The administration is working toward floating its own New Green Deal, and it’s a bit smokey.
There have been whisperings on campus about a new policy. President Clancy and the rest of the Board of Trustees have been slowly preparing everyone. They’ve been gaining support, having backroom dealings with deans and shaking more than a few shady hands. They have held conferences, spoken on the topic and talked with lawyers. Clancy has even been working on currying favor with the student body. So what exactly has our fearless leader (and his staff) been working on? Their own (Green) New Deal: create a campus where weed is legal.
This idea had a simple start. One day Clancy was reading The Denver Post, and he heard about a new policy that freshmen Democrats have been pushing lately: the Green New Deal. While first proposed by Jill Stein in 2012, it was picked up by the Democratic Party late last year. The Green New Deal, similar to the New Deal before it, is a set of programs focused on protecting the environment, specifically a renewed focus on lowering emissions and reducing fossil fuels while also encouraging companies to be green with tax incentives and subsidies.
Obviously, just like the rest of campus, no one cares about the environment (minus the Committee for Sustainability, of course), but if there is one thing we’ve learned the administration cares about in the past few months, it’s weed. Not only did Clancy host a day-long conference on weed called “Cannabis: What We Have Learned Through Scientific Research,” but he is also speaking on Feb. 18 about medical marijuana!
At his talk later this month, Clancy will discuss the risks and benefits of using medical marijuana. First step to push policy is obviously to educate people (aka tell just enough of the truth to get people on his side), and the other speaker at his talk is a lawyer who is talking about the legality of medical marijuana (obviously bribed to spin the law in a way only lawyers can).
Some of his remarks were leaked, and a personal favorite would have to be his line, “Honestly, who doesn’t wake and bake? And for some reason it’s not legal? Come on, look at all the benefits. The government is so behind the times. Not like TU, am I right?”
Right now, the current policy for weed, medical or otherwise, on campus is that it is not allowed, even though the state of Oklahoma just made medical marijuana legal. The administration’s Green New Deal would change that. From the leaked plans I have found, it looks like the administration’s plan has three main facets.
The first is pretty simple: work with the powers that be to allow medical marijuana on campus. If they have the card, they should be allowed to use the thing that their doctor determines is helpful. Leaked memos on the matter seem to show that they are very close on getting this rule adopted.
The next is a little more difficult: legalize recreational marijuana on campus. Clancy hasn’t delved into this topic in public appearances yet, which makes sense because the administration has to slowly work on persuading people, but it is in the works.
The final one is a little more blatant: there have been rumors that SA decided to cancel Ben Rector and instead get some more lit acts for Springfest: Snoop Dogg and Woody Nelson. They tried to get Cheech and Chong as well, but you know how that goes, we only have so much money to spend. In addition, they plan to do some creative renaming once the funding has been allotted and the backroom deals conclude. First on their list are Kush (Kendall) Hall and Marijuana (McFarlin) Library.
As the semester continues, expect to see more conferences and talks from Clancy as he and his administration work to persuade everyone to adopt their New Green Deal. Soon there will be more green on campus than just the money the bursar took from us.
