SHAWN STAFFORDLife & Arts Reporter

The Dark Knight has seen many faces since his first appearance in Detective Comics #27, published in May 1939.

Since his debut, Batman has become one of DC comics’ flagship heroes — spawning movies, TV shows, animated series and a handful of games.

With what will be the final chapter in Christopher Nolan’s movie series coming out this week, it seems like a perfect time to look back at Batman’s past.

Soon after he first appeared in Detective Comics, Batman received a comic of his own in 1940. This early Batman fol-lows the same motivation of the current

Batman: His parents are murdered in a senseless crime, so he decides to bring justice to an apparently lawless Gotham City.

The main difference between the current Batman and the original is the degree of violence. The contemporary Bruce Wayne will beat people to a pulp, but he would never kill them because that’s against his moral code. The original Batman didn’t have such hang ups and would stop criminals at any cost.

Everything was going great for Batman until his sales started to de-cline near the beginning of the 1960s. Most comic book characters

Between the various comic book, TV and movie adaptations of Batman, the Dark Night’s logo has been redesigned many times. Here are a few of the looks over the years.

TODAY The Farmers Market will be

open from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds, 615 E. Robinson St. There will be a selection of vegetables, fruits and flowers.

THURSDAY Joe Cocker and Huey Lewis and the News will perform from 7 to 11 p.m. at the OKC Zoo Amphitheater, 2011 NE 50th St., Oklahoma City. Tickets range from $42 to $125.

FRIDAY The 1952 film, “Moulin Rouge,”

will be screened at 6 and 9 p.m. in Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art’s Sandy Bell Gallery. The movie is based on the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

SATURDAY Early Beat, Brother Gruesome and Pilgrim and Pine will play a show at 9 p.m. at The Opolis, 113 N. Crawford Ave. Tickets will be $5 day-of-show.

SUNDAY Camille Harp and

John Calvin will perform as part of the Summer Breeze Concert Series from 7 to 10 p.m. at Lions Park, 450 S. Flood Ave. Harp is described as folk/country pop, and Calvin as blues and jazz-based.

MONDAY There is a Raja Yoga

Meditation course for beginners at 7 p.m. at the Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga Meditation Center, 4340 N.W. 23rd St., Oklahoma City. Admission is free.

TUESDAY Richard Love,

Bryan English and Nate Laughlin will be playing as part of the Summer Acoustic series from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Othellos, 434 Buchanan Ave. Admission is free.

THIS WEEK

For a full calendar of events, visit oudaily.com

“Bringing you Tomorrow’s News”

VOL . 9 7, I S S U E 16 3 J U LY 182 4 , 2 012A S PE C I A L P U BL IC AT ION F ROM

BATMANWILL THE FILM RISE TO SUCCESS?CAPED CRUSADER TO HIT THEATERS AGAIN THIS WEEK

“The Dark Knight Rises” — the final in film in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy — comes out Friday in theaters nationwide.

The film’s release comes four years after “The Dark Knight” and seven years after “Batman Begins.” In the movie, Bane (Tom Hardy) forces Batman (Christian Bale) to come out of retirement after an eight-year hiatus.

Bane poses a new kind of threat to Gotham City and Batman himself.

Bane is the character famous for “the break-ing of the bat” in Batman #497 and is widely regarded as one of the Dark Knight’s most das-tardly villains.

“The Dark Knight” made $158.4 million dur-ing its opening weekend, according to IMDb.com, and theaters expect the series’ final in-stallment to eclipse that number.

Warren Theatres in Moore has five screens showing the movie at midnight Friday, but the theater will continue to open more screens as demand dictates, said Kody Grubbs, box of-fice representative for the theater.

— Daily staff reports

INSIDE“The Dark Knight Rises” will be the end of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy — and that’s how it should be. (See page 5)

1940s 1966 1989 1990s 1997 2005

The evolution of the Caped Crusader

“Batman” TV series with Adam West (1966)

“Batman Begins” (2005)

“Batman Beyond” (1999)

“Batman” (1989)

“Batman, The Dark Knight Returns” (1989)

“The New Adventures of Batman” (1977)

AT A GLANCE Batman logo changes

“Batman with Robin, The Boy Wonder” (1941)

“Batman, Gotham Knights” (2003)

“Batman Knightfall” (1993)

From campy to classic and goofy to gritty, portrayals of Batman have seen it all

“Starting from 1989, Batman

could be seen in numerous movies,

an animated series and a

spinoff series.”

