OSU students getting hooked on bass fishing; Obama’s running mate is Joe Biden; the new Multimodal Transportation Terminal, also known as the Monroe Street Parking Garage, is now open.

 

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When a Daily O’Collegian reporter took to the streets Sunday afternoon to ask students their thoughts on Barack Obama naming Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate, the responses he heard were about the same

By Allison McCartney
Staff Writer
news@ocolly.com

Students will have more parking spots, and bus riders will have a cooler waiting area in a five-story building opening Monday.
The $22-million Multimodal Transportation Terminal also called the Monroe Street Parking Garage, is at the southeast corner of Monroe and Hall of Fame.
The first floor will serve as a lobby and waiting area for buses.
The rest of the building includes 1,100 parking spaces and administrative offices for the Department of Parking and Transit Services to include the BOB office, said Steve Spradling, the director of parking and transit services.
Spradling said that this building will help connect the different modes of transportation in and around Stillwater.
“This building will add to the number of parking spaces and create a parking area with an interface with the campus and community transit system as well as an interface with the Tulsa Shuttle system,” Spradling said.
Construction began on this building about a year ago.
Now that it is finished, the site will serve as a hub for travelers in Stillwater as well as those who commute to Tulsa and some day, to other destinations in the region, said Lou Watkins, the OSU/A&M Board of Regents chair.
Watkins said this was an important project for OSU.
“The facility greatly improves our highly successful bus system at a time of great need with high fuel costs and provides much needed parking for the Stillwater campus,” Watkins said. “Riding the bus decreases vehicles on the campus, making the campus safer and healthier for pedestrians.”
Students can still purchase parking permits for the facility. The permits are $120 per year and can be purchased online. About 800 of the 1,500 allocated spots have been sold, Spradling said.
“Student spaces are oversold slightly because they turn over several times throughout the day,” he said. “I think we have set an oversell at a rate that will allow parking to be available at all times.”
One student said he is glad to have a parking garage closer to the west side of campus.
“It looks like it’s going to be nice and it’s definitely a lot closer to all my classes,” said Steven Hassenplug, a biological sciences senior.
The total cost of the building is $22 million — $15 million of which came from a grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The remainder was borrowed and will be paid back with parking permit fees, Spradling said.
Despite the cost, Watkins said that building this facility was good for OSU because it represents much more than just a parking garage.
“The facility supports the OSU land-grant mission in the areas of outreach and education by expanding access to higher education for people within Stillwater and across the region,” she said. “Truly, this facility is an example of government and university leaders working together to provide for public needs.”

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Casting a line gets less attention than throwing a football. But the OSU bass fishing team proves it doesn’t necessarily take a huge stadium to win games.

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Daily coverage of war, terrorism, energy crisis and global warming is turning newspapers and broadcast news into collectors of tragedies. The socially-conscious citizen of today requires a strong dose of courage and a good stomach to watch the news or read the paper in the morning and still be able to enjoy breakfast.