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POLICY

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSIT Y SINCE 1884

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SATURDAY SUNDAY7247

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Women’s basketball travels to Southern Miss

Sports I 7

BY JAMIE ALLEN

Staff Writer

The sounds of construction have fi lled the air at Missis-sippi State University this se-mester, and according to the architectural planning and construction associate direc-tor, this is just the beginning of some giant steps for im-proving the campus.

This semester, three major projects have been under con-struction: the football prac-tice facility, Lee Hall and the football stadium. Projections indicate the football practice facility will be completed in the next month, however Lee Hall and the football stadium will be ongoing projects.

Plans are also in the works for a new dining hall, tennis courts, academic building, walking track and thermal storage facility – all to most likely begin in the spring se-mester. In addition, there are plans to renovate Bulter Wil-liams Guest House and the YMCA building in the near future.

Duncan McKenzie, execu-tive associate athletic director

said the projects, such as the expansion to the stadium will improve campus, for everyone using the facility.

“I think this improves the environment of the stadium. There’ll be more restrooms and concession stands and better seating than the bleach-ers, so I think everything is a positive move,” McKenzie said.

One project that will be started at the end of next se-mester will be a new classroom facility.

Tim Muzzi, MSU architec-tural planning and construc-tion associate director, said this building will have be-tween 20 and 21 classrooms..

“The bottom two fl oors are a parking garage and the top three fl oors are classrooms,” Muzzi said. “It will be open for the students to use, so that will be a very heavily-traveled facility.”

Mike Harris, director of parking services said this parking garage will be open to anyone parking on campus whether they have a parking permit or not.

Campus construction continues

VICTORY FOR THE VICTORIANIST

LIFE I 6

BY JAMES TOBERMANN

Staff Writer

The university has devel-oped a plan to increase the competitiveness of professor salaries, according to Jerry Gilbert, provost and executive vice president of Mississippi State University.

Gilbert said earlier this year, MSU President Mark Keenum formed a small task force of faculty members to investigate professor salaries at MSU as com-pared to peer av-erages.

Gilbert said the university must hire assis-tant professors at competitive rates, while pro-fessors who have spent many years at MSU have not experi-enced consistent raises.

“This is called the com-pression process,” he said. “It compresses the gap between full professors’ salaries and as-sistant professors’ salaries.”

Meghan Millea, professor of fi nance and economics, said it is not uncommon for a newly hired assistant professor to have a higher salary than a tenured professor with many years at the university.

“This happens everywhere, not just at here, due to market forces,” she said.

Gilbert said the task force compared MSU professors’ salaries to those of professors at similar land-grant institu-tions in the Southern Univer-

sity Group.According

to data com-piled by the task force, the current average sal-ary of a full professor at

MSU is 83 percent of the aver-age of that for peer land-grant universities in SUG.

Millea said the task force developed a plan to adjust the salaries of full profes-sors.

M i l l e a , who analyzed much of the data neces-sary to devel-op the plan, said the SUG

average is discipline-based.“The SUG average for an

engineering professor’s salary is different from that of an economics professor because the market is different for each,” Millea said.

Millea said the plan will uti-lize a total of about $1 million over the next two years to ad-just salaries of professors.

“Over the next two years, we will be shrinking the gap between actual salaries and SUG averages for their disci-pline,” she said. “Everyone’s gap will shrink by the same percentage.”

Millea said there will be additional adjustments based on the number of years in the rank of full professor.

BY SASHA STEINBERG

Staff Writer

University offi cials are in ne-gotiations with a local developer in hopes of furthering efforts to bring a much-needed state-of-the-art conference center to Mississippi State University and Starkville communities.

David Shaw, vice president for research and economic de-velopment, said MSU admin-istration made the decision this past summer to put out a call for new proposals in early August because the original project had changed so much in scope up until that point.

“This project has been go-ing on for well over four years now, and we just felt like in that length of time, we needed the opportunity to step back and see what group brings the best use of the Cooley Building and what group brings solid fi nan-cial backing so that we can put a package together and move this project forward,” Shaw said.

After reaching a Sept. 4 sub-mission deadline, Shaw said administration evaluated the proposals that were received and selected Columbus-based de-veloper Mark Castleberry to re-place Mark Nicholas, managing member of Nicholas Properties LLC in Ridgeland.

Shaw said MSU and Castle-berry are continuing to uphold an exclusive agreement to ne-gotiate for a 120-day period in hopes of preparing a contract that will be approved by the Mississippi Institutions of High-er Learning Board of Trustees in the March to April time frame.

“We’re very excited about how the negotiations are going, and we are very pleased with the ideas that the developer has put forward,” he said. “We’re cer-tainly very optimistic that the board will continue to support this as they have in the past.”

Located on the western en-trance of campus, the Cooley Building operated as a cotton mill until the early ‘60s and cur-

rently houses MSU’s physical plant department.

Although the project is still in the negotiation and planning stage, Shaw said MSU plans to retain ownership of the Cooley Building and lease it for 41 years to Castleberry, who would over-see its renovation.

In addition, Castleberry would oversee the construction of a 20,000 square foot confer-ence center in the eastern end and offi ce space in the western end of the Cooley Building, as well as a full-service Courtyard Marriott hotel built southeast of it.

Shaw also said MSU recently received approval from the IHL Board to sell Castleberry the 1.129 acres of land on which the hotel would be built.

Castleberry said there has also been discussion about potential-ly having three to four restau-rants on the site.

“We’re trying to be selective as to the type of restaurants that would go there to really create a

lot excitement,” he said. Starkville Mayor Parker

Wiseman said there are plans for a parking garage that would be funded entirely through Com-munity Development Block Grant funds, and it would be the city’s responsibility to man-age the grant.

“Since the city is not funding the project directly, other than through the grant program and tax incentives, there are no tax implications associated with the project,” he said.

Wiseman also said he believes the development, especially the proposed state-of-the-art conference center, will serve as a driver for future tourism in Starkville and the Golden Trian-gle Region.

In addition to his own funds, Castleberry said he plans to uti-lize bank fi nancing for the proj-ect, and two banks that are fi -nancing other projects of his have already shown great inter-est in this development.