SEE BATMAN PAGE 5 PHO

TO P

RO

VID

ED

Photo of the Week

RicaRdo Patino/the daily

Incoming freshman Kyle Catchings (center) is greeted by Camp Crimson staff, cheerleading camp participants and others during check-in for the Boomer Session of Camp Crimson on Thursday, July 12. Visit OUDaily.com for more coverage of Camp Crimson including videos, slideshows, stories and more.

2 • July 18-24, 2012

Chris LuskEditor in Chief

James CorleyManaging Editor

Hillary McLainCampus Editor

Kedric KitchensSports Editor

Kyle MargerumLife & Arts Editor

Kayley GillespieOpinion Editor

Melodie LettkemanVisual Editor

160 Copeland Hall, 860 Van Vleet OvalNorman, OK 73019-2052

phone: 405-325-3666

email: dailynews@ou.edu

COLLEGE OF LAW

OU names new legal assistant director

associate law dean Michael Scaperlanda will direct the legal assistant education department, according to a press release.

the program was founded in 1968 and leads oU law center’s paralegal course offer-ings and certification program.

Scaperlanda joined oU law faculty in 1989 after graduating from the University of texas School of law with high honors in 1984 and prac-ticing law in Washington, d.c., and austin.

his work history includes having served as special assistant to the university president, faculty fellow in the norman campus pro-vost’s office and serving as chair on several com-mittees.

For more information, visit law.ou.edu.

Kendra Whitman, Campus Reporter

Tory SmiThCampus Reporter

After two weeks as a smoke-free campus, OUPD has given zero citations and a handful of verbal warnings, a police spokesman said.

Since the tobacco ban went into effect July 1, officers have seen people smoking on cam-pus but are only reminding violators about the new ban, OUPD Lt. Bruce Chan said.

“We’ve made a few contacts

but have not issued any cita-tions,” he said. “This is a new thing, so we’re going to take each case as they come up.”

Chan said he hopes volun-tary compliance and the uni-versity’s efforts to publicize the ban will be more preva-lent than citations to enforce the tobacco-free policy.

During the spring semes-ter, OU began using email notifications, outdoor signs, newspaper advertisements, posters and on-campus advertising to try to raise awareness of the policy, uni-versity spokesman Michael Nash said. Nearly 60 signs

No citations issued yet for smoking on campusTOBaCCO Ban

have been posted across campus to remind everyone that the university is now smoke-free, he said.

People also may be alert-ed to the policy change once they notice there are no lon-ger any cigarette disposals. Officials are in the process of removing about 300 ciga-rette disposal receptacles, Nash said.

Brett Burkland, under-graduate academic adviser for the English department, said he wonders how much

time groundskeepers actu-ally spend cleaning up ciga-rette litter.

“People smoke all the time out there — or used to — and I never noticed a huge mess or anything,” Burkland said.

Burkland said he has mixed feelings about the to-bacco ban.

“On the one hand, it seems to create a cleaner campus, but on the other hand, it seems maybe to be seriously denying people some free-doms,” he said. “It must be

very difficult for people who smoke, [like] employees be-cause they’re stuck at work. I don’t know where they would go.”

The university has no re-cords of citations given to those smoking within 25 feet of a door, and Chan said he can’t recall any time when OUPD wrote a citation for vi-olators of this rule.

“I don’t think it’s been a very big issue,” he said. “I’m not aware of it being a big issue.”

OUPD still working to raise awareness about new policy

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July 18-24, 2012 • 3

Joe Paterno was once one of the most re-spected and revered

coaches in college foot-ball, and his program was one of the most reputable in collegiate athletics. For nearly half a century, Happy Valley housed an institution that reflected the beauty and innocence of Mount Nittany and the green, foliaged hills that surrounded it.

Or so we thought.When Paterno built the

Penn State football pro-gram — his football pro-gram — from the ground up, he built a castle.

