Two Bulldogs earn SEC Player of the Week honors
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TUESDAY MARCH 26, 2013
Reflector The
REFLECTOR-ONLINE.COM 125TH YEAR | ISSUE 43
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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1884
MSU brings back campus tradition, plans to restore historic Bullring Landmark design approved, contract bids to be heard this week BY MARY KATE MCGOWAN Staff Writer
COURTESY PHOTO | JIMMY ABRAHAM
After 38 years at MSU, Jimmy Abraham announced his retirement. Abraham most recently served as director of the Alumni Association.
MSU alumni director announces retirement BY JAMIE ALLEN Staff Writer
In 1977, Mississippi State University welcomed a true Bulldog into the family of dedicated faculty and staff, and now 38 years later, after inspiring many students and alumni, Jimmy Abraham retires, remaining ever true to that Maroon and White. Abraham started his work at MSU as residence hall director in Evans Hall and has
worked in many different positions and departments since then. He retires in the position of the associate vice president of Development and Alumni and the executive director of the MSU Alumni Association. In his letter announcing his retirement, Abraham stated how honored and grateful he is to have been able to work at his alma mater for the past 38 years. “There is no way I can
ever thank Mississippi State enough for all this university has given to me – as a student and as a staff member. Nor is there any way I will ever be able to adequately thank all of you for your friendship and support through the years,” Abraham said. Abraham said working here at MSU, what he considers the best university in the country, was the best thing that he could have done.
Camille Young, MSU Alumni Association national president, said she first met Abraham when she was a student at MSU and he was in student recruiting and admissions, and now she works with Abraham in the Alumni Association. She said she noticed Abraham’s devotion to this university and the students, faculty, staff and alumni on first impression.
A Mississippi State University tradition will soon become a campus staple again. The Bullring, a D–shaped concrete seating area and gathering place where students would “shoot the bull,” will be restored in its original place in front of the Colvard Student Union before the beginning of the fall semester. The Master Plan Development and Advisory Committee has approved the Bullring’s design. Bill Broyles, assistant vice president for Student Affairs, said the project’s construction bids will open Tuesday. “If the bids are within the estimated budget, we hope to start this project as soon as the contracts are finalized,” Broyles said. Jeremiah Dumas, director of the Office of Sustainability and interim campus master planner, said construction should begin in the beginning of April and be completed by the end of July. Construction plans are to move quickly to restore the Bullring tradition to campus. “We got to obviously start first, but we are confident that we will have this iconic campus landmark back where it belongs soon,” Broyles said. Many people connected to MSU are excited about the
resurrection of the Bullring. Jimmy Abraham, executive director of the MSU Alumni Association, said the bullring is a part of history that is coming back to campus. “For so many years, alumni sat around the Bullring, and now they can do this again. What great memories this will bring to them. Not only this, but current students and others can sit on this same structure that their grandparents and others sat on years ago,” Abraham said. The renovation of the Bullring has already brought back memories to some MSU alumni. Eddie Keith, associate dean of students and MSU graduate, said the Bullring was very much a part of campus for a MSU student in the 1960s. This project is also bringing back the tradition of a senior class gift. Libba Andrews, associate director of the Alumni Association, said bringing back the Bullring is important for historic reasons as well as for re-implementing the senior class gift tradition. “The senior class gift is important because it signifies the love of the place the seniors have called home for several years, and it sets in motion a culture of giving back to your alma mater,” Andrews said. SEE BULLRING, 3
SEE ABRAHAM, 2
Publication of Student Association senate plays Reveille at risk influential role in student life BY EMMA CRAWFORD News Editor
The fate of Mississippi State University’s annual, The Reveille, remains uncertain as the publication has not sold the 1,000 copies required to send the yearbook to print. Jen Nguyen, editor in chief of The Reveille, said at the moment she and The Reveille’s sales representatives are working together to figure out if the annual will be able to go to print. As of right now, Nguyen said 429 copies have been sold. The last day that students could order a Reveille was scheduled to be March 22, but Nguyen said students can still order a copy online. “People can actually still buy their Reveille; it has not been taken off of the banner tab yet so people can still pur-
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chase one,” she said. Nguyen said if The Reveille cannot print this year, then the annual will have to wait until next year to try again. “If we don’t print this year, we just won’t print,” she said. She also said The Reveille staff does not currently have plans to publish anything online, but in the event that The Reveille does not go to print, the staff plans to start working toward the production and sales of next year’s Reveille as soon as possible to refrain from having this problem again. “I’m not sure if we’re going to put anything online or not, but if we don’t print this year then we’re going to talk about plans for next year,” she said. “We’re going to start making plans for our staff for the summer and plans to get started right away in the fall and avoid this happening again.”
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BY HANNAH ROGERS Editor in Chief
Despite the Student Association senate’s increased decision-making role in issues as diverse as academic policy to election codes, it remains, arguably, the most ignored branch of Mississippi State’s student government. Voter turnout for the yearly election of senators pulls in the lowest numbers of the year, behind Homecoming and Executive Council. In 2012, 16.5 percent of the student body voted to elect its senators as opposed to the 29.5 percent who voted in the Homecoming election. The senate, which has four freshman and three graduate student seats, also determines its numbers by the equation found in the SA Constitution: (total number of undergraduate students divided by 650) multiplied by (the number of students in the college divided by total number of undergraduate students), with numbers whose decimal place of 0.5 or more being round up to the next number. Courtney Harris, senator for the Col-
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lege of Arts and Sciences, said because of get a diverse group whether they look it the change in the senate’s structure (rep- or not.” resentation was previously decided by Morgan McDowell, senator for the residence and college), becoming a sena- College of Business, said that he, as well tor has become more prestias other senators, want to Senate is so gious and competitive. hear from their constituimportant. Senate As the members of the ents. has just now realized Although only senators senate elected take their positions seriously, they create can introduce legislation, its full power and an environment in which students can come to their potential. The senate senators with issues. multiple viewpoints on an issue can be voiced. Harris has so much power, “Senate is so importsaid she noticed that since ant. Senate has just now and they need to the senate has decreased in realized its full power and understand that and potential. The senate has size, the voting is not always a chorus of “yeses.” so much power, and they the students need “I think each group is need to understand that to understand what and the students need to diverse in their own right,” the senate can do for understand what the senHarris said. “If you go to a senate meeting, you’re ate can do for them,” he them.” going to get discussion besaid. “The senate is putMorgan McDowell, ting in a lot of time and cause everyone has a different viewpoint, everybody Senator for College effort this year, doing things that are going to has had a different expeof Business benefit students 10, 15 rience here at State, and that really determines their opinions and years down the road and at the current their viewpoint on the legislation and level.” what we’re passing. So I think you will SEE SENATE, 3
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