Photo by Tanner Burrows/O’Collegian

Photo by Sean Mathews/O’Collegian

Photo by Sean Mathews/O’Collegian

Photo by Nathan Potter/O’Collegian

Photo by Nathan Potter/O’Collegian

Photo by Matt Barnard/O’Collegian

Photo by Matt Barnard/O’Collegian

Photo by Derek Hecksher/O’Collegian

Courtesy Photo

Cartoon by Perry Gaither/O’Collegian

The OSU Theatre will perform its first play of the season, “Spike Heels,” tonight at 7:30.

Located in the Fountain Square center is Go Bananas Smoothie Bar, an island-themed smoothie shop that opened in August. Matt Johnston, owner and manager of Go Bananas, said the store was inspired by a trip he took to Rosemary Beach in Florida.

A Burundi native and recent graduate of Oklahoma State University on Friday shared with students personal accounts of the genocide that took place in his neighboring country of Rwanda.

Oklahoma State’s basketball program received its first commitment of the 2006 class Sunday when Obi Muonelo verbally committed to the Cowboys.

Is there any question who will be the leader on the floor this season for the Oklahoma State men’s basketball team?

Well, I have your answer.

Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy has made no excuses since walking off the field after a 34-0 home shutout to Colorado Saturday.

He has readily admitted that the source of the Cowboy’s struggle this season — the offense — is not where it needs to be and the output against Colorado wasn’t something he saw happening when the season started.

Gundy has taken plenty of heat in the past two days and unless there is a drastic turnaround when his squad hosts Missouri this weekend, things only seem destined to get worse for the first year coach.

Entering just his third year as the head coach of Oklahoma State women’s track and cross country teams, Rene Sepulveda has taken a program once ranked consistently last in the Big 12 Conference to No. 14 in the country.

Smokers face contradicting rules on campus

Dear Editor,

I find it vaguely perplexing that there are signs posted all over campus reading, “No smoking within 25 feet of building entrance,” yet all of the ashtrays and “extinguish poles” are right next to the doors.

As a smoker, you are presented with quite a quandary: Do I put the butt where it needs to go and possibly violate other people’s airspace, or do I just throw it on the ground and litter instead?

I know the campus is big, but would it be that expensive to put cigarette butt disposals in more convenient and appropriate places?

Lori Lewis

Chemical engineering freshman

The road to tenure is long and strenuous

Dear Editor,

The news story and editorial in the O’Colly on Sept. 28 concerning the lawsuit in the English department ignore some basics concerning the process of granting professors tenure.

First, the process is not supposed to be based on “office politics,” but rather an objective assessment of the faculty member’s work.

OSU’s own written guidelines explicitly call on faculty and administration to put personal feelings aside when deciding on tenure. Departments are supposed to uphold clear, consistent and specific standards for tenure based on teaching, research and service.

Second, while lawsuits can endanger academic freedom, so can the possibility of a faculty member losing a job over expressing certain views.

Third, asking someone denied tenure to just walk away ignores that the fact that faculty do not just have jobs, they have careers. The road to tenure usually consists of at least five years of graduate work, a series of underpaid, one-year teaching or research positions and then a six-year period of intensive teaching and research.

Kate Moss has admitted to snorting cocaine. What a shocker.

A menace lurks the streets of Stillwater. It is a darkness that has multiplied, grown and spread through time.

This very menace threatens the physical well-being of every student and resident.

The OSU transit system is out of control and must be stopped.

Jeff and Susan Thain, the couple involved with the 2001 plane crash that killed two pilots and eight Cowboys, visited our campus on Saturday.

Their third trip to OSU since the accident illustrates the level of amiability present in the community of Stillwater.

It is comforting to ponder that these people still recall the devastation that struck our town when the news was released, and make the trip to join us for a weekend.

The organizations of the National Pan-Hellenic Council signed an agreement last week accepting the revisions to its party policy so parties can take place in the Student Union again, but the policy has not yet gone into effect.

Despite thunderstorms, rainfall and last-minute changes to its plans, the Residence Halls Association still had its planned celebration in the Kerr-Drummond Mezzanine Friday night.

The University of Georgia’s Graham Perdue professor of chemistry and director of the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry will give a lecture at the Seretean Center Concert Hall tonight from 7 to 8:30 on the Big Bang, Stephen Hawking and God.