O'Connell's, O'People, O'My!

With the OU football team playing its first away game of the season tonight, bars on Campus Corner will be less busy than an average home game week. Still, away games are important to different locations, such as O’Connell’s Irish Pub and Grille, which expect a crowd to gather to watch the game.    

Charity Smith, a cocktail waitress who works at both the Campus Corner and Lindsey locations of O’Connell’s, says both bars tend to fill up on away game days as people come in for watch parties. Despite the increased crowds that filter through O’Connell’s during home games, Smith said there is not much increased revenue. The bar has to both pay for all the products they sell as well as for following ordinances of Campus Corner.   

Ben Towler, a bartender at O'Connell's 

Irish Pub and Grille, pours shots for

customers.

Home game days are mandatory workdays for all O’Connell’s employees. The bar even brings in staff members that have not worked at the bar in a while because the full staff is not enough. Ben Towler, a bartender at O’Connell’s, said that open to close, the bar is usually full. While there might be a down period every now and then, there are times that the doors have to be closed off because of the over-crowding. With crowds this large during home games, staff of O’Connell’s welcomes the break an away game provides.    

 “We love home games, but at the same time, they take a lot to prepare for. Think of the biggest sale ever that you could have in a department store, and that is kind of what a game day is, but it just takes so much time to prep then recover from it that we kind of need a business week off,” Smith said.   

O’Connell’s will again have a break next week as the Sooners head to Dallas for the matchup against Texas before returning to play Iowa State in Norman on Oct. 16.

Center for Social Justice Brings Activist to OU

Award-winning columnist and blogger Mona Eltahawy spoke to University of Oklahoma students Wednesday about how social media can be used for activism. OU’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program Center for Social Justice sponsored the event, titled “Blogging for Social Change.”

Eltahawy, a Muslim who was born in Egypt, offered examples of how “new media” has had a strong impact in the Middle East. One story discussed how this past summer, social media sites, such as Facebook, were used in Egypt to tackle police brutality following the beating of a young man.

Stephanie Heck, program coordinator for the Center for Social Justice, says Eltahawy was the students’ and faculty members’ top pick for the Activist-in-Residence for the Fall 2010 semester, meaning she is living in Norman and sharing her experiences with students. “We thought Mona would be perfect to talk to students about writing, blogging and provoking action in others, challenging authority, writing from the heart and incorporating activism into young people’s lives,” Heck said.

According to Heck, the role of the Center for Social Justice, which is in its third semester, is to promote gender justice, equality, tolerance and human rights through local and global engagement. “By participating in programs, classes and events sponsored by the Center, students receive practical and academic tools to better understand the sources of inequality in their local and global communities and the means to address them,” Heck said. She added that the Center provides opportunities for students to become engaged citizens by creating a platform for gender and social justice advocacy.

Some upcoming events sponsored by the Center for Social Justice include a Menstruation poetry/essay reading Monday, Sept. 20 at 8 pm in the Women’s and Gender Studies Library in Robertson Hall Room 100 and “My America, My Islam: Muslims talk about Islam in America and the New York Islamic Center Controversy,” a panel discussion held Tuesday, Sept. 21 at 9 pm, in the Regents Room of the Oklahoma Memorial Union. Eltahawy will be a part of both events. Visit Eltahawy’s blog at http://www.monaeltahawy.com/blog/ or read more about the Center for Social Justice at http://peace.ou.edu/.