2010 Ole Miss Parade of Beauties

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Wednesday night, November 17, 2010 was a great night for many girls on the Ole Miss campus (http://www.olemiss.edu/).  It was an especially good night for Caroline Conerly who received the most beautiful award in the walk of beauties. 

            The crown was handed down by last year’s winner, Crystal Ausburn.  There were 81 young women in the pageant that were sponsored by various sororities, fraternities, parents, friends, and other school organizations.  The event was held at 7:30 in the Gertrude Castellow Ford Center (http://www.fordcenter.org/), and was sponsored by the department of Campus Programming and the Student Programming Board.  The night opened with the introduction of Ashburn, and the panel of judges.  Shortly after, all of the contestants made their way onto the stage.  Next the individual judging began followed shortly by the announcement of the top 25.  Each contestant was judged on interviews held earlier that day as well as their performance on stage in their evening wear.  The entertainment was performed by Matt Duck.  Emotions and spirits were running high as the girls were narrowed down into the top 10 and finally the crowning of most beautiful.

            “ It was an honor to be nominated by Delta Gamma Sorority,” said Brittany Norman, a senior at Ole Miss.  She also went on to say how it was special because so many of her friends wanted her to be in the pageant.  “The biggest challenge in putting the pageant together was dealing with so many different young women with many different personalities,” said Wil Yerger, a student worker in the office of Student Programming.  “The Parade of Beauties is very important to Ole Miss, the contestant, and their families,” Yerger said.  “The show was so entreating and well put together I cannot wait to go again next year,” said Meghan Denney, a senior nursing student at Ole Miss

Wednesday night, November 17, 2010 was a great night for many girls on the Ole Miss campus (http://www.olemiss.edu/).  It was an especially good night for Caroline Conerly who received the most beautiful award in the walk of beauties. 

            The crown was handed down by last year’s winner, Crystal Ausburn.  There were 81 young women in the pageant that were sponsored by various sororities, fraternities, parents, friends, and other school organizations.  The event was held at 7:30 in the Gertrude Castellow Ford Center (http://www.fordcenter.org/), and was sponsored by the department of Campus Programming and the Student Programming Board.  The night opened with the introduction of Ashburn, and the panel of judges.  Shortly after, all of the contestants made their way onto the stage.  Next the individual judging began followed shortly by the announcement of the top 25.  Each contestant was judged on interviews held earlier that day as well as their performance on stage in their evening wear.  The entertainment was performed by Matt Duck.  Emotions and spirits were running high as the girls were narrowed down into the top 10 and finally the crowning of most beautiful.

            “ It was an honor to be nominated by Delta Gamma Sorority,” said Brittany Norman, a senior at Ole Miss.  She also went on to say how it was special because so many of her friends wanted her to be in the pageant.  “The biggest challenge in putting the pageant together was dealing with so many different young women with many different personalities,” said Wil Yerger, a student worker in the office of Student Programming.  “The Parade of Beauties is very important to Ole Miss, the contestant, and their families,” Yerger said.  “The show was so entertaining and well put together I cannot wait to go again next year,” said Meghan Denney, a senior nursing student at Ole Miss

Handicap accessible Ole Miss

There is an issue that many people don’t think about on a daily basis because it doesn’t affect them directly.  This issue is handicap accessible public facilities and physically disabled people have to think of this every day and everywhere they go.

The Ole Miss campus is large and spread out, and many of the buildings are very old and historically significant.  The question is, are we a handicap accessible University?  The best way to answer this question would be to talk to someone with physical limitations who is on campus every day; however, due to confidentiality issues it is difficult to track a physically disabled person down through the Office of Student Disability Services.  Another way to assess the campus is to interview people with temporary physical impairments and see just how easy it is for them to get around campus; this is what I have done.  According to the ADA (Americans with Disabilities http://www.ada.gov), all public places must be handicap accessible.  This includes, but is not limited to, restrooms, entrances, hallways, ramps, elevators, water fountains, and door ways.  Ole Miss, like many other public places, meets these standards, but I set out to see if they went the extra mile for students, faculty, and visitors.

One thing that is very apparent is that public transportation to and from and around campus has greatly improved over the past several years.  Also, after some investigating I found certain buildings to be very handicap friendly, in my opinion, but others were not so great.  One of the main things that should be different is the location of the ramps.  More often than not, they are hard to find or way out of the way. This is a huge inconvenience for people who cannot access a building using stairs.  Automatic doors should be better maintained as well.

Ferbia Allen is a football player at Ole Miss who suffered an injury to his foot and had to wear a cast for quite some time.  “The buildings were very accommodating,” says Allen when asked if the campus was easy to get around.  Josh Tatum is another football player who suffered an ankle injury and had to be on crunches for a while.  When asked if the University met his needs, he shared a much different opinion from his team mate.  “There are too many stairs, and the ramps are often out of my way,” says Tatum.  He also went on to say that everything is too spread out and handicap accessibility was not well planned out.

In order to get an idea of how our campus compares to other public places, I sought the help of someone who deals with many handicapped individuals everyday.  Mr. Rick Beckwith, Assistant Director of Recreation at the North Mississippi Regional Center, (www.nmrc.state.ms.us/nmrcapp.pdf) takes many trips to campus with his clients for sporting events, recreational activities, and the Special Olympics, which the University hosts. “During Special Olympics track and field events I am in charge of anywhere from 300 to 500 participants, many of which are physically impaired,” Beckwith says.  The areas most often used by NMRC include the track and field area, Turner Center, and stadium.  Beckwith stated that all of these areas are very accommodating for his clients who are in wheel chairs or use other walking aids.  For someone who is responsible for so many disabled people to have so many good things to say about our campus is a very good sign that Ole Miss is trying hard to meet the needs of its physically disabled population.<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/NrDotr784-c?hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/NrDotr784-c?hl=en&fs=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

Faces of Ole Miss

 

 

 

1)      What is you first and last name? “Lenita Denney”

2)      What is your age? “46”

3)      Where did you grow up? “Plainview, Arkansa”

4)      What is your job title? “Office Manager at Denise Woods’ CPA Firm”

5)      How long have you been at Ole Miss? “8 years”

6)      What is the university’s greatest strength? “It brings financial stability to the community and educates our community.”

7)      What will be the university’s biggest challenge in the 21^st century? “To keep their values that the university was founded on.”

8)      University officials put a lot of emphasis on improving diversity and cross-cultural relations on campus. What grade would you give the campus on that issue? “An A because they do a wonderful job at bringing other cultures to the university; however, I believe they are slowly losing the cultures that were here to begin with.”

9)      What one thing do you think needs to be done to improve campus diversity? “Cater as much to the local community’s cultures as to foreign cultures.”

Faces of Ole Miss

     

 

1) What is you first and last name? “Bernadette Sockwell”

2)      What is your age? “47”

3)      Where did you grow up? “Honolulu, Hawaii”

4)      What is your major? “Senior Auditor”

5)      How long have you been at Ole Miss? “14 years”

6)      What is the university’s greatest strength? “I have to say there are two. Ole miss provides a good education in a broad range of fields (i.e. arts, science, business), and Ole Miss promotes service. Ole Miss helps our students use their education to help build up their hometowns, their communities, their state, the world. Ole Miss encourages students to perform community service now, while they’re in school (best place to practice).

7)      What will be the university’s biggest challenge in the 21^st century? “Doing more with less, and still maintain quality, integrity, and compliance.”

8)      University officials put a lot of emphasis on improving diversity and cross-cultural relations on campus. What grade would you give the campus on that issue? “A”

9)      What one thing do you think needs to be done to improve campus diversity? “I can’t think of anything at this time”

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