Category: Journalism 377
Alcohol amnesty law to be effective in July
On April 12th Governor Bryant signed SB2197 making it a law in July. The law will allow for those consuming alcohol illegally to call for help and not face charges if someone is facing a medical emergency. However, the law does not provide protection for illegally supplying alcohol.
Cody Smith, Ole Miss law student, began advocating for the new law back in 2016 when he was on ASB during his undergrad at Ole Miss. He and the president of ASB at the time, Rod Bridges, started looking at the ways to represent students off campus.
“One issue that came to us was issues involving minors drinking,” Smith said. “Rod and I had heard of stories of incidents where minors had too much to drink and fell ill, but didn’t receive proper treatment.”
The University already has this policy where if minors are drinking, they can call without facing charges, however this only applied on campus.
“It was an initiative that I thought could lead to ASB having more of a role in representing students off of campus and it would have been an initiative that would have an actual positive impact on students,” Smith said. “I believe that there are more incidences happening off of campus than on, and this expands that protection.”
The bill was first introduced to the House the following year, but died in committee in 2017. This year, the bill was introduced to the Senate instead and with the help of Ole Miss alumni, Sen. Michael Watson of Pascagoula and Sen. Briggs Hopson of Vicksburg, the bill passed, was sent to the House for approval and then to the Governor to sign.
Sen. Watson got behind this bill because it was a great policy position to support in his opinion.
“It was important to me because it was important to someone on the ground who saw how beneficial it would be,” Watson said. “Additionally, I spent 7 years at Ole Miss and remember hearing about a few situations in which this would have been extremely helpful in getting some individuals needed treatment in a more timely manner.”
Smith believes now that students just need to be informed of the new law for it to have an impact.
“After well publicized deaths at LSU and Penn State, we need to do more to encourage students to seek help when there is a risk of alcohol poisoning” he said.
Bishop Lewis, Patrol Lieutenant for the Department of Police and Campus Safety, thinks the new law is good thing as it simply reinforces in a positive way what has already been happening in the community.
“We always want members of our community to call us for help when they (or others) need it,” Lt. Lewis said. “The only thing I would like to add about the new law is to point out that the callers should cooperate with law enforcement when we arrive. It makes our job easier, and allows us to help those that need it more quickly.”
Fortunately under this new law, the caller has to meet certain requirements under legislation. They must remain at the scene, provide information to law enforcement and cooperate with emergency personnel.
Hailey Mckee, junior public policy and journalism student, is in favor of this law, however she does see one potential downside.
“The passage of this law will not only allow people to feel safe while getting necessary help and medical attention on campus, but more importantly, it extends this protection to incidents that may occur off campus as well,” Mckee said. “Though this is a huge benefit to minors who have chosen to drink and may need assistance, having legal amnesty may cause underage citizens to engage in more dangerous drinking habits if they have a preconceived notion that they are already protected.”
Smith thinks this is a step in the right direction for the state of Mississippi, but there is still some more work that needs to be done.
“I would love to see additional language added that states the sick individual will not face charges,” he said.
Flying Tuk hoping city lowers the age limit of drivers for low-speed vehicles
The owners of Flying Tuk, a low-speed vehicle taxi service, have been pushing for the city to lower the driving age limit of the vehicles-for-hire.
Currently, the city requires a driver to be 21 years old to operate a taxi or low speed vehicle in Oxford. Danny Klimetz, co owner of the company, requested the age to be lowered because he’s having a hard time keeping a full staff of drivers in the spring.
“We get a lot of senior students that drive for us, which is great, but usually come the spring semester, they need to focus more on their school work, senior projects, applying for grad school, jobs, etc.,” Klimetz said. “We find ourselves with a driver shortage and our hope with lowering the age limit, we could appeal to a larger pool of eligible drivers.”
The three-wheeled low-speed vehicles run Monday to Saturday from 5pm to 1am or by appointment. The vehicles travel at a maximum of 25 mph on the Oxford streets and can fit up to a max of six people.
Former driver for the company, Je’ Michael Handy, is in favor of the city lowering the age limit.
“While working there, there wasn’t a lot of drivers, but lowering the age could possibly increase drivers,” Handy said. “18 year olds are license drivers just as well as 21 year olds and I don’t think it wouldn’t change much besides having more people that can make shifts easier.”
