Students Leaving Campus for Thanksgiving
When OU classes end on Tuesday, many students are leaving campus to travel to their hometowns for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Break will start Wednesday November 25 and last through Friday November 27.

“I haven’t even heard anyone say they’re staying in Norman over the break,” Chad Kelly said, who’s going to Houston for Thanksgiving. “Norman will probably be completely empty”.

Students will return for classes Monday November 30, and will not see another break until finals week is over Friday December 18.

Check out the video coverage below:

OU Student to Fulfill Music Dream
Sophomore Rusty Redden isn’t your average OU student; in fact, Redden will be completing a dream of his starting next semester.

Redden will be transferring to Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee – one of the nation’s most prestigious musical schools. In the past few months Redden has even been paid to play guitar, alongside his band, in several popular Dallas locations.

“When I leave for Belmont University, hopefully it’ll be a big step in becoming a well-known musician,” Redden said. “I mean Dave [Matthews] started out like this, so maybe someday my music will impact other's lives”.

Redden and his band will continue playing in different locations this semester, and then Redden will start classes at Belmont University in January.

Check out the video and slideshow below:

17,000 Square Foot Addition Implemented for Ellsworth Collings Hall

OU President David L. Boren has approved a capital fund-raising campaign to meet the growing and evolving needs of the College of Education’s students in order to continue the tradition of providing an outstanding and challenging educational environment, according to OU College of Education website.

The College of Education has experienced tremendous growth that exceeds the capacity of the existing building, resulting in the 17,000 square foot addition to Collings Hall. Improved facilities are needed to continue to bring in top students and faculty, and provide the most appropriate learning environment.

"We are able to start construction because of a generous gift," Bill Moakley said, Director of Communications for the College of Education. "[The College of Education] looks forward to starting the Fall 2010 semester".

The projected completion date for Collings Hall is late spring or earlier summer of 2010 and they anticipate holding classes in the building in the fall of 2010, according to Moakley.

See the video and slideshow below:

Shack-a-thon to Help Less-Fortunate Wednesday
All of the proceeds from the OU Shack-a-thon will go toward a local Norman family.

Tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. in the South Oval, students will create their own shacks made from cardboard, tape and other easily accessible items. The students will be collecting donations to fund the next Habitat for Humanity house build.

“Shack-a-thon is a creative way to give back to the Norman community,” Jason Denny said, a Shack-a-thon volunteer. “Many students have spare change they won’t use so we will be collecting it all day.”

Habitat for Humanity will build a house for a less-fortunate Norman family with Shack-a-thon donations accounting for partial building costs.

See the video and slideshow below:

A student runs near the Cate Center dormitories Friday. Cate Center is currently under renovations.

Cate Center Significantly More Affordable than Towers
Although the Cate Center quads are undergoing renovations, Cate is still the most affordable of the residence halls.

The Cate Center rooms are the last to be upgraded; therefore the prices are significantly lower than the Adams, Couch or Walker towers. The cost is $4,312 for a single room in the quads, while the price to live in the towers is $5,010 for a single room, according to the Housing and Food Services website.

“I had to switch from the Cate Center dormitories to Couch dormitories because the difference in price was not worth the lack of quality,” freshman Laurence Greene said, a former Cate Center resident.

The plan is to completely finish upgrading all four dormitory options.

Students Find Ozone Confusing
Ozone has become the new campus enrolling program for the spring semester and some students are finding the switch difficult.

Any students planning on attending OU next semester must use ozone.ou.edu to enroll for their classes. Enroll.ou.edu will no longer be effective, except for practice schedules. There are Ozone training seminars for students with less than 60 credit hours.

“The enroll site that [students] are accustomed to worked just fine,” junior James Mobley said. “Switching to something completely new during the middle of a school year doesn’t really make sense. It's much more difficult than the original”.

Ozone is considered the future of campus enrolling and no current plans to return to the original enroll site is expected.