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Thursday, November 6, 2008

Volume 93, Issue 23

Students celebrate in Quad after Obama victory Meryl Dakin Printz Writer

Students held an impromptu celebration in the Freshman Quad Tuesday night after Barack Obama was named the 44th president of the United States.

After news organizations made the announcement around 10 p.m., Chase DeVries decided to investigate all the noise coming from behind Hattiesburg Hall.

“There were maybe a hundred [people] in the parking

lot, dancing, running around, chanting, hugging one another, all that stuff,” the senior accounting major from Wiggins said.

The spontaneous revelry was a “bonding experience” said Jonathan Nowacki, a sophomore religion major from St. Martin.

“I’ve never felt so unified with the rest of the campus,” he said. “When we got there people ran up and gave us hugs not even knowing who we were. Everybody was really happy. We started chant-

ing ‘No more Bush’ at the top of our lungs. It was just a good feeling.”

Nowacki said he and some friends went to the Quad right after John McCain delivered his concession speech.

“We just heard a lot of loud noise over there so we went to check it out,” he said. “I think calling it a “riot” gives it a completely negative denotation. I would say it was a lot more of a celebration than a riot.”

Nathan Johnson, a sophomore from Soso, said he ex-

pected the large crowd he saw, as well as the flashing lights of police cars.

“And then I saw people dancing on top of cars, which I did not at all expect,” Johnson said. “As I got closer to see what was going on, they sort of just welcomed you into the group and I got lots of hugs.”

Paige LeBlanc, a freshman from Meridian, said the police arrived on the scene but did little more than contain the celebration to the parking lot.

Chief of Police Bob Hopkins See QUAD on page three

Bryant Hawkins/Printz Students gather in the Quad to celebrate the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States Tuesday night. Obama beat John McCain 52 percent to 46 percent and is the first African-American president-elect.

Obama wins White House Economy, war top priorities Bob Worth Printz Writer

Barack Obama won an historic election Tuesday night after leading one of the most expensive campaigns in American history and drawing hundreds of thousands of new voters.

But can he deliver on the promises that carried him through his decisive victory?

In his victory speech delivered from Grant Park in Chicago, Il. Tuesday night, the president-elect admitted that the change he has promised may not be realized in one year, “or even in one term.”

Allan McBride, chair of the department of political science, international development and international affairs, pointed to economic and foreign policy issues as the foremost challenges of Obama’s early presidency. But winning over unsupportive skeptics will be another major hurdle to his success, McBride added.

Voters in Forrest County chose Senator John McCain over Obama by a margin of 13.5 percent, and by 77.5 percent in Lamar County. Over 6,000 new voters contributed to those figures, according to the Hattiesburg American.

Despite a decisive victory in the Electoral College, besting McCain by 349 votes to 162, Obama lacks a convincing mandate McBride said. A mandate occurs when support of a candidate is presumed to mean support for that candidate’s platform.

McBride estimates that only 34 percent of the population actually voted for Obama, and that many of those votes were based on a distaste for lameduck President George W. Bush, not support for Obama’s platform.

“He’s got people out there who are convinced that he’s a socialist, a terrorist, probably anti-white,” McBride said.

“It’s not the worst thing Zach Mansell in the world.

Obviously I wanted a different outcome, but … yeah, I’m still here.”

“It’s a volatile situation.”

McBride said that Obama will enter office facing “a mess” of challenges.

“He’s got an economy that’s a disaster, or moving in that direction, and he’s got to figure out what to do about the Middle East and Afghanistan,” McBride said.

Even though Democrats have won control of both houses of Congress and the White House for the first time since 1994, Obama may have trouble obtaining legislative support, McBride said, particularly without a strong coattail effect.

A coattail effect occurs when presidential momentum helps representatives from the same party win an election. To be reelected later, those representatives generally stick by the president who helped them win over the public, McBride said.

“If they can turn around and say, ‘I did better in my state than you did,’ that’s not good,” McBride said, noting that Missouri elected a Democratic governor, but voted for McCain.

In light of this, keeping his campaign promises may prove challenging for Obama. McBride says that opposition to Bill Clinton’s failed health care reform plan in 1992 illustrates issues Obama will face with his own plan.

“I’m sure he’s going to try,” McBride said. “But whether or not he’ll be successful, we’ll see.”

McBride thinks that one of Obama’s first policy moves will be to cut taxes.

“The classic approach is that in a recession, you lower taxes and you raise spending,” McBride said. He added that the large deficit will temper the effect to some extent, though it is currently lower than the historic highs following World War II. See OBAMA on page three

Junior Major: Community Health Sciences Voted For: Obama Shambry Clark

“I’m glad. I think a lot of people need to calm down about the whole race issue. It’s not that we picked a black man or we picked a white man; I think we picked the best man for the job.”

Freshman Major: Theater Voted For: Nader

“I think Obama Hayley Barnes is going to do a good job if the American people let him … I think first and foremost we need to remember that we are the United States of America and… we need to try to stick together and make something out of our country so that other people don’t view us as this divided country.”

Sophomore Major: Biological Sciences Voted For: Obama “I feel like Jay Davis there’s a weight that’s been lifted off. The pressure of being elected is off of him, so now we can just move forward in everything that’s going on right now.”

Senior Major: History Voted For: McCain Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune

President-elect Barack Obama waves to the crowd the crowd in Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

USM breaking glass ceiling Report ranks Southern Miss No. 8 in country Tyler Cleveland Sports Editor

While glass ceilings and equal pay for equal work may be issues on the presidential campaign trail and in office buildings around the nation, the University of Southern Mississippi is helping to pave the way for women in the world of athletics.

It was announced Wednesday that the University of Southern Mississippi finished No. 8 in the

nation and received an A grade in the second annual Glass Ceiling Report Card released by the University of Penn State York.

The national study analyzes how well the major colleges and conferences provide coaching opportunities for women in athletics.

The study graded the schools based on how many women were employed in both men’s and women’s sports, with extra points going to schools that employed women in head coaching

Sophomore Major: Economics Voted For: McCain

positions.

“Southern Miss athletics is honored to receive such a high national ranking in providing coaching opportunities for women,” Southern Miss Director of Athletics Richard Giannini said. “We have excellent female coaches on our staff and our university does a great job preparing female student-athletes for a coaching career.”

