THE DAILY
MISSISSIPPIAN
Friday, February 20, 2015
Volume 103, No. 88
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
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‘Nevermind’
Movie review: ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’
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Ole Miss football to play Cal in 2017, 2019 seasons Page 7
Muslim Student Association holds vigil Dyson speaks on black culture KYLIE MCFADDEN
kemcfadd@go.olemiss.edu
University of Mississippi students gathered Thursday afternoon in the Labryinth adjacent to the Student Union to honor the memory of three Muslim, University of North Carolina students who were killed on Feb.10. UNC students Deah Barakat, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha and her sister Razan Abu-Salha were shot dead at a residential complex in Chapel Hill last week. The suspect, Craig Stephen Hicks, was indicted on three counts of murder and is scheduled to appear in court again on March 4. The memorial was organized by the Muslim Student Association. Adham Hagag, president of the association, took inspiration from the memorials for Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha held at college campuses across the country. Hagag said he hoped the event would ensure people remember the three students. Students visiting the memorial were invited to write notes and take roses in commemoration of the three. Munia Sowaileh, a second-year PhD pharmacy student and member of the Muslim Student Association, said the group plans to send letters written by those visiting the memorial to the families of the victims. Junior political science major Jalen Neal is a Christian, yet he
DREW JANSEN
ajjansen@go.olemiss.edu
PHOTO BY: LOGAN KIRKLAND
Students place handwritten notes in a basket with messages to the victims’ families at the UNC shooting memorial held on campus. attended the event to pay his respects. “I think it’s a tragedy that people are targeted because of their faith. That’s not what this country is about,” Neal said. “I will fight with them for their protection, for their opportunities and rights, just like mine.” Tassniem Rashad, an electrical engineering Ph.D. student, said the shooting has not changed how she feels as a Muslim student. “Individual acts do not reflect
upon the whole world,” Rashad said. Sowaileh said the Muslim community at Ole Miss is like any other group on campus. It is one that brings diversity to campus and holds events open to all – Muslim and non-Muslim. Danny Blanton, director of public relations for the university, said with a student body as diverse as the student body that Ole Miss has, the university encourages students to exercise freedom
of expression. “We’re proud that we can support our students as they exercise these freedoms many other countries don’t enjoy,” Blanton said. Members of the Muslim Student Association said the Ole Miss community as a whole has been accepting of the Muslim community. “All of my experiences at Ole Miss have been positive,” Sowaileh said. “I have always felt at home here.”
Conservation specialist lectures at Overby LOGAN KIRKLAND
thedmnews@gmail.com
PHOTO BY: LOGAN KIRKLAND
Dr. Reed Noss of the University of Central Florida poses for a photo.
Dr. Reed Noss, a professor of conservation biology at the University of Central Florida, discussed key themes and concepts of modern conservation and how they have changed over the years Thursday at the Overby Center. “We have really a bit of conflict, or even turmoil, going on within the field of conservation now,” Noss said. He explained that some people feel what conservationists are doing –focusing on things like wildness or biodiversity – is inefficient. They instead emphasize the importance of maintaining the services the ecosystem provides for people.
“Both are important,” he said. “So, why do we have to do either or?” Noss said he believes the most critical global problem we face is the extinction of species, and that it needs to be addressed. Biological diversity remains extremely important because it helps slow down the rate of extinctions, according to Noss. “We do have to have arguments that appeal to not just our fellow scientists and conservationists but to the general public,” he explained. Noss said natural history is a good concept for conservation because it is important to know how plants and animals
SEE NOSS PAGE 4
An audience of 160 people attended a lecture Thursday evening at the Inn at Ole Miss Ballroom as part of the 2015 UM observance of Black History Month. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, a religious and cultural studies scholar, and university professor currently teaching sociology at Georgetown University delivered the keynote. Dyson’s research deals with multiple facets of black culture throughout American history, including figures from Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. to Nasir Jones and Tupac Shakur. Dyson lauded and criticized prominent individuals of the black community in his address from Ice Cube to Barack Obama, while challenging the audience to study and appreciate the richness of black history and culture in America. When asked after the address about his assertion that criticism is stronger when it comes from a place of respect, Dyson explained his general thoughts on and motivations for critiquing others. “Words are incredibly important. I try to use them carefully. It’s very important to use them in ways that are edifying and engaging, and sometimes irreverent, but also inspiring and challenging,” Dyson said. “You don’t have to beat up on someone. You don’t have to be nasty, but you want to challenge them.” Senior pre-medical student Nagee Jones explained before the address why he admired Dyson as an orator. “Vocabulary. I’m a vocabulary guy. This guy encouraged me to consider words because of their power,” Jones said. “I really liked that he talked about not only African-Americans, but other issues such as homophobia in the black community and throughout the country and just the idea of civil rights for all people,” said Shawnboda Mead, director of the Center for Inclusion and
SEE DYSON PAGE 3