Academy Awards ‘best dressed’ list
INSIDE
87th Academy Awards recap
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Why we need Black History Month
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Nikki’s Numbers
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WEDNESDAY
FEBRUARY 25, 2015
Wednesday High 52, Low 32 Thursday High 39, Low 25
VOLUME 100 ISSUE 62 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS 1915 - 2015
NEWS Briefs World BERLIN— An 18-month-old boy died of measles on Feb. 18 in Berlin, the first known death in an outbreak of the disease that has seen more than 570 cases in the German capital since October. RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil— Brazil has detained a landgrabber thought to be the Amazon’s single biggest deforester. Ezequiel Antonio Castanha operated a network that illegally seized federal lands, clear-cut them and sold them to cattle grazers.
Provost Paul Ludden to step down this June CHRISTINA COX Assignments Editor clcox@smu.edu SMU Provost Paul Ludden informed the SMU community today that he will be stepping down from his position on June 1, 2015. He announced his choice to step down via an email sent to faculty and staff at 1:57 p.m. According to Ludden, he chose to step down because of his search for other opportunities in Wisconsin near his daughter and family. Ludden was one of four finalists for the provost position at Marquette University in Milwaukee, as The Daily Campus reported this January. However, Marquette University announced Feb. 16 that Daniel J. Myers, vice president and associate provost for faculty affairs at the University of
Notre Dame, would be the university’s next provost. Ludden stated that although the results of the job search are not finalized, he suggested to SMU President R. Gerald Turner that he would leave his position at the end of this semester because of the potential disruption the move would cause. “Because the Board was informed of this decision at last Friday’s meeting, I wanted to share it with the broader SMU community as soon as possible,” Ludden said in his email to faculty and staff. Ludden will continue his work on campus as provost for the remainder of the semester until he begins his leave with his wife Linda. During his eight years at SMU, Ludden served on several university, government and business advisory boards and panels
in addition to serving as provost. He feels like this is a good time to leave because of the university is at the end of its strategic plan and close to the end of its Unbridled Campaign. “It is a good time to have a change in the provost position and bring in a new leader to advance SMU under a new strategic plan,” he said in his email. According to Ludden, President Turner and himself are working together on a smooth transition over the course of the semester. “I have been fortunate to have such a talented and committed team in the Provost Office and I am certain that they will provide stability during a time of change,” Ludden said. The Daily Campus will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.
education
TATE
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin shares the stories of America’s leaders
National OXNARD, Calif.— A commuter train bound for Los Angeles derailed in a fiery collision with a pickup truck abandoned after its driver took a wrong turn and got stuck on the tracks. Three of the train’s five cars toppled over injuring 28 people. CHICAGO— Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel hoped to avoid being forced into a runoff on Tuesday as voters weighed his record on school closings, crime and jobs in deciding whether to award him a second term. He needs more than 50 percent to win re-election outright in the nonpartisan race.
Texas BROWNSVILLE — A judge says a coalition of states suing to stop President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration has until Monday to respond to a request by the U.S. government to lift a temporary hold of Obama’s orders. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen issued a preliminary injunction Feb. 16 to halt the immigration action by Obama, who wants to spare from deportation as many as 5 million people who are in the U.S. illegally.
Courtesy of SMU
Provost Paul Ludden.
