SERVING SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI SINCE 1927 • WWW.STUDENTPRINTZ.COM • OCTOBER 27, 2021 | VOLUME 107 | ISSUE 10
SPORT MANAGEMENT
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DON TOLIVER
CONVULSE FESTIVAL
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Southern Miss officially joins Sun Belt Conference
Director of Athletics Jeremy McClain, USM President Dr. Rodney Bennett and Sun Belt Conference Commisioner Keith Gill officially announce Southern Miss’s move to the SBC.
Sean Smith | Printz
DIMA MIXON PRINTZ REPORTER
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outhern Miss has formally accepted an invitation to join the Sun Belt Conference (SBC). The official announcement came through a joint press conference with Director of Athletics Jeremy McClain, University of Southern Mississippi President Dr. Rodney Bennett and Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gill. Gill opened the conference immediately, stating, “On behalf of the Sun Belt, presidents, chancellors, directors and directors of athletics, I'd like to officially
announce that the University of Southern Mississippi has accepted our invitation to join the Sun Belt Conference.” The statement got a resounding round of applause in the press conference room. Bennent, in his opening statement, shared the room’s excitement. “Membership in the Sun Belt is an exciting opportunity for our university, an exciting opportunity for our student-athletes and [offers] exciting opportunities for our alumni and fans,” said Bennett. “I believe without a doubt that this move
will allow our student-athletes to compete in what is fast becoming the best group of five conferences in the country." “Today is a great day for Southern Miss,” McClain said. “We are extremely excited to become a member of the Sun Belt Conference.” This is McClain’s second time working with the Sun Belt Conference, as he was an Athletic Director for SBC’s Troy University from 2015 to 2019. Since first becoming a charter member of Conference USA
(C-USA), Southern Miss has been through a number of ups and downs with the league. This past week marked the biggest roadblock with the conference, however, as C-USA lost half of its teams within the same week. There had long been speculation that this move was coming, but there had been no serious talks from officials. However, in July, Oklahoma and Texas announced that they had accepted invitations to join with the Southeastern Conference (SEC). These moves led fans to speculate about how these national realignments would change the scope of all the other conferences. It seems we now have our answer. On Oct. 21, the American Athletic Conference (AAC) announced the addition of six C-USA schools: UAB, FAU, Charlotte, North Texas, Rice and UTSA. But Southern Miss had failed in the past to realign with other schools. But Southern Miss did not make fans speculate for too long this go around. This press conference, held five days after the initial AAC split, showed that Southern Miss is also changing course. “We [the Sun Belt] take pride in the fact that all of our members focus on the academic and personal development of our students,” said Gill. “We are in the education business, after all, and our most im-
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NEWS MEET THE CONTRIBUTORS SM2 News Director
Charlie Luttrell charles.luttrell@usm.edu
OCTOBER 27, 2021 WWW.STUDENTPRINTZ.COM SMAC to host spooky carnival for kids
Executive Editor
LOREN JONES ENTERTAINMENT/FEATURES EDITOR
Entertainment/Features Editor
he Southern Miss Student Activities Council (SMAC) will once again host a Kids’ Halloween Carnival on Wed., Oct. 27. The Halloween Carnival will be located at Weathersby Lawn, near the center of Southern Miss’s Hattiesburg campus and next to The Hub. It is free and open to all area children. SMAC also encourages all Southern Miss and other community members to join them from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. The event, though usually held annually, had to be postponed last year due to weather concerns over Hurricane Zeta. Even then,
Mary Murphy mary.s.murphy@usm.edu Loren Jones loren.jones@usm.edu
SMTV Executive Producer Koby Moore koby.moore@usm.edu
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Cordaveon Carter cordaveon.carter@usm.edu Seth Daspit seth.daspit@usm.edu Dima Mixon joshua.mixon@usm.edu
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Joe Weishaar joseph.weishaar@usm.edu
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Sean Smith seanasmith@usm.edu
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the event was supposed to take on a much different form, as guests were supposed to remain in their cars due to concerns about spreading COVID-19. This year, however, SMAC is resuming normal operations. The Carnival will include various booths sponsored by student organizations that will offer face painting, coloring, games and more. In addition, food and drinks will be provided throughout the event, and Southern Miss’s mascot, Seymour the Eagle, will be attending the event. Kids have the opportunity to take photos with Seymour through University Photo Services, who will also be tak-
ing photos throughout the event. Families can order any pictures Photo Services take of the event through Facebook. SMAC is a student-run and student-funded organization designed to offer a variety of educational and entertainment programs for Southern Miss’s student body. Their events, which include concerts, movies and novelty acts, are always open to students. For other events happening on campus throughout the year, you can visit SMAC’s Facebook page by searching for Southern Miss Activities Council or by following their Instagram @usm_smac.
