Volume 100 Issue 37
Monday, February 22, 2016
www.studentprintz.com
Cook library hosts first 16 mm film festival Andrew Dutton Printz Reporter
The University of Southern Mississippi Cook Library presented its first ever 16 mm film festival in the Cook Library Art Gallery Feb. 18. The library event screened two short educational films. Southern Kernel’s Gourmet Popcorn provided popcorn as attendees watch 1956’s “Better Bulletin Boards” and 1968’s “Marijuana.” “Better Bulletin Boards” demonstrated the process for properly making and utilizing bulletin boards. According to the event page on the USM website, the film provided a retro ’50s perspective from a time when bulletin boards dominated schools. The event allowed a short intermission before screening “Marijuana,” starring and narrated by famed musician Sonny Bono, who informed students about the dangers of the drug and its use. Audience members seemingly enjoyed themselves throughout the two movies’ showing. “I thought the presentation was outstanding,” said attendee Phil Sykes. The audience chuckled throughout the films. Sykes said the movies were not intended to be humorous. “This wasn’t funny,” Sykes said. “If you get right down to it, even with the bulletin board video, the basic concept remains in the digital age.” Jennifer Brannock, curator of Rare Books and Mississippians at Cook Library, felt differently. “When people laughed at things, it was just because of the kitschy nature of it,”
Austin Sylvest/Printz Viewers watch one of the featured films at the 16 mm Film Festival on Thursday, Feb. 18.
Brannock said. She said the film festival was for entertainment purposes and not really meant as an educational seminar. Michelle Frasier-Robinson, librarian for Education and Psychology, said she enjoyed the films and the festival format.
Keeping the film festival an hour long with two short screenings is better because people might not stay interested for much longer, she said “It’s something for people just to pop in, look at and move on,” Frasier-Robinson said. The 16 mm film collection
is not currently accessible to students through the library. According to FrasierRobinson, the Preservation Committee is currently working to decide what films stay and go, because they are deteriorating. Frasier-Robinson said because of the large number of films in
the library, they have thought about doing a film festival every semester. “We had a fairly good turnout,” Frasier-Robinson said. “I think that once word gets out about them, maybe they’ll become popular, and I think we should try to do it again.”
ON CAMPUS
Racially-charged grafitti in library sparks investigation Camille Myrick/Lora Lavigne Printz Reporters
Dean of Students Eddie Holloway announced the university’s plan at to take action after profane graffiti was found in the Cook Library on Feb. 15. “This incident will be addressed and have more or heightened security to make sure nothing like this happens again,” Holloway said during a speech for the Department of History’s A Crime That’s So Unjust event. A Crime That’s So Unjust, part
of the university’s Black History Month iti nerary, took place the day following the incident. Brooke Bullock, sophomore mass communications major, attended the seminar and witnessed Holloway speak on the issue. “At the black history seminar ,questions were raised about the incident and Dr. Holloway reassured us that firm measures are in place,” she said. On Feb. 15, custodians performed their daily cleaning routine on the morning and discovered a shocking word graffitied on the
wall in a bathroom in Cook Library. The cleaning staff immediately informed the university police of the offensive vandalism: the N-word, scrawled in ink. The perpetrator penned more racial innuendos than the infamous racial slur. UPD Chief Bob Hopkins explained the morning’s events. “Custodial went in to clean one of the men’s restrooms in Cook Library, and when they did, they found graffiti that was inappropriate that had been printed in bold on one of the walls,” Hopkins said. “It
was some comments disparaging [African-Americans], and it also mentioned the KKK and Trump 2016.” UPD acquired surveillance footage of the area around the bathroom. Throughout last week, investigators reviewed that footage to scour for any clues to identify the tagger. “We know when it was first found and when it was last cleaned,” Hopkins said. “We are working backwards from there, reviewing footage to see what we can see as far as who could have possibly been
the perpetrator. We still have a long way to go and about three days of footage to review.” Hopkins said an adequate punishment will be easier to determine once the guilty person is identified. “It could be a misdemeanor vandalism, or it could be more, but we’d have to look at the law as it related to that,” Hopkins said. “Right now, all we know is that there is no physical victim or anything of that nature. It would INVESTIGATION CONT. ON PG. 3