Column: Corporations Invade Facebook

April 28, 2008

By JULIA HOLMES

Source: Oklahoma Daily, U. Oklahoma

Facebook has replaced the coffee house as the place to go when you are craving a little social contact.

Forget getting ready to go out to see friends, because you can do so without ever having to get into a car or shedding your pajamas.

After logging in to the friendly blue and white home page, you are instantly greeted by the online community where everybody knows your name.

Anticipation grows as you enter your profile page to search for new wall posts and messages in your inbox.

After a few scrolls through some friends with recently updated profiles, you log off to go do other things.

Those were the days when all of our needs were met by a much simpler Facebook.

But now, the neighborhood coffee shop feel of Facebook is rapidly approaching a Starbucks takeover.

While I applaud Mark Zuckerberg for working to stay true to the original Facebook vision with increased privacy settings, I question whether Facebook has made a Faustian bargain in allowing advertisers access to its users profiles.

As Facebook grew, advertising wolves noticed and began to salivate at the prospect of targeting the online shopping collegiate sheep.

Facebook eventually caved to the wolves, and now lists in its official privacy policy it may use third parties to facilitate our business and these third parties may have access to your personal information for use for a limited time in connection with these business activities.

This saddens me, as my once neighborhood Facebook is now going corporate.

The privacy policy explanation on Facebook works to soothe its users by stating unidentified profile information usage given to third parties is a benefit to users.

In fact, Facebook goes so far as to paint a pretty picture of its partnership with third parties by telling us personalized promotions help you know more about the world around you.

I do not know what your profile ads are, but mine seem to be about jewelry, online T-shirts and perfect summer time abs. Gosh, with these amazing contributions to my worldview, I might just cease to watch CNN.

While I am not a fan of corporate profile creeping, I do acknowledge the fact Facebook is working to temper the situation by adding more privacy controls and advertising constraints.

But is it enough?

Facebook was once a simple messaging service and photo sharing Web site for friends around the country. I found these features perfectly satisfying.

Then came the mini-feed, targeted ads, applications (including everyone s favorite Zombie/Vampire wars), universal access, friend-of-a-friend referrals, instant messaging and the end of simplicity.

The list of attractions is growing all the time, and with such incredible access to personal information, we all should keep a watchful eye on Zuckerberg and his Facebook kingdom of which we are a part.

Facebook s two ruling principles are that its users should have control over their personal information and access to the information others want to share.

These ideals are all well and good, but in the implementation of them, a dangerous grey area is created.

The grey area is breeding ground for companies wanting to make a buck and stalkers wanting to creep into your life.

Facebook has increased the grey area by enabling features to gain capital. Bit by bit it is selling off its founding principles in exchange for financial prowess and, in the words of Facebook, increased user benefits.

It is my sincere hope Facebook will remain strong in its founding principles, because it is an online community that provides us with many good things.

Facebook allows us to keep in touch with friends, family and loved ones, and it can even brighten a day with the one dollar gift of a heart shaped balloon.

It can provide instant status elevation when you acknowledge the official invitation to be in a relationship.

You can also reach out to friends in need when you learn of rough times through a status update or heartfelt note.

These aspects of Facebook have become a part of our culture, and I would like to think for the better as long as Zuckerberg stays true to his original vision for Facebook, so the Facebook users will not become the Facebook used.Julia Holmes is a science education junior.

Editorial: Higher Priority for Higher Education

April 29, 2008

By staff editorial

Source: Oklahoma Daily, U. Oklahoma

 First it was gas. Then it was groceries.

Now, thanks to the state Legislature, students will likely be able to add tuition and fees to the list of things that cost more than ever.

On Tuesday, Gov. Brad Henry signed a state appropriations bill that will maintain last year s budget without providing state agencies any new money.

While the state s budget is at a standstill, the prices of things like health care, utilities and maintenance are not, and OU needs an additional $20.5 million in its budget for the next year.

That means students will likely be asked to shoulder the burdens associated with recession and inflation, in the form of a 9.9 percent increase in tuition and fees next year (see Page 1 for details).

This hike in tuition and fees would be painful under any circumstances, but it s downright insulting because it didn t have to happen.

If the Legislature had been more fiscally responsible two years ago, when it had hundreds of millions of dollars available in new allocations, it might not be necessary to shift the already spiraling costs of higher education to students.

Instead of saving some money when it was operating with a surplus, the Legislature decided to dole out tax cuts like Barack Obama does handshakes.

This year, those tax cuts cost the state $350 million.

An allocation of less than half that to higher education would have prevented tuition hikes at OU and schools across the state.

But it gets worse.

Even if the state was facing a budget shortfall this year, the Legislature has money available that it could choose to spend. The Rainy Day Fund is a state savings account designed to be used in lean budget years.

Well, it s raining.

With energy prices and health care costs on the rise, this seems like a good time for the state to dip into the Rainy Day Fund and put money in high-priority areas.

Higher education clearly isn t such an area especially in light of the state s irresponsible spending when it had a surplus and its unwillingness to help alleviate the effects of a shortfall.

Tax cuts are great for keeping voters satisfied in the short term. But if lawmakers are really interested in improving the state, they should invest in the institutions that are educating Oklahomans.

Oklahoma State works on $710M sports Xanadu

April 30, 2008

By JUSTIN SMITH

 

Daily O’Collegian, Oklahoma State U.

For Oklahoma State University, getting the new Athletic Village from dirt mounds to sports complexes is a matter of time and money.

