The first of four candidates for Vice President for Research and Creative Activity and Dean of the Graduate College answered questions yesterday at an open forum.
Paul Sanberg is the current vice-chair of Academic Affairs at the University of South Florida and director of the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair.
According to the job description, the new vice president and dean will be responsible for implementing a new Graduate College
coordinating existing graduate programs and supporting graduate education at the institution. The position will replace that of Vice President for Research, currently held in the interim by James Rankin.
Stipends need to be increased; faculty start-up needs to be increased Sanberg said of changes that he would like to see at OU. When asked, he also said he would like to bring an active lab to the university.
Sanberg said money to make these changes would come from grants and philanthropy.
He said he was attracted to the position because he used to work at OU, but left because he said it really didn't do much research at the time.
I had such a good time here, he said.
The three remaining candidates will participate in open forums on Feb. 4 11 and-
my fellow Americans. It is 2008. We have a black man and a white woman running for office. We have Internet so fast it could make your head spin. We dress our dogs in sweaters and can survive (for a while) solely on items from dollar menus. This isn't your grandpa's America. This is a time of progress
yet when it comes to voting we are doing nothing but regressing. Not with our voting decisions
but rather with our physical ability to cast our vote while ensuring its privacy and accuracy and guaranteeing that it will be counted. In Ohio
some voters don't trust the touch-screen machines and wish to go back to the oh-so-accurate paper ballot. For those who are frightened of the newfangled technology and would rather put their votes in the hands of old-school paper
I have some other ballot suggestions for you that might peak your archaic interest.
Cave writings. If it's good enough for the men of the Geico commercials
it should be good enough for us. We could actually just do it as a tally system. Someone could paint a donkey in blue on one side and an elephant in red on the other (with other animals meant to signify specific candidates) and we could just crush up some berries and mark our decisions that way. Antiquated? I think not. Sometimes simplicity is the answer.
Another option: Vote by pigeon message. We would not need a computer to vote
so people from all walks of life would be able to easily cast their votes; even absentees could get their votes in on time! We wouldn't need to travel and wait in lines at voting centers. We could guarantee our ballot would arrive to counting offices (unless it is hunting season or the birdies encounter a large window). We could provide employment for the thousands of bum pigeons who seem to infest the sidewalks of our Big Apple.
We could forget voting altogether if the touch-screen is so intimidating. We could tie all the candidates up and add weights to the tails of their tailored suits. Then we could throw them in a lake and see which one floats. The floater would have to be either a witch or the perfect political candidate. Either way
it would make for good TV
