It's Raining Men Event

It’s Raining Men

This year Phi Mu will be hosting their annual philanthropy event, It’s Raining Men on March 30, at the Powerhouse on University. The event will be a male beauty pageant stocked full of a modeling portion and question and answer interview potion involving over 15 contestants.
The way the men are chosen to participate is by being put up by a fraternity or sorority. In order for an organization to nominate a gentlemen to represent them, they must pay one hundred dollars, which will go to Phi Mu’s national philanthropy, Children’s Miracle Network and our local philanthropy, LeBoneur Children’s Hospital.
After all rounds are completed a panel of judges will pick a winner and he will be crowned Mr. Phi Mu. He will hold this title for the remainder of the 2011 year and the rest of the following year until the pageant takes place again and another Mr. Phi Mu is chosen. Phi Mu’s philanthropy chairman, Stephanie Burkholder, said that the pageant will be very exciting this year and full of lively entertainment. She also said that she along with the rest of her sorority are expecting a very big turn out this year.
\ Last years winner was Pike Fraternity’s treasurer, Patrick Blyer. Blyer, who charmed last year’s crowd with his humor, whit, and good looks, was excited to carry out the title. Blyer says that the first person he called after he won last year was his mom. “She was excited for me, but I don’t think she understood just how important of a title it was.” He also went on to say that giving up his crown will be bitter sweet and only another member of the Pike Fraternity could these big shoes.
It’s Raining Men is design to be funny and entertaining. The event is open to the public. “The Powerhouse will be large enough to hold several hundreds people so a large number of viewers that come to see the pageant should not be a problem”, said Burkholder.
Tickets can be bought ahead of time from a member of the Phi Mu sorority or purchased at the door. Refreshments will also be available in the main lobby of the Powerhouse and the entertainment of the night will be announced at a later date. Sydney Bales, Phi Mu’s social chairman said that she and the rest of the Phi Mu’s are “so eager for the event and have been preparing and continue to prepare until March 30th gets here”.

Ole Miss Wireless

The University of Mississippi wireless network has been a frustrating topic for students since it first began roughly three years ago. Students complain of problems with major websites such as Facebook, ESPN, and Twitter, as well website used for school, like Blackboard and My Spanish Lab, just to name a few. According to a map posted on the Information Technology (IT) website, Ole Miss wireless internet is not even offered in several buildings on campus, such as Bondurant Hall, Bishop Hall, Shoemaker Hall, Hume Hall, and Coulter Hall. There is not even wireless available in the Circle.

“Overall the wireless internet at Ole Miss isn't that good.” Michael Curvey, a junior exercise science major, said. “There are weak spots on campus everywhere and some buildings don't even have wireless. Coulter doesn't even have Ole Miss Wireless. It has its own generic router.”

Of all of the complaints about Ole Miss wireless, most of them seem to deal with the quality and consistency of the internet in housing around campus.

“I live in Campus Walk, and the internet here is very shoddy.” Curvey said. “Sometimes it will be fine, but that's only during the middle of the day when no one is here and late at night past midnight when most people are starting to go to bed. It could definitely be a lot better. There are many times here at Campus Walk when I get no service at all. Just the other night, in the middle of submitting homework, the internet went out and my work was lost and I had to re-do it all. I think with the influx in students this year, the servers can't handle the increase in traffic over previous years. I can't wait to see how good the internet will be next year with the even bigger incoming freshman class.”

A poor connection does not just affect students when it comes to school. In the case of Suzanne O’Donnell, a junior education major, who is studying abroad here at Ole Miss from Stranmills University College in Belfast, Ireland, it can determine whether or not she can stay in contact with her friends and family from back home.

““I've been very unimpressed by Ole Miss Wireless Network.” O’Donnell said. “It's really annoying not having reliable internet connections as it means I have no way of keeping in contact with my friends and family. For a lot of the international students, this is their first time away from home and not being able to communicate with family can make homesickness much worse. My parents get worried when they send me emails and I'm unable to reply, and my mobile phone doesn't work in this country.”