Klimetz said that the soon to be two-year old company currently has about 10 drivers on staff, but in the fall it’s closer to 20–25. Friday and Saturdays they will have either three or five tuks on the road depending on the weather and whats going on in town.
In last week’s board of alderman meeting, Klimetz requested the age to be lowered to 18, but Mayor Robyn Tannehill was not comfortable lowering it that low.
Junior marketing student, Tolley Yoste, loves riding with the Flying Tuk due to it’s fun experience and cheap prices, but does worry about the age being lowered.
“I don’t necessarily know if I would trust an 18 year old driving me around on a Flying Tuk,” Yoste said. “It kind of does scare me in a sense because I’m wondering if they really are responsible enough for that.”
As a owner, Klimetz says he understands the publics concern with lowering the age, but ultimately will be happy with whatever the board decides to lower it to.
“We are very selective as a company as to who we trust with our vehicles, but more importantly who we trust with our passengers,” Klimetz said. “I think just because someone is “younger” that doesn’t necessarily mean they are going to be riskier or more immature. There are 18 years old out their who I would trust a lot more then some 30 year olds.”
Junior integrated marketing student, Shea Young, thinks lowering the age will make the overall experience of riding with the Flying Tuk even better.
“I think it’s a good idea to lower the age limit because college students or younger adults are just as familiar with the Oxford area as older drivers are and usually Uber’s or taxi drivers don’t know the best short cuts or routes to your destination,” Young said. “We always have to tell our Uber’s how to get to the destination even though they have the route in their phone which is annoying.”
The board came to agreement in considering lowering the age to 20 and will further discuss April 17th at a public hearing before a possible vote on May 1st.
MLK Speeches You Might Not Know
Final Project Pitch
For one of my classes we had to interview a classmate, I interviewed senior Joy Addison.
Joy’s father is a war veteran and now has PTSD. Their family has struggled throughout her whole life and due to their struggles Joy wants to go to school to help others with PTSD especially in the workforce. She also does pageants and uses bettering those with PTSD as her platform to help spread awareness.
I think this would be a good feature story because it has an emotion factor as well as a relatable factor. There are many families who struggle with this and there is a lot of facts and stats to add to this story.
What Joy is doing is really inspiring and I think it would be a beneficial story to share with others what she’s doing and how they can help too.
Ole Miss alum Jess Holland returns to alma mater to discuss career and give advice to students.
Jesse Holland, Ole Miss alum and author of “Who is the Black Panther”, returned to his alma mater on Tuesday and talked to students, staff and members of the community in the Overby Center about his career as a writer and offered advice to students.
Holland expressed to the crowd to not be quiet about what you love and want to do.
“I am loud and proud about that I’m a comic book geek,” he said, “Lucas Films and Marvel would of never found me if I kept my passions hidden.”
Holland has been writing since 2005. His first book, “Black Men Built the Capitol: Discovering African-American History In and Around Washington” was published in 2007 and his second book “The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House” was published in 2016.
He was approached in 2016 to write a backstory for a character named Finn in the “Star Wars” trilogy and in September “The Force Awakens: Finn’s Story” came out.
A month later, Marvel reached out to him to write a book telling the origin of the Black Panther so they’d have an introduction of those characters for the movie that was coming out in 2018. In September of 2017, “Who is the Black Panther” was published and now is sold out internationally.
He emphasized the importance of having mentors and connecting with those in the area they want to be in.
“I have mentors in journalism, non fiction and fiction writing who I turn to,” he said. “Find your tribe and they’ll keep you on the right path.”
Holland majored in journalism and English as well as worked at the Oxford Eagle, the Daily Mississippian and hosted a radio show while at Ole Miss.
“Ole Miss allowed me to experiment and learn all types of journalism,” Holland said. “It gave me the opportunities to learn my craft.”
Holland left Ole Miss having done five internships and he stressed to students the importance of getting hands on experience
“It’s just as important to know what you don’t want to do as it is to know what you do want to do,” he said. “I got into journalism so I could write my books.”
For the upcoming future, Holland is in discussion with Marvel for a potential project as well as writing the outline’s for his next two non fiction projects.