Gilbert

SEE COOLEY, 2 SEE SALARY, 2

SEE CONSTRUCTION, 2 IAN PRESTOR AND JAY JOHNSON | THE REFLECTOR

Construction of Lee Hall (top), stadium expansion (bottom left) are ongoing projects while the indoor practice facility (bottom right) is near completion.

MSU implements plan to increase professional pay

MSU negotiates renovations for community conference center

JAY JOHNSON | THE REFLECTOR

MSU’s historic Cooley Building will undergo renovations and serve as a university and community conference center.

This happens everywhere, not just here, due to market forces.”Meghan Millea,professor of fi nance and economics

“

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“We feel very confi dent in our ability to fi nance the project,” he said. “The economy is defi nitely a factor, but through the last several years, we have still been active in develop-ment and been able to put deals together even in tougher times.”

While there is no agreement in place, Castleberry said he plans on asking the city for a tax increment fi nancing agreement to help offset the cost of pub-lic improvement features, such as streets, sewers and water sys-tems.

Shaw said he believes the lack of a conference center has served as a major impediment to MSU and Starkville in previous years.

“We believe that there are a number of conferences that would be associated with Mississippi State that we’ve just simply not been able to host, and they’ve gone to another university,” he said.

“We’re talking about wanting to get the word out on the great things that are happening here at Mississippi State,

and hosting conferences is one way that we can get people here, so they can understand the quality of edu-cation, the quality of research and the quality of the outreach pro-grams that we have.”

The overall project will have the potential to generate at least 150 jobs, Shaw said.

Although the original cost of the development was estimated at $176 million and is currently es-timated at $60 million, Shaw said he still believes that is a substantial investment.

“Our feeling is that once we be-gin development in that area, it’s

just going to explode,” he said. “We’re looking at this as kind of the anchor and as a catalyst to get a lot of other things started, and I fi rmly believe that will be the case.”

COOLEY continued from 1

BADDAWGS

Monday, November 26• 11:34 a.m. An employee reported an LCD projector stolen from the kinesiology department.• 2:12 p.m. A student was hit by a car while crossing the crosswalk near Montgomery Hall. Subject refused medical attention.

Tuesday, November 27• 2:19 p.m. A student was arrested on Stone Boulevard for speeding, suspended driver’s license, no insurance and possession of marijuana.• 4:08 p.m. A student reported his bicycle missing from the bike rack at Rice Hall.• 4:54 p.m. A student reported she was assaulted in Hull Hall.• 10:07 p.m. Students reported breaking a window while performing an experiment in the Patterson Engineering building.

Wednesday, November 28• 1:09 a.m. A student was arrested for driving under the influence and running a red light.• 12:47 p.m. A student was assaulted in the lobby of the Templeton building by another student.• 7:00 p.m. A student reported his backpack stolen from the Union.• 9:23 p.m. A student threatened possible suicide at Ruby Hall.

“It will be a timed parking garage,” Harris said. “The fi rst hour will be $2 and each additional hour after that will be $1 up to a $10 maximum in a 24 hour time-pe-riod.”

Drivers on campus need to know roads that will be closed for construction.

McKenzie said right now B.S. Hood Drive has become a one-way street due to construction on the stadium. The traffi c will now fl ow north on B.S. Hood Drive from Stone Boulevard.

In addition, once the construction on the new class-room facility begins, George Perry from the cafeteria down to Barr Street will be blocked off.

Harris said drivers should also be aware there will be some spaces in the commuter northwest parking zone and the north parking zone that will be lost because of con-struction. However, there are plenty of spaces in each zone to accommodate the parking needs.

Muzzi said he is excited about the changes to the cam-pus and that it will these improvements will be benefi cial to all students, faculty and staff in the future.

“We have some buildings that are in desperate need of renovation, and in the same sense, we have to have new buildings like this new classroom building that may be one of the more exciting academic buildings that will have been placed on this campus in many years,” Muzzi said.

“The SUG average will be increased by 1 percent for each year of full profes-sorship,” she said.

With the current plan, fi rst salary ad-justments will be made on Jan. 1, 2013.

Gilbert said the funds were generat-ed primarily through cost savings pro-grams such as energy savings and vehi-cle fl eet maintenance.

“In 2009, the university began pre-paring for the impact of the 2008 fi nancial crisis,” he said. “We were ex-

pecting big budget cuts.”Gilbert said the budget cuts were

smaller than expected, leaving the uni-versity with a surplus.

“The cuts were not quite as bad as we expected,” he said. “We had money left over, and we turned it around and used it on things like salaries.”

Gilbert said adjusting professors’ salaries is a benefi t to both faculty and students.

“We know the quality of education

is largely dependent on the quality of instructors. By having competitive sal-aries, we can attract, hire and retain the best faculty, and our students are getting the best-quality education,” he said.

Gilbert added competitive professor salaries are a signifi cant part of the eco-nomic health of the state.

“It gives the state well-educated graduates and also attracts research, which is very important,” he said.

CONSTRUCTION continued from 1

SALARY continued from 1

Our feeling is that once we begin development in that area, it’s just going to explode. We’re looking at this as kind of the anchor and as a catalyst to get a lot of other things started, and I fi rmly believe that will be the case.”David Shaw, vice president for research and economic development

“

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ReflectorThe

The School Up North. We avoid using its proper name for a reason. After

this past Saturday, it is clearer to me than ever just why that is. I am from North Alabama, so TSUN was never one of my choices for college. I didn’t visit the campus or even apply. I am glad I never did this.

Before the game, there was a lot of smack talk. There’s noth-ing wrong with that, especially in an intense rivalry like this one. However, during and after the game, TSUN fans took it way too far.

The students and fans are not the only guilty ones. I feel like the absolute lack of class extend-ed all the way up to the atheltic department.

Throughout the game there were many examples of this ut-ter lack of decency. When the Famous Maroon Band took the fi eld for halftime, the whole sta-dium erupted in boos.

This by itself can be seen as not a huge deal, but factoring in the rest of the atmosphere, it can be seen as tacky.

After halftime, while exiting the fi eld through one of the tun-nels, TSUN fans spit on mem-bers of the FMB.

