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FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 13, 2019
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135th YEAR ISSUE 5
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1884
SPD makes arrests for brawl on front lawn of St. Joseph’s HANNAH BLANKENSHIP
watching it, but the craziest thing was that all the cops were occupied because all the bars had just closed recently, so they were probably a block and a half or two blocks up, and they were all occupied trying to get everyone out of the bar safely and get the traffic directed and everything. So, it took maybe five minutes for the cops to run down there. It was pretty crazy,” Strider said.
NEWS EDITOR
A video of a brawl that took place early Sunday morning in front of St. Joseph Catholic Church on University Drive has been circulating on social media. Mississippi State University senior Hannah Strider witnessed the incident. “My friend and I were walking down towards Stromboli’s, and all of a
Harrison Porter
Dakota Husser
Nathan Cvitanovich
Stephen Jernigan, II
sudden we saw probably three or four guys running on the other side of the road, and all of a sudden we hear a slap and look over, and there’s like six guys and a ton of people without
their shirts on brawling literally in the front lawn of St. Joseph’s,” Strider said. The fight began with a few people, but grew as more joined in. “It initially was only a
couple of them, probably three or four to begin with, and then of course all their buddies jumped in and stuff, so in the end it was just a full-on street battle. It was nuts,” Strider said.
Although police officers were already in the Cotton District, it took them several minutes to arrive on the scene of the incident. “There were a ton of people gathered around
BRAWL, 2
Cotton District Engage intersection is closed replaces on weekend nights Orgsync
NEVER FORGET
BEN MACKIN
A flag display on the Drill Field, part of the 9/11 Never Forget Project, commemorates those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001
CHRIS LOWE
STAFF WRITER
Mary Georgia Hamilton | The Reflector
Mary Georgia Hamilton | The Reflector
STAFF WRITER
The Starkville Police Department will close an intersection in the Cotton District from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. every Friday and Saturday night. The intersection of Maxwell Street and University Drive will be closed during these times until further notice, stated an SPD press release. The selected area for closure is in a high foottraffic area of the Cotton District, located between several bars with a proximity to campus. SPD Public Information Officer Brandon Lovelady cited public safety as a reason for the road closure. “Because of the increase in pedestrian traffic on the weekends where there is a lot of late-night establishments,” Lovelady said, “it just takes out another factor where vehicles can’t be driving around in there.” Police officers closed the intersection on Saturday after the first home football game. That same night, police officers took several minutes to respond to a
On July 3, 2019, Mississippi State University made the switch from Orgsync to Engage as the campus’s student organization technology platform. Regina Hyatt, MSU’s Vice President of Student Affairs, expressed excitement about the transition. “We believe Engage offers a more robust portal environment for students, student organizations and our community partners to interact. Student organizations can manage their events, request volunteers, advertise their programs and much more through Engage,” Hyatt said. According to the official announcement of the switch on Orgsync by Associate Director of Student Activities Amelia Rogers, after several years of relying on Orgsync to allow students to manage clubs, sororities, fraternities and even intramural sports, MSU hopes to streamline this process even more with the new platform.
Mary Georgia Hamilton | The Reflector
Police barriers mark off the intersection of Maxwell Street and University Drive.
brawl in front of St. Joseph Catholic Church, which is less than 500 feet from the intersection. Lovelady said the road closures were not to encourage a party in the street. “This is not an event area,” Lovelady said. “We will have staff working in the area.” Tyler Klass, owner of The Klassroom, a bar located on the intersection, said he was not concerned the road closure would affect his business.
ENGAGE, 2
INTERSECTION, 2
MSUʼs iconic “Paint-up squad” is ready for another year in Davis Wade LYDIA PALMER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Mississippi State University’s student section’s “Paint-up squad” is excited for another season of continuing the tradition as the iconic shirtless guys with words painted on their chests in the front row of Davis Wade’s student section. According to Ian Evans, a junior biomedical engineering major, and the group’s current leader, the “Paint-up squad,” as they call themselves, consists of 30 to
FRIDAY HI: 94 LO: 70 SKY: Mostly sunny POP: 0
40 guys in total, around 10 of whom paint their chests with different letters to spell out words or phrases on the front row of the student section at home football games. While the guys have shown up at a few other sporting events, they mainly paint-up at football games. “We love it to death. We’re out there every single week,” Evans said. “There’s nothing we’re more passionate about than just showing those guys how much we support them.” According to Evans, every home gameday the
SATURDAY HI: 93 LO: 70 SKY: Partly sunny POP: 0
SUNDAY HI: 90 LO: 70 SKY: Partly sunny POP: 20
group gets to the student gate at 9 a.m. and tailgates in line. This, he said, is because they want to make sure they get their front-row spot, and also it takes about an hour and a half to get painted up for the game. The squad was started in 2014 with Phil Reamer, an MSU alumnus who graduated last year with a horticulture degree and is now working as a horticulturist at Walt Disney World. Reamer and some of the guys from his hall freshman year started painting up for games, and it became routine. PAINT, 2
Mary Georgia Hamilton | The Reflector
Paint-up squad members Johnathan Huff, Alex Crow and Jake Pritchard cheer on the front row of the student section at Saturdayʼs football game.
FORECAST: Highs for the rest of your week are still sitting in the 90s, but we’re looking at a possible cool down Sunday evening. A tropical disturbance with a high chance of development will make its way towards Florida throughout this coming weekend and it may just be the next rain maker.
Courtesy of Sophia Armata, Campus Connect Meteorologist
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