THE DAILY
MISSISSIPPIAN
Monday, February 16, 2015
Volume 103, No. 84
T H E S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F M I S S I S S I P P I S E R V I N G O L E M I S S A N D OX F O R D S I N C E 1 9 1 1
lifestyles Movie Review: ‘50 Shades of Grey’ Page 5
calendar
Check out this week’s calendar online for all of the exciting to do around Oxford and on campus. www.theDMonline.com
Resolute
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sports
Baseball wins opening series against William & Mary Page 6
Correll Hoyle sits at the feet of the James Meredith statue for an hour each day. He has done so since the statue was defaced Feb. 16, 2014, one year ago today. LACEY RUSSELL
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“Fear. Somewhat misunderstanding and a little bit of anger,” Correl Hoyle said as he sat crisscrossed at the bronze feet of the statue of James Meredith on campus at The University of Mississippi. “Sadness, essentially, is what I felt.” He was describing the range of emotions he experienced on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014 – the day the monument, a physical symbol of unity and courage, was found draped with a rope noose and flag displaying the Confederate stars and bars. “I feel like if I went to outskirts of the Delta or deep into the brush of Mississippi or Alabama or Arkansas, I would see things that symbolize ‘n-words not welcome’ but not in a place of higher education,” he said. “I feel that wouldn’t be accepted here. It isn’t accepted here.” The following day, Hoyle made a promise – rain, sleet, snow or hail he would sit for an hour a day beneath the man who paved the way for racial equality at The University Mississippi. He would protect the accomplishments he made. He would shield the ground he broke. As of today, he will have kept that promise for an entire year. Like the statue, he has remained resolute. Hoyle, a sixth-year senior psychology
major from Walnut, Mississippi, began his academic career at Northeast Mississippi Community College. He transferred to Ole Miss in the fall of 2012. At five-foot-five, 110 pounds, he has a modest stature; however, the impact he’s made on students, faculty and staff at the university is anything but that. He has become a living landmark. “You got something special for Valentine’s Day, Correl?” a passerby asked as he walked past Hoyle and the statue Friday. “Yep, corny as always,” he said as he showed him the poster he was holding. In theme with holiday of love, Hoyle had written in untidy red ink, “Love those who care about you, those who don’t, and love U!” “You like how I threw the ‘U’ in there? I ran out of room for ‘yourself,’” Hoyle said with a laugh. “That’s so avant garde. I don’t know what to do,” the passerby replied. “It is avant garde,” Hoyle smugly retorted. “It’s so me.” But the conversations with onlookers aren’t always lighthearted and friendly. The first day he began sitting in front of the statue, the day following the desecration of the statue, Hoyle said many people believed he was “an anarchist.”
SEE RESOLUTE PAGE 4
Correl Hoyle sits at the base of the James Meredith statue Friday.
PHOTO BY: LACEY RUSSELL
UM students travel to New Orleans for Mardi Gras it, and you see pictures, but being lnfergus@go.olemiss.edu there is a whole other experience,” Each year, many students Smith said. “You pack their bags and head get a weird sense south to New Orleans for of accomplishment Mardi Gras weekend. Purple, when the float ridgold and green paint the city ers toss you the while crowds flow through beads.” Bourbon Street and along paSome students rade routes. have made Mardi Ole Miss freshman Ashley Gras an annual traRamirez, a Louisiana native, dition like junior lives about an hour outside of Sam Russell. This New Orleans. was Russell’s third “I went to a lot of parades Mardi Gras trip. when I was younger but hadn’t “Mardi Gras is gone these past few years,” one of the best parRamirez said. “I was excited ties in the country, to go back to New Orleans as a PHOTO BY: LOGAN KIRKLAND and the fact that it college student. It’s all about Ole Miss students participate in Mardi Gras festivities on Bourbon Street Saturday. is relatively close to experiencing the Louisiana for a weekend trip, but Mar- ent version of our road Rebs.” Oxford means that everyone pride.” di Gras only happens once a This year was the first time The road trip to New Or- year, so it’s completely worth visiting New Orleans for has to go at least once,” Rusleans is a six-hour drive and it,” Ramirez said. “I get excit- Mardi Gras for students like sell said. Parades drive through the just over 350 miles from Ox- ed seeing all of the other cars sophomore Corbin Smith. streets with the float riders ford. driving into NOLA with Ole “Mardi Gras exceeded my throwing souvenirs like cups, “It can be a pretty long drive Miss stickers; it’s like a differ- expectations. You hear about
LANA FERGUSON
toys and the trademark plastic bead necklaces. “New Orleans is like nowhere else with the food, the sights, the sounds and the smells,” Russell said. “Receiving mild concussions from shiny plastic beads flying at your face from the top of floats are totally worth the experiences that are Mardi Gras.” Along with Ole Miss students, people from all over the world and country travel to New Orleans to take part in the celebrations, even celebrities. Luke Bryan was named the Grand Marshall for this year’s Endymion parade. He rode in the parade, singing and tossing out beads, then performed that night in the Superdome. “Seeing Luke Bryan solidified my trip to NOLA,” Smith said. “New Orleans is one of my new favorite places.”