While many attribute the problem to the mass amount of people in a single area using the internet at the same time, other universities don’t seem to have that problem.

Kristin Johnson, a senior secondary education major at the University of Alabama, doesn’t experience problems with her on-campus internet.

“I never have a problem connecting, and staying connected, to the internet.” Johnson said. “Our professors never experience problems during class. The only time that I experience problems is during finals, when everyone is using it.”

Carson Hurt, senior accounting major at Auburn University, agrees with Johnson.

“My on-campus wireless internet generally works pretty well.” Hurt said. “The internet is very rarely down, my professors don't ever have problems connecting to websites in class, and I also never experience any problems with the speed of major websites.”

Other schools such as South Alabama, Mississippi State, Memphis, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Georgia, just to name a few, where students all agree.

Even Cyndie Robinson, a student at BYU-Idaho, says that her on-campus internet is “excellent” and “fast”.

Ole Miss wireless recently began using Cisco Systems, Inc. and it’s equipment to run the on-campus wireless.  And with it came the Cisco NAC Agent, one of the biggest complaints amongst students. With NAC you have to sign in every time you access on-campus internet. Students like Curvey and O’Donnell sometimes can’t even get onto the internet because the NAC login will time out, and not log them in. NAC also keeps students from being able to connect online with their gaming systems, like Xbox Live.

Robin Miller, Director of Technical Services, does not believe that the on-campus wireless is that bad.

“The general feedback I get concerning the usability and availability of wireless service for on campus use is positive.” Miller said. “Our goal is to deliver a quality service to this campus. As such it is very important that users report their problems with very specific details.

Items such as the device they are using, the operating system they are running, where they are located, what they are trying to do, whether it is stream video, play games, view pictures, exchange text, etc., what application they are using, Facebook, email, etc., where are they trying to get to on campus wireless or off campus, and of course what kind of issue they seem to be having, such as they can't connect to wireless, connect to wireless but can't connect to a site, connect to wireless and connect to a site but no response, connect to wireless and connect to site but site is slow, etc.

There are many layers and components to a network system. These are quite diverse and vary widely across a large enterprise network such as ours. Even more complex are the workings of the Internet once you leave the control of our campus wireless network.”

Miller encourages students to let administrators know if they believe there are problems with the on-campus internet.

“For some time we have enlisted the help of select students across campus who agreed to provide us with specific information related to their experience using wireless. We are very interested in hearing from all users and need their detailed input.” Miller said.

Robinson, a junior zoology major, believes that no university should have this kind of problem.

“A university has a duty to provide its students with functioning internet capabilities, especially if they are going to use internet testing and other internet resources as essential parts of the courses. To offer anything less is a huge mistake on their part.”

Goo Goo Dolls set to come to Ole Miss.

Goo Goo Dolls set to come to Ole Miss

By

Michael Prestwich

The hit band “The Goo Goo Dolls” are set to perform a free concert in the grove on April 3^rd, 2011. This event is being sponsored by the Student Programming board which is an organization under the Campus Programming board. The concert will be performed at the grove amphitheater.

The Goo Goo Dolls are a band based out Buffalo, New York. They were formed in 1986 by guitarist John Rzeznik and Bassist Robby Takac. The Goo Goo Dolls have 14 top ten hits and have sold over 9 million albums. Some of there more well known work was created in the mid to late nineties such as “Iris” and “Here Is Gone”.

Many students are very excited at the prospect of such a famous band coming to oxford. “They are one of my favorite bands,” said Ben Tedford, a freshmen “Its such a great opportunity that the SPG is doing this for us.”

The Student Programming board is an organization that operates solely with the purpose of providing entertainment and promoting student life. There website states they put on events such as “special events, pageants, musical entertainment, and a movie series”.

