Managing Editor

While many students are worrying over finals, forcing themselves to attend the last few weeks of classes and blissfully wishing for summer, MUW’s Interclub has decided to give everyone a small break.

This Friday, April 26, Interclub will be hosting its first-ever Spring Formal. It’s planned to be a glamorous night full of fun to bring all nine social clubs together.

“Interclub decided to host this formal in an effort to build unity among the nine social clubs. We also recognized a need for types of events that students will excitedly anticipate,” says Interclub President, Jazzmin Grulich, a sophomore Elementary Education major from Winfield, Ala.

Hopefully this formal will become yet another beautiful tradition that MUW can add to its list.

“We are hoping for a positive outcome this year in both attendance and enjoyment. If successful in the eyes of students, we will continue this formal for years to come,” Grulich says.

Interclub’s “Red Carpet Affair” will begin at 8 p.m. in Cochran Ballroom.  Tickets can be purchased in advance for $8 from Cochran second floor or any Interclub social club member.  Students may also purchase tickets at the door for $10. Students may bring a friend or significant other, but each couple must present one valid student ID.

Reporter

MUW’s Dining Services staff, Sodexo, has added some major changes this semester.

Along with healthier options and various new food choices, by the end of this week students should be able to sit and dine while watching television. The Sodexo family recently welcomed four new televisions into MUW’s dining hall.

The new televisions are all open to program suggestions. Keep in mind that the suggestions should be appropriate for the crowd and meal time.

“We will probably put the TVs on news or weather channels or sporting events when appropriate,” says Eric Dawson, general manager of MUW Dining Services.

Dawson and the Sodexo family are awaiting a new splitter and 200-300 foot cable from the MUW Physical Plant, which will assist in wiring the four televisions.

Sodexo has made a lot of necessary improvements this semester, but their work is not done quite yet. During the month of April, Dining Services has some other plans for MUW students. For instance, on April 11, breakfast will be served for dinner. On April 17, MUW Dining Services will host a Japanese Hibachi-style special during lunch in the Innovations Line.

Their future events include “Fish Fry on the Green” on April 19 and a “Blast from the Past” special during MUW’s Homecoming Weekend, April 18-21.

In further news, Sodexo has partnered with the Volunteer Starkville Organization to help end hunger. Both groups are hosting a “You Can Help Food Drive.” There will be a box in the Hogarth lobby where the dining services staff will be accepting canned and boxed goods. They will also be accepting bagged grains such as pasta, oatmeal, grits, etc. All items received will be donated to the Golden Triangle area food pantries. The Drive will end on April 26.

Reporter

The Alpha Omicron Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. and Sigma Mu Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. recently held their annual Blu and White Week on the campus of MUW during April 1-6.

Blu and White Week is one of the fraternity’s and sorority’s signature collaboration weeks for the campus and also nationally.

Each day this week the fraternity and sorority sponsored a program where people could come out and mingle and enjoy fun filled events with the “Blu and White Family” of MUW.

Their events for the week included: Community Service Stop, Relay for Life Table, Zumba Fit Night, Staff Appreciation, Step Flash Mob, Game Night, Step Show, Blu and White Picnic and the probate of their newest members of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

“I really enjoyed the probate. It was very exciting and fun-filled. The unveiling of the newest members was a very eventful event that I will not forget,” says Maya Anderson, a sophomore of MUW.

The showcasing of the new was a much highlighted event of Blu and White Week. The newest members of the Alpha Omicron Alpha chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc included Daniel Rogers, Jatory Coburn and Brandon Woods. The excitement of the probate was much anticipated by many of the people on campus. The event took place in Rent Auditorium on Saturday evening and followed with an after party.

“Zumba Fit Night is always a delight. It’s a mixture of hip-hop, salsa and pop, and I love to dance, so this event really has become one of my favorite events," says Amber Glenn, a senior at MUW.

The Zumba Fit Night was conducted by Tiffany Young, an alumnae of the sorority and university. Students and residents of Columbus enjoyed a very fun-filled and energized workout. The event always leaves a good impression on others.

The Blu and White picnic is a gathering of all Greeks of the campus and surrounding college campuses. Many people come from other areas to enjoy a fun-filled event of music and food. This is also a big reunion of the alumni of the chapters of Alpha Omicron Alpha and Sigma Mu.

The sorority and fraternity hope to have another successful Blu and White week next year.

Reporter

MUW social clubs came together on March 25 in the Pope Banquet room to devote their time and energy into making Up‘til Dawn, an event dedicated to raise awareness and funds for St. Jude Children’s Hospital, a success.

Tables were set up for each social club as they came up with creative activities to raise funds for a worthy cause.

