OSU Regents Address $41M Audit Fallout
Oklahoma State University continues to review a scathing audit that found improper allocations of $41 million dollars in state funds.
At Friday’s OSU Board of Regents meeting, Regent Jennifer Callahan revealed several new details about the timeline of an audit that found $41 million dollars in misspending.
The audit process started with an anonymous whistleblower tip last summer.
The tipster pointed to money that should have gone to core university services used for a specially created Innovation Foundation, which was designed to funnel funds toward specific university projects.
“The financial stability of the Innovation Foundation was increasingly unstable, and to not have acted like we did in January, more funds could have been diverted. The board did its job. But I think even more importantly, the system worked,” Callahan said.
Former President Kayse Shrum has denied the allegations. In a statement to reporters, she said all of the funds remain with OSU.
First Round Of Floor Debates Begin For Oklahoma Legislature
The first round of extensive floor debates in the Oklahoma Legislature began Monday.
Nearly 900 measures worked their way through committees in the two chambers by last week’s deadline.
State lawmakers started with more than 3,000 bills to consider when the legislative session began last month; now that number is down to 899.
The deadline for bills to be approved through their committees and slated for floor discussion in their chamber of origin was Thursday.
Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton said Monday marks the start of some “very, very long days” ahead.
“We've noticed a lot of senators have a lot of questions to be asked and a lot of robust debate. And some of these bills are taking a while to do. And that's just fine. That's what we're here for. And so we'll have those discussions on the floor,” Paxton said.
From immigration to taxation, education and healthcare—only 60 of the measures headed to the floor starting this week were drafted by Democrats.
Sludge Ban Bill Advances In State Senate
Spreading sludge from big city sewer treatment plants onto farmland would be banned by legislation approved by a state Senate committee.
Under the bill applying sludge would be reduced 25% this year, 50% next year, and stopped altogether in 2027.
Republican Senator Shane Jett of Shawnee supported the measure saying sludge has contaminates like forever chemicals which are affecting farmers and the food they produce.
“We're creating health problems for real farmers who are having to sell their land for pennies on the dollar and try to figure out why their wife got cancer,” Jett said.
Urban senators said the time limit is too short. They and the rural lawmakers talked of working together to find a solution.
The bill next goes to the full senate.
This story was produced by Sam Moore at The Freelancer.
Plan To Bring Closure In Some Oklahoma Tribal Communities
The remains of nearly 20 young people will return home to Oklahoma from a cemetery at what was the Carlisle Indian Boarding School.
Those Indigenous students were subjected to assimilation at a school more than 1,000 miles away from their homes.
Preparations are underway for the return of 18 Cheyenne and Arapaho children and young adults.
The Tribes’ Governor, Reggie Wasanna, said he can’t imagine the pain parents must have felt when their children did not return home.
“It would be very tough for someone just to watch their kid taken so and then the fact that you don't know if how they died,” Wasanna said.
Wassana said that is why bringing them back home to their traditional homelands is important, to facilitate healing.
The remains of the 18 Cheyenne and Arapaho relatives will be reinterred in Concho this September.
The remains of a young Seminole man named Wallace Perryman will also return to his homelands on the Seminole reservation in the fall.
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