THE DAILY
MISSISSIPPIAN
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
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 ‘Purity’ author coming to Square Books Page 6
lifestyles
Volume 104, No. 21
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sports
Thacker Mountain Radio takes Rowan Oak Page 4
Freeze fills the gaps Page 8
Chi Psi breaks ground on new house How possible is it to
graduate in four years? MORGAN WALKER
mlwalke4@go.olemiss.edu
PHOTO BY: MARLEE CRAWFORD
Chi Psi Fraternity broke ground on its new on-campus house Saturday. The Lodge is scheduled to be completed by next fall term and will house 20 undergraduate members. The house will be on Fraternity Drive between the Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Delta Psi houses.
“The University gives a diploma and regretfully terminates tenure. But one never graduates from Ole Miss.”-Frank E. Everett, Jr. These words hang above the Student Union stairwell as a reminder of the lasting bonds Rebels form during their college years with their classmates and their school community. When taken literally, however, the expression highlights the decline of the traditional four-year track at Ole Miss and other universities across the country. According to the Office of Institutional Research, Effectiveness and Planning, 37 percent of Ole Miss students who enrolled in 2010 graduated within four years. Of those who began in 2009, 57 percent graduated within five years, and 61 percent of new student freshmen from 2008 graduated in six years. Director of Admissions Whitman Smith said the numbers were surprising, but stu-
dents can certainly earn an undergraduate degree from Ole Miss in four years. “I was shocked when I first saw that, but it is what it is,” Smith said. “It is 100 percent possible.” Smith said common issues that delay graduation include: money, health, time commitment, changes in major, poor grades and various personal concerns. Gabbie Herman, senior sociology major, suggested the university focus more efforts on advising for a higher percentage of four-year graduates. “The graduation process is difficult, time consuming, and you don’t receive enough information about it,” Herman said. “The focus needs to be on the advisors— it’s a lack of communication on their part.” Completing the minimum number of credit hours to graduate requires a student to enroll in 15 hours per semester for eight semesters. If a student were to take a full
SEE GRADUATE PAGE 3
El café de los Lunes: Do you take your café con crema? BLAKE ALSUP
mbalsup@go.olemiss.edu
Every Monday afternoon, students and teachers alike gather together for coffee and conversation at the Barnes & Noble Cafe in the Student Union. Their talks cover a variety of different topics, but what makes their meetings unique is not the subject, but the language. “El café de los Lunes” was created for those wishing to learn, improve, and practice their Spanish in a friendly environment. Usually ranging from three to 10 participants, the meetings last from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. The meetings began in 2006 when Irene Kaufmann, lecturer of Spanish at the University, and a few of her students started having casual small meetings over coffee. The students
were looking for opportunities to practice their Spanish outside of class and after an increasing interest from new students, the meeting started to occur weekly. By 2009, Kaufmann and her students began calling the meetings “El Café de los Lunes,” which translates roughly to “Monday Cafe” in English. “Since then, every Monday during the semester, students know I will be at the coffee place, and that they can come and meet other students to practice,” Kaufmann said. Kaufmann said students are often afraid of saying something wrong in a classroom setting in front of their peers and professors. “The atmosphere at ‘El café de los Lunes’ is informal and with no pressure, which makes
students at all levels of proficiency comfortable speaking in front of one another,” Kaufmann said. “Because so many members of the group were in the learning process, it was quite easy to get over being intimidated or afraid to try my language skills,” said Patrick Fields, a 2014 Ole Miss graduate and four year member of “El Café de los Lunes.” “At the same time, the presence of native speakers and higher level students ensured that the conversations would be a challenge with lots of opportunities for growth.” Kaufmann said “El Café de los Lunes” helps to improve students’ Spanish much more than only attending class. It is impossible to become a fluent speaker solely by spend-
SEE CAFÉ PAGE 3
GRAPHIC BY: LOGAN KIRKLAND