High walls and a deep moat kept intruders out, and Paterno sat atop his throne, tucked away in what he led us to believe was some sort of utopia — a place where student took precedence over athlete and character was preached as often as fundamentals.

He had created a for-tress. But brick and mor-tar are impenetrable from either side. And when Jerry Sandusky lit a fire from within that would consume a program and a university, the flame was trapped within those walls until everything inside had burned.

A legacy reduced to smoldering ash.Incinerated from the inside out.

All Paterno had to do was

open the door, let some-one in, point to Sandusky and say, “This is wrong. We don’t condone this. This isn’t what Penn State is about.”

But he couldn’t do it. Although Paterno’s pris-tine reputation would have been marred slightly, he could’ve saved his legacy, his job and, most impor-tantly, innocent children from unspeakable trauma. If he just would have done a little damage control. If he just would have done the right thing.

These are the things of Oedipus and Thyestes, and JoePa fits the role of the tragic hero to a T.

Here was a man so ob-sessed with how his legacy would define him that he allowed the most heinous of crimes to be commit-ted under his watch and sheltered the man who committed them to avoid tarnishing his own name. A man thought to be morally upright and of high char-acter swept one of the big-gest scandals in the history of college athletics under the rug to protect that reputation.

Irony of the most ex-treme degree.

So now, in retrospect, we have to ask ourselves: How did this happen? How can we keep it from happening again? Who is responsible for holding wrongdoers ac-countable when the pow-ers that be refuse to do so?

Penn State is a perfect example of why the castle model is unacceptable for athletic programs or institutions of any kind. Transparency is of para-mount importance, and when it is concealed, jus-tice follows suit.

People rise to their feet to applaud the efforts of the

COLUMN » FOOtbaLL

How Paterno let the castle he built consume him

Gene J. Puskar/The associaTed Press

a statue of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno stands outside beaver Stadium on thursday, July 12, in State College, Pa.

watchdog journalist when he or she uncovers a po-litical scandal or a govern-ment conspiracy, but in the world of sports, whenever journalists pry for informa-tion, it’s called intrusive or inconvenient. We’re dig-ging up dirt, trying to cast

someone in a bad light just to get a story. We’re too cynical.

This way of thinking has to change. The paradigm Penn State set is fatally flawed. It gave a coaching legend tyrannical power to limit access and filter

information, allowing for abuse to continue for at least a decade longer than it should have.

Yet, athletic depart-ments around the nation are structured similarly to Penn State and present the same set of obstacles that prevented Sandusky’s atrocities from being dis-covered earlier.

If there’s anything we’ve learned from this ordeal, it’s that the current model for athletic departments needs to be reformed. Transparency and ac-countability go hand-in-

hand, and justice can’t be served when partiality is protected.

Dillon Phillips is a journalism junior and assistant sports editor at The Daily. You can follow him on Twitter at @DillonPhillips_.

Dillon Phillipsdphillips85l@ou.edu

SPORTS COLUMNIST

OUDaily.comhear a breakdown of Joe Paterno’s broken legacy and what it means for the future of Penn state.

oudaily.com/sports

“Penn State is a perfect example of why the castle model is unacceptable for athletic programs or institutions of

any kind. Transparency is of paramount importance, and when it is concealed,

justice follows suit.”

PLACE AN ADPhone: 405-325-2521E-mail: classifi eds@ou.edu

Fax: 405-325-7517Campus Address: COH 149A

Payment is required at the time the ad is placed. Credit cards, cash, money orders or local checks accepted.

rrs TM

Line AdThere is a 2 line minimum charge; approximately 42 characters per line, including spaces and punctuation.(Cost = Days x # lines x $/line)

Classifi ed Display, Classifi ed Card Ad orGame SponsorshipContact an Acct Executive for details at 325-2521.

2 col (3.25 in) x 2 inchesSudoku ..............$760/monthBoggle ...............$760/monthHoroscope ........$760/month

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Line Ad ..................................................................................3 days priorPlace line ad by 9:00 a.m. 3 business days prior to publication.

Display Ad ............................................................................3 days priorClassifi ed Display or Classifi ed Card AdPlace your display, classifi ed display or classifi ed card ads by 5:00 p.m. 3 business days prior to publication.