While the data used in the survey was collected from the See CEILING on page three

“It’s not a David McCain shock… I was just voting for what I felt was the lesser of two evils. But I’m still going to live in the same place and I’m still going to be poor, regardless. Then again, I might get health insurance.”

Freshman Major: General Studies Voted For: Obama Alleon Bucciantini “I’m just excited about what’s going to happen in the next four years and how everything’s going to change.”

Page 2|News

www.studentprintz.com | Thursday, November 6, 2008

CampusBriefs TODAY All Day -- “Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World” -- Hattiesburg Train Depot 9:30 a.m. -- Teacher Job Fair -- Thad Cochran Center 11:45 a.m. -- Wesley Foundation Thursday Lunch -- Wesley Foundation 4 p.m. -- Women’s Basketball v. William Carey -- Reed Green Coliseum 7:30 p.m. -- Symphony Season Concert: 88 Sounds Great!

-- Bennett Auditorium 7:30 p.m. -- Theatre presents “The Cherry Orchard” -- Martha R. Tatum Theatre TOMORROW All Day -- “Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World” -- Hattiesburg Train Depot 7 p.m. -- A Show of Hands Fall Concert -- Marsh Auditorium 7 p.m. -- Southern Miss Volleyball @ East Carolina -- Greenville, N.C. 7:30 p.m. -- Theatre presents “The Cherry Orchard” -- Martha R. Tatum Theatre SATURDAY All Day -- “Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World” -- Hattiesburg Train Depot 10 a.m. -- Annual Southern Miss Iron Pour -- Structural Steel 3-D Building 2 p.m. -- A Show of Hands Fall Concert -- Marsh Auditorium 2:30 p.m. -- Southern Miss Football @ UCF 7:30 p.m. -- Theatre presents “The Cherry Orchard” -- Martha R. Tatum Theatre SUNDAY All Day -- “Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World” -- Hattiesburg Train Depot 12 p.m. -- Southern Miss Volleyball @ Marshall -- Huntington, W. Va. 2 p.m. -- Theatre pressents “The Cherry Orchar” -- Martha R. Tatum Theatre 6 p.m. -- Daniel Schroeder Senior Guitar Recital -- Jazz Station MONDAY All Day -- “Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World” -- Hattiesburg Train Depot

David Jackson/Printz

Claire Thompson, of Hattiesburg, votes in Tuesday’s presidential election. Voter turnout was heavy in Forrest and Lamar county with John McCain winning both counties.

DirtyBirds 10-30-08 Fraternity Dr - Destroying Private Property - A student reported his vehicle’s rear quarter panel was damaged.

10-31-08 Payne Center Lot - Report - A parked vehicle was damaged by a fallen parking barricade .

Smalling Dr - Vandalism - A student reported that a tent being carried by a pedestrian struck his vehicle causing scratches.

11-01-08 101 Fraternity Dr - Fight - Forwarded to Dean of Students.

Panhellenic - Welfare Concern - Referred to USM Counseling Center.

Hyper Bldg - Medical Assist - AAA ambulance responded but the patient declined transport.

Hillcrest Lot - Auto Burglary - A black purse with

contents was taken from an unlocked vehicle.

Alumni Dr - Petit Larceny - A student reported the theft of a tent and four chairs from the District during the football game.

W Stadium - Lost Property - A game spectator reported while at the stadium she lost a fanny pack .

11-02-08 105 Fraternity Dr - Petit Larceny - A visitor reported the theft of a wallet.

Loyalty Field - Fire - A fire in a dumpster was extinguished by Hattiesburg Fire Department.

4th St - DUI - Joseph Stringer, W/M, 32 yoa, Hattiesburg address was arrested and charged with Careless Driving and DUI. 11-03-08 Administration Bldg - Medical Assist - AAA ambulance responded but did not transport the reporting party.

Recycle your Student Printz

www.studentprintz.com|News

Thursday, November 6, 2008 | Page 3

Republicans work to rebuild, redefine their party Mark Silva Chicago Tribune

The electoral landslide that delivers Democratic Presidentelect Barack Obama to the White House, combined with a boost of his party’s power-base in Congress, will demand a new era of rebuilding for a tattered Republican Party.

The combined elections of Obama and a more robust Democratic Congress will readily be interpreted as a repudiation of not only the GOP’s retiring President George Bush and the Reagan agenda that preceded him, but also the party’s current leaders. Already, the House Republican conference chairman, Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida, is stepping aside, and House

Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri face fights for their posts.

More broadly, the agenda of the Republican Party’s biggest base _ a Christian conservative constituency which accounts for 40 percent of the party _ will face more than a deep freeze with a Democratic-controlled Congress and White House. It may also confront a new wave of party leaders and potential candidates for president in the next election cycles attempting to adjust to a more moderate course that voters at large are demanding.

Yet, any reports of the Republican Party’s demise, as Mark Twain would have put it, are “premature.”

“The Republican Party ... is going to go through a bloodbath, going to go through a real struggle,” said Stephen Hess, professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University. But he cautions against writing the party off in the long-term: “I’ve lived through too many obituaries for political parties.”

Obama won “on the strength of a substantial electoral shift toward the Democratic Party” and with the help of middleground and independent voters, the Pew Research Center reports, based on exit-polling: 39 percent of those who voted were Democrats, 32 percent Republicans, compared to an even divide in 2004. Obama won half the independents who voted,

60 percent of the moderates, 63 percent of the urban vote and half the suburban vote.

Still, the Democratic Party has made somewhat limited gains in an election that gave the party’s presidential nominee an electoral-vote mandate: five added seats in the Senate and at least 19 new seats in the House.

And history suggests that two cycles of gains for one party are likely to be offset by midterm losses in two years.

“Both parties remain competitive,” said Thom Riehle, a partner at RT Strategies, a polling firm. Yet, he suggests, the GOP has been corralled into a smaller zone of influence.

“Almost half the Republican House members are from the South,” Riehle said. “Their

GOP keeps N.J.’s 5th District House seat Mark Silva HACKENSACK, N.J. -- This was the year Democrats thought they would unseat Republican Rep. Scott Garrett, who won a fourth term Tuesday by a margin of 14 percentage points.

Dennis Shulman, a rabbi and psychologist who is legally blind, had the benefit of riding the tide of Barack Obama’s victory over John McCain.

His campaign was well funded.

And his strategy was to win in Democratic-leaning Passaic and Bergen counties and reliably Republican Warren County.