The event will also be a valuable tool for the recruitment of prospective new students to Ole Miss. Freshmen Kris Petrie says “ I will be bringing up younger friends of mine from high school for the concert so they can really get a taste of what Ole Miss is like.”

For More information regarding the concert or other on campus events, you can find the SPB on facebook or through the Ole Miss website.

University of Mississippi to host BIG Event

The University of Mississippi offers students a chance to be a part of the biggest service project that the campus has ever seen. Students are offered the chance to volunteer throughout the Oxford and Lafayette Co. community. The project hopes to build and strengthen relationships between the community and the students that reside within the community.

The Big Event will take place on March 26, 2011. The event hopes to start a tradition of volunteer work within the university. With over a year of planning put into this event, there is a lot of excitement brewing around this opportunity. “We are going to get some shovels and wheelbarrows and go into the community for some good community service” says ASB president, Taylor McGraw.

Students were asked to sign up via their My Ole Miss account. The deadline was March 4, 2011. Promotion for this event was shown through the Ole Miss website as well as Facebook; where videos were posted to advertise students willingness to help. These videos were presumably posted to spark other student’s excitement towards the project.

This opportunity for students to say thanks to the great community of Oxford is the first time anything like this has taken place. Other charitable projects on campus are focused on raising money for outside organizations, while this project is purely aimed at bettering the community that directly surrounds our campus.

At least 1,000 students will be a part of this project, says ASB advisor Melinda Carlson. One of the tasks at hand is to paint Faulkner Alley. Another task for the students is to spend time with some of the veterans in our community. The university hopes that students will realize how much the community of Oxford does for them, thus establishing a greater sense of gratitude for our students.

After the first week back from Spring Break, students will gather on that Saturday to begin the day of service. This project is meritless in the sense that there are no winners or losers. It is purely about the community. More information can be found via Facebook as well as the Ole Miss website.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/UM-BIG-Event/192641274085596

http://dos.orgsync.com/org/bigevent

Must Win for Rebels

ATLANTA- The Ole Miss Rebel Basketball team travels to one of the South's great basketball meccas, the Atlanta Georgia Dome for the annual SEC Tournament. The third seeded Rebels must defeat the reeling sixth seed out of the SEC East, South Carolina Gamecocks to have any chance of advancing to the Big Dance later this month.

The Rebels were defeated by the Gamecocks (14-15, 5-11) last month 79-73 in Columbia. The Gamecocks are led by their quick ball moving perimeter offense captained by Bruce Ellington. The 5-9' point guard averages just over thirteen points a game, and can distribute the ball well in the paint. The Rebels have struggled defending in the paint all season also as they have let countless big bodies work on their disadvantage of height.

The Gamecocks utilize their go to guy in the paint, Sam Muldrow (reigning SEC defensive player of the year), extremely effectively. The 6-9' senior uses his superior athletic ability to muscle over big defenders and score the ball. He averages just over eleven points per game. The Gamecocks have the pieces to go far in the tournament, but they just could not finish in the regular season.

Ole Miss coach, Andy Kennedy, stated Wednesday: "What gives me hope is we have shown "capable," we're not hoping for something that we haven't seen. We just need to see it more consistently. We have been really all over the map offensively, even from half to half where we'll shoot as we did in our last game against Arkansas." The Rebels shot close to fifty percent against the quick defending Razorbacks, but also shot a dismal thirty-eight percent against faltering Auburn. The Rebels will need a great shooting performance out of their two senior guards, Zach Graham and Chris Warren to ensure a victory Thursday.

Rebel Guard Zach Graham has averaged just over fourteen points a game and has been the biggest leader and influence on this Rebel Team. He stated:"Definitely. I felt a sense of urgency since the beginning of the season, before the season even started. But I think really with our team, it just comes down to focus. When we're focused and ready to play and ready to come out and play hard, we do fine." The Rebels need this kind of leadership and mentality to finish well in this rugged SEC tournament.

This game is a must win, but as everyone knows anything can happen in this always exciting tournament. There can be many different obstacles thrown at the Rebels, but it will go unnoticed unless this team finished strong.

