Volume 100 Issue 35
Monday, February 15, 2016
www.studentprintz.com
RecSports hosts Burnin’ Love 5K Elizabeth Lee Printz Reporter
On Saturday, The University of Southern Mississippi’s Department of Recreational Sports hosted the 19th annual Burnin’ Love Color Run. Runners of all ages participated in the race, and since the run was near Valentine’s Day, couples could sign up at a discounted rate. Throughout the course, which was around Southern Miss’ campus, volunteers splashed runners with colored powder by volunteers from the Hattiesburg Fire Department, leaving many covered in colors from head to toe. In addition to those wearing white shirts, many runners dressed for event with rainbow and Valentine’s Day-themed flair. Although a stopwatch was set for runners to keep track of their own paces, the race did not have bib numbers or winners because it was non-competitive; runners found glory in getting covered in the most colors possible. “The turnout was great,” said Emily Glen, student and public relations intern for Southern Miss Recreational Sports. “The fire department was there helping throw color at the finish line. They were having the most fun out of anyone.
ON CAMPUS
Fadi Shahin/Assistant Photo Editor Participants of the Burnn’ Love 5k throw color powder into the air after the race finished on Feb. 13. More photos are available at studentprintz.com
Overall, it was a successful event for Southern Miss and the Hattiesburg community.” Sophomore kinesiotherapy major Shelby Presnell participated as a runner in the
5K. She previously participated in a color run and enjoyed this one. “It was a blast,” Presnell said. “Everyone was so nice, and the men from the fire department were really involved and excited,
which made me excited about it too. I’m definitely doing it next year and bringing all of my friends.” Merit Health Wesley, formerly the Wesley Medical Center, and
the Hattiesburg Fire Department sponsored Burnin’ Love. The fire department’s benevolence fund received a portion of the proceeds from race entry fees, according to the event’s page on Facebook.
USM policy allows theft of student identities Joshua D Starr News Editor
As University of Southern Missississippi freshman Darius Griffin discovered during the course of a Student Printz investigation, a current USM policy has left new USM students on the Hattiesburg campus vulnerable to identity theft. Griffin, a transfer criminal justice major from Jackson State, allowed The Printz to use his identity to test this policy during the university’s Jan. 14 orientation session. Requiring only Griffin’s student number printed on a card, Printz News Editor Joshua D Starr acquired Griffin’s identity in less than two minutes without saying a word. “I don’t want anybody to just come and take my identity,” Griffin said. “You can — you just did. You can use it anywhere for
jobs as an ID. People can use that to do bad stuff with my name, and I wouldn’t like that.” Griffin said he was awed by how easily his identity could be stolen. “It took like a minute if not less,” he said. “I was definitely surprised, shocked really. It seemed crazy to me that you could actually do that.” Student IDs serve a variety of purposes on and off campus in the state of Mississippi. On campus, students can use their identification cards for everything from purchasing meals to receiving medical care. Off campus, student IDs are accepted on I-9s as valid forms of identification for employment. With the exception of USM’s Hattiesburg campus and the Mississippi University for Women, every public university in the state of Mississippi follows protocols to confirm
Joshua D Starr/Printz Printz Editor Joshua D Starr is featured in student IDs attached to seperate identitites.
the identities of individuals issued IDs. Most of these universities require students provide a government issued ID before being issued student IDs. Others confirm students’ identities with internal information, such as Mississippi State, which requires a student provide a unique orientation number issued to that student and
corroborates that identity by asking for personal information already held in its system. University of Mississippi ID Center supervisor Kathy Tidwell said UM has a number of measures in place to protect student identities. Typically, UM ID services require students mail a copy of their state-issued IDs or bring or bring the originals to the ID Center order to receive IDs. However, if students fail to bring their IDs to orientation, they can be verbally tested by staff on detailed personal information kept in the department’s records. “I think it’s important that a person not be carrying around a card with a picture on it that is not them,” Tidwell said. Since Mississippi’s voter ID law was implemented, Student IDs from Mississippi’s accredited public universities and community and junior
colleges can be used as identification to vote. Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said when they were developing regulations for acceptable IDs, staffers from his office contacted the state’s various universities to ensure they had acceptable policies in place. “In the end of all that, we were satisfied that their issuance satisfied all the necessary requirements for voter ID,” Hosemann said. Tidwell said she remembers being contacted by the Secretary of State’s office. “They had called us a couple of years ago and asked similar questions to what [The Printz is] asking,” she said. Jacob Cochran, USM’s associate director of procurement and contract services over photo services, IDENTITY CONT. ON PG. 3