THE DAILY
MISSISSIPPIAN
Monday, February 8, 2016
Volume 104, No. 80
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
THIS WEEK IN
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OXFORD
sports
sports
Page 6
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The DM sports editor ranks: PowerPoll
Visit theDMonline.com
@thedm_news
Rebels win a hard fight over Vanderbilt
Students create campus safety group Oxford police Twitter
kesims1@go.olemiss.edu
A total of 160 active shooter
incidents occurred in the United
KELSEY SIMS
States between 2000 and 2013, according to an FBI study released in 2014. Increasing annual averages throughout the study indicate active shooter incidents are becoming more frequent, yet many students at Ole Miss have no idea what to do in such a situation. President of UPMe and junior Katie White and her colleagues
bridges gap to public ISABELLA CARUSO
igcaruso@go.olemiss.edu
COURTESY: LILLIAN BENTON
noticed this problem one day, and they created UPMe as a way to combat it. UPMe is a program designed to inform Ole Miss students of the dangers they may face on campus and how to respond to them. By teaming with the University Police Department, they hope to improve safety on campus while promoting a better relationship between officers and students. “The idea of UPMe came about during one of our work meetings,” White said. “Our boss at the department of student housing, Jennifer McClure, began asking
us what we would do in an active shooter situation, and we all didn’t know what we would’ve done.” When the students pitched the idea, UPD was more than happy to help make the program a reality. With the help of Jeff Kellum, the Crime Prevention Coordinator at UPD, they began to set a plan to achieve their goal. According to Kellum, the offices of the dean of students, health promotions, violence prevention and Title IX got together and agreed that the best way to help
SEE CAMPUS PAGE 3
The Oxford Police Department strives to keep the community informed and involved through an unconventional platform: Twitter. Major Jeff McCutchen and Lieutenant Hildon Sessums have been co-running the OPD Twitter account for the past three years. After the summer of 2014, the account having only 47 followers, McCutchen said they decided they wanted to become more active. McCutchen said the Ferguson, Missouri incident made the department want to become more involved in the community. McCutchen said the lack of communication between the Ferguson police and their community was a part of the problem, and that is what drove OPD towards social media. “We started talking amongst ourselves and wondering how we can get a better line of communication with our community,” McCutchen said. The account now averages eight to 10 tweets per day and has reached more than 14,800 followers from all over the country in just the past two years, including many verified accounts, such as
the Southern food chain Whataburger. “We try to get out as much as we can,” McCutchen said, “If there is funny stuff going on, or unique things, we try to put those out as well.” McCutchen explained that OPD does not post pictures of peoples’ faces or tag them in the tweet to avoid anything tracing back to them. “We try to give you basically the things that you can hear on a scanner, but we try to be a little more private,” McCutchen said. The OPD Twitter account has not only gained followers, but also follower interaction. McCutchen said the account receives several noise complaints and crime tips through direct messages. “It’s growing, and it’s helping us keep everybody informed and carry on the conversation that needs to happen,” McCutchen said. McCutchen saidt the goal of the account is for people to see the human side of law enforcement. “I like for us, as a department, to be seen in a good light, and I want people to love their police department,” McCutchen said. Sessums said he believes the OPD Twitter account is the best form of communication for col-
SEE TWITTER PAGE 3
Pulitzer-nominated Mississippian to lecture on education TOUSLEY LEAKE
taleake@go.olemiss.edu
The University’s McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement will host a guest lecture from a Mississippian whose story embodies the group’s mission of fighting poverty through education in the state. Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Clifton Taulbert will be speaking at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Robert C. Khayat Law School in Weems Auditorium. The McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement and the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneur-
ship are sponsoring Taulbert’s lecture on his latest book, “The Invitation.” Born in the Mississippi Delta, Taulbert had few opportunities and encountered many barriers, including racial segregation, on the way to success. Today, he is now president and CEO of two companies— the Freemount Corporation, a consulting company focused on human capital development, and Roots Java Coffee, an African American-owned national coffee brand that imports coffee from Africa. “The Invitation” tells the story of Taulbert’s journey and the barriers he crossed to become
COURTESY: FACEBOOK.COM
Author Clifton Taulbert will speak for the UM community 5 p.m. Tuesday. in the Robert C. Khayat Law School.
the successful man he is today. This book confronts the difficult memories of slavery and segregation from his past and how they relate to his present situation and who he is becoming. According to Taulbert, his book and lecture will encourage the audience to “never underestimate the power of [their] presence in the lives of others.” Junior journalism major Leah Gibson, an innovation scholar at the McLean Institute, said students can learn a lot from listening to Taulbert speak. Cohorts of 10 scholars each year are selected to work with the institute’s
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