“There will be more comic book and science fiction in my life, but I’m not going to leave non fiction behind.”
Chancellor Jeffery Vitter expressed that it’s always a good day when a esteemed alum returns and reaches out the students.
“I’m very proud he’s a graduate of our university,” he said. “He’s a role model to the university and an inspiration to our students.”
Sophomore and broadcast journalism student Andranita Williams enjoyed listening to all the advice Holland offered.
“I learned that if you want to be successful in journalism you need to surround yourself with people who desire to be into journalism as well,” she said, “I liked learning what I can do to become a better journalist.”
What Works: Week 8
Russian shopping mall fire killed 41 kids, 23 others; Putin blames ‘sloppiness’
This story caught my attention not only is it sad and very newsworthy, but one of my good friends is studying abroad in Moscow right now and I immediately needed to read it.
This article definitely has a hard news lead, stating, “Thousands of Russians took to the main square of a Siberian city Tuesday to confront local officials after a shopping mall fire killed at least 64 people, most of the children.” We learn who, what, when, and where all within one sentence.
I think on thing the writer does to help pull readers in is he doesn’t just say what happened, but he also writes about what Putin thinks and how officials are reacted to it. Many people are fascinated with leaders thoughts and actions and probably saw the title and needed to read more.
Also people generally always look for someone to blame and having that blame accused in this article probably pulled more readers in to see what went wrong and who’s responsible.
The writer used many officials and investigators as sources which added a lot of creditability to the story. Pretty much all of the sources agreed that it was pure sloppiness and there’s no explanation for the bad decisions that were made.
I personally find it so frightening that the doors were locked and no one could get out and that no alarm system went off signaling to anyone to get out in the first place.
Additional changes to Oxford’s proposed annexation map
More changes were proposed to the annexation map Tuesday at the Board of Alderman meeting. The next meeting on April 3rd will not be a public hearing on this topic and the board will vote on the final map.
The board and public went through the six areas that will be added to Oxford, totaling 12 square miles of land.
Area one had a change proposed by Alderman Rick Addy. After discussing with Joe Huggins, owner of Goose Feather Tree Farm located in that area, Addy proposed going back to the first map that was proposed in February which has the boundary line 600 feet away from the new 13 million road being constructed.
“I am ok with that as long as it doesn’t affect anything with the tree farm” Huggins said.
This changed was motioned by Alderman Addy and went unopposed.
Just like last meeting, most of the discussion centered around area four where the Southpointe subdivision resides.
Last meeting resident Jeff Byrd presented 48 signatures from other Southpointe residents who are against being annexed and two motions to move the boundary line lacked a second motion.
This meeting resident Matthew Farrell presented two maps, one containing a line drawn between the subdivision including the northern part in the annexation and excluding the southern one.
Farrell explained that south of the line is traditional family homes.
“We’re already developed”, he said.
Farrell also pressed that it’s an extra tax burden on these residents.
Mayor Robyn Tannehill explained that these residents receive and use city services such as sewage and water. She also stated that people who are also getting this tax burden from annexation don’t get these services.
“You’re paying for the water you use, but not the tax”, she said.
Tannehill also explained that this area will be able to receive fire and police safety as well as garbage services.
She reminded the room that the subdivisions in the county that use city water and sewer services from the city signed a contract stating they would not object to any future annexation from the city. This ordinance was not in place till six months after the Southpointe subdivision was developed resulting in no sign contract from them.
Farrell expressed that 60% of the neighborhood is strongly against this annexation and they are willing to take this fight further.
“We have a huge financial interest in this so we will take the next step, go to court and have someone represent us if needed,” he said.
Oxford Humane Society Revamps its Media Presence for the Pets
The Humane Society’s pet residents are drawing in more attention and adoptions than ever before through the help of their new and improved social media platforms.
Becca Stewart a sophomore accounting major tweeted at OLHS praising their new account. She says that she also enjoys that the twitter is geared more towards college age kids.
“I noticed the change around mid January. I really like [the tweets] and think they’re funny,” Stewart said. “It’s definitely gained the account more attention especially from students.”
