DailyMississippian
ASB Debate Streaming Live @ theDMonline.com
The
Thursday, February 16, 2012
thedmonline.com
Vol. 100 No. 250
Keillor speaks to a packed Ford Center
PHILLIP WALLER | The Daily Mississippian
Garrison Keillor performs at the Sally McDonell Barksdale Honors College’s Spring Convocation.
By Cain Madden dmeditor@gmail.com
JARED BURLESON | The Daily Mississippian
The Black Student Union hosts an Associated Student Body presidential debate. Candidates Kimbrely Dandrige and Kegan Coleman present their platforms.
Pearson unopposed for judicial chair BY WARREN BISHOP warrenbishop50@gmail.com
Junior English major Courtney Pearson is the current Associated Student Body judicial chair and has been so for about a year. Tonight, the ASB and the University of Mississippi chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists are sponsoring a debate for the candidates running for ASB positions. Pearson, who has no one running against her, has already won by default. She applied for the ASB Judicial Council her freshman year and sat on the council for a semester and a half. After that time on the council, Pearson applied to be chair of the council. The council is part of the University Judicial Council as a whole, but when it comes to things such as election violations and appeals, only the ASB Judicial Council hears these matters, Pearson said. Those who are on the council are considered part of both the ASB Judicial Council and the University Judicial Council. Other than election and appeals, the ASB Judicial Council also deals with issues within the Senate, mainly procedural issues, Pearson said.
JARED BURLESON | The Daily Mississippian
Judicial chair Courtney Pearson speaks at the Black Student Union debate. Pearson runs unopposed in this year’s election.
“We don’t really deal with issues that senators have with other legislation,” she said. “For example, if the smoke-free campus initiative were to be enacted, we would not be the people to deal with someone’s distaste in that initiative.” The ASB Judicial Council
hears cases that have been filtered through the Dean of Students Office and that deal with student conduct or anything that violates rules in the M Book. While the ASB Judicial Council is made up of only students, the University See PEARSON, PAGE 4
The Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College’s convocation keynote speech was delivered by American author, monologist and radio personality Garrison Keillor to a packed house at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts. Keillor, who is from Minnesota, said it was an honor to come down South and get a look at the Rebels he had read about as a boy growing up. From reading the stories, Keillor had to admit he admired the Rebels. “The victors get to write the official history, but the losers get to create literature,” he said. “Which would you rather do? I’d rather write literature.” Keillor talked about love in honor of Valentine’s Day, sang duets and basically performed his public broadcast radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion.” “It is a pleasure to be here to be here, among you rebels,” he said. “I hope one day, ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ will be done from this stage.” Being taught that life is suffering growing up, Keillor said he was happy to have teachers who taught him the opposite. Keillor’s English teachers taught him, an English major, of poetry — of Elizabethan poetry — which told him to seize the day, to live the day. With that, Rick Dworsky, pianist and music director of the radio program, came onto the stage and started playing
the grand piano, to which Keillor sang poems, including those by William Wordsworth, Christopher Marlow and Robert Herrick. “People had high ambitions for me, all had to do with the second coming,” Keillor said. “In the meantime, what does one do? Well, I love poetry. And poetry does not talk about the second coming, as much as the coming of each day, each beautiful day.” Vocalist Heather Masse, from the folk group The Wailin’ Jennys, would take the stage next and perform duets with Keillor by artists including Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and Ella Fitzgerald, and all songs had a theme of love. Keillor had thoughts about love, especially among those who view life as suffering. “If people think life is suffering, how do they form a bond together?” he said. “Perhaps they do not? “The rules for maintaining marriage through hard times are similar to living in a life boat for more than 30 days: no sudden moves, give the other person plenty of room and keep any thoughts of disaster to yourself.” Before ending on a song, Keillor told jokes — “bad” but funny jokes. “When God created woman, he gave not two breasts but three,” he said. “When the middle one got in the way, God performed Surgery. Woman stood before God, with middle breast in hand. Said, ‘What do we do with the useless boob?’ And God created man.”