Sources:
file:///Users/benlane/Desktop/University%20of%20Mississippi%20Official%20Athletic%20Site.webloc

file:///Users/benlane/Desktop/SOUTH%20CAROLINA%20GAMECOCKS%20Men%27s%20Basketball%20-%20SOUTH%20CAROLINA%20GAMECOCKS%20University%20Official%20Athletic%20Site.webloc

The Secret Sisterhood is Still Storng

The Secret Sisterhood is Still Strong

Resident assistant Catherine McCoy became concerned when she noticed the residence on her floor becoming inclusive with their certain group of friends. McCoy wanted to invent a way where everyone body on her floor knew everyone and would all become great friends. McCoy came up with a program called going grey.

Going grey is a program where everyone on the floor will be given a secret sister. The objective is for the residence to get to know their secret sister, without giving themselves away. Each residence will have to give an encouraging note,clues to who you are, and a gift no more than fifteen dollars.

McCoy calls her program going grey because it is a mix of all the racial colors. McCoy has noticed that the residence certain group of friends were all the same race, but some residence would talk to a different race. McCoy combined all the races into one to make one program for everybody. Red is native american and hispanics,white is caucasian, black is african american,brown is Indian from the asian-indian subcontinent and,yellow is asian, mixed together is grey.

“This program is important to me because I would like to see more new friendships on the floor and if young people can see beyond skin color then it will help make it better for future generations,” McCoy said. The program will last all for the entire spring semester. Everyone is suppose to get a little gift, clues about who their secret sister is, and an encouraging note to brighten up their day.

Still, five weeks later McCoy’s floor is filled with notes and gifts from everyone’s secret sister. Their are encouraging notes on residence’s white boards that are places outside of everyone’s door. Some residence even have received a gift The residence still have the rest of the semester to give out their notes, clues, and their gifts. With the response so far Going Grey will be a successful program.

“Even with weeks into the program I am getting a surprise almost every week, ” Jordan Clark said. Most of the hall is filled with letters or candy. The third floor in Hefley hall has turned into a successful secret sister hood.

Ole Miss Idol Continues: Round 2 70’s Night
This week in the Union, an even bigger crowd made up of students, parents, alumni, faculty, staff, and fans lined up to see the second round of Ole Miss Idol. This past Wednesday night the Student Programming Board concluded its annual event of the imitation of the popular American Idol. Ole Miss Idol was a smash hit this week with a theme of “70’s Night“.
The contestants were selected down to 20 contestants last week and the remaining singers were asked to perform a favorite song from the decade of the 70’s. Song choices ranged from the Temptations “My Girl”, to the Eagles “Desperado”.
After experiencing a slow start off and a few technical difficulties, the show ran smoothly and entertaining until about 9 that night. After all the performers had gone on stage, Kapule Grey, Student Programming Board Committee Member, announced the remaining twelve contestants left in the competition.
Britney Helmick, sophomore Ole Miss Idol contestant said the she was “very nervous and unsure of herself tonight.” Helmick also went on to say that, “Barbra Streisand [which is what her song choice was originally recorded by], is a hard act to follow”.
Next week, the remaining twelve contenders will perform an 80’s song for the audience and from there a group of approximately 6 will go on to compete for the title of Ole Miss Idol. Emily Wicks who was in the audience and a friend of contestant, Jacob Hickman said, “the competition is getting pretty competitive, but I believe Jacob has as good of a shot as any of the contestants.” Wicks, who is a Junior theater major at Ole Miss and has performed and judged several singing and talent competitions, plans on attending the preceding rounds to come, regardless of whether or not Jacob makes them or not.
Like the previous round, the Student Programming Board along with Papa John’s Pizza provided free pizza and drinks for the public. All rounds will also include the free food and will be open to the public as in the past. As for next week, 80’s Night is on the calendar and the university and the Student Programming Board expect another big crowd for this night.