Later, the seniors of the Ole Miss band were recognized, as

the game was their senior day. During a timeout, the seniors were escorted into the endzone directly in front of the student section.

While the seniors were being recognized, a drink was thrown at them from the student sec-tion. I realize drink throwing is for some reason a part of college football (our student section remains certainly guilty of it, as well), throwing one at students of your own school is downright trashy.

As I said earlier, a certain amount of trash talk is healthy. However, common sense should be used.

There was a vid-eo spot run on the videoboard that was similar to our Video Vault. The difference between the two was TSUN’s video touted them in-juring a Mississippi State player. You can choose to show as many touchdowns or interceptions against MSU as you like, but showing a play that resulted in an injury is unacceptable.

I will give it to them, TSUN defi nitely seemed to want to win the game more.

As much as it pains me to say

this, TSUN deserved to win that game.

I would not have nearly as hard of a time accepting this if the fans acted with civility. Be-fore the clock ran out, TSUN fans were jumping onto the fi eld and spilling into the endzone.

Being excited about beat-ing your rival is one thing, but beating an unranked team is not usually a reason to rush the fi eld.

Emotions were running high, and with TSUN fans (many of whom were sloppily drunk) on the fi eld, the environment was

quite dangerous. I saw multiple TSUN fans jeer-ing and taunting Mississippi State players.

When the coach-es were fi nally able to get the MSU players into the

locker room, they were spit on while entering the tunnel.

Until this year, I had not been to Baton Rouge for a football game. I have always heard stories about how terrible it is being a visiting fan.

I can honestly say I was a bit nervous going down there. After going, I will tell you those stories are untrue.

I have only good things to

say about them. The LSU fans were “spirited,” but no more so than happens in The Junction. I would gladly go back to Baton Rouge. I hereby propose Ole Miss be known as the LSU of college football, from here on out. I will never return to Ox-ford.

Everything I experienced made my disdain for The School Up North greater. Of course, I realize there are fans who con-duct themselves like decent hu-man beings.

To those who are not like I described, I am sorry. But in my mind, the miscreants have ru-ined your reputation for me.

In my heart, there is no ques-tion Mississippi State University is far superior to TSUN in every way. I will forever be Maroon and White. Hail State.

Earth, the moon and every-thing else in our solar sys-tem have been bombarded

with asteroids and comets forev-er.

In fact, the main form of grow-ing for the rocky planets was ac-cretion through collisions with debris, of which all the asteroids and comets still around are just the left over material which nev-er managed to stick to any of the planets when they were forming billions of years ago.

This continuous bombard-ment of everything in the solar system has not stopped; in fact it still goes on today, just at a much slower rate through continuous gas accretion and collisions under the title “Late Heavy B o m b a r d -ment.”

Don Yeo-mans, a re-searcher at NASA’s Jet Pr o p u l s i o n L a b o r a t o r y in Pasadena, Calif., has a page on JPL’s website where he talks about how impacts with space debris is very common and in fact adds large amounts of mass to Earth’s atmosphere, “Every day, Earth is pummeled by more than 100 tons of material that spewed off asteroids and comets.

Fortunately, the vast majority of this “spillover” consists of dust and very small particles.

We sometimes see these sand-sized particles brighten the sky, creating meteors, or shooting stars, as they burn up upon entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Rough-ly once a day, a basketball-sized

object strikes Earth’s atmosphere and burns up.

A few times each year, a frag-ment the size of a small car hits Earth’s atmosphere. These larger fragments cause impressive fi re-balls as they burn through the atmosphere. Very rarely, sizable fragments survive their fi ery pas-sage through Earth’s atmosphere and hit the surface, becoming meteorites.”

Jupiter has served our solar system as a sort of impact defense station. Jupiter’s large size is able to gravitationally capture many asteroids and comets in its orbit.

In fact, Jupiter has 67 moons of varying sizes with 50 of them

under 6.2 miles in di-ameter ac-cording to space.com. Jupiter also has three groups of a s t e r o i d s locked in complemen-tary orbits:

the Trojans and the Greeks share Jupiter’s orbit around the sun while the Hildas are a family of asteroids which orbit the sun three times to Jupiter’s two and follow a strange looking triangu-lar path.

Then there are also the famil-iar asteroids which make up the asteroid belt situated generally between Mars and Jupiter.

In addition to herding and capturing asteroids and protect-ing Earth from them, Jupiter also protects the inner solar system from comets. In 1994, the com-et Shoemaker-Levy 9 which had previously broken up into about

20 pieces, rammed successively into the atmosphere of Jupiter.

The collisions caused minimal damage to the huge gas giant, but left visible holes in the cloud cover and made marks which remained in the atmosphere for months afterwards.

If even one of those comet pieces had hit Earth it would have caused an explosion rival-ing the one responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period.

In Backman and Seeds’s “In-troduction to Astronomy” text-book, the topic of large asteroids hitting and decimating life on Earth is broached.

Regarding the likelihood of extinction, they say it is unlikely but entirely possible.

The chance a major impact will occur during your lifetime is so small it is hard to estimate.

But the consequences of such an impact are so severe that hu-manity should be preparing.

One way to prepare is to fi nd those near earth objects that could hit this planet, map their orbits in detail and identify any that are dangerous.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson in his book “Death by Black Hole” warns how modeling NEOs or-bits and keeping an eye out for future dangers may not be as easy as it at fi rst sounds, saying “Cha-os reveals itself through the appli-cation of our well-tested physical laws in computer models of the solar system’s future evolution … There is a limit to how far in the future we can reliably calcu-late the risk of a major asteroid impact and the global extinction that might ensue.”

Tyson later warns about a

particular asteroid we do know about, named Apophis, which will pass very close to earth on Friday, April 13, 2029.

This asteroid, according to neo.jpl.nasa.gov, has a small chance to be perturbed by Earth’s gravity causing it to, seven years later, come back and collide with Earth and devastate all the coun-tries bordering the Pacifi c Ocean.

Regardless of Apophis’ chanc-es of hitting us, the danger of im-pact is real.

We are constantly under threat of cataclysmic impacts from space; it is because of the Moon’s role as protector and Jupiter’s role as shepherd we have survived so far.