But Garrett beat back the challenge, producing higher numbers in all four counties. He had 56 percent of the vote to Shulman’s 42 percent. He beat Shulman by a wider margin than in 2006, when he defeated challenger Paul Aronsohn by 11 percentage points at a time when Democrats regained

control of the House.

Garrett was one of four New Jersey Republicans re-elected to a House seat. New Jersey’s delegation will be an 8-5 majority for Democrats. His district includes northern Bergen and Passaic and all of Sussex and Warren counties.

Brigid Harrison, a political science and law professor at Montclair State University, said she didn’t think Shulman had much of a shot due to the 5th District’s reconfiguration after the 2000 census that made it “a solidly Republican district.”

“While the demographics have changed, they have not changed that drastically so that the more conservative Republican components of the district, especially in Warren County, would be outweighed by a Democratic influx in Bergen County,” she said.

Incumbents in Congress also have an “enormously powerful” advantage, she said. In any given year, about 92 percent of all mem-

bers of the House are reelected, according to Harrison.

Shulman’s campaign manager, Jeffrey Hauser, said part of Shulman’s sluggish showings in Bergen County can be attributed to a strong Republican presence in the Bergen towns that fall within the district.

He also said Garrett spent about $700,000 on ads and mailings in the final weeks of the election that Shulman couldn’t counter with his $300,000.

“Garrett’s allies, who he has supported so loyally as a member of the House Financial Services Committee voting for them in Congress, came through for him in his time of need and financed a well-executed smear campaign against Dennis Shulman,” he said.

“If the resources had been more equivalent, we would have been able to combat those smears effectively.”

Garrett outspent Shulman $1.5 million to about $1.1 million,

Hauser said.

Shulman had an overwhelming amount of out-of-district resources and hundreds of volunteers, said Garrett’s campaign manager Amanda Gasperino in a statement.

Garrett said in the statement that voters had rejected “the negative tactics employed by the Shulman campaign.”

During the race, Shulman focused his campaign on Garrett, never sharing who he was or his stances with television viewers.

Garrett shared his record on some issues but also retaliated in attack ads against Shulman.

It’s difficult for a first-time candidate competing in the North Jersey media market to build name recognition, said Richard McGrath, spokesman for the New Jersey Democratic Committee.

“It takes time, money and, sometimes, successive campaigns,”

said the atmosphere was “celebrative and joyful.” He noted that there were “no major issues other than noise concern,” and that calling it a riot is “very inaccurate.”

“I was out here for a couple hours myself,” Hopkins said. “I thought it to be well under control

in regards to what we were dealing with on the outside. They complied when we asked them to disperse for the night.”

Some students, however, have noted the isolated actions of overzealous supporters. Win Moore, sophomore photojournalism major

from Hattiesburg, said he knew of a classmate whose vehicle was vandalized.

“Her car got damaged,” Moore said. “She’s got pictures of them doing it too. They were on top of her car roof and dented the entire thing in.”

Other spectators confirmed reports of people dancing on cars, but damages have not been verified.

“It got pretty crazy,” LeBlanc said. “They were shooting off fireworks; some guy said it was ‘National Black Day.’ I tried to stay in my room after club Quad.”

Chicago Tribune

Quad from page one

appeal in statewide or presidential elections is increasingly excluded from the suburbs.....

They are increasingly a regional and small-town party.”

In the short-run, at least, Democrats say the election gives their party a green light for an agenda advanced by Obama.

While Obama and Republican rival John McCain split the vote of men nationally, the Democrat won with a 13-percent margin among women. That will result in an agenda focused more on economic matters such as

our administration and the administration at those other schools for recruiting solid women coaches to their coaching staffs.”

McNelis said that she enjoys using her role to show that women can raise a family and still enjoy a solid career.

“In our recruiting process we sell the fact that yes, I’m a woman, I have kids and I have a career,” McNelis said. “So many people don’t think you can have a career and be a mom, and as for me being a coach gives me an opportunity to be a role model for our young ladies and show that you can.”

Overall, Conference USA re-

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Ceiling from page one miss currently employs 15 female coaches, including three head coaches: women’s basketball coach Joy Lee-McNelis, women’s golf coach Julie Gallup, and cross country coach Danielle Keplinger, who works under track-and-field head coach Shane Brandford.

McNelis, who is entering her fifth year as head coach, expressed her gratitude to the administration for making an effort to attract female coaches.

“I feel honored to be a part of a very special group of women that has been put in a situation in to impact our young athletes at Southern Miss,” McNelis said. “Hats off to

health care and jobs, some say, than on the traditional family values issues that the GOP has promoted, such as restricting abortion or gay marriage.

“Clearly, Barack Obama and others who look at their victories recognize that fact,” said Ramona Oliver, spokeswoman for EMILY’s List. “They recognize that the No. 1 thing those women want is a focus on the economy and the issues and pressures that are facing their families.”

ceived high marks, placing third among all division-1 conferences.

Central Florida, who finished first overall, was just one of four Conference USA teams to place in the top ten. Tulane came in at No. 2, and Memphis ranked No. 5.

Southern Miss was one of just 11 teams and the only team in Mississippi to receive an A grade, with Ole Miss coming in at No. 23 with a B- and Mississippi State an abysmal No. 107 and receiving an F-. The lowest rated teams in the nation were Utah State, Marshall, and Southern California, which all received F’s.

Obama from page one

Making appointments will be another priority for Obama, particularly in light of the economic turmoil, but McBride doesn’t anticipate much congressional resistance.

“I have heard that his economic advisors are pretty main-stream, so he’ll probably get who he wants.”

As of Wednesday, Obama selected Illinois Representative Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, the Associated Press reported, but it is unclear whether Emanuel has accepted the position.

The Student Printz Religious Directory

Attend the worship of your choice.

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Student input needed in Eaglepalooza decision making

A

s we’re sure you’ve heard by now, the Student Government Association recently announced the lineup for this year’s Eaglepalooza concert -- MuteMath and Dave Barnes amongst others.

Our question is: what purpose does this concert serve? Is it to draw in prospective future students, or is it simply to entertain? Judging from the information we gathered for Tuesday’s news story, it would appear to lie somewhere between the two.

SGA is giving us a free concert, which is great. We can’t complain about that at all. Our problem is Eaglepalooza doesn’t seem to serve well in either stated position.

