THE DAILY
MISSISSIPPIAN
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Volume 104, No. 92
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
news
Netflix, the procrastonators’ study guide Page 5
lifestyles What is an Oscar party without good food? Page 6
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sports
Rebels met with midweek challenge Page 8
Black History Month: An ‘educational opportunity’ Man charged in Chambers murder ASSOCIATED PRESS
Black History Month 2016, we’ll start to think about next year.” The committee is made up of various student and community organizations as well as different
It took investigators more than a year of painstaking work, but they say they have finally cracked the case of a former high school cheerleader who was found near death in her rural Mississippi hometown after being doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire. Panola County District Attorney John Champion announced Wednesday that Quinton Verdell Tellis, 27, has been charged with capital murder in the death of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers. She was found along a road, badly burned, on Dec. 6, 2014. Her vehicle was on fire. She suffered burns over 98 percent of her body and died hours later at a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. “This has been the most unusual case that I’ve ever dealt with,” Champion said. “Obviously, the nature of how she died was very brutal, very horrendous.” Champion says Tellis and Chambers knew each other and were friends, but he would not discuss a motive or other details of the crime. Champion did say he
SEE MONTH PAGE 3
SEE MURDER PAGE 3
ILLUSTRATION BY: CAMERON BROOKS
KIARA MANNING
kamannin@go.olemiss.edu
The Black History Month Planning Committee partnered with the Center for Inclusion and
Cross Cultural Engagement and has been working since early last spring planning and organizing Black History Month events to ensure activities were available almost every weekday. “We hosted our first planning
meeting in April,” Shawnboda Mead, committee director, said. “At the end of last spring, we already had room reservations and started to think about keynote speakers. It really is a year-long process, so as soon as we finish
UM organization wins award for philanthropic efforts ALICE MCKELVEY
amckelve@go.olemiss.edu
Sigma Chi’s Derby Days philanthropy event has won an award for overall blood drive of the year for 2015 through Mississippi Blood Services. According to Jennifer Hudson at the Mississippi Blood Services branch in Oxford, the five-day event last March garnered 1,260 units of blood —the largest blood drive in Mississippi’s history. Sophomore psychology and sociology double major Mikayla Skinner gave blood at the 2015 Derby Days. “There were so many people there, so it was pretty exciting
sitting there seeing everyone donate,” Skinner said. “We probably saved thousands of lives that week.” According to Hudson, the Derby Days blood drive alone saved 3,780 lives. MBS first became involved with Derby Days in 2009 when a Sigma Chi alumnus and member of MBS’s North Mississippi Advisory Council, Taylor Boone, established the relationship. It has since become an annual partnership. “Mississippi Blood Services holds hundreds of blood drives all over the state and sees thousands of donors during the year,” Susan Ates, public relations specialist at MBS, said. “We depend
on every individual who donates and every organization that allows us to set up a blood drive. But throughout the year, there are those who go that extra mile, who work to increase the units collected, strive to reach others on our behalf and work to ensure their communities have the blood that is needed on a day-today and patient-to-patient basis.” Mississippi Blood Services, the only FDA licensed blood center based in Mississippi, was founded in 1979. The Oxford branch is one of three MBS locations. According to Hudson, Mississippi COURTESY: AUSTIN POWELL colleges play a major role in the state’s blood supply. MBS is the (From left to right) Jarrett Estes, Austin Powell, David Allen and John Brahan pose with an award. Sigma Chi of the University of Mississippi was honored with the MBS 2015 SEE ORGANIZATION PAGE 3 Overall Blood Drive of the Year Award.”