O'Connell's Irish Pub & Grille to Close First Location

Longtime Norman nightlife staple O'Connell's Irish Pub & Grille will be closing its Lindsey Street location in January next year, leaving the local business' Campus Corner O'Connell's its sole location.

According to owner Jeff Stewart, the popular bar and restaurant received notice at the beginning of December from OU, which owns the property known as "the Corner" of Jenkins and Lindsey streets. 

     

"[There were] several ideas that they were going to put here, I understand, and dormitories met the best use for the property," said Stewart, who has been renting the property from OU since it acquired the area in 2008 after the state Board of Regents' approval. OU also bought property behind O'Connell's off of Lindsey on Lincoln Avenue in summer 2009. 

This closing notice, which neighboring businesses like Subway, Pad Thai and Campus Market received as well, came after the Board approved the $75-million project this fall.  

     

"It's of my understanding that by mid-February they'll bulldoze all of it," Stewart said.

     

OU plans to construct new, mid-rise Sooner Center Student Housing facilities starting sometime next year that will include more than 380 beds, central dining, computer labs, study rooms and a Faculty-in-Residence apartment. Parking will include approximately 65 spots.

     

Minutes detailing the project design, which was to be presented to the board for approval this fall, hadn't been posted at the time this story was posted.

     

The project will be completed by fall 2013.

     

Norman residents and O'Connell's regulars Gordon Mercer, Greg McDougal, Robert Killian and OU alumna Cassie Carson have been coming together for five years to watch Monday Night Football games while drinking from beer taps at their table.

     

Mercer, who has been coming since 1970 to O'Connell's, said its atmosphere is what has kept bringing him back, and isn't happy to see his favorite Monday-night locale shut down. 

     

"I think it's wrong," he said. "[O'Connell's] has been here a long time, it's a place where kids can go and release some steam from all the work that's required from education." 

     

Mercer and his friends said they don't know where they will go for hang-outs instead. 

     

"We'll meet somewhere, we've been doing it for a long time," he said, joking as the others sitting next to him laughed too. "Probably at the top of the parking garage."

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Video by: Alex Ewald and Chelsey Kraft

OU Offers Student-Athletes Tutoring

Brooke Campbell, Tutorial Coordinator of OU Athletic
Academic Services, poses by a display case located
near the student-athlete tutoring center.
PHOTO: Chelsey Kraft

            At the University of Oklahoma, student-athletes are provided with tutoring through Athletic Academic Services. While student-athletes are required to attend mandatory tutoring sessions, they also have the option of scheduling sessions when additional help is needed. Approximately 50 tutors are available to assist the student-athletes, and Brooke Campbell is responsible for the coordinating of these sessions.

            Campbell just completed her first year of her Master’s Degree in Adult and Higher Education with an emphasis in Intercollegiate Athletic Administration at OU and serves as the Tutorial Coordinator of OU Athletic Academic Services. She says that on a daily basis she schedules sessions between student-athletes and tutors as well as manages payroll for the tutors.

            According to the Fall 2010 Tutoring Manual, tutoring is offered in all subject areas, and student-athletes can visit any of the three learning center labs dedicated to mathematics, language and writing and study skills. Student-athletes are also given the option to work one on one with a tutor or in small groups with tutors to review course material.

            For Campbell, her current job is ideal in preparing her to reach her career goals.

“I want to make a difference in someone’s life. I see all the potential that student-athletes have and understand all of the stresses that they are facing now. I want to serve some role where I can be an influential person for even just one person - advise them, train them, educate them, mentor them,” Campbell says. “I have a great job and am meeting some very important people who can guide me to the sort of position I have just described.”

            To read more about tutoring and other academic services offered to student-athletes visit http://www.soonersports.com/acad-services/okla-academic-support.html. 

Brooke Campbell explains some of the tasks she performs as Tutorial Coordinator of OU Athletic Academic Services.