The lineup is chosen by the SGA, not the students. The SGA makes a list of potential acts early in the year, then narrows the list down using logistical considerations, cost and availability for example, until contracts are offered to the acts. The lineup is born.

We definitely understand the logistical considerations, but if the student body can vote in SGA officer and homecoming elections, why can’t the student body take part in the choosing of Eaglepalooza’s composition?

SGA certainly has the facility to put something to a vote. Why and when did they decide that they should be the ones to dictate who plays Eaglepalooza? With $50,000 going into a free concert, shouldn’t SGA appease the majority? Fifty grand is a fair chunk of change to be poured into something for communal entertainment, especially when the administrators of said event didn’t first confer with the community to be entertained.

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Danielle Couturie, one of the co-directors of Eaglepalooza, said this concert would cater to a “different genre and audience this year trying to spice it up.”

Through our eyes, just as one’s trash may be another’s treasure, one’s “spicing it up” may very well be another’s disgusting waste of money.

Perhaps more, smaller concerts could be a viable solution. If the goal is to entertain the student body, a series of niche-targeted concerts would more than likely turn out a larger fraction of the student body, albeit at different times. Perhaps we have no idea what we’re talking about, but it makes sense to us.

If the goal is to persuade potential students to enroll, we believe $50,000 could be used more effectively in a large number of ways.

If the SGA created a heavily publicized forum for students to petition and vote on campus issues, we believe prospects to Southern Miss would easily appreciate the appeal. In small populations like Southern Miss, democracy is easy to enact in its true state.

The pure incarnation of people-driven leadership, if well publicized, would almost necessarily have more drawing power than a single event based on the predictions of a few-namely Eaglepalooza.

The list goes on. $50,000 buys a good bit. If the SGA’s concerns lie in enrollment, then even Eaglepalooza could be conducted so as to be more enticing to future prospects.

We’ve published this column in the campus newspaper. The SGA now knows what we think. If you agree with us and think $50,000 is a large sum to be spent imprudently, then don’t be quiet about it.

The SGA’s job is to serve the student body, which can be difficult without input. Tell them what you think.

This column is of The Student Printz editorial board. Comments can be sent to printz@usm.edu

Change for America C

hange won. A nation burdened with economic insecurity and war placed its faith in a young senator from Illinois yesterday, after an extraordinary presidential campaign that captivated the public with its intensity and excitement and culminated in a euphoric celebration by an enormous crowd Tuesday night in Chicago.

Coming from a modest and itinerant background, Barack Obama’s unlikely rise to become president-elect of the United States marks 2008 as a special moment in the country’s long struggle to match reality with its ideals of opportunity based on individual merit. It’s a proud moment for a proud nation.

But what is truly remarkable is that in this year’s epochal presidential race, in which a black man was elevated to the nation’s top job for the first time in its history, race didn’t much matter.

Obama’s victory on the Democratic ticket reflects an electorate that’s fed up with the petty partisanship and incompetence of the past eight years and pining for something new. Something pragmatic. Something that works.

That’s the change that Obama offered and the vision which his supporters passionately embraced that carried the day over Republican John McCain of Arizona.

With about eight in 10 people telling pollsters that the country is on the wrong track under President George W. Bush, voters resoundingly rejected a government crippled by rigid ideology and small concerns, which has left so many of the nation’s pressing problems unattended. Obama envisioned _ and voters embraced _ a post-partisan politics in which elected officials would no longer divide the public into warring camps in search of political advantage.

Obama is a man for these troubled times. He energized young voters to get involved in the nation’s politics. He forged a multiracial coalition that reflects an increasingly diverse nation, and did it without slicing and dicing the electorate into self-serving interest groups. He displayed a reassuring grasp of the forces driving the nation into an uncertain future. And throughout a campaign that alternately raged and dragged for two years, he demonstrated a technological sophistication, intellectual curiosity and calm deliberation that should serve us all well.

The public has been conditioned by recent history to expect too-close-to-call presidential elections that extend the suspense into the wee hours, if not the long weeks, after the polls closed. Not this time. Obama won going away. He decisively locked

up key battleground states such as Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, en route to laying claim to a powerful mandate to govern.

The message to Washington? No more diversions. Voters have lost patience with the notion that government is the problem. They need government to be a part of the solution _ particularly when it comes to the credit squeeze, free falling property values and disappearing nest eggs.

Elected officials have to find the will and a way to cooperate in a genuine search for practical solutions to the economic woes and other problems weighing on the nation’s psyche.

Obama and the Democratic Congress should take heed. If they lapse into the old partisan gamesmanship, or succumb to ideological excesses, their electoral successes will be fleeting. Republicans, too: If they become reflexive obstructionists, they risk irrelevance.

The public is worried. For the first time in history, the American dream _ that sunny belief that tomorrow will always be better than today _ is imperiled. In the face of that uncertainty, voters Tuesday emphatically chose a new direction. Washington should follow their lead.

The articla above is seen as in the Kansas Star. Comments can be sent to printz@usm.edu

Electoral college needs work

F

eeling relief now that Election Day is finally over? Think again.

The real election won’t take place until Dec. 15. That’s when the Electoral College meets to pick the winner _ and it hasn’t always been the candidate with the highest number of popular votes.

The popular vote is for a slate of representatives to the Electoral College, where the electors choose the next president. More than once, the candidate with the highest number of popular votes has come up short, thanks to the way votes are distributed by states on a winner-take-all basis. The last time was in 2000, when Al Gore lost to George W. Bush despite receiving 543,816 more popular votes.

Isn’t it time to get rid of this horse-and-buggy-era political contraption?

The theory behind the Electoral College was that it would create a rough balance between states with large and small populations. Without such protection, small states feared that they would be

overlooked as presidential candidates campaigned in states with the most voters.

Because it was the states that created the central government, this made sense to the framers of the Constitution.

In the modern era, however, it’s the states with some of the highest populations _ California, New York and Texas among them _ that usually are ignored because the outcomes in those states are considered a done deal. Indeed, Florida is the most populous state to enjoy _ if that is the right word _ a real presidential campaign, because it’s a swing state.

These days, candidates focus almost entirely on a few states where the race is close, regardless of size, thanks to the Electoral College. In 2004, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry spent almost 90 percent of their campaign time and money in fewer than a dozen states. This tends to depress turnout in states that are overlooked. It discourages potential voters who believe their vote has no real significance.