The Oklahoma Daily is responsible for one day’s incorrect advertising. If your ad appears incorrectly, or if you wish to cancel your ad call 325-2521, before the deadline for cancellation in the next issue. Errors not the fault of the advertiser will be adjusted. Refunds will not be issued for late cancellations.

The Oklahoma Daily will not knowingly accept advertisements that discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religious preference, national origin or sexual orientation. Violations of this policy should be reported to The Oklahoma Daily Business Offi ce at325-2521. Help Wanted ads in The Oklahoma Daily are not to separate as to gender. Advertisers may not discriminate in employment ads based on race, color, religion or gender unless such qualifying factors are essential to a given position. All ads are subject to acceptance by The Oklahoma Daily. Ad acceptance may be re-evaluated at any time.

DEADLINES

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This is the watch Stephen Hollingshead, Jr. was

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Time of death 6:55pm.

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A drunk driver ruined somethingprecious. Amber Apodaca.

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4 • July 18-24, 2012

face quite the S ophie’s Choice when they aren’t bringing home the bacon for the publisher.

One, they can be killed off in a fantastic fashion never to be heard from again. Or two, they’re reinvented in hopes to grow with the changing times, only the strongest will survive here and most will try, but end up being killed.

Reinvention was the past of the Caped Crusader and he moved into the 1960s with a fresh coat of paint and a TV show.

A lot of Batman’s new-found success can be credit-ed to Adam West. He played the Dark Knight in the 1960s television series, which gave a much campier atmo-sphere, moving away from the gritty pulp style revenge stories Batman was known for. Batman was back on top, a new bat-mobile, new suit and a television series, things were looking up.

Moving through the 1970s, people started to want their dark Batman stories back. By the 1980s, Frank Miller and Alan Moore brought the grit-ty Batman back with a bang in their respective series, “The Dark Knight Returns” and “Batman: The Killing Joke.” These are highly influ-ential and have helped cre-ate the Batman many people today have grown up with.

S t a r t i n g f r o m 1 9 8 9 , Batman could be seen in nu-merous movies, an animat-ed series and a spinoff se-ries. Tim Burton’s 1989 film “Batman” perpetuated the dark, albeit zany, mood that fans have come to love.

Michael Keaton plays a raspy voiced caped cru-sader that clearly influ-enced Christian Bale’s per-formance 16 years later. Michael Keaton goes on to

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July 18-24, 2012 • 5

FILM

UPB to host screening of ‘Ruby Sparks’

The Union Programm-ing Board and Fox Searchlight will host a pre-miere of “Ruby Sparks” on Wednesday.

“Ruby Sparks” stars Paul Dano (“Little Miss Sunshine”), Zoe Kazan (“It’s Complicated”) and Annette Bening (“The Kids Are All Right”). The screening will begin at 8 p.m. at the Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Meacham Auditorium and is free to the public.

The directors of “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006), Jonathan Dayton and Valarie Faris, came together to direct the � lm.

The movie opens in theaters this August.

Mary Rogers, Life & Arts Reporter

The man, the myth, the legend Charlie Sheen is back at it

again on network television. No longer being constrained by CBS, Sheen has started a new stint in his colored acting career with his new television show “Anger Management.”

Sheen began his acting career with movie roles, starring in “Wall Street” and “Major League 2,” but Sheen did not become a household name until he began with the television show, “Two and a Half Men.”

The show premiered in 2003 on CBS. The pilot episode caught fire, and the show set America on fire with Sheen playing Charlie Harper, Jon Cryer playing Charlie’s younger brother Allen Harper and Angus T. Jones playing Allen’s son, Jake.

Nearly every show fol-lowed the same basic plot, with Charlie sleeping with some random girl in the be-ginning of the episode. Then as the episode went on, Allen would interject with some clever one-liners and Jake would add his naive, child-like opinion.

Most episodes ended with Charlie fleeing from his “re-lationship” with the girl he had met in the beginning of the episode, and there was an “I told you so” moment from Allen. The monotony of

the episodes began to bore Sheen, and he started dislik-ing the direction the show was going.

During his tenure with “Two and a Half Men,” Sheen made $1.25 million per show. This figure easily made Sheen the highest-paid television actor in history. Why would you throw away a seven-figure paycheck per episode?