Our problems and issues be-tween countries will mean noth-ing when we as a planet are star-ing down a killer asteroid.

So maybe we should go ahead and look to the future and put as much effort into protecting ourselves as we already put into trying to hurt ourselves.

We need to ready ourselves lest Apophis or any other object in the solar system comes when we are not looking, and we need to act together when such a threat does appear.

THE JEW POINT | JOEY FROST

Cameron Clarke is a sophomore majoring in physics. He can be contacted at opinion@reflector.msstate.edu.

CAMERON CLARKE

Joey Frost is a junior majoring in political science. He can be contacted at opinion@reflector.msstate.edu.

JOEY FROST

Last semester, in my communication theory class, we were on the

subject of feminism when my teacher asked how many students in the class consider themselves feminists.

Of course, I raised my hand without hesitation, but I was shocked when I looked around the room and realized my hand was the only hand in the air (not to mention that over half of the students in the class were female).

To say I was appalled or at a loss for words would have been an understatement.

I was so disturbed I hardly paid attention to the rest of the lecture and kept wonder-ing why none of the women in the class identifi ed as fem-inists.

This isn’t the fi rst time this has happened. When I took

sociology at a junior college a couple of years ago, the pro-fessor had the word feminist in the class lecture notes on the power point and a student raised his hand and asked what a feminist was and everyone looked as if they had just swallowed a teaspoon of castor oil (no offense, Grandma).

During the entire class pe-riod all I could think about was if it weren’t for feminism neither I nor any of the oth-er women would have even been able to sit in that class-room (yes, there was a time when women were not al-lowed to get an education.)

Feminism has contributed so much to today’s society and yet it is frowned upon like a taboo. If not for fem-

inism, wom-en would not be able to do many of the things they do today such as vote, drive cars, have a ca-reers, serve in the military, own property, get a divorce

(on their own terms) or even serve in public offi ce.

If not for feminism, there would be no women’s shel-ters for domestic violence victims, no crisis centers or support for rape victims, no childcare facilities, no mater-nity leave or any privileges women advantage of (and

take for granted) today. Soci-ety plays a role in this back-lash against feminism.

Society portrays feminists as “man-hating female su-premacists.”

There may be some wom-en who fi t into this category and may have extreme views, but most feminist do not.

Most feminists simply just want to be treated equally and have the same freedom and privileges as men.

They do not think women are the superior sex or should be treated “better” than men.

Society also wants was to believe feminism is outdated and no longer needed be-cause women have already accomplished the goal of equality in society.

I’m afraid I have to (strongly) disagree with that standpoint.

While women have come a long way, there is still a long way to go.

Workplace discrimina-tion and sexual harassment against women are still ram-pant and go unresolved and often unpunished; hundreds of bills are being passed by the government that restrict women’s reproductive choic-es and freedom, millions of women are victims of sexual and domestic violence and society even perpetuates this kind of behavior (i.e. rape culture, victim blaming, etc.), many women starve themselves to fi t society’s un-realistic idea of beauty and women still earn less than men for the same work (that includes the same amount of education, same number of hours worked, etc.).

Women are constantly

bombarded with magazines and advertisements telling them what they should be and look like and our culture still shudders at the thought of having a woman in power (i.e. president, CEO, etc.)

Looking at these issues (and I was just scratching the surface), it is hardly reason-able to argue we don’t need feminism.

Kimberly Murriel is a senior majoring in communication. She can be contacted at opinion@reflector.msstate.edu.

KIMBERLY MURRIEL

DARK ANGEL | KIMBERLY MURRIEL

Maybe we should go ahead and look to the future and put as much effort into protecting ourselves as we already put into trying to hurt ourselves.”

“

If not for feminism, women would not be able to do many of the things they do today such as vote, drive cars, have careers...”

“

Feminism still plays important part in equality progress

WHO SPEAKS FOR EARTH? | CAMERON CLARKE

Space objects propose potential dangerLETTER TO THE EDITOR | JIM ROSENBLATT

Editor’s Note: Jim Rosenblatt is the dean and professor of law at Mississippi College School of Law.

I write to commend the work of professor Whit Waide in organizing a via-

ble pre-law program at Missis-sippi State.

I have seen the positive effects of his work with the MSU students interested in law school.

On matters ranging from LSAT preparation to law school selection, Waide makes himself avail-able to the students inter-ested in the le-gal profession and provides wise counsel.

Of special note is the course Waide has created for those con-sidering the study of law. I spoke with the students in Waide’s course last week and was impressed with the student’s knowledge, ener-gy and awareness.

This course allows the stu-dents to focus on those matters relevant to preparing for a legal education.

It was also a special treat to attend the Court of Appeal hearings that MSU hosted this month.

What a great opportunity for the students to see Missis-sippi’s appellate court in ac-tion. It was good to talk with

the professors and students who attended.

I am pleased to report that for the fi rst time MSU became the school most attended by the students in the Mississippi College School of Law incom-ing class this fall.

Our MSU students are well rounded, active in the life of our law school and holders of key leadership positions.

I know they will go on to productive careers and will be leaders in their communities and in the profession.

While I have com-mented on the contri-butions of Whit Waide, let me add that many of the MSU s t u d e n t s who attend-ed Missis-sippi College

School of Law majored in a variety of subjects in addition to political science.

Let me commend all pro-fessors who contribute to the education of our MSU law students. You have taught well.

We welcome prospective law students, professors or members of the MSU admin-istration to visit Mississippi College School of Law in Jack-son at any time of the year.

Our web site at www.law.mc.edu has additional infor-mation. I wish your fi ne school well.

I am pleased to report that for the fi rst time, MSU became the school most attended by the students in the Mississippi College Law incoming class this fall.”

“

Ole Miss played well, behaved poorly

Law school dean praises MSU program

Everything I experienced made my disdain for The School Up North greater.”

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Tyler RossKaleb Ross

TennesseeOctober 13

Justin BricklerMiddle Tennessee

October 20

Mason CarneyTexas A&M

November 3

Kylie SistrunkArkansas

November 17

1101 HIGHWAY 182 E STARKVILLE, MS 39759 • �662� 338�9131

CLASSIFIEDS POLICYThe deadline for Tuesday’s paper is 3 p.m. Thursday; the deadline for Friday’s paper is 3 p.m. Tuesday. Classifi eds are $5 per issue. Student and staff ads are $3 per issue, pre-paid. Lost and found: found items can be listed for free; lost items are listed for standard ad cost.