Giving swing states more clout is inherently undemocratic. Sen. Bill Nelson, DFla., says it also violates the basic principle of one man, one vote. He’s right. Sen. Nelson wants to get rid of the Electoral College through a constitutional amendment.

That, however, would require a two-thirds’ majority in Congress and approval of 37 state legislatures, an almost impossible political obstacle.

There is another way. Four states _ Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey and Maryland _ already have passed bills to cast their state’s electoral votes for the winner of the national popular vote. This would take effect when states with an electoral majority _ 270 of the 538 electoral votes _ also have passed such laws.

The sooner we are rid of the Electoral College, the more representative our democracy will be.

The article above is seen as in the Miami Herald. Comments can be sent to printz@usm.edu

www.studentprintz.com|Opinion

Thursday, November 6, 2008| Page 5

Living life after the end of the era of Bush Richard Parker MCT Campus

AUSTIN, Texas _ It’s over.

Oh, sure, you still see a few of those trademark, black bumper stickers boldly and simply proclaiming “W.� But there are a lot fewer of them; the ones that remain are starting to crack and fade. The era of George W. Bush is over.

The historians will figure out his legacy. But Texas, where the W. era started, is a good place to examine what to do next. Yes, Texas rode the excesses of the era but now we’re paying for it, too: the Texas National Guard is headed to Iraq, again, the oil boom has turned to bust, and the country’s economic pain is being felt here.

Yet there is no worse example of the problems to tackle than health care. America’s secondlargest state ranks dead last and holds up a mirror to the country that practically pleads: Fix health care. The era of managed care, keeping costs and down and profits up for the insurance companies, has turned the doctor-patient

relationship on its head with rare respect for the health of the patient.

And there is no more ironic example of the topsy-turvy, upside-down mess than, of all things, the increasingly widespread practice of mandating the use of generic drugs. Ten years ago, when Bush sat in the governor’s chair, Texas made it hard for doctors to prescribe less expensive generics. But at the end of his tenure in Austin, the pendulum started to swing _ ultimately in the exact opposite direction.

Now, it’s hard for doctors to insist on a brand name drug for their patients as the relentless profit motive of insurance companies has met with the easy pliancy of politicians.

As a result of the legislature’s work, doctors have to write on the prescription pad “brand medically necessary� to prevent pharmacists from automatically substituting generic drugs and spend hours on the phone with the insurer.

Generics have their place, but they also inflate insurers’ profits _ regardless of how they perform.

“Ninety percent of the time a generic is just fine. But it’s not fine if you’re in that 10 percent where the drug is going to fail. Those people get sicker before they get better,� says Dr. Josie Williams, an internist at Texas A&M University and president of the Texas Medical Association. “It is unequivocal: It is a definite intrusion in the physicianpatient relationship.�

In 2007, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas mailed to physicians “switch letters� recommending that they prescribe cheaper generics that would lead to more modest improvements for people suffering from moderately high-cholesterol, adding that many patients could be “adequately treated.�

But Texas is hardly alone.

From Maine to Hawaii, these have gone out to physicians, pharmacies and patients alike from insurers.

And that percentage of patients for whom generics don’t work? Well, they seem to just get sicker, as Williams put it, before they get better: In New York, in 2007 ConsumerLabs.com, an

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favor of health care reform, noting the 54-year old truck driver in Houston, home to one of the world’s finest health centers, who is travelling for surgery. To India.

The next president would be well-served to look at how changes to Medicare during the W. era all failed, and how health care got worse _ not just for Texans but for all of us.

This is an opinion article by Richard Parker of McClatchy News Services.

Comments can be sent to printz@ usm.edu

I love the ocean.

I intend to spend the rest of my life studying the ocean, its mesmerBrandon izing depths Drescher and fascinatPrintz Writer ing inhabitants.

Yet, how can I enjoy something so vast, so beautiful, so powerful if the human race cannot respect and appreciate how important it is to our survival, and not ruin it like the many areas of land which we have already destroyed. Perhaps the most beautiful and pristine parts of the ocean are the coral reefs, which are, biologically, the richest systems in the world, yet cover less than half of the oceans’ area.

There are some reefs that are remote enough to supply us with reference points against which to measure environmental change and serve as a blueprint for conservation, such as Kingman Reef, a few thousand miles south of Hawaii .

An estimated 50 reefs of this pristine condition exist today with the remaining coral reef

areas suffering badly. Corals are slow growers, taking decades to achieve a fraction of their current size. So don’t be an ignorant tourist and walk across coral reefs killing everything you step on or break up corals to take home as trinkets from your vacation. Without corals we would not be able to enjoy certain seafood delicacies sustained by the coral. Also, a good portion of our medical supplies and studies comes from coral reefs and the organisms inhabiting them.

Killing them is killing us.

A healthy reef includes various and lush corals covering the seabed, crystal clear water, and large predators. Overfishing of large predatory fish unleashes population booms of their smaller prey fish followed by blooms of microbes.

Microbes may include tiny organisms such as dinoflagellates, which cause the famous red tides that suffocate all life in the part of the ocean where they occur.

We have seen this effect of disappearing larger fish and the increase in numbers of smaller fish and microbes worldwide. With a drop in large fish population number,

microbe populations explode adding to coral degradation and eventual death of the reef.

There is hope for some areas, especially in the Pacific.

We can forget about the Gulf of Mexico. As long as the casinos and ports continue to emerge and grow, the ships will continue to run, the water will stay cloudy and polluted and organic life will be destroyed. In contrast to the other side of the world, the largest marine reserve in the world is comparable in size with California and was established by the Kiribati nation of tiny islands in the central Pacific.

It is a 158,000 square-mile reserve where commercial fishing is off-limits and represents one of the boldest efforts to save coral reef habitat. Other reserves are being designated around the world, but it might not make a difference if we continue our present course of living. How can we protect anything at home when we are destroying something completely remote and on the other side of the world?

This is an opinion article by Brandon Drescher, a staff writer for The Student Printz. Comments can be sent to printz@usm.edu

Letter to the Editor

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In Ohio this year, the Toledo Blade newspaper surveyed 900 physicians. Ninety-five percent said insurers interfered with their prescription of drugs to patients. 99 percent said that insurers interfered in the doctor-patient relationship overall.

Texas, now ranks 51st _ yes, behind every state and the District of Columbia _ in access to health care, according to the Commonwealth Fund, and 49th in overall health care.