The highly controversial actor was dropped from the show after 178 episodes due to his rising “I don’t care” at-titude. Cocaine use, refusal to go to rehab treatments and an overall lackluster perfor-mance led CBS and Warner Bros. to fire Sheen from the hit show in March 2011.

After his dismissal, Sheen said he was going to sue CBS and Warner Bros. for wrong-ful termination and that his return to television would be a big one.

Sheen’s “big” return to television came in late June, with the long-awaited pre-miere of his new television show, “Anger Management.” It is a sitcom loosely based on the feature length movie, “Anger Management (2003),” starring Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler.

In the spin-off sitcom, Sheen plays Charlie Gibson, a failed major league base-ball player who has fallen back on his psychology degree. Sheen is accompa-nied by Selma Blair (“Cruel Intentions,” “Hell Boy”), who plays Sheen’s therapist, Kate. Shawnee Smith (“Becker,” “Saw”) plays Charlie’s ex-wife, Jennifer Gibson.

The show follows Gibson as he tries to council his anger management group while trying to balance his relationship with Kate and his therapist with benefits, as

COLUMN » TELEVISION

Charlie Sheen’s return to TV has shortfalls but not insolvable

well as helping raise his teen-age daughter, Sam (played by Daniela Bodadilla).

When “Anger Management” premiered its first episode June 28, it shattered the record for rat-ings with 5.74 million view-ers tuning in — the most-watched sitcom premiere in television history.

Even with all the success “Anger Management” had

on its premiere, ratings have continually dropped, and the lack of funny lines really is a disappointment for those die-hard Sheen fans.

What made “Two and a Have Men” special was its ability to keep adding to the storyline and be origi-nal in content and charac-ter development. “Anger Management” is almost the opposite. It gives the

audience little versatility and almost no back story.

However, “Anger Management” is in its first season, and these shortfalls can be fixed. I hope so be-cause it has the cast and tal-ent to make a great sitcom.

Brent Stenstrom is a broadcasting and electronic media junior.

Brent Stenstromb33d5@live.com

LIFE & ARTS COLUMNIST

PHOTO PROVIDED

Charlie Sheen is back with a new television series, “Anger Management.”

This week was always going to be about one

thing and one thing only: Batman.

I’ve measured time as “days away from July 20” ever since the release date for “The Dark Knight Rises” was announced. I fully expect I’ll have seen the film no fewer than five times before it leaves theaters.

Like any good ’90s kid, I watched the animated series (and “Batman Beyond”). Like any kid with good ’60s par-ents, I watched the classic Adam West series. Like any good nerd, I have a stack of Batman comics at home under a few of Frank Miller’s “Dark Knight Universe” releases.

And like any sane person, I’ve been looking forward to “The Dark Knight Rises” ever since the credits rolled at the end of “The Dark Knight” premiere four years ago today.

We all know director Christopher Nolan is a genius. We all know he resurrected Batman on the silver screen from the depths of George Clooney’s nipple suit. Nolan’s cre-ation is the antithesis of Joel Schumacher’s atrocity, the op-posite of Tim Burton’s cartoony imagining, the inevitable adaptation of Miller’s masterpieces.

Batman films will probably never be as great as Nolan’s trilogy, which makes his final installment all the more tan-talizing. As I write this just more than two days until the premiere, I don’t want Nolan’s series to be over. But I know it needs to be.

I could watch more of Batman films until the end of time. So could most of us. Nolan knows that, but he’s doing the right thing: ending it before it goes bad. (And not filming it in cheesy 3-D.)

Even the best things in life can grow sour if they’re drawn out long enough, and the American entertainment indus-try is notorious for squeezing every last dollar out of a pos-sible cash cow — remember how “Lion King 1 ½” is a real movie that was made?

Nolan wants no part of it. Sure, he could make billions if he extended the series by three or four movies, but he wants to preserve what he’s created. Why add to what’s al-ready perfect and risk tarnishing it?

Yeah, there might be a Catwoman spin-off, but for Batman, Nolan has scripted a picturesque beginning, mid-dle and end. And that end is “The Dark Knight Rises.”

So go see it. If you have already, see it again. Because this week is about Batman.

James Corley is a journalism senior.