Annalee Walton Photo Editor alwalton@smu.edu
2015 SMU Civil Rights Pilgrimage poster.
Courtesy of SMU
Civil Rights Pilgrimage gives students alternate spring break option Candi Bolden Contributing Writer cbolden@smu.edu Spending spring break with 30 to 35 people on bus might not seem ideal, but for senior Michelle Anderson it is. “It’s the best way you can spend your spring break,” Anderson said. Leaving March 6 and returning March 14, Anderson along with other students in PLSC 4334 and SOSC 6356 are trading in their spring break to go on a Civil Rights Pilgrimage across four states. According to Anderson, the Civil Rights Pilgrimage connects students to history by sharing first hand stories of the past with students. For her, that makes history more tangible. Anderson, who is the student trip leader for the pilgrimage, helps students process there experiences on the trip by leading discussions. “Every person has what our coordinator calls their ‘a-ha moment’ and it’s the moment of them just kind of getting why it’s such a big deal and why it’s important and why we go to these places,” Anderson said. “For me that was meeting all of what we call ‘the foot soldiers.’” The “foot soldiers” are various members of the civil rights movement that lead the tour of areas on the pilgrimage. In past years students met “foot soldiers” such as participants of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Harris Family, former freedom riders and more. For Anderson, one of the standouts is Joanne Bland who marched in the Bloody Sunday March when she was 11 years old. “She is the tour guide that we had through Selma and she’s really raw about the experience
that she had. I think that makes it real for a lot of people,” Anderson said. But the Pilgrimage is more than listening to the stories of those involved in the civil rights movement and visiting the sites major events in the movement. The students write journals of their experiences on the pilgrimage “The pilgrimage is not a tour. We meet and interact with the ‘foot soldiers’ of the movement at virtually every stop,” Civil Rights Pilgrimage faculty leader Dennis Simon said. The pilgrimage itself focuses on areas Simon defines as “ground zero” of the Civil Rights Movement. This includes Little Rock, Ark.; Jackson, Miss.; Philadelphia; Oxford, Miss.; Selma, Ala.; Montgomery, Ala.; Tuskegee, Ala.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Memphis, Tenn. “This year we will be in Selma, Alabama for the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday which led to the introduction and passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” Simon said. In Selma, Ala. the group will march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge for a Bloody Sunday reenactment. According to Simon, immersion like this allows students to experience the movement more personally. “Students learn the politics and then relive, so to speak, American history,” Simon said. The trip itself is run by the Chaplain’s Office. Simon, Anderson and Ray Jordan serve as trip leaders. Simon has run the trip since 2008 after designing a course, Politics and Legacies of the Civil Rights Movement, to go along with the trip. The Civil Rights Pilgrimage is only held during the spring semester.
Quoting Abraham Lincoln, world renown historian and writer Doris Kearns Goodwin says, “A good story for me is better than a drop of whiskey.” With philosophy like this, Goodwin never failed to engage the audience of McFarlin Auditorium with stories of not only past United States presidents but also herself. Brooklyn raised, Goodwin grew up with a passion for baseball, attending the game and racing back home to report the events of the game to her father–and thus a journalist was made. The consultant to Ken Burns’ “Baseball” documentary, Goodwin has carried her love of the game (and the Red Sox) into her professional and family life. As the first woman journalist admitted into the Red Sox locker room, the game holds a special place in her heart. When moderator Bill McKenzie asks why America is so infatuated with baseball, she explains, that today’s fast pace society does not have time to sit and chat and reflect. But baseball is slow moving and personal. “It’s part of being a town...If the Red Sox lose, I can’t read the newspaper the next day,” Kearns said. The Pulitzer-Prize winning author has had now two of her books acquired by Stephen Spielberg, one of which was the Oscar-winning “Lincoln” starring Daniel Day Lewis. Spielberg has recently bought the book rights to her new work, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism. Goodwin’s presence in film has informed her of the power and responsibility of putting history to the screen. She explains her disappointment in the recent film “Selma” and the false depiction of President Johnson. She said, “they made it into a black moment, not a black and white moment.” “This was a moment of harmony in history, but it was a transcendent American movie.
They screwed it up.” Her books and stories have such an impact on us because of their reachability. Goodwin knows stories, and she knows stories well. From recollections of twirling on the dance floor with Lyndon B. Johnson to meeting her childhood crush Jackie Robinson, Goodwin illustrated her life through the stories of her past and our leaders. Her knowledge of deliciously detailed anecdotes of America’s figure heads seemed never ending and always new. A woman obsessed with the past, Goodwin admitted,”I think I’m just meant to be in the past.” She has adopted Franklin D. Roosevelt’s philosophy that “People will remember stories better than they remember facts.” What made men like LBJ, FDR and Lincoln so great was their ability to communicate to their people. Goodwin explains that the power of the president’s communication has been diminished. She also critiques the loss of humility in the more recent administrations. The answer to having flaws is not simply admitting them, but compensating for them and having someone opposite to him present. “The unconfident guy wants to be the only one right, while the confident guy is willing to admit flaws. That’s confidence.” As for the future generation of leaders, Goodwin left the students with one challenge–get as many experiences with different groups of people as you can. “Grow in understanding of different groups of people. Recognize diversity,” Kearns said. “Go out and get inside their heads.” Board member and alumnae, Mr. and Mrs. Albon and Debbie Head Jr. braved the storm and traveled all the way from Parker County to hear Goodwin speak. Mrs. Head claims this Tate Lecture as “the best she’s ever heard.” “She’s one of the greats., Kearns said. Her beautiful grasp on not only America, but also the world was incredible to listen to.”