DailyMississippian The
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
thedmonline.com
Vol. 100 No. 225
Trio of Rebels Education department hopes to build K-5 observation school on campus suspended; Stoudt to start BY MEGAN SMITH trict,” he said. “By doing this, we would help defray some of at quarterback the cost for a school district that megansmith67@gmail.com
The dean of the School of Education’s big dream comes in a small package — elementary school students. David Rock hopes to open up a pre-K through fifth grade school, which he said would benefit both the local school districts and the School of Education. Though it is still unclear where the initial funding to build the school would come from, funding to operate the school on a daily basis would be paid in part by local school districts and in part by the School of Education. Half of the employees would be local school district employees and half would be School of Education employees, Rock said. “It’s a win-win situation because that class of children would be in the school dis-
FILE PHOTOS | The Daily Mississippian
MIDDLE: Running back Jeff Scott; BOTTOM: Wide receiver Korvic Neat
BY BENNETT HIPP jbhipp@olemiss.edu
See SUSPENDED, PAGE 5
inside
NORMAN SEAWRIGHT| The Daily Mississippian
A worker removes damaged upholstery from Ventress Hall, which was subject to water
See EDUCATION, PAGE 4
damage after a water line broke inside the building.
University takes steps toward improving cell service on campus
TOP: Quarterback Randall Mackey;
Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt confirmed Tuesday that junior starting quarterback Randall Mackey, sophomore leading rusher Jeff Scott and wide receiver Korvic Neat have been suspended for Saturday’s game against No. 1 LSU and possibly for next week’s Egg Bowl due to a violation of team rules. “I hate it,” Nutt said after practice Tuesday. “You have got to learn how to handle change, and it’s tough for a lot of them. And when the season doesn’t go just right, it’s easy to let go. These last two weeks, you just try to teach them the best you can that life can be hard and lessons are tough, but there’s no easy out — there (are) no shortcuts. You do right, and that’s the bottom line.” Nutt went on to say that
would have to pay for a teacher anyway.” The initial funding presents the most harrowing problem at the moment. Rock formerly served as dean at the University of Columbus in Georgia. They were working on the same thing when he left, but $11 million was needed in private funding. Rock plans to begin actively seeking private funds to build the school. “I believe that Ole Miss has a great School of Education, and I would like that School of Education to go to the next level,” he said. “To do that, we need to not just help prepare teachers but actually show how we can make a huge difference with respect to students and student learning.”
NORMAN SEAWRIGHT | The Daily Mississippian
The Ole Miss telecommunications department and the university physical plant have installed light polls throughout the campus, 30 of which double as antenna poles to better cell phone coverage in The Grove and Circle.
BY EMILY ROLAND dmmanaging@gmail.com
Boasting the best tailgating scene in the Southeastern Conference, the Grove attracts tens
Baptist still discussing new hospital
of thousands of people to Oxford on game weekends, which in turn creates a problem every tailgater and game-goer alike has experienced: a lack of cell phone service. “It’s terrible,” Chase Hall, a music education sophomore, said. “I have to walk around for at least 30 minutes before I’ll even halfway get a signal. I never make calls on game day because I know they won’t go through.” Trying to locate family and friends in the chaotic shuffle that takes over the University of Mississippi campus on game weekends is nearly impossible, especially when cell phones become completely useless. A common frustration in the Grove tends to arise while fans aimlessly search for their friends, holding their cell phones in the air and hoping for a glimpse of service. “(The cellular service) is designed for some population — for the people driving through and the people who live here — to generate a certain load on the system,” John Daigle, an electrical engineering professor, said. “It is well-designed for that specific load.” Cell service is a physical en-
tity, Daigle said, one that can be compared to something as simple and common as a grocery store check-out line. On a Tuesday afternoon, Kroger is usually slow, and getting through a line does not take too much time; however, on a football weekend, when thousands of people are all shopping for finger foods at the same time, that line is going to be quite a bit longer. “Just like (check-out lines), physical circuits — the circuits you use to make phone calls — have to have the channel to be able to make a phone call, and it is the same exact idea,” Daigle said. “This thing is designed so that the normal population using it gets very good service.” David Drewrey, director of the Telecommunications Center at Ole Miss, said the cell service problem is already waning with the installation of power poles, disguised as aestheticallypleasing light poles, popping up throughout campus. “Well, we got lucky,” Drewrey said. The university physical plant has had a lighting project in the works for several months, and Drewrey said he and his team jumped at the opportu-
Rebels fall at Lamar, 67-58 P. 4
P. 5
nity to combine efforts. This past spring, the university telecommunications department signed a contract with Nex-G, a “broadband wireless Internet access” company. The company focuses on “building the digital divide” between a single entity and the several cellular vendors it is indirectly associated with due to a certain community, according to Nex-G.com. Drewrey said Nex-G found and provided the funds necessary to purchase and install the roughly 30 lighting and antenna poles throughout campus, each of which costs about $7,000$8,000. “This thing we signed with Nex-G was of no expense to the university,” Drewrey said. “They were going to get the cell vendors to put (the poles) in at no cost to us.” The university has had some sideline costs, but the small expenses here and there do not compare to the amount of money that was saved through the partnership, Drewrey said. The main purpose of Nex-G is to act as the “middle man” between the university and various cell phone providers, See SERVICE, PAGE 4
Distractions continue for Ole Miss football P. 8