In the final days before the election, The Austin American Statesman editorialized in

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independent evaluator of drugs and nutritional products, found that at least one generic version of the anti-depressant Wellbutrin did not perform as well as the brand name drug.

MSNBC’s Web site received hundreds of complaints of generics not working after contributor Jacqueline Stenson broke the anti-depressant story. The co-authors of “The People’s Pharmacy,� a popular consumer reference book, received hundreds of complaints of people being switched to generics and getting worse.

I must respond to Brittney Cooley’s column on abortion.

Ms. Cooley’s argument is just the latest strategy of the anti-choice groups to force women to give up their hardearned right to control their own lives. She argues that abortion is bad because it is bad for women’s mental health, thus the new slew of abortion protesters carrying signs that say “Abortion Hurts Women.�

Unfortunately, science is not on Cooley’s side. Both the Reagan Administration and the American Psychological Association commissioned several studies on the mental health effects of abortion and all found that abortion was not hazardous to women’s mental health. Most women felt relieved. According to the studies, the number of women suffering severe emotional distress after an abortion was 1 percent.

These women almost always had mental health issues prior to their abortion. According to the studies, the best predic-

tor of a woman’s post-abortion mental health is her pre-abortion mental health. Most postabortion stress was actually related to the trauma women had to endure to secure the abortion – people yelling “murderer� at you can be very stressful – or the social stigma that they were afraid of if they told anti-choice family and friends about their decision. For more on this issue, see http://www. msmagazine.com/aug01/pas. html As for Ms. Cooley’s argument that women who have had abortions are not marching in the streets, she is sorely mistaken. Many women who have had abortions have regularly joined the pro-choice marches in Washington. “Ms. Magazine� recently published a long list of women who had abortions (most of them famous, many just everyday women like Ms. Cooley and myself). These women take to the streets and publish their names because they feel it is important for all women to know that we have a right to

control our own lives.

Choosing abortion is not an easy decision, especially in a world where it may mean a loss of friends and family, but it’s a decision that all women have the right to make. It is a matter of equality: we do not tell men what to do with their bodies, and unwanted pregnancy has a detrimental effect on women’s economic opportunities. The truth is, the absence of legal abortion is what really harms women. In the developing world, each year approximately 70,000 women and girls die from unsafe (i.e., illegal) abortions and another 500,000 maternal deaths occur because women are denied reproductive health care, contraception and pre-natal care.

If Ms. Cooley really cares about women, she should consider the millions of real live women who are forced to have children they do not want or cannot afford to care for and not worry about the “unborn.�

Kate Greene

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Entertainment

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Fable 2 is a worthy sequel among RPG fans Brandon Morris Printz Writer

On October 21st, Lionhead studios released Fable 2, one of the most anticipated releases of this year. While designer Peter Molyneux has a reputation for wild exaggerated claims, this title actually lives up to most of them. Fable fans will not be disappointed.

Fable 2 is set in the same world as the original, Albion, with the time-line advanced by 500 years. The game makes only passing references to the original, so one need not have played it to understand the plot of the latest chapter.

The biggest change is the streamlined combat system. Now, the player has one button each to control melee, magic and ranged weapons, including guns. This sounds overly simplistic, but the system is build

around context. Mashing a button as quickly as possible has one effect, holding it has another, and pressing it rhythmically has another.

Making a melee attack against an attacking foe executes a riposte, while attacking an enemy near a ledge, wall, or other environmental feature produces another effect.

There are a handful of locally limited changes which occur at two particular points in the game’s storyline.

These are all binary and determined by the player’s choice of quests. When one of these changes occurs, the game explicitly points them out. Therefore, even if you haven’t seen the alternative outcome, you know what it would have been. All of the possible outcomes can be seen in only two playthroughs. Nobody will ever be surprised

by someone else’s game world.

Molyneux has exaggerated on a few counts however. The changing worlds are not as unique as suggested and the co-op play is fun, but poorly implemented. In co-op play, the second character player can import the stats of his own character, but not the avatar. Six pre-made avatars are available, none of which are aesthetically pleasing.

The game tethers players together with an invisible rope, one that is often smaller than the battles, so you’ll constantly bicker over control of your collective direction. The camera doesn’t aid much, either. In several instances, I intentionally logged off of the game during story-heavy sections in order to make things easier on the primary player.

What makes a Fable game are two things: a relatively noncomplex structure relatively accessible to the casual audience for an RPG, and the ability to do many non-combat related things in town. Both are present and improved on here. There are more of these extra curricular activities available, but they remain minor distractions. I felt more emotional attachment to my dog than I did to any of my wives.

All accounted for, I very much enjoyed Fable 2. There’s no real replay value here, though. After playing through the full story, which I did twice over my rental period, the remaining open-ended quests are pretty much busy work. It’s not a game like “Oblivion” that takes weeks of play to fully experience. It’s a must rent for RPG fans, but not a must buy.

Brandon Morris is a staff writer for The Student Printz. Comments can be sent to printz@usm.edu

Castle a major improvement for Deerhunter Eric Nagurney Entertainment Editor

Last year, I wasn’t one to buy the hype on Deerhunter. It wasn’t that I found the band’s 2007 album Cryptograms to be too strange or offputting. I just felt that the album as a whole was extremely uninteresting, despite glimpses of inspired material. For every great song on the record, there seemed to be twice as many dull, meandering tracks.

Thankfully, the band seems to have taken these problems to heart, as they have crafted a tight, focused follow up with Microcastle.

From the outset, Microcastle establishes itself as a far more inviting record than its predecessor. Where the first half of Cyrptograms cycled between sinister post-punk and ambient instrumentals, Microcastle bursts out the gate with a series of warm dream-pop songs.

After a surprisingly striking instrumental introduction track, “Agoraphobia” makes its mark as a beautiful, drifting lullaby, a deceptive form for a song about the desire for selfburial. The album’s momentum is kept by the stutter-step punk of “Never Stops” and the noisy build of the shoegazing “Little Kids.”

Impressively, Microcastle’s final suite of song are as strong as its first. With a compo-

sition equally ethereal and driving, “Nothing Ever Happened To Me” is not only the album’s greatest song, but also one of the year’s greatest. Closer “Twilight at Carbon Lake” is another highlight, its drifting melody recalling the nostalgia-drench of a 1950s prom, albeit with something sinister bubbling underneath. That something sinister comes to the surface once the song reaches its cathartic, chaotic climax.