Nolan’s Batman is taking curtain call at just the right time

COLUMN » MOVIE PREVIEW

James Corleyjcorley@ou.edu

LIFE & ARTS COLUMNIST

BATMAN: Has undergone multiple makeovers Continued from page 1

play the Bat again in Batman returns.

The early 90s was a time of Batmania. The animated series was released in 1992, with it a whole new genera-tion of Bat-head.

This show was indoc-trinated into the Caped Crusader’s quest. It was dark enough to keep the young ones awake at night, but not so much that parents would keep their children from watching it.

Then came the George Clooney version in “Batman

& Robin” — which wasn’t the best in the series. What it does have, though, makes it worth a watch: rocket boots and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze. Who can beat that?

With the recent reboot of the series, Nolan took the darker story line from Miller’s Batman and put Bale in as Bruce Wayne. Starting from the beginning in his aptly titled “Batman Begins,” Nolan’s gritty retelling has garnered mass acclaim and led to a sequel, “The Dark

Knight.” This retelling of the classic Batman vs. Joker is a classic in itself.

And all of this has led us to now — “The Dark Knight Rises.” All signs point to this being the end to an amazing era of Batman, with him tak-ing on one of his strongest foes, Bane.

It should be interesting to see who will try and top this Batman and to see what the future has in store for the Caped Crusader. Either way, I’m excited to see the out-come of this thrilling trilogy.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Bruce Wayne, played by Christian Bale, in a scene from “The Dark Knight Rises.” Bale’s portrayal of Batman is based off of darker stories written by Frank Miller and Alan Moore in the 1980s.

During the weekend of April 26, 77 dead calls were reported out of 1,034 total people transported, Daves said.

Lary Love, office man-ager of Airport Express of Oklahoma City, also said his company keeps track of canceled calls. The compa-ny doesn’t bill for canceled calls, but they are not a big loss of income, he said.

In addition to campus-wide surveys, SafeRide held several focus groups, Daves said.

Daves said she invited students who had expressed concerns or submitted feed-back to participate in the focus groups to help deter-mine what changes needed to be made to reduce wait times.

“It’s not often that stu-dents want to come talk about SafeRide, so I thought, ‘This is my opportunity to get feedback from someone who is actually using the program,’” she said.

SafeRide dispatchers and student leaders from some of the university’s larger organizations — such as the Interfraternity Council, Multicultural Greek Council and UOSA — participated in this process, she said.

UOSA leaders support the new system and want to help students transition as

Tory SmiThCampus Reporter

The decision to change SafeRide was made after students, campus leaders and staff offered suggestions to help shorten long wait times — which included a voucher program, a univer-sity official said.

Beginning this week, stu-dents will be allotted three vouchers per week that will allow them to use the SafeRide program as long as they present a voucher to the cab driver, OU student programs director Brynn Daves said.

Daves said the need to revise the SafeRide system came from two main is-sues: the program’s growing popularity and the “middle-man” role the SafeRide dis-patchers played in the call process.

Sa f e R i d e d i sp at c h e r s told Daves the call process was often backlogged due to the sheer number of stu-dents calling each weekend night, she said. In addition, any mistake made when a student’s information was taken left the SafeRide and cab company dispatchers “going in circles” as they re-traced each step of the pro-cess, she said.

Daves said she believed the system needed to be more efficient to help short-en wait times and keep stu-dents from leaving before a cab picked them up.

M o d e r n d a n c e a n d human relations junior Lauren Lundeen said she likes the new system.

“One of the main reasons is it took about 20 minutes for SafeRide to get to stu-dents, and students had to go through multiple people,” she said. “Now you can im-mediately call taxis and get them there in half the time.”

Clyda Teegerstrom, owner of Yellow Cab of Norman, said that between 8 to 10 percent of the approximate-ly 70 calls her company re-ceives each night are “dead calls” — calls in which stu-dents don’t need the ride after all but don’t call to cancel.

She said her company receives very few canceled calls per weekend night, but her cab drivers appreciate when students inform them that they no longer need the ride they requested.

When students don’t call to cancel, cab drivers waste gas and miss the chance to give rides to people who ac-tually need them, she said.

