The Daily Beacon

Page 1

Issue 45, Volume 122

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

UT Director passes away suddenly Preston Peeden

Associate Editor Dr. Margaret Morrison, the director of the School of Advertising and Public Relations, passed away at her home yesterday. She was 49. Morrison, who joined the UT staff in 1995 as a teacher, had been director for nine months after filling the position on an interim basis for nearly two years. Her passing was completely unexpected. “Everyone is shocked,” said Dr. Eric Haley, an advertis-

ing professor. “We don’t know any details.” Dr. Michael Wirth, the dean of the College of Communication & Information, expressed equal surprise. “I don’t have any information to share,” Wirth said. “The only thing I know is that Margie passed away, and that she was in her house.” Wirth did not try and underestimate the feeling of grief on campus. “People are shocked and saddened. This was not at

all expected,” Wirth said. “… Words cannot express how sad and unhappy the mood is here.” Morrison’s cause of death is as of yet unknown. For those that knew her, Morrison was a tireless worker, always willing to lend a hand to students who needed it. “She was extremely generous and selfless and truly willing to help,” said Paul Domingo, a graduate student in advertising. “She would bend over backwards to help

you in any capacity that she could.” Domingo, who had worked with Morrison for two years in a mentor capacity, said she was a rare individual who anyone could connect with. “I felt like I could level with her,” Domingo said. “There was something about her that was welcoming, really inviting and really down to earth … Sometimes when you talk with faculty, there is a certain amount of B.S. that you have to maneuver around, but with her that wasn’t the case.”

For Anastasia Barnes, a senior in advertising, Morrison was the kind of teacher that students wanted and needed. “She was not only a great teacher, but she was a great person as well,” Barnes said, who took a first session seminar class from Morrison. “…I looked forward to her class everyday.” Morrison received her B.S. in broadcasting from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, her M.A. in telecommunications from

Ohio University and her Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Georgia. She was twice awarded the College of Communication’s teaching award, the first in 1996 and the second in 1999. “She has big shoes to fill and I know that it will be hard to go back to class,” Barnes said. The university has released a statement saying that a memorial service is in the works, with information to follow later as her family comes to Knoxville.

Law professor discusses human rights Brooke Turner

Staff Writer To kick off this year’s third annual Human Rights Awareness Week, the UT Amnesty International Chapter hosted former UT professor of law Ndiva KofeleKale to speak on behalf of political prisoner Marafa Hamidou Yaya in hopes of gaining students’ support and interest in fighting against unjust governments. In posters plastered across campus, students have undoubtedly seen the face of Marafa, the political prisoner who claims to be innocent of the crime charged against him. The former Secretary General of Cameroon, Marafa was arrested and imprisoned in April 2012 by the Cameroon government for allegedly embezzling government money into an American bank account. According to Kofele-Kale, his lawyer, Marafa’s human rights have been violated because he has been imprisoned without objective evidence or due process of law. Kofele-Kale is currently a professor at the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University as well as a practicing lawyer in the U.S. and in Cameroon. He spoke on Marafa’s behalf on Monday to rally support from his former colleagues and past Janie Prathammavong • The Daily Beacon students while simultaneously Professor Ndiva Kofele-Kale of SMU Dedman School of Law speaks about Marafa aiming to raise awareness of Hamidou Yaya, a Cameroonian political leader who was convicted in 2012 to 25 human injustice. years in prison for “intellectual complicity” in the misappropriation of public funds. Kofele-Kale pleaded

Dialogue to be held on sports, religion Lauren Kittrell

Sports Editor The worlds of sports and spirituality hold a unique relationship in the hearts of athletes and coaches across the globe. Mind, body and spirit must be equally addressed and balanced to create a whole, steadfast and capable person or athlete, but sports and religion don’t stop with one individual. At the Interfaith Dialogue on Religion and Sport, a panel of capable religious scholars in and around Knoxville will come together to address the matter of religion and spirituality in a world consumed by sports. “The presentation will provide insight into how different faith traditions view the role of sport within their faith,” Dr. Robin Hardin, associate professor of the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation and Sport Studies, said. “It will provide the campus community an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the differences and similarities in these faith traditions. It will also enable people to see just how intertwined religion and sport — and how important — both are in this region of the country.” The panel, some of whom met for a similar discussion only one year ago, will be comprised of Father Charlie Donahue, pastor at Blessed John XXIII Parish;

Rabbi Alon C. Ferency of Heska Amuna Synagogue; Chaplain Abdel Rahman Murphy, director of the Roots Program at Muslim Community of Knoxville; and UT’s own Chaplain Roger Woods of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and UTK Athletics. While Ashleigh M. Huffman, assistant director of the Center for Sport, Peace and Society at UT, was invited to join the panel, there was a last minute change to her schedule and she will be be unable to participate. The panel will address everything from the holistic care of athletes to the effect sports can have in worldwide peacemaking. “When we think about athletes and keeping them fit, we take care of the cognitive side, everybody’s in a degree program. We take care of the physical side, we keep them well; we take care of the dietary side ... but there’s a hole inside the individual that often goes untended to and that’s the spiritual side,” Dr. Waller, associate professor of sports management said. As a part of the Center for Sports, Peace and Society, Dr. Waller said they have been looking at trends in athletic departments and across the globe to help in their study of religion in the world of sports. While the panel addresses religion from several different perspectives,

Waller said they will address how religion and sports work together in society and how to care for an individual athlete from a Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Islamic, and so on, point of view. “They’re going to sit down and talk about the interface between religion and sport from an interfaith perspective,” Waller said. Dr. Waller said this is a great event for students to join in by coming, listening to and engaging in the discussion, but he is highly invested in the topic as well. He said the topic is something that should speak to a wide range of people, as so many have a vested interest in sports and are heavily influenced and invested in religion and spirituality. “I think for me the fascination will be (the panelists’) unique perspectives on sport through the lens of faith,” he said. “We take it pretty seriously here in the Western world and it is a serious thing, but also I think when you look at how faith can drive sports or buttresses sports, it makes for a pretty interesting conversation. I think the faith perspectives are going to be very interesting to hear and to process.” The event will be held in Room 235 of the Health and Physical Education building at 12:40 p.m. today.

Marafa’s case and urged the involvement and interest of any American college students on the grounds that everyone shares a common humanity. “As students you all are the repository of ideas,” KofeleKale said. “You, more so than the adults, understand what I mean when I say, ‘We all share a common humanity.’ If one person’s human rights are being assaulted, then yours and mine are also under attack.” Kofele-Kale explained that student support in the U.S. could get more people concerned with more than just themselves. As the current president of UT’s Amnesty International, Ashley Charest, senior in biological sciences, agreed with Kofele-Kale. “I do support his reasoning for wanting to gain students’ interest, because one thing people don’t really realize is that students really do have a voice,” Charest said. “People, especially in college, really do have a lot of ways to communicate with each other and with the world. So they can be very effective in doing the things he wants them to do, like sign the petitions, emailing them out to each other, tweeting and Facebooking.” Charest agreed that Marafa’s case is a direct violation of universal human rights laws, citing petitions, e-mails and social media as possible vehicles for support of the prisoner. “The president of Cameroon is basically acting

upon his own whims and not upon the laws that are universal and international between different countries as stated by the UN and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Charest said. “Every single person has the right to a trial by due process of law and Marafa is not getting that.” Erik Rutledge, freshman in computer science, said he supported the case. He sees this case affecting other future human rights cases, perhaps in the U.S., where the government may try to rob people of their inalienable rights. “I would say I support more on a grander scale than just specifically on this one case,” Rutledge said. “I understand his advocacy for this individual