With such a great first and last acts, its a shame that the record’s midsection is a bit lacking. Stuck directly in the middle of the record are three sparse, quiet numbers. Each song is pleasant and pretty enough, but none of them really display many interesting ideas. Though these three songs are all mercifully short, adding up to about five minutes, they are rather detrimental to the record’s overall flow. Comparatively, “Nothing Ever Happened To Me” alone is about thirty seconds longer than these three songs combined, but feels about half as long.

In a way, Microcastle is a double-album of sorts, as it comes packaged with a second disc of material titled Weird Era Cont. Originally leaked by accident on frontman Bradford Cox’s blog, the disc feels like neither a collection of B-sides or full cohesive album. While there’s material here that’s as strong as anything on the main album, particularly the spacey dance punk song “Operation,” it definitely lacks the

same cohesion. Its a confounding yet satisfying group of material and something that really deserves more detail than the space here permits.

As great as Microcastle is, I can’t shake the feeling that it still lacks a certain something.

The band is on the cusp of being the poster boys for modern shoegaze and possibly even modern

indie rock. They just need to deliver their own version of Loveless or The Moon and Antarctica to cement their status. At the moment, Microcastle is one giant step towards getting there.

Eric Nagurney is the Entertainment Editor for The Student Printz. Comments can be sent to printz@usm.edu

“Changeling” kicks off Oscar-season Cory Taylor Printz Writer

The leaves are turning and the weather is becoming frigid, which could only mean that the race for little gold statues is under way. Clint Eastwood’s newest film, “Changeling,” exhibits all of the standard criteria for successful acquisition of a few little statues of Oscar. Unfortunately, the finish line for this race will not be crossed until February 22, 2009.

“Changeling” tells the true story of a single mother named Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), whose son is kidnapped one day from their home. The year is 1928, and Christine lives in downtown Los Angeles, just before the reverberations of the Great Depression sweep across the nation. She pleads desperately with the Los Angeles Police Department to help her.

Five months pass, then a young boy is found in DeKalb, Ill. The only problem is this boy is three inches shorter than Christine’s real son, Walter. The police intended for this case to put them back in the spotlight of heroism. Now the department has to make Christine look crazy and stifle her protests about this strange boy they have given her. Christine is a strong and determined woman and never loses hope that her real son is still only missing.

A subplot involving a serial killer emerges near the end of the second act, though disclosing any details about that story would not be objective criticism. The most important detail concerning this subplot is that the man who plays the killer, Jason Butler Harner, gives one of the most riveting and creepy performances of the year.

This is not the first film to focus on the fraudulent and corrupt nature of the LAPD. “L.A. Confidential,” “Training Day,” “The Black Dahlia,” and “Lakeview Terrace” are similar such films; “Changeling” is perhaps the most heartfelt, though.

Angelina Jolie gives a performance that few actresses could surpass, possibly guaranteeing her a nomination for a “little gold statue.”

However, it is not kosher to solidify such possibilities just yet, for the race has only begun.

Cory Taylor is a staff writer for The Student Printz. Comments can be sent to printz@usm.edu

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www.studentprintz.com | Thursday, November 6, 2008

Sports

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Eagle roundballers search for identity

Maggie Sanford/Photo Editor

Sai’Quon Stone, a junior guard from Brooklyn, N.Y., blocks Craig Craft a senior guard from Raleigh during basketball practice Wednesday afternoon. The Golden Eagles first game is Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. in Hattiesburg.

Tyler Cleveland Sports Editor

With their season tip off just nine days away, the Southern Miss men’s basketball team is still looking for it’s identity, according to head coach Larry Eustachy.

The team returns four of it’s five starters from a season ago, and are going into Larry Eustachy’s fifth season at the helm.

Jeremy Wise returns as the team’s leading scorer after averaging 18.7 points per contest last year. In all, Eustachy returns his top seven scorers from last season.

But according to Eustachy, the newcomers have been the highlight of practice so far.

“The new guys have been good,” Eustachy said. “I like Rodney (McCauley), he doesn’t

play like a freshman. He’s probably playing harder than anyone else right now. Cory (Smith) and Jerome (Clyburn) have also had a big impact.”

McCauley, a 6-foot-5 guard out of Dallas Texas, should enter the guard rotation with returning starters junior Jeremy Wise and sophomore R.L. Horton.

Smith, a 6-7 forward from Pleasant Grove, Ala., and Clyburn a 6-foot guard out of Orange Park, Fla. could also contribute.

Eustachy also spoke highly of Andre Jackson, a 6-10 freshman forward from Pinkston Texas that has yet to be cleared by the NCAA. Although the new faces show promise, Eustachy said he hasn’t been too pleased with the way the team has practiced so far, and is looking for some leaders.

“I’m not really pleased with the way practices have been going,” Eustachy said. “We’re not playing as hard as we need to, we need some more leadership. It’s disappointing, not discouraging, but disappointing at this point.”

Senior Courtney Beasley, who said he’s working hard to get his body back in shape coming off the layoff, echoed his coaches’ praise of the newcomers but said that he understands the challenge of the practice.

“Practice basically is an actual game,” Beasley said.

“However you practice, that’s how you’re going to play in the game. We have to keep it tough and physical, and eventually that will pour over into games.”

The Golden Eagles will need that toughness to score as many

Maggie Sanford/Photo Editor

The Southern Miss men’s basketball team prepares for a scrimmage during Wednesday evening’s practice in Reed Green Coliseum. The Golden Eagles basketball season kicks off Nov. 11 in Hattiesburg at 7 p.m.

wins as last year’s team did. The new schedule, which includes non-conference tilts with Miami, Connecticut,KansasState,andOle Miss, doesn’t get any easier when the conference schedule starts “(Conference USA) was very good last year and very underrated. We had five teams in postseason play and we should send even more this year,” Eustachy said. “Whoever finishes sixth in this league is going to be a good team. It’s one of the top six or seven leagues in the country.”

The Golden Eagles were picked to finish fifth in the conference by sports writers and coaches at the annual basketball media day in Memphis. The Memphis Tigers were picked to repeat as conference champions.

Junior guard/forward Sai’Quon

Stone said he enjoys the extra challenges this season proposes.