Individuals purchased tickets at 25 cents each. These tickets were used to participate in the numerous activities. Each activity required a particular number of tickets.

Fanetta Houston said the Up ‘til Dawn event included a letter-writing campaign. She said students were asked to address as many letters as they could to friends and family asking for donations to St. Jude. Prizes were then given to individuals who wrote the most letters and raised the most money through their letters.

The Reveler’s social club set up a dart-throwing activity with paint-filled balloons. One ticket was required for each dart. The balloons would create splashes of color on canvas. The finished piece of art would be donated to the St. Jude organization.
 
Another activity that pleased the visual senses was the sand art. Students created beautiful containers as they mixed different layers of colored sand together.

"Hopefully, creating these bottles would be a reminder of St. Jude," Chelsea Spann said.

Mamselle’s social club activity, Cupcake Wall, was filled with delicious cupcakes just waiting to be devoured. One ticket was required to play the game. Two tickets were required if wanted to enjoy a cupcake. The game was similar to musical chairs. Numbers were placed in a circle as individuals walked around while the music played. Whoever stopped on the number closest to the number pulled by the member of the club would win a cupcake.

The Silhouettes gave those interested in throwing pies an activity they would love. For two tickets, a member from the Silhouettes would put his or her face in the hole and the fun would begin.

Many other organizations participated in this event, and everyone came together to support St. Jude.

St. Jude is one of the world’s premier centers for the research and treatment of pediatric cancer and other catastrophic childhood diseases, and no child is ever denied treatment because of a family’s inability to pay.

Up ‘til Dawn is a student-led, student-run program that helps support the life-saving treatment and research performed at St. Jude.

To become involved visit www.stjude.org/utd

Reporter

When people think of manufacturing they instantly think of China and the idea that America is losing all of its jobs and manufacturing plants to China. Contrary to popular belief, though, that is not necessarily true. At the sixth installment of the Ina E. Gordy Honors College honors forum on March 21, John Regal, general manager of Superior Solid Surfacing, explored that topic with his presentation, “Made in America … So what?”

John Regal has family roots in almost all of the big manufacturing plants in America since 1845.  His family has worked in companies such as NASA, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Fisher Tank Co., Omni International, Boeing, Falstaff Beer, McDermott, Thiokol and Kaiser Aluminum. 

Regal did not have a college education, and he immediately took on jobs in manufacturing just like his family.

“Back in the day when I was a kid, everything was made in the U.S., which meant that you had a stable and successful country,” said Regal. “Now in the last 10 years, America has increased production, but has decreased one-third in employment because of the incorporation of machines.”

Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin with interchangeable parts, and kicked off manufacturing in the United States. Although Whitney failed at producing the cotton gin at a faster rate, other manufacturers began to see the problems and created ways to make it better.

“Concepts that America produced back in the day still dominate the U.S. today to create easily made products. Those concepts resulted in a surge of products such as ships, cars and furniture,” said Regal.

Regal pointed out that the reason why people believe China and other countries have taken all of the jobs is because the U.S. stopped utilizing the apprenticeship programs and training the next generation of trade workers.

“Sixty thousand jobs in the U.S. are left unfilled because we have not kept up with the growing pace for skill-related jobs. This is the reason why our European counterparts are moving at a considerably higher pace than the U.S. because there are skilled people who can fill those positions,” said Regal. 

Regal is an advocate for students to obtain a degree and use it to their advantage.

“Education is the key, the diploma you are working on now is your path to life,” said Regal. “It will open doors to you when they would have otherwise been closed.”

His advice to the honors students was to use the degree they will acquire toward gaining a job in manufacturing so that they can create job opportunities and products that will endure.

Reporter

The Ina E. Gordy Honors College presented the fifth installment of its spring honors forum on March 7, with a presentation by Dr. Suzanne Beam.

Beam is the community liaison for the Roger F. Wicker Center for Creative Learning at MUW.

Her presentation, “Rethinking Success in the 21^st Century,” delved into what factors contribute to success in adults with special gifts and talents and how they became successful.

She said an adult who makes a significant contribution to humankind is not necessarily the one who has a high IQ and aces every test with flying colors, but the one who receives the Nobel Peace Prize and makes a change in the world.

“In the future, Emotional Intelligence (EQ), which involves how a person interacts with others, their relationships, leadership and performance ability will have more worth than an IQ,” said Beam.

“Raw intellectual talent doesn’t equal success,” said Beam. “Creative minds are the ones who will rule the world, and they are the inventors, artist and engineers.”

“Some factors that contribute to a person’s success are their home environment, personality, intensity and motivation,” said Beam.