Walter Lyle, the man behind the social media and website, joined the Oxford Humane Society and became the first Communications & Outreach Coordinator in December of 2017.
“Before me, this job didn’t exist. The position was actually created for me, I had no one to train with or learn from,” Lyle said. “I spend a lot of time responding to messages, responding to comments, and coming up with content. The more animals I post, the more attention they get, which leads to more adoptions.”
Due to the social media makeover Lyle says they have seen a sharp upturn in their adoption rate and overall public image, which has been damaged in the past.
“There is a small sect of people in the community who seem to find it necessary to make attempts at dismantling our organization for whatever reason, most of it is based on rumors, not founded in truth,” Lyle said. “A lot of what I do [online] is helping people understand exactly what we do and why.”
With the help of Lyle, Facebook likes went from 18,107 to 19,704, Twitter went from 800 followers to 1,429, and Instagram they’re receiving 15-20 new followers a day and now have 1,952 followers. However, Facebook is definitely their highest reaching platform, containing over 19.5k followers.
Lyle says that through studying popular social media accounts on Twitter he found the inspiration for their Twitter persona.
“[They] all utilize humor and seem to have their own personality, even though it’s just a company, it allows their customers and followers to feel like they’re interacting with more of a friend instead of a faceless corporation,” Lyle said.
One student, Phillip Burrow, a sophomore chemistry major, found his pet through the help of their new media presence.
“I first saw her on the website, but after falling in love with her on the website I went over to their Twitter page to see if she was on there and then there she was on the pet of the day,” Burrow said. “After I adopted her, I followed the Twitter page and constantly check it, because they are pretty funny when they post their dogs that are up for adoption.”
The OLHS will continue down this new media path because just like their mission, their social media goal is to get animals seen and adopted into loving homes.
“We know people want pets and we want them to think of us. They won’t know we even have animals if we don’t get the word out,” Lyle said. “By posting photos and information about them, we can get people looking at these pets who desperately need homes.”
2018 RebelTHON ready to raise more for Batson Children’s Hospital
February 24th marks the sixth annual RebelTHON event at Ole Miss. Participants and patients will stay up from 3 PM to 3 AM dancing and raising money for Batson Children’s Hospital, the only medical facility in Mississippi devoted to the care of sick children.
RebelTHON serves as a part of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals’ national Dance Marathon movement, a movement uniting college, university and high school students across North America. Students involved in a campus’ dance marathon organization spend a year raising funds and awareness for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.
Hailey Cooper, president of RebelTHON, has been doing RebelTHON for two years and this year the fundraising goal is $225,000.
“In terms of my fundraising, I’ve taken song requests with my flute that I haven’t played since high school, worn a crayon costume to class, and taken dares like singing the Mississippi State fight song,” said Cooper. “I’ve heard some people this year recreating famous film scenes, carpool karaoke, and wearing a prom dress to finals. People get so creative, and it’s really fun to watch.”
Andrew Russell, Children’s Miracle Network Coordinator, explained that last years past funds of $172,000 went towards renovations for the children’s center cancer floor and this year they will be going towards their new expansion where the hospital will be adding a NICU, PICU, operating rooms and other items.
“I think this year by far the most amount of money will be raised,” said Russell. “The students do a good job of putting out the red carpet for these kids, making them feel special.”
The event consists of dancing and staying on your feet for 12 hours as well as other games and food. Anyone can sign up to dance for the full time as long as they raise a minimum of $100 or people can come between 6-9 and pay $5 at the door to stay for community hours.
Due to the major growth of participants this year, RebelTHON has outgrown their former location, the Turner Center, and the event will be held in the Tad Pad instead.
Senior, Lexie Hill will be participating for the third time due to her personal connection with the Children’s Miracle Network.
“I wanted to be a part of RebelTHON because as a former patient of my local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, I knew how important the work that hospitals like Batson do is,” said Hill.
From the time she was born to when she turned 18, Hill’s CMN Hospital became a home to her.
“From providing the absolute best medical care to simple things like giving you toys and popsicles before and after surgery, hospitals like Batson go above and beyond to make you feel like a normal, healthy kid,” said Hill.
Anyone willing to donate can go to RebelTHON’s donation page and anyone wanting to participate can register online.
Kathryn Abernathy 