“The new guys are so good, I’m worried about my spot,” Stone said. “Everyone gets down on coach Eustachy for our schedules, but this year they really can’t say much because we play some of the top programs in the country. We know we have to practice hard and prepare or we’ll be in way over our heads.”

One aspect Beasley said he’s really excited about this season are the new facilities that were completed a month ago that house the new locker rooms and offices for the team and coaches.

“I’m glad they finished these things up for my senior season,” Beasley said. “But I’m really happy for the younger guys, they get to spend a couple years in here and

they will really benefit from it.”

The $10.5 million addition to Reed Green Coliseum is expected to help production and recruiting for both the men’s and women’s programs.

Eustachy said he’s very happy with the growth of the program, and said now it’s time for his guys to start playing like they are capable.

“When I first took this job to where it is now is light years, but our goal is to be comfortable where we are. We should have our best team since I’ve been here this year, and we need to start practicing like it.”

The Eagles open the season Saturday, Nov. 15, when they host Loyola of New Orleans at 7 p.m. at Reed Green Coliseum.

Admission is free to students.

USM looks for second CUSA win Tyler Cleveland Sports Editor

The Golden Eagle football team will be taking on a very different opponent when they take the field Saturday at Bright House Networks Stadium in Orlando.

Last season, the Central Florida Knights walked into Hattiesburg riding running back Kevin Smith, who ripped the Eagles for 175 rushing yards.

They would go on to finish 102 and atop the Conference USA standings.

That was 2007.

Through eight games in 2008, the defending champs are 2-6 overall and 1-3 in conference play. The Knights are currently on a threegame losing streak after falling to East Carolina 13-10 in overtime last weekend.

The offense that was so potent last season, ranks 119 in total offense, 112 in passing offense, and 111 in scoring offense.

But that doesn’t mean the Southern Miss defense, which showed much improvement in last week’s win over UAB, is going to take anything lightly.

“You look at the numbers, but those are just book stats,” defensive end Rashod Byrd said. “People don’t see the whole offense because they’re not in the film room with us. They’re a pretty good offense that works in a pretty good operation. I guess it just hasn’t been right for them like it has for us.”

The Knights are led on offense by junior quarterback Michael Greco, who’s thrown for just 854 yards in eight games with five touchdowns and four interceptions.

But Greco might not be the only quarterback that the Eagles face this Saturday. UCF coach George O’Leary said this week that the quarterback competition is still ongoing.

“I think I want to keep the competition at the quarterback position,” O’Leary said at his weekly press conference. “In truthfulness, Joe Weatherford, the third guy, is

the one I feel sorry for. I don’t think either quarterback (Rob Calabrese and Michael Greco) has shown the consistency at the position.”

Ronnie Weaver, the Knights leading rusher, has 101 carries for 348 yards on the season, bringing his yards-per-carry average to a whopping 3.4.

The only defensive starter not expected to start for Southern Miss is cornerback Chico Hunter, who is battling an unspecified knee injury.

The Knight offense have been woeful, their highest scoring game coming against South Florida in a 31-24 loss.

Fedora said that while those numbers are encouraging, they don’t factor much into his team’s approach on Saturday.

“It doesn’t change our approach at all,” Fedora said. “We know that defensively we have to go out there and play well. To be honest with you we don’t look at those kinds of things. We watch them on film and we break down the film.”

One aspect of Central Florida that hasn’t changed from last season is their stiff defense, which returns nine starters from last season and ranks third in Conference USA, allowing just 342 yards a game.

The Knights have been toughest against the run, where they rank 37th nationally allowing just 117 yards per game.

That number does not bode well for Southern Miss, who will be without the services of standout running back Damion Fletcher, who is still recovering from a hamstring he strained last week in a blowout over UAB. Earlier in the week, Fedora talked about how capable Tory Harrison is of filling in for the injured Fletcher.

“We have needed him all along,” Fedora said. “It’s not like we haven’t needed him. But now he is going to get the opportunity to show what he can do, just like he did the other night. Everybody knows Tory is a good running back.”

Maggie Sanford/Printz

Codarro Law, a defensive lineman from Whitfield, Ala., practices on a tackling dummy during football practice Nov. 1. The Golden Eagles face UCF during their homecoming at Bright House Networks Stadium in Orlando at 2:30 p.m.

Volleyball swept by Tulane 3-0 Special to the Printz The Southern Miss volleyball team came up short in its final home match of the season, losing to Tulane, 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-15) in Conference USA action Tuesday night.

Southern Miss fell to 14-12 overall and 4-9 in league play with the loss, while Tulane improved to 20-5 and 11-1.

Senior Stevi Cherry paced the Golden Eagles with a team-high

12 kills. Kelsea Seymour recorded a double-double with 27 assists and 13 digs, while Maia Ivanova also added 13 digs.

Sara Radosevic led the Green Wave with 13 kills to go with 11 digs, while Visnja Djurdjevic chipped in 11 kills. Jenn Miller tallied 14 digs.

Southern Miss ran out to an 8-2 lead in the first set, taking advantage of Tulane attack errors combined with timely kills. Following a Tulane timeout, the Green Wave began chipping away at the South-

ern Miss lead. With the Golden Eagles leading 16-12, Tulane then ran off six straight points, taking an 18-16 lead that the Green Wave would not relinquish. Tulane held on for a 25-22 win.

Tulane took a 4-4 tie and outscored Southern Miss, 10-3, building a 14-7 lead. Southern Miss cut the lead to four, 16-12, and that was as close as the Golden Eagles would get. Tulane took set two, 25-18.

The Golden Eagles started set three scoring the first three points.

Southern Miss pushed its lead to 7-4, before Tulane outscored Southern Miss 16-4 in taking a commanding, 20-11, lead. Tulane took the set, 25-15.

The Green Wave team finished the match with 12.5 team blocks with Jen Linder leading the way with six total blocks. Tulane also out-hit Southern Miss, .243 to .094.

Southern Miss returns to action when the team travels to Marshall and East Carolina for a pair of CUSA matches over the weekend.

Sports Calendar TOMORROW 6 p.m. -- Women’s Volleyball @ East Carolina -- Greenville, N.C. SATURDAY 2 p.m. -- Women’s Basketball v. Houston Jaguars -- Hattiesburg, Miss.

2:30 p.m. -- Football v. UCF -- Orlando, Fla.

SUNDAY 12 p.m. -- Women’s Volleyball v. Marshall -- Huntingon, W. Va.