ONLINE THIS WEEK + SM2’s sports staff reacts to Southern Miss’ move to Sun Belt Conference The views represented in The Student Printz’s columns and editorials do not represent those of the faculty, staff or administration of The University of Southern Mississippi. We welcome letters to the editor representing similar and contrasting opinions. To be eligible for publication, all submission must include name, class distinction, major, phone number and email address. Submissions should be emailed to printzeditors@ gmail.com by 5 p.m. on the Friday before publication. Please limit them to 500 words or less. The Student Printz reserves the right to refuse publication or edit any material on the basis of clarity, space or journalistic ethics.
Opinions expressed in The Student Printz are those of the writer and not necessarily those of The Student Printz, its publication manager, USM, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning or the USM Board of Student Publications.
+ USM Counseling and Moffitt Health Services host annual Fall Wellness Festival + Southern Miss Television presents Episodes One, Two and Three and more
OCTOBER 27, 2021 WWW.STUDENTPRINTZ.COM NEWS Forrest Gander explores ecological and personal loss in Visiting Writers forum MARY MURPHY EXECUTIVE EDITOR
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n Oct. 19, Southern Miss students and faculty gathered to hear Pulitzer Prize winning poet Forrest Gander in the first of the University of Southern Mississippi’s 2021-2022 Visiting Writers series. The event, taking place in Ogletree House’s Poynter Room, lasted from 7 to 8 p.m last Tuesday. Gander’s reading marked the first in-person event Southern Miss’s Center for Writers has held since October 2019. Adam Clay, the Director of the Center for Writers, talked about how surreal the event felt during its introduction. “[2019] feels like another life ago.” Clay said. “And how lucky we are to break that long hiatus from in-person events with a poet like Forrest Gander.” Forrest Gander, the main speaker of the event, has worked
for years as a poet, editor and translator. His work has been in a number of magazines, including The Nation, The Boston Review and The New York Times Book Review. In addition to his literary awards, Gander has also received a number of fellowships, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim and the Whiting Foundation. “His most recent collection, ‘Twice Alive’, considers humanity as an active collaborator with the natural world and the people we share it with,” Clay said. “In 2021, a time of fear, uncertainty and sheer exhaustion, ‘Twice Alive’ articulates a view of the world as an ecology of intimacies that asks us to be absorbed in the next moment beyond our given life.” Gander primarily read from ‘Twice Alive’ once he took the
Forrest Gander reading from ‘Twice Again’ at the Visiting Writers Forum.
stage. Most of the poems he presented, such as “Wasteland (for Santa Rosa)”, “Post-Fire Forest” and “Sea: Night Surfing in Bolinas”, were heavily inspired by his initial studies of geology. The poems of ‘Twice Alive’ try to rationalize Gander’s complicated relationships with intimacy and grief by exploring natural phenomena. “Post-Fire Forest”, for example, describes the real life work of post-fire biologists. In the immediate aftermath of a forest fire, these biologists scour the burnt remains of the forest to try to find evidence that life is returning to the area quickly. This is so they can protect the area from lumber businesses, whose expansions would end up damaging the area far more than the fire. Gander, in an initial explanation of the poem, said he had
Mary Murphy | Printz
the opportunity to work with one such biologist in California. They spent several days attempting to look for a Black-Backed Woodpecker, one of the first animal species that returns to a post-fire forest. Gander found that the journey felt similar to navigating the world after a tragedy -- specifically, navigating the world after the death of his wife, poet C.D. Wright. “It’s like two kinds of grief,” Gander said. “[As if] I’ve also met someone who’s full of life [like the woodpecker] and I almost don’t know what to do with that.” Gander himself seemed like a very reserved man, speaking with a gentle affect throughout most of the presentation. He wasn’t afraid to make a few jokes here and there, and there were times you could hear him try to work through his thoughts as he spoke them. When it came time to present his work, though, his confidence and passion were on full display. In a Q&A shortly after the reading, Gander said how glad he was to once again present his work in front of a live audience, especially with all of the hardships he has faced over the years. “I don’t know how long I’ll be alive, and what I think about [the most] is, you know, what will I have done with my life, what did I focus on?” Gander said. “And I’m really glad it’s not money.” The next writer featured in the Visiting Writers series, Maria Kuznetsova, will be at Southern Miss on Jan. 27, 2022. To find out where the next reading will be, visit www.usm.edu/writers/ visiting-writers-series.