HELP WANTED

Bartending. Up to $300 / day. No experience necessary. Training available. Call 800.965.6520 ext. 213.

FOR SALE

Classic comics and albums. The largest collection of comic books and albums in the area. Also movie posters, sports memorabilia, DVDs, CDs and beer signs. Located in Ziggy’s Buy & Sell, 434 Highway 12. Details on Facebook.

16x70 (1993) mobile home. Close to MSU campus in mobile home park. Two bedroom, two bathrooms, living room/kitchen/dining area. Central air and heat. Refrigerator/washer/dryer/couch to stay. Available now. $18K or best offer. Call 601.757.1506.

FOR RENT

Townhouse for sublease in Polos Apartments. Two bedroom, 1.5 bath, $630 per month, cable included. Lots of space. Six month sublease for mid-December through June 28. Call 601.551.3673.

MISCELLANEOUS

Female roommate wanted. Stone Henge Apartments. Rent is $325 per month (utilities not included). The apartment is unfurnished.

Two bed, 2.5 bath. Very centrally situated. Only a two minute to the university shuttle stop. Someone who is neat, clean and easy to get along with. Call 312.0253.

Highlands spring roommate needed. $350 per month (January through July commitment). Contact ad478@msstate.edu for more information. God bless and Merry Christmas.

Shawn’s Home Care: Free quotes, care for your loved ones, very affordable rates. Any hours. Call 617.3740.

CLUB INFO

The deadline for Tuesday’s paper is 3 p.m. Thursday; deadline for Friday’s paper is 3 p.m. Tuesday. MSU student organizations may place free announcements in Club Info. Information may be submitted by email to club_info@refl ector.msstate.edu with the subject heading “CLUB INFO,” or a form may be completed at The Refl ector offi ce in the Student Media Center. A contact name, phone number and requested run dates must be included for club info to appear in The Refl ector. All submissions are subject to exemption according to space availability.

WESLEY FOUNDATION

Insight Bible study and worship on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at the Wesley Foundation Worship Center on East Lee. Boulevard next to Campus Book Mart.

MSU CATHOLIC STUDENT ASSOCIATION

The MSU Catholic Student Association

invites you to join us for Sunday mass at 5:30 p.m. at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 607 University Dr. All are welcome to $2 Tuesday night dinner at 6 p.m. in the Parish Hall. Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/msstatecsa

MSU STUDENT CHAPTER OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF

MICROBIOLOGY

Contact msuasm@yahoo.com or like us on Facebook, “MSU ASM,” for membership information.

YOGA MOVES CLUB

School or work stressing you out? Get moving into Yoga Moves! Try our moves to get into shape and our relaxation techniques to handle the stress. Yoga Moves meets at the Sanderson Center in Studio C, Thursday evenings 5 to 6:30. Like Yoga Moves Club-MSU on Facebook.

SOCIOLOGICAL STUDENT ASSOCIATION

The Sociological Student Association is based in the Department of Sociology. Undergraduates of all ages are welcome. Meetings are held the last Thursday of every month in Bowen Hall room 250 at 5 p.m.

STUDENTS FOR A SUSTAINABLE CAMPUS

SSC meets every Thursday at 6 p.m. in McCool room 212. Come and meet really cool people who all share interests in saving the environment. Don’t forget to opt-in for the Green Fund.

11-30-12AN IN-CLASS DISTRACTION ...

4 | FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2012 THE REFLECTOR

Solutions for 11-20-12

BULLETIN BOARD

LIFE & ENTERTAINMENTTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2012 | 5REFLECTOR-ONLINE.COM

November: the month of manliness. The month where our campus seems

to have been invaded by groups of lumberjacks and rugged men. A time where a clean-shaven face cannot be seen from one end of the Drill Field to the other. That’s right. No Shave Novem-ber happened.

Think back through history for a second. Famous and infl u-ential men like Abraham Lin-coln, Albert Einstein and Zach Galfi anakis have all sported a well-groomed beard. The Most Interesting Man in the World has a beard. George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, has a beard. Chuck Norris, an American leg-end, has a beard. I, ladies and gentleman, have a beard.

My own humble quest began at the stroke of midnight, Nov. 1. Fresh off my Halloween esca-pades, it was time to get down

to business. Real men knew the turn of the month signaled a race of the alphas. The next 30 days would be dedicated to the grow-ing of our respective beards.

We all knew the hardships that would challenge us. Obstacles would stand in our way. Families would object, girlfriends would plead but each of us knew that it was our God-given privilege to fi ght on.

A week in, and you can see the weak of heart fall to the wayside. Those whose facial hair grew in patchy or cannot get over the “peach fuzz” stage are forced to concede. Maybe next year, kid.

Two weeks in: whiskers have turned to scruff. Your girlfriend is begging you to shave before you go out in public together. But no, fi ne sir, you prevail. You continue your quest to grow the most magnifi cent beard that has ever graced this earth. She’ll get

over it, and you are starting to feel like a champion.

Three weeks in: perhaps the most daunting challenge yet. It is time to go home for Thanks-giving and face the relatives you haven’t seen in years. Your par-ents beg you to look nice for dinner. They are afraid you will scare your smaller cousins and food will stick to your now ex-cellent mustache. You, however,

let them know this is not your choice, but the curse of being a man.

Week four: the fi nal gaunt-let. By now you have returned to school, and your professors don’t recognize you. Women are staring and thinking, “Who is this older, wise looking man I’ve never noticed before?” You are almost at the fi nish line, and you feel like you could stare down three lions while wearing a suit made of bacon.

Finally, December arrives and it is time to say farewell to your old friend. You two have be-come close, but all good things must come to an end. In 11 short months, November will arrive again, and our beards will come back in even more glori-ous than before. Remember: the one good outcome of shaving your beard is the joy of growing it back again.