The fund invested into BP Capital needs be worth at least $400 million before beginning more complexes in the Athletic Village.

“At the end of 2007, it was [worth] $330 million,” said Mike Holder, OSU athletic director and president of Cowboy Athletics Inc.

Cowboy Athletics Inc., a nonprofit organization, holds the investment fund started with the $165 million donation that oil tycoon and OSU alumnus Boone Pickens made to the athletic department in January 2006.

Bank of America will credit up to 60 percent of the net asset value of the fund, Holder said.

“We’ve got about $240 million worth of stuff on the books right now,” he said. “We haven’t spent all of it, but by the time we finish the west end zone, finish buying all the properties for the Athletic Village and reconstruct Hall of Fame Avenue, we will have spent $240 million.”

At the fund’s target return rate of 20 percent annually, it will reach $400 million before May 2009, Holder said.

Further increases to $710 million will be needed before the village can be completed, which he expects to happen by March 2012, he said.

The Sherman E. Smith Indoor Practice Facility is the next major structure to be started in the Athletic Village and will cost $40 million, said John Houck, general manager of Cowboys Athletic Facilities LLC.

OSU alumnus Smith donated $20 million toward the practice complex in January 2007.

It features a playing field, which can be a football field, a soccer field, two baseball or softball infields or a track with infield, according to plans and renderings from Sparks Architecture of Tulsa.

The architecture firm hasn’t released any figures on the size of the indoor practice complex.

According to Master Plan maps and renderings, the complex appears to be about half the square footage of Boone Pickens Stadium.

Plans for the other buildings that will replace about 330 residential properties are still in the works, Houck said.

A schedule for the next year is in place, he said.

The general admission seating on the west end of Boone Pickens Stadium should be finished in late August, and the suites and other accommodations should be wrapped up in about a year, Houck said.

Landscaping issues in the Athletic Village, including regrading the dirt south of McElroy Road and managing the floodplain and the creek that runs under the road will also start in the fall, he said.

Other developments in the village include a soccer/track complex, tennis complex and a baseball stadium and practice field, he said.

The equestrian center, which will be built on Highway 51 about one-half mile west of Western Road, will also be a part of athletic development, he said.

“I haven’t even gotten to initial developments yet of those last projects,” Houck said. “I’ll be busy for the next 10 years, probably.”

Hall of Fame Avenue is scheduled to reopen in August and will be for the city’s use, he said.

The city and the university had some issues over the ownership of Hall of Fame Avenue north of the stadium after the university closed it in February 2005.

The matter was resolved in an agreement on July 28, 2006, between city and university officials where the university created an easement for the city to maintain control of Hall of Fame Avenue, according to a university press release.

Now that only a few residents remain in the area, the attention has turned to making the Athletic Village a reality.

All the coaches were optimistic about the Athletic Village.

Coach Mike Gundy said he thinks that when Boone Pickens Stadium is completed a lot more recruits will be attracted to the program.

“Young people want something that’s new and shiny,” Gundy said. “They want to feel like that you have everything that they can take advantage of in order to make themselves a better player.”

The national media coverage that Pickens received after his donation acted as a marketing tool to attract attention to what was happening with the Athletic Village, regardless of whether it was meant to, Gundy said.

“I think everybody in the country now is aware of Oklahoma State University,” Gundy said. “That’s just a fact, the way it is. People know who Donald Trump is; people know who Boone Pickens is.”

Baseball coach Frank Anderson is in his fifth year as coach of the Cowboys and doesn’t know all the details of the planned baseball stadium.

“We don’t know exactly the timetable or anything like that, but no, we’re excited about what they’re doing and what Coach Holder and the athletic department have done to this point and what’s going to be done in the future,” Anderson said.

The Cowboys’ stadium, Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, opened in 1982.

Anderson said the members of the athletic programs got to meet with Sparks Architecture in 2006 to describe what they would like to have at the indoor practice complex.

“I think they’ve taking a little bit of everybody’s (suggestions) and I think it will be just a tremendous facility,” Anderson said.

He said some details about the new baseball stadium, such as offices and workout rooms, have been talked about but nothing has been set.

Softball coach Rich Wieligman said the indoor practice complex will help the team during cold and rainy weather.

“That’s gonna be huge because we do have inclement weather in January and February,” Wieligman said. “And, with the way the size of this building is going to be, we’re gonna be able to have a full-field practice.”

The height of the building is also impressive, he said.

“We won’t be able to hit the ceiling with a fly ball,” he said.

Wieligman, in his second year at OSU, said Cowgirl Stadium is one of the newest sports venues on campus, completed in 2004, so other sports will be focused on first.

He said he thinks the village will set a precedent.

“When you talk about an athletic village, of putting all the sports in one area and the way it’s gonna be developed, I think it’s gonna be beautiful,” he said. “I don’t think it’s like that [at any other college].”

Equestrian coach Larry Sanchez said the new equestrian center’s location will provide more visibility to the program.

The Animal Science Arena has an indoor arena that seats 1,000 and an outdoor arena.

Sanchez said the new center will have double the seating area and a covered outdoor arena.

The athletic improvements will open up many doors for OSU sports, he said.

“In order to compete nationally like Coach Holder is wanting to do in all our sports, we definitely needed to address some facility concerns,” Sanchez said. “And so, I see it as a being a very big positive to the opportunities that all sports are going to have to compete nationally.”