NEWS
OCTOBER 27, 2021 WWW.STUDENTPRINTZ.COM
USM’s Sport Management program receives national accolades MARY MURPHY EXECUTIVE EDITOR
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he University of Southern Mississippi’s Sport Management program was recently recognized by Intelligent.com as a top degree program nationwide for 2022. Intelligent.com, an education resource guide, uses a multi-tiered formula for ranking online sport management programs. Every university must pass various legitimacy tests to prove that their degree will be respected by future employers and other colleges. They have to be regionally accredited to even be considered, and the individual program must also meet quality standards set by an independent private organization. The formula also adds in data in a wide variety of other fields, such as program strength, student readiness, investment returns, overall cost and student engagement. Even after this rigorous vetting, Southern Miss’s Sport Manage-
ment degree program managed to rank 21st nationally, with the online master’s degree program placing 17th overall. Chris Croft, an Assistant Professor of Sport Management, said that part of the program’s growth has been in large part due to a massive increase in student enrollment within the last four years. He believes this is because there is a huge market for Sport Management majors at the moment. “Some of this growth could be attributed to the collegiate rankings from organizations such as Intelligent and Online School report,” said Croft. “Sport management professionals are [also] in demand. An article from Globe Newswire [in 2021] states that the sports market forecast for 2025 is expected to reach approximately $600 billion with an additional $226 billion by 2030.” Brandon Allen, an Assistant Teaching Professor of Sport Management, also commented on the program’s rapid development. Allen said there is a good
chance this will further add onto the program’s future prospects, as prospective students primarily use the Internet to find top sport management programs. “As these students navigate and research our program at USM, they [will] note that the price point is reasonable, academic course load is comparable to other institutions, degree completion time frame is flexible based on student needs and students that graduate are successful in acquiring sport management jobs,” Allen said. Both Croft and Allen were happy about the high ranking, and look forward to seeing how things develop from here. Southern Miss’s Sport Management program, housed within the College of Business and Economic Development, is designed to enable students to acquire and demonstrate a wide variety of management skills to navigate many current sport industry issues. Students will also get the opportunity to work with and participate in experiential learning opportu-
nities through organizations based around Mississippi. This includes courses working closely with Southern Miss Athletics, the Biloxi Shuckers, the Mississippi Braves, the Sanderson Farms Championship, Landmark Event Services, Aramark, Swetman Security Services and the University’s National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security. There are currently more than 120 students enrolled in Southern Miss’s undergraduate Sport Management program, and 100 enrolled in the graduate program. To see Intellegent.com’s complete ranking lists, visit www. intelligent.com/best-online-masters-in-sports-management-degreeprograms and www.intelligent. com/best-online-sports-management-degree-programs. For more information about the Sport Management program at Southern Miss, call 601-266-4627 or visit www.usm.edu/undergraduate-programs/sport-management.
ENTERTAINMENT
OCTOBER 27, 2021 WWW.STUDENTPRINTZ.COM
Hattiesburg band MSPAINT rocks Convulse Festival in Denver SETH DASPIT PRINTZ REPORTER
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attiesburg’s punk outfit MSPAINT traveled 20 hours for a 20-minute set at Denver’s first ever Convulse Fest. The festival took place on Oct. 8 and 9 at the Aztlan Theater, with pre-shows and after shows at other Denver venues. The festival was organized by DIY label Convulse Records in celebration of its third anniversary. Randy Riley, the bassist for MSPAINT, said the label was in talks with the band to release their next record, which will be coming soon. “We jokingly made the statement, ‘Give us an excuse to come to Denver,’ but we weren’t actually expecting an offer to go,” Riley said. MSPAINT took a gamble by making the 40-hour round trip, but it paid off. “If bands didn’t know before, now they know Hattiesburg is a place they can come and play. Also, getting as far out as Denver and playing with so many bands got us closer to our goal of eventually doing a west coast tour, which none of us have ever gotten the chance to do,” Riley said. The group also got to make a personal impression on Denver and Convulse, meeting other artists and seeing what the city’s music was like. Most bands at Convulse were hardcore with a capital H, using a tried-and-true lineup of guitar, bass, drum and vocal. MSPAINT immediately stood out in the lineup as the only band with a keyboard and sample pads, along with just using a bass for guitar.
