Construction delayed after waterline puncture

Construction on Collings Hall caused a waterline to burst, flooding the walkway between it and Kaufman hall.

Workers accidentally drilled into the waterline on the north side of Collings one of the workers, utility worker Chad Williams said.

Utility workers had to go under ground through tunnels to shut the water off in Kaufman and Collings halls, Williams said.

“A lot of the valves are in a loop system,” he said. “We might have to shut off more than one to turn the water completely off.”

After breaking the line, workers opted for caution. Before utility workers could begin working on the pipe, they had to locate other departments’ lines, he said. Williams said the pipe would take about two to three hours to fix.

The construction on Collings would be delayed while the flooding was fixed, he said.

Students walked by and noticed the flooding on the sidewalk outside of Kaufman hall.

Joe Janowiak, history junior, said that students could walk in the water because it was not deep.

Jamie Birdwell/The Daily

Islam expert speaks on Islamic reformation and globalization

Reza Aslan, an expert on Islam and a New York Times bestselling author will speak to the OU community about the reformation facing Islam today.

The title of Aslan’s lecture, “How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization and the War on Terror,” is also the topic of his latest book, set to release in April.

The OU Center for Middle East Studies and the International Programs Center is hosting Aslan’s lecture.

“Reza Aslan is one of the most thoughtful, articulate and constructive Muslim voices in America today,” said Charles Kimball, religious studies director.

Kimball said Aslan’s work has helped put a face to the diversity and complexities that are shaping Muslim events worldwide and has helped clarify dynamics with the Western world.

Aslan’s lecture will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the Robert S. Kerr Auditorium in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.

He is also a University of Southern California fellow at the Center on Public Diplomacy and a Middle East analyst for CBS News.

LeighAnne Manwarren/The Daily

Boren op-ed published in Washington Post

OU President David Boren wrote an op-ed on bipartisanship that appeared in Tuesday’s edition of the Washington Post.

In advance of President Barack Obama’s Tuesday evening address to the U.S. Congress, Boren called on Obama to institutionalize bipartisanship in Washington, D.C.

Boren said the culture in Washington has changed for the worse since he was a U.S. senator, when members of congress from both parties regularly met outside the Capitol and developed both working and personal relationships.

Now, Boren said, legislators rarely interact with their colleagues in other parties. Instead, they attend ever more frequent party caucus meetings and strategize about how to attack the other party.

Boren said Obama should spend time meeting with members of congress individually and in small groups made up of members of different parties to foster friendliness and cooperation among different factions.

“To rebuild the belief of Americans in their own government and to create an environment of trust that is needed to restore economic stability, we must first rebuild bipartisan cooperation,” Boren said.

According to a transcript of the speech, Obama said “bipartisan” only once in his Tuesday address, which focused on his plans for recovering from the recession. He used the word in reference to a bill designed to provide education benefits to Americans who commit to national service.

Sexual orientation question added to UOSA general election ballot

Student Congress Tuesday night approved adding a question on the next general election ballot about whether to add sexual orientation to the university’s non-discrimination policy.

The general election will be March 31 and April 1.

Nicholas Harrison, author of the bill, said other universities in the U.S. have incorporated discrimination based on sexual orientation into their policies.

Harrison, chair of the diversity committee of the Graduate Senate, said the information provided by the vote will then go before the administration for consideration.

Congress also passed a bill that would add a question to the next general election ballot in regard to strengthening smoking restrictions. It also approved $2,450 in emergency funding for seven student organizations. Both bills go before the Graduate Student Senate in their next session.

Cadie Thompson/The Daily