THE DAILY
MISSISSIPPIAN
Monday, March 7, 2016
Volume 104, No. 98
T H E S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F M I S S I S S I P P I S E R V I N G O L E M I S S A N D OX F O R D S I N C E 1 9 1 1
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Photo gallery: the 2016 Who’s who
Grand opening of Grammy museum
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Weekend sweep: Editor’s take
Former professor remembered after 40 years of influence
Friends and family remember theater professor Jim Shollenberger at a memorial service in the style of a play, complete with its own playbill Sunday at the Powerhouse.
SLADE RAND
ksrand@go.olemiss.edu
Playbills were printed, the house was packed and the stage was set. But when friends of Jim Shollenberger gathered to celebrate the life of the former UM theater chair, the show was to go on without its star. The director, writer, performer and mentor of many died Jan. 31 of cancer. He was 72. Shollenberger taught at the University and chaired the theater department from 1984 to 2010, as well as serving two years on the Oxford Board of Theater.
He worked in the UM theater department for almost four decades. He earned a Purple Heart in Vietnam, and his colleagues said he brought a dream to Ole Miss theatre. “It’s hard to put into words just how he’s touched my life,” said Jaime Adams, treasurer of the Oxford Board of Theater. “I can only imagine how many lives Jim has touched.” Adams has acted in two of Shollenberger’s plays, and was cast in his final show. She and other members of the Board of Theater performed one of the director’s 10-minute plays as part
of the celebration Sunday. Adams remembers Shollenberger, or Jim, as she calls him, for his ability to make others laugh. “Comedy— that was were he was very skilled,” Adams said. “He’d take those of us who knew nothing about any of it and make us feel like professionals.” In a theatrical style suited for Shollenberger, a table of playbills for the memorial was set just inside the entrance. The playbill named the show “Sunday in the Powerhouse with Jim,” a reference to the Broadway show “Sunday in the Park with George.” Sunday’s “show” was divided
ter what state you live in,” Sullivan said. “The results from any election affect every American citizen and I plan to cast my vote even if I’m here at school come November.” But out-of-state students are not the only ones that can use an absentee ballot. Students who live in the state of Mississippi but cannot make it to their polling location can request to vote absentee. For freshman history major Kyle Brassell, this means of voting is ideal. “Even though I live in the state, it’s not practical for me to drive an hour both ways just to vote,” Brassell said. “I’ll be voting absentee when it’s time to vote for
LASHERICA THORNTON
into three acts with two intermissions. Gail Stratton began the first act with a memorial speech, backed up by a choir. “If a stone causes ripples when it falls into a pond, Jim was more than a stone,” Stratton said. “He was more than a handful. He was a bucket. He was not interested in trying not to die— he was interested in living.” Stratton said Shollenberger waged a five-year war on cancer with the same remarkable enthusiasm he held throughout his life. Shollenberger’s courage and talent shone through in Stratton’s
PHOTO BY: ELIZABETH BLACKSTOCK
stories about his life. “This is a lovely tribute to his life and his impact on others’ lives,” former UM teacher and administrator Gloria Kellum said. Michael Campbell, a 1991 alumnus of Shollenberger’s theater program, drove from Lawrence County, Tennessee for the memorial. Campbell said he remembers the surprise he felt when Schollenberger invited him to get coffee after arguing Campbell’s senior thesis with him. “Jim demanded everything and more from his students and usually got it,” Campbell said.
Students vote absentee Vaught construction nears conclusion ABBIE MCINTOSH
mamcint1@go.olemiss.edu
Roughly 45 percent of UM undergraduate students come from outside the state, and absentee ballots enable these students to participate in upcoming elections. Popular among college students, these ballots are typically completed and mailed in advance of an election by voters who are unable to vote at their respective polling places on election day. For freshman economics major Jack Sullivan from Indiana, an absentee ballot is the only way to vote in the upcoming November election. “It is important to vote no mat-
SEE ABSENTEE PAGE 3
lthornto@go.olemiss.edu
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium’s most recent updates and expansions should be complete by August 2016. This project, however, is only a fraction of the total $222 million Forward Together campaign run by UM Athletics. The stadium’s construction is only one of many projects of the campaign, including the already-completed Olivia and Archie Manning Athletics Performance Center, the west skyboxes of the stadium and the Pavilion. With football coach Hugh Freeze hauling in a sixth-ranked
SEE CONSTRUCTION PAGE 3
Construction underway at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
PHOTO BY: ALEEA BURGE