While playing their song “Hardwired” at an after-show, some punks took the microphone from vocalist DeeDee to scream lyrics. “I always thought it was cheesy, but I get the hype now,” DeeDee said. Some bands at the festival had not played a set since before the pandemic started, which only added to the ear splitting energy of the night. Punks went wild for New Jersey’s Gel, Los Angeles’ Militarie Gun, and Denver’s own Goon. Goon’s lead vocalist, dressed in angel wings, held onto the crowd with a combination of goosebumps and adrenaline. By the middle of Goon’s performance, a tsunami of punks were dancing and shoving each other. After Goon’s set, Nick Farrow, the bassist for the Denver outfit CYST, joked, “So, Goon is the only band in Denver, right?” CYST opened the festival as the first act to perform. CYST is a relatively new group, having just released their first incredibly raw and unforgiving demo in August. Their sound made some locals draw comparisons to the old Hattiesburg punk project Baghead. As for the future of the band, Farrow said that, “We’re thinking of recording more stuff and getting our songs in as many ears as possible, then hit the road and do a little tour in March.” Adam Croft, the man behind Convulse Records, also put the festival together. Croft initially planned for it to be a regular show, wanting to give a live platform back to DIY bands from Denver. Things changed once
he started to talk to bands across the country. “I asked a list of out-of-town bands we had plans to work with if they were interested, thinking a lot would say no, [but] every band said yes,” Croft said. Croft said things snowballed from that point, with additional bands reaching out to be part of the show. “At that point, it went from just a big show to a full-on festival, which was way more than I intended, but I don’t regret it,” Croft said. The Denver hardcore scene is a hidden gem in the country, as it’s a stop many touring bands don’t think to take. Farrow believes Croft’s work with Convulse Records helped keep the scene healthy. “When touring bands come from out of town, they aren’t expecting as much of a thriving community as there is here,” Farrow said. And it’s a community Croft loves. The spirit in Denver’s mu-
sic is supportive, dedicated and tight-knit, and it shows. “There’s a spirit of wanting each other to succeed,” Croft said. “It’s what makes Denver great right now.” To support these bands and Denver’s punk scene, visit Convulse’s Bandcamp page at https://convulserecords.bandcamp.com. This article is dedicated to the memory of Olan Martin, whose passion and energy embodied what hardcore and its community means to everyone who attended the fest. If you want to find a way to honor Martin, consider donating to Foundation 45, a Dallas/Fort Worth area non-profit providing free mental health and recovery services with a DIY punk ethos. You can also visit the link at Joe Lacy’s Instagram bio @joexlacy and preorder a zine documenting the entire Convulse weekend. All proceeds from the zine will go to Foundation 45.
OCTOBER 27, 2021 WWW.STUDENTPRINTZ.COM Young Thug’s ‘Punk’ isn’t that great ENTERTAINMENT
CORDAVEON CARTER PRINTZ REPORTER
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oung Thug’s ‘Punk’ album was one of the most anticipated rap albums of this year. With all the great album and music we have received over these past few months, from Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ to Lil Nas X’s ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’, from J. Cole’s ‘The Off-Season’ to Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’, we all expected Thug to come through. We expected an album worthy of a Grammy nomination, or at least a competitor with the other albums that have dropped this year. But ‘Punk’ didn’t even come close to entering the competition, let alone competing. His album disappointed
me to the fullest, despite him having an all-star cast of features. He had Drake, J. Cole, Juice WRLD, Travis Scott, Future and Mac Miller on one album! And did nothing with them! The album was mediocre at best and is not even a top 15 album release of the year. I expected more from Young Thug, especially after he destroyed a RollsRoyce for the promo of the album. My personal favorite song from the album was “Stupid/Asking”, and that was really one of the few highlights of the project. My final score for this album is 5.9/10, and I won’t recommend it to others.
