Volume 100 Issue 40
Thursday, March 3, 2016
www.studentprintz.com
Caroline Bradley elected SGA president Hiba Tahir Printz Reporter
On Tuesday, the Student Government Association held elections to choose the new student leaders for the USM Hattiesburg campus. For the first time in several years, students voted not only for executive officers but for Senate members. Subsequently, a record number of people voted. The turnout was so unforeseen that election commissioner
Phoenix Pope announced there would be no runoffs Thursday. “With more candidates on the ballot, we were able to reach a bigger portion of the student body,” Pope said. “I’m glad that the voter turnout was high because that means that the students voiced their opinions to elect their Student Government Association leadership.” Caroline Bradley won the office of SGA president with 1,002 votes. Bradley, a sophomore English
major from Lucedale, Mississippi served on the SGA Forum branch of Freshman Associates as president and co-director of Freshman Forum. “I am so thankful for the opportunities I have been given at this university,” she said. “I believed it was time for me to give back.” With the belief that serving as SGA president was her best option to return the favor, Bradley ran for president. She received
widespread support from the student body. “Having an amazing support system while making the decision to run and when campaigning definitely helped,” she said. Bradley hopes to implement her five-point platform soon after she is sworn in on Founder’s Day on March 30. The plan includes improving and developing student IDs, maintaining a strong relationship with Cook Library, improving and promoting parking,
ABOUT GPA: 4.0 Classification: Sophomore Major: English Hometown: Lucedale, Miss. INVOLVEMENT Chi Omega Eagle Connection Eagle Ambassadors Honors College Sigma Tau Delta Honor Society Southern Style SGA EXPERIENCE Freshman Associates Forum President Freshman Associates Forum Co-Director
STRENGTHENING THE
STUDENT VOICE 1. Improve Student I.D.s 2. Maintain a relationship with Cook Library 3. Improve the Student Initiatives branch of Cabinet and Speak Up Southern Miss 4. Improve parking 5. Find more affordable textbook options
Trey Malone/Courtesy Photo
ON CAMPUS
building up Student Initiatives and Speak Up Southern Miss and working with professors to find cheaper textbook alternatives. “I pushed for the One Card System and student IDs throughout my campaign,” Bradley said. “I plan to work to make it happen.” She was a finalist for Most Outstanding Freshman, the winner of the SOAR Award for Emerging New Leader and once high-fived Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, but she is most excited about her collaboration with the Southern Miss student body. “I cannot wait to connect with the student body,” she said. “I want to hear what they have to say and listen to the ideas they want to bring to the table.” Bradley believes choosing to attend USM was the best decision of her life. “I have gained so much through my experiences in student organizations, [faculty] and student body at Southern Miss has done nothing but give to me,” she said. If given the opportunity to tell the student body anything, Bradley would thank them for electing her. “I am so excited for the upcoming year together, and I cannot wait to begin working for each of you,” she said. If the election is any indication, Bradley seems to have inherited a very politically engaged student body that will hold her to her promises. “Voter turn out this year has been higher than in the past,” Pope said. “A lot of that is because of the efforts SGA has made to inform students about elections through social media. Making sure that students know what is going on is important, and we have made huge steps this year to reach students in a multitude of new ways.”
Women’s Rights activist lectures on workplace discrimination Nan Beauti Copy Editor
Lilly Ledbetter, who initiated the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and fought against workplace discrimination spoke to the Southern Miss community Tuesday evening for the University Forum in Bennett Auditorium. In “Grace and Grit,” a presentation titled after her book, Ledbetter described her legal fight for justice. “What happened to me is
happening to women every day across this nation,” Ledbetter said. “One in five children will go to bed hungry tonight simply because one of their parents, most likely their mother, is not paid what she’s legally earning under the law.” She strived for women’s equal pay and made an effort to implement a law through the federal government. “One of the cool things about Ledbetter’s story is that it’s so universal,” said University Forum Director Andrew Haley. “There were
people in the audience who see their own lives reflected in what happened on stage in her story, and also that half of our audience was made up of young women that are about to go into the workforce.” Ledbetter’s efforts were commemorated when legislation named the bill after her. With a suit against a former employer, she fought her way to the Supreme Court to combat workplace discrimination. “One of the things I admire most about Lilly Ledbetter is she set out as
a radical to change the world,” Haley said. “She set out to fend herself from an unfair society.” Ledbetter’s journey to justice began when she started working at Goodyear Tire and Rubbers plant in Gadsden, Alabama. Nearly 20 years later, someone put a secret note on her paycheck, revealing she was being paid significantly less than her male counterparts in the workplace. LEDBETTER CONT. ON PG. 2
Austin Sylvest/Printz Lilly Ledbetter addresses the audience in Bennett Auditorium on March 1.