to become part of the OU Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art’s permanent collection.
OU Debate Team Wins Nationals
The University of Oklahoma Debate Team duo of Jazmine Pickens and Darius White won the 2019 National University Debate Championship tournament April 7, beating out 102 teams from across the country. Pickens, a senior in political science from Sacramento, Calif., and White, a junior in communication from Shreveport, La., took home the championship, besting a team from the University of Kansas.
With Kindness for All
When chemistry junior Tara Curb transferred to OU in fall 2018, she brought with her the idea of starting a campus organization to promote happiness through acts of kindness. The Acts of Kindness Club does just that — writing thank-you notes, handing out balloons, and volunteering at the OU Food Pantry and Habitat for Humanity. “I’m hoping it grows, and I’m hoping it continues here because it’s definitely a positive club,” says faculty adviser Robyn Biggs. “It’s so focused on giving back and being positive.”
Farewell, Bill
“It was beyond imagination that I would get to be president of the University of Oklahoma,” said William S. Banowsky. OU’s 10th president served from 1978 to 1985 – uniquely, in two terms separated by five weeks when he resigned to become president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce before realizing it was “the stupidest thing I ever did.” Once described by a newspaper publisher as “a motivator, a spellbinder, a preacher, a politician, a visionary, an idealist – and a fund-raiser deluxe,” Banowsky oversaw some of OU’s most dynamic growth in fundraising, enrollment and faculty salaries and is credited with the genesis of the OU Energy Center, the Doris M. Neustadt Wing of Bizzell Memorial Library, and the OU President’s Associates program. Banowsky died April 28 at the age of 83.
New Stent for Aneurysms
OU Medicine neurosurgeons are the first to use a new medical device to prevent aneurysm rupture and recurrence — without opening a patient’s skull. Professor and neurosurgeon Bradley Bohnstedt has been using the Surpass Streamline Stent to divert the flow of blood away from an aneurysm, which greatly decreases its potential for rupture. The advantage of the device is that it is designed to treat larger aneurysms in more areas of the brain. “We’re treating far more aneurysms with the Surpass Stent than we previously treated,” Bohnstedt says.
OU Law Wins National Championship
The University of Oklahoma College of Law was crowned the national champion of this year’s Federal Bar Association Thurgood Marshall Memorial Moot Court Competition, marking the fourth national competition championship for OU Law in the past two years and placing the college among the top law schools in the nation for moot court. The OU team of second-year law students Taylor Freeman Peshehonoff of Ada, Okla., and Bakhtawar (Becky) Hafiz of Denton, Texas, competed in five rounds, prevailing over 39 other teams.
Udall Scholar
OU honors student and citizen of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation, Maya B. Henderson has been named a 2019 Udall Scholar. The award recognizes undergraduates who demonstrate a commitment to the environment or to Native American public policy or health care.Henderson is a junior pursuing a bachelor’s degree in environmental sustainability in the OU College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences with a special interest in studying urban environmental concerns. Her career goal is to create viable frameworks for green city development after earning a Ph.D. in geography.
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