OCTOBER 27, 2021 WWW.STUDENTPRINTZ.COM ‘Life of a DON’ continues Don Toliver’s excellence
ENTERTAINMENT
KOBY MOORE SMTV EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
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fter two standout singles that came out earlier this year, the Houston artist Don Toliver dropped his highly anticipated second studio album, ‘Life of a DON’, on Oct. 8. This is a direct follow-up to his first album, ‘Heaven or Hell’, which went Gold in 2020. Despite the high expectations set by ‘Heaven or Hell’, ‘Life of a DON’ lives up to and exceeds the hype. Toliver has already made a massive impact in the hip hop game despite being a relative newcomer. His feature on ‘Astroworld’, created by Cactus Jack labelmate Travis Scott, set him up as one of the best hook masters in the game today. Since then, Toliver has been featured everywhere, going from Cactus Jack’s ‘JACKBOYS’ to Internet Money’s “Lemonade” to Masego’s “Mystery Lady” within the last few months and years. ‘Life of a DON’ has sixteen tracks, with the Apple Music/ iTunes release adding three music videos. Despite its track number, the album surprisingly falls under an hour, which helps encourage multiple listens. ‘Life of a DON’ also has five features, the same number of features as ‘Heaven or Hell’. Those features had some heavy hitting artists like Travis Scott, Kali Uchis, Baby Keem, HVN and SoFaygo. Going into this album, I didn’t know what to expect. Even though I enjoyed “What You Need” and “Drugs N Hella Melodies (ft. Kali Uchis)”, which were the two singles leading into the album, Toliver’s style switches a lot. Even if he stays true to his smooth and infectious style, I was still ready to be surprised. The album opener, “XSCAPE”, immediately sets the pace of the album. It starts with a violin, which quickly caught my attention. Toliver controls the song and keeps the listener hooked. When you think the beat is going to drop, he smooths it out and makes it even more enjoyable.
So, that immediately set it as one of my favorites from this album. The songs that stood out to me were, of course, “What You Need” and “Drugs N Hella Melodies”, which were the album’s main singles. I also really liked “Swangin’ On Westheimer”, “2AM”, “Flocky Flocky” and “Crossfaded”. But my favorite song on this entire project is “OUTERSPACE”, featuring Baby Keem. That song got a lot of replays from me. Toliver and Keem vibed and complimented each other so well that it was impossible not to listen to them over and over again. Another highlight for me was “You”, featuring Travis Scott. That beat is so infectious to listen to, and Scott and Toliver complimented each other really well. They are labelmates, yes, but it’s clear they have chemistry performing together, even within that first song in ‘Astroworld’. I loved the production on this album. I think it’s very different to what the casual hip hop listener is used to listening to. The beats on some of the songs had an outof-space feel to it, which really worked. There are some heavy hitting producers on this album, too, with producers like Mike Dean, Hit-Boy, Sonny Digital, Mustard and more appearing throughout. Again, “You” might have been the best beat on the album, with how infectious it is. But the “Swingin’ On Westheimer” instrumental was another favorite of mine, since it had an old school R&B feel to it. This album is good, but I think some of these songs will have to grow on me. ‘Life of a DON’ definitely has room to grow, but that’s part of the appeal. Don Toliver will definitely ascend even more than he has already, and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with. I give ‘Life of a DON’ a 7.5 out of 10. I will definitely listen to this album more, and I think other people should give it a listen too.
Don Toliver
Graphic by Joe Weishaar
8 SPORTS
OCTOBER 27, 2021
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Southern Miss joins SBC
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 portant responsibility is to support the health and academic competitiveness and personal development of our students. The best part of the announcement is that Southern Mississippi is a perfect match for those values.” Considering Southern Miss’s long history with C-USA, some fans were concerned about possible downsides of the change. However, McClain reassured any holdouts that he had already prepared for any possibility. “I'm always looking for a landmine or an issue that could create some real challenges for us,” McClain said. “The thing here that I have been blown away with is that we couldn't find that, and I don't say that lightly. [...] It made a lot of sense for our fan base. It made a lot of sense for our student-athletes. We haven't had to stop and say, ‘Man, do we need this or not?’ And that was more affirmation to me that this was the right decision.” The conference also makes a lot more sense geographically for Southern Miss, and that has a
number of benefits to it. Southern Miss will be joining Sun Belt West, which includes teams like Texas State, South Alabama, Louisiana Monroe and Arkansas State. Outside of Texas State, most of the teams are within driving distance of Hattiesburg, which will significantly reduce travel costs for the program. “It is kind of hard to pin down in numbers, but it could easily be half a million dollars [in savings] annually for us,” said McClain. There are some money concerns with C-USA, though. To leave the conference, Southern Miss will have to pay a significant amount in exit fees. McClain estimated that those costs would probably amount to around three million dollars. “We have planned for that,” McClain said. “Dr. Bennett and I sat and talked through that early on in the process to make sure that was not going to be a roadblock for us.” Southern Miss will begin to play in the Sun Belt Conference on July 1, 2023.
Director of Athletics Jeremy McClain explains Southern Miss’s conference change.
Sean Smith | Printz