The home environment is a place where success begins to cultivate. In a house where learning is active and parents are educated, there is a higher chance that the student will thrive in school. These students don’t rely on parents as their only source of gratification and worth. An example of a student who had a positive influence in the home was none other than the genius Albert Einstein.

Personality also plays a key role in success. These are the individuals who are the innovators and the problem solvers. They use their creativity and imagination to create new products. These people are known to be eccentric and they also have a hard time fitting in with the crowd.

Another factor that contributes to a person’s success is his or her intensity. These high-strung people concentrate their energies on a specific task and get lost in their pursuits, while slacking on other commitments.

The last factor that contributes to success is a person’s motivation. Sometimes a person’s motivation to make everything perfect can lead to perfectionism, and perfectionism can unfortunately become a disability.

“Most successful adults are those who have a vision and can adjust their ability to the current time,” said Bean. “Now you can almost create your own job because the needs are constantly changing.”

Employers are now looking for the ones who have the four C’s: critical thinking, communication skills, creativity and collaboration. They need people who can solve problems, have a good work ethic and impeccable leadership skills. 

Bean’s advice to students on how to become successful was to develop their passions, look for connections, patterns and interactions with others, learn from every situation, be courageous, take a risk, embrace change, seize new opportunities and accept the possibility of failure.

“Because if you have a career you love, you’ll never work a day in your life,” said Beam

Reporter

Student-directed one-act plays will be presented by the MUW Theatre Department on April 4-5.

A one-act play is simply a play in which an entire story is told in one act; it is similar to a short story. It is comprised of six MUW students - all students in the current theatre directing class.

“Show up for two nights to see all of the plays,” said Peppy Biddy, chair of Theatre and Communication, and the instructor for the directing class.

The event will be held in Cromwell Hall in room 238 and admission is free.

The student directors are Parker Yarbrough, Clara Seitz, LaVosha Kern, Joseph Musgrove, Casey Davis and Paige Greene.

Reporter

Many students are still getting oriented to the new Mississippi University for Women’s website. As of Jan. 31, 2013, Mississippi University for Women’s website adopted a new look which features more photos and links, but also moved some things to different places.

The new design comes from Rich Sobeleski, MUW Webmaster, and ENG, a web design company hired by the university to design and update the website to better reflect the university’s image. The former incarnation of the website was first created in Feb. 2012.

“On an average day around 7,500 people visit the MUW website, and around 150,000 a month,” Sobeleski said.

Since 1995, when the Mississippi University for Women first website went up, it has had seven versions. Sobeleski said the previous website design made it hard to update.

“The website was not content-management based. Designated individuals could not modify when they needed, to and they had to do it through proper channels.”

With the new design, he said any of the designated individuals can simply modify when changes are needed. Some of the new features offered on the new website include social media integration, mobile compatibility and a lighter and faster interface.

Social media integration basically means it is more connected to the social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The new website is also completely compatible with any mobile device. This creates less aggravation for the people visiting the website on their cell phones or tablet devices. The new interface makes it faster when trying to access certain parts of the website.

Another feature that has returned with this version of the website is the search function. It had been removed from the previous version, but is available once again.

In the future Sobeleski said he like to make the academic program sections more clearly defined from the home page.

Reporter

Alternative break is a weekend dedicated to service opportunities for MUW students. The entire weekend is filled with labor-intensive work and activities.

These activities are intended to build leadership and teamwork among the participating students. Students attending alternative break will be awarded 15 community service hours.

But why is it called alternative break?

“It is called alternative break because it is not the typical break that students would take,” says Cayla Sullivan.

Sullivan is an elementary education major with an emphasis on mathematics and social studies. She is a member of MUW’s Hearin Leadership Program, Lockheart Social Club and Masker Honorary Social Club. Sullivan is also MUW’s community service coordinator.

Twenty MUW students, along with four Hearin Council undergraduate students, will be working with a group to renovate a building in Biloxi that was damaged during Hurricane Katrina. The damaged building will be turned into a church with the help of the 24 volunteers, Sullivan and Jess Harpole, MUW’s director of student life. This semester’s alternative break will take place in Biloxi, Miss. from April 5-7.

MUW hosts one alternative break during the fall and spring semesters. In the fall, alternative break is only for Hearin Leadership Program students.

If you are not a part of Hearin but would like to participate in alternative break, there is always the spring semester. During the spring semester, any MUW student is allowed to participate in alternative break, but a spot is not guaranteed to all students.  Each student who wishes to participate in alternative break must complete an application to earn his or her spot for the community service project.

If you would like to know about or participate in other community service projects hosted by MUW, please contact Cayla Sullivan by email at cmsullivan@myapps.muw.edu or visit her on the second floor of Cochran Hall.