6 • July 18-24, 2012

AT A GLANCENew vouchersStudents can pick up vouchers Monday through Friday in Oklahoma Memorial Union, Room 181. Students will need to present a current student ID to receive up to three vouchers per week.

Source: OU Student Affairs

SafeRide

Students influenced change, official saysChange to voucher system came from student suggestion

smoothly as possible, Vice President Rainey Sewell said in an email.

The vouchers have two features to alert drivers if a voucher has been copied, Daves said. Vouchers will be made of special paper dis-tinguishable by touch, and a hidden design will become visible on copied vouchers, she said.

SafeRide will determine how many vouchers to print each week based on the number of vouchers picked up the week before, she said.

Rapid growthSince SafeRide began in

2004, the number of pas-sengers picked up each year has gone from 3,425 to 35,544, according to rider-ship reports.

And although the num-ber of students using the free service has grown every year, the biggest jump came in 2011-12, when SafeRide was used 14,066 times more than the previous year.

There are typically 18 to 20 cabs participating in the program each weekend, Daves said. Daves said she doesn’t think more cabs will be needed since wait times should drop dramatically with the new system.

However, SafeRide can negotiate its contract with the cab companies if more cabs are needed in the fu-ture, she said.

The cab companies in-form SafeRide of how many more cabs they can afford to

insure and provide, she said. Daves also said SafeRide is open to allowing a third cab company to provide the ser-vice if the need arises but doesn’t think the program will need one yet.

Yellow Cab has worked with SafeRide since it began in 2004, and the company puts out 10 cabs each week-end. That number could increase if the need arose, Teegerstrom said.

“I truly hope it works out,” she said. “We want it to work. We’re OU alums, and we’ll work with [SafeRide] in every way possible, as long as it’s economically feasible.”

Teegerstrom said she hopes the voucher program will prevent students from using SafeRide for a free ride from one bar to another, as some have in the past.

Daves said she thinks the limited number of vouch-ers will keep students from using SafeRide as a “chauf-feur” from one stop to the next. She said the goal of the program is to make sure stu-dents get home safely, not to give them five free rides a night.

The cab company dis-patchers will verify that stu-dents have a voucher when they call, Daves said. They can still use the cab if they do not have a voucher, but they will have to pay for the ride, she said.

Public relations senior Braxton Banning said he wonders if the new voucher system will create problems

by making it more difficult for students to get a safe ride back home.

“ I t a l m o s t p r o m o t e s more drinking and driving because students without vouchers can no longer get a free ride,” he said.

Braxton said he uses the current SafeRide system about once every weekend.

Other changesIn addition to adding

vouchers, officials restruc-tured the program’s logistics in an effort to streamline the process.

Previously, when stu-dents called 405-325-RIDE, they spoke to a student dis-patcher who verified the caller’s name, pickup loca-tion, drop-off location and phone number. A different dispatcher would then call the cab company with the information, Daves said.

Now, students looking for a ride home will call one of the cab companies di-rectly — either Yellow Cab or Airport Express — using the phone numbers listed on the voucher, she said. Students who call 405-325-RIDE will hear a recorded message explaining the new system.

Officials hope cutting out one of the phone calls will help reduce opportunities for mistakes to happen.

“We’ve had situations when things have gotten miscommunicated, espe-cially when it’s very busy at certain times of the night,” Daves said.

Teegerstrom said she thinks it would help if stu-dent dispatchers continued to take down the initial in-formation from students re-questing a SafeRide cab.

In particular, she said she worries drivers will no lon-ger have a record of how long it takes them to pick up each student if there isn’t a student dispatcher writing down the time the cab is requested.

“I think that student dis-patchers that were more involved in each individ-ual call would certainly be good,” she said.

RIcaRDO PatInO/the DaIly

dandre fisher, adult higher education graduate student, works as he waits for students to pick up their SafeRide vouchers Tuesday, July 17, in the Oklahoma Memorial Union. Students are allowed three SafeRide vouchers each week.

Kyven ZhaO/the DaIly

SafeRide is a taxi service that will give students a free ride home from the bar on the weekends.

“I truly hope it works out. We want it to work. We’re OU alums, and we’ll

work with [SafeRide] in every way

possible, as long as it’s economically

feasible.”CLydA TEEGERsTRom, yELLow

CAb of NoRmAN owNER

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