No Shave November: an un-groomed journeyWORDS, WORDS, WORDS | ALEX MONIÉ

Alex Monié is a junior majoring in political science. He can be contacted at zorsborn@reflector.msstate.edu.

ALEX MONIÉ

BY SHELBY PERANICH

Staff Writer

Finals week is quickly ap-proaching. Upon sitting down to crack open thick textbooks and pages of notes, the people who live down the hall decide to take a study break and have a dance par-ty. Panic sets in. The library is overfl owing with people, the residence hall lobby is distracting and the walls are paper thin.

Casey Elliott, senior polit-ical science major and an of-fi ce associate for Department of Housing and Residence Life, said she has found spots in a particular dorm which are good studying environ-ments.

“I go to the third fl oor of Griffi s in the classrooms and study there,” Elliott said.

However, the issue of the classrooms and study rooms in the residence halls being full sometimes arises. If this

is the case, Dalton Li, fresh-man mechanical engineer-ing major, said he plans on taking his books over to the Union.

“I have studied in the up-stairs of the Union a good bit. It’s not as busy as the fi rst fl oor, and it is still really con-venient because you are right in the center of everything,” Li said.

There are other aspects to fi nals other than fi nding a productive place to study, such as late-night brain fuel.

Amelia Treptow, coordi-nator for programs for the Center for Student Activities, provided a list of on-campus eateries with extended hours of operation for fi nals week.

Burger King stays open until 1 a.m. Dec. 5-12.

Einstein’s stays open until 12 a.m. Dec. 9-11.

Village Pizza stays open until 1 a.m. Dec. 5-7.

Starbucks stays open until 12 a.m. Dec. 9-11.

Exams approach, hidden study spots found

BARTON DINKUS | THE REFLECTOR

John Coker, Brad Coleman and John Rushing show off their bearded and scruffy faces during this month’s No Shave November.

- McCool Hall- Old Main Lounge- Allen Hall- The Bakery- The bottom room of Swalm- - Carpenter Hall- The fifih floor of the library (“The Tower of Power”)- The Dawg House- Perry Cafeteria

Places to

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Immediate move-ins available! Call now to get 1/2 Off December Rent!

Try our new Turkey

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LIBERTYBELL BARBERSHOPLIBERTYBELL BARBERSHOP

100 N. Lafayette St.Starkville

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WANT TO WRITE FOR LIFE & ENTERTAINMENT?Stop by The Refl ector offi ce to apply!

TweetTweet,ya’ll.FOLLOW @LIFEREFLECTOR ON TWITTER.

ZACK ORSBORN | THE REFLECTOR

6 | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2012 THE REFLECTOR

BY DANIEL HART

Staff Writer

Shalyn Claggett, associate profes-sor of English and 2012 Humanities Teacher of the Year, may have an abun-dance of research under her belt but takes it all in stride with good humor and interest in the quirky and bizarre facets of her fi eld: Victorian literature. Examples abound, including her pre-sentation on Nov. 26: “The Animal in the Machine: Projecting and Policing Pleasure in Victorian Magic Lantern

Shows.” Claggett accepted the award, chosen among the state’s postsecond-ary institutions by the Mississippi Hu-manities Council and presented her research of the magic lantern shows of Victorian England. Lantern shows, similar to a fi lm but with static frames (like a picture book) rather than mov-ing pictures, drew Claggett’s interest through local and more diverse expe-riences.

“Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to experience a magic lantern show at a seminar on (Charles) Dick-ens’s fi ction, but I re-discovered them when I ran across a magic lantern pro-jector at the Oktibbeha County Heri-tage Museum,” she said.

Claggett procured the projector, slated to be tossed, donated it to Mis-sissippi State University and began collecting slides to use in her Victo-rian literature classes; she said part of her interest in the shows is due to their complex, strange nature.

“Who but the Victorians would watch a show about a dog named Flop-py being turned into sausages after Os-car Wilde implies he’s fat?” she said.

The curiosities of Victorian culture,

as seen in the magic lantern shows, are part of what Claggett said has drawn her to focus on the period, a fascina-tion she discovered at a young age.

“I knew I wanted to be a professor when I was 14, so I decided to read all of the books in the ‘classics’ section of my town’s public library (in alpha-betical order). When I got to ‘D’ (for ‘Dickens’), I knew I had found exactly what I wanted to study for the rest of my life,” she said. “I do think, however, that I am particularly drawn to subjects that are a bit bizarre. The Victorians are a wacky bunch, and that’s why I love learning about them.”

Rather than a study of strictly lit-erature, she reveals the intersection of these bizarre cultural aspects with the literature of the period. The title of one of her current book projects, “The Sci-ence of Character in Victorian Litera-ture,” illustrates this fascination.

The science the book references is phrenology, a science Claggett said is rampant in Victorian fi ction and fo-cuses on claims the size of certain parts of the brain equate to different person-ality traits.

“I became interested in the intersec-

tion of phrenology and Victorian lit-erature because of a novella by George Eliot titled ‘The Lifted Veil.’ The main character in it is forced to only study science and math because of the shape of his skull,” she said. “I researched phrenology to understand the scene, and then I started to fi nd phrenolog-ical language everywhere in Victorian literature.”

The nature of her research results in absorbed audiences: Tommy Ander-son, associate professor of English and director of undergraduate studies in English, said Claggett’s study of these societal aspects is part of what makes her work particularly exciting.

“She ties the big picture elements together with these small little details. It’s a cultural studies component to her literary analysis that makes it really fas-cinating,” he said.

As well as her research, Anderson said Claggett’s work in the classroom is exemplary and resulted in her receipt of the award.

“Dr. Claggett is an outstanding teacher because she pushes students to go beyond what they thought they could do and she walks them there.

She’s with them each step of the way,” he said.

As well as Victorian literature class-es, Claggett teaches critical writing and research in literature studies, a junior-level English course in literary criticism, and Anderson said Claggett’s work in the class produces stellar work from students.

“Students go in thinking they’re good writers and readers and come out incredibly better. This is her brilliance as a teacher: taking students to places they didn’t think they could go,” he said.

Through all the rigorous research, hard work and high standards, Clag-gett holds her students (and herself ), to her interest and continued study of the somewhat bizarre in Victorian culture and literature illustrates her excitement as a professor and scholar. Although Claggett’s work in intersect-ing discources produces engaging re-search, Anderson said her work in the classroom reveals her worthiness of the award.

“She’s excited for students to learn, and she does it all with a sense of hu-mor,” he said.

English professor receives Humanities Teacher of the Year Award

LIFE

Mississippi State University2012 Fall

Commencement Ceremony

December 15, 2012, 10:00 A.M.

Humphrey Coliseum

The University Registrar announces detailed

graduation information regarding regalia, invitations, photographs, DVD’s, and

marching instructions. This information is available at the University Registrar’s web

page address, www.registrar.msstate.edu, under

announcements/notes for you to view and/or print.

Congratulations to all of Our Graduates!

Saturday, December 1 at 7 p.m.New Horizons Christian Fellowship

1010 Victory LaneJust o� Lynn Lane between SHS and SA

Grammy nominee, Dove award winning Christian musician, and MSU graduate

Seating is limited.Advance tickets may be picked

up prior to the concert on Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. at New Horizons Christian Fellowship

For more info, visit newhorizonsstarkville.com or

call 662-648-9007

IAN PRESTER | THE REFLECTOR

With a fascinating interest in Victorian literature, magic lantern shows and phrenology, Shalyn Clagget, associate professor of English, has accepted the Humanities Teacher of the Year Award.

I became interested in the intersection of phrenology and Victorian literature because of a novella by George Eliot titled ‘The Lifted Veil.’ The main character in it is forced to only study science and math because of the shape of his skull. I researched phrenology to understand the scene, and then I started to fi nd phrenological language everywhere in Victorian literature.”

“- SHALYN CLAGGETT

SPORTSREFLECTOR-ONLINE.COM friday, november 30, 2012 | 7

By Forrest Buck

Staff Writer

After a win at home Tuesday night, the Mississippi State men’s basketball team will go on the road Saturday to Rhode Island to play against the Providence Friars.

Providence started well with a 5-2 record and will be a much tougher opponent than Alcorn State. Junior guard Bryce Cot-ton, who is currently averag-ing 23.8 points per game, leads the Friars and is known for his 3-point shooting. He’s currently shooting over 40 percent from downtown on the year.

Last season, Cotton led Prov-idence to a 72-70 upset victory over basketball powerhouse Con-necticut with a 22-point effort, 16 of which came in the second half and sparked the rally to come back from 14 down. The Dogs must come out and play with the same intensity they brought in their two home games this sea-son, an intensity that seems to be missing on the road.

After a disappointing showing in Hawaii at the Maui Invitation-al in which MSU lost all three of its games by double-digits, State bounced back strong in its second home game with a 60-42 victory over Alcorn State Tuesday night. With the win, the Bulldogs im-proved their overall record to 2-4 and, more importantly, gained some confidence and momen-tum moving forward.

Freshman forward Gavin Ware said the team is leaving what happened in Hawaii in the past and looking forward, using it as motivation to get better and play harder.

“We’ve been practicing hard the last two days because we had the bad losses in Hawaii,” Ware said. “So we came out and played hard, and our hard work showed on the floor.”

The youth movement this year was on full effect in the game as the three freshmen — Ware, Fred Thomas and Craig Sword — all played huge roles in the win. Ware only had seven points, but he controlled the glass all night coming up with 12 rebounds to lead the team.

Thomas and Sword led the team in scoring with 14 points apiece. Thomas showed some

versatility in the game by find-ing other ways to score after his three-point shot was not falling early in the game, as he shot 0-4 from long range.

Thomas said he feels he is starting to mature more offen-sively.

“Coach always talks to me about being patient and that my shot will come to me,” Thomas said. “If my threes aren’t falling, I know I need to take two dribbles in or get to the rim.”

Head coach Rick Ray took no-tice of the maturity of his young freshman shooting guard’s game and said he expects it from him.

“I don’t want Fred Thomas to live and die by his three-point shot,” Ray said. “Obviously he’s a good three-point shooter, but he’s a good overall basketball player, as well.”

Sword said he played what he felt like was his best overall game all season.

“I have a really quick first step, so I feel like I can get past any-body,” Sword said. “When you work hard in practice, it shows,

and we really worked hard.” State did a lot of things well

in the game, but rebounding was the biggest factor in the victory. MSU out-rebounded Alcorn State 50-20. It speaks to the physicality and aggressive-ness the Bulldogs played with all night.

Ray did a little shuffling with the starting lineup Tues-day as Ware and walk-on Tyson Cunningham both got their first starts, and normal starters Thomas and Wendell Lewis came off the bench.

Though MSU won handedly, all was not perfect in the per-formance. Turnovers continue to be an issue that plagues this team, especially its young point guard Sword.

Ray voiced his concerns on the turnover issue after the game.

“The thing I’m most wor-ried about is the negative as-sist-to-turnover ratio,” Ray said. “We had only six assists to 21 turnovers, and we’ve got to fix that if we’re going to beat a good team in the future.”

Shorthanded Dogs win at home, travel to Providence

Grant, Williams lead Lady Dogs over Savannah State

emma katherine hutto | the reflector

At 2-4, Trivante Bloodman and the rest of the Bulldogs will play at Providence Saturday at 11 a.m. on ESPNU.

By Anson keith

Staff Writer

Wednesday was a night of career highs as the Mississippi State University Lady Bulldogs improved their record to 3-4 on the season, cruising past Savanna State University 70-55.

Sophomore Kendra Grant’s first career double-double and Carnecia Williams’ presence down low paved the way for State’s offense. Grant snatched a career-high 15 rebounds (13 of-fensive), and Williams put up a career-high 26 points. The soph-omore forward went 10-14 from the field and 6-9 from the charity stripe.

Williams said her teammates were noticing the mismatches and continued feeding her the ball.

“Our high-low game was kill-ing them, and it created a lot of mismatches. We just kept capi-talizing,” Williams said. “I have been working on my offense, and tonight it showed. This is what I’ve been striving for.”

The Lady Dogs put the press on early, which ultimately led to 17 SSU turnovers and a few easy looks in the paint for MSU. Though they were having a little trouble of their own with turn-overs, the Lady Dogs’ hustle and tough play down low made up for their turnovers.

State outscored SSU 42-24 in the paint and 18-1 on second chance points. The Lady Tigers (2-4) ended the game on 18-49 shooting with Erin Hogue taking on most of the scoring with 18 points.

Grant, who scored 16 points to go along with her 15 rebounds, said the team will continue to im-prove on the defensive side of the ball as the season continues.

In the seventh game of the sea-son for the Lady Dogs, it was also very clear they are looking to take care of business on the fast break.

In his first year coaching the Lady Dogs, Vic Schaefer said he was extremely proud of Williams and Grant and was particularly pleased with his team’s transition offense.

“We had seen it on tape during the week, and it was in the scout-ing report, so we looked to push it,” Schaefer said. “I was also very happy with the way our point guards played in the second half.”

Junior guard Katia May, who also put up a career-high with six assists said Schaefer expects con-sistent play from the guards and anything less will not be tolerated.

“That’s just a part of playing for Coach Schaefer. If you aren’t playing to your full potential, he will pull you and most definitely let you know what you’re doing

wrong,” May said. “He doesn’t sugarcoat anything.”

The MSU Lady Dogs look to even their record at 4-4 as they head to Hattiesburg Saturday to play the Southern Mississippi Lady Eagles. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m.

stephanie godfrey | the reflector

Sophomore Kendra Grant recorded her first double-double of the year with 16 points and 15 rebounds Wednesday night.

Try our new Turkey

Roasters!10% Off with MSU I.D.

8 | friday, november 30, 2012 THE REFLECTOR

SPORTSSeC ChampionShip:

no. 2 alabama vS. no. 3 GeorGia

Saturday, 3 p.m. CbS

“The Music City Bowl against N.C. State.”-Matthew Peterson, freshman, secondary

education major

“The Chick Fil A Bowl against Michigan State.”

-Dajai’ Mitchell, freshman, biological

sciences major

“This is a bold prediction- the Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma

State.”-Alex Hubbard, junior, aerospace engineering

major

In what bowl game will MSU play and who will the opponent be?

Stat of the day: againSt ole miSS, Senior chad bumphiS broke the

mSu career record for receiving yardS, increaSing hiS total to 2,252 receiving yardS for hiS career.

By Kristen spinK

Sports Editor

The Mississippi State Univer-sity Athletic Department hired Aaron Gordon as the new head soccer coach Tuesday.

Athletic director Scott Strick-lin said he zeroed in on Gordon a couple weeks ago.

“We always talk about those traits we look for in head coach-es. We want people who have a great work ethic, are very com-petitive, who are smart and who have the leadership and charis-ma that it takes to recruit and to sell Mississippi State and build programs,” Stricklin said. “Aar-on knocks every one of those out of the park.”

Formerly the associate head coach at Texas Tech University, Gordon helped turn the Red Raider program around in his six years there. Before Gordon arrived, the Red Raiders had won two Big 12 games the past 10 seasons. In Gordon’s first sea-son with the team, Texas Tech won five conference games.

G o r d o n knows he has a tough task ahead of him as he takes over a team that fin-ished last in the SEC this sea-son, but he said he cannot wait to get started.

“I told the team that what we do as a program is about how we write our own story and write our own history, and together, I think we have the ability as a program and as a university to do something,” Gordon said. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work on a day-in and day-out basis. We’re going to have to go out and recruit our tails off, but we can do it because there’s a lot of things here that sell themselves for the state and for the soccer program, and I think we’ll make you proud for sure.”

Prior to his stint at Texas Tech, Gordon worked as the director of coaching for Dallas Inter Soc-cer Club. He also coached the Women’s Texas Lightning team of the W-League, which won back-to-back United States Am-ateur Championships.

He also was an assistant coach for the Atlanta Beat of the WUSA, where he served as head of scouting and video analysis.

Stricklin said Gordon’s pri-or experience was a big selling point for the new coach.

“Soccer is an interesting sport. Unlike a lot of sports, it has a huge club influence, and club soccer is a big part of the devel-

opment of the student-athletes we get at the collegiate level,” Stricklin said. “I thought that mix of club level, professional level and collegiate level experi-ence really benefited him, and it shows in the success he has had.”

Gordon’s wife, Ashley, will also join the coaching staff. She was an assistant coach at Texas Tech and will take on similar responsibilities at MSU. The Gordons have two daugh-ters, 12-year-old Addison and 8-year-old Avery.

Aaron said Ashley was the first one who fell in love with MSU, and the longer they stayed, the better they felt about calling Starkville home.

“The opportunity to be able to continue this partnership professionally that I have with Ashley is very important be-cause she’s a winner,” Aaron said. “That’s all you can ask as a coach when you come to a school is to know you’re going to get support and have people on your same wave length, and for me, that’s what sold me.”

Ashley was a four-year soccer starter at Southern Methodist University and adds even more experience to the coaching staff.

Senior Elisabeth Sullivan said she does not know what to expect with a married couple coaching the team, but she said she is excited to see the atmo-sphere that creates.

“He said she brings a lot of energy to team and a lot of dif-ferent aspects,” Sullivan said.

“He said you can’t tell that they are married when they’re coach-ing.”

Gordon met with the team for the first time Tuesday and has been having individual meetings with the players since then, including a two-hour meeting with Sullivan and fel-low senior Morganne Grimes where he inquired about the team’s traditions and routines.

He said the team was quiet when he first met the girls, but he implored them to ask him personal questions to begin growing relationships.

“When you’re in a team situ-ation, you’ve really got to build relationships with your players because those players have to go to battle for you, for them, for the school and for each other,” Gordon said. “That’s the first bridge I want to build is with the existing team.”

With the Gordons arriving at MSU in late fall, the coaching duo will have the whole spring semester to get to know the players and learn their strengths and weaknesses. Gordon said he plans to get right to work to make the Bulldogs a contender in the SEC.

Senior Morganne Grimes said Gordon made a great first impression on the team.

“I thought he was really en-thusiastic and really excited to be here,” Grimes said. “He’s really going to shake up the program. It will be a lot of hard work, but it will be fun and keep us going in right direction.”

Aaron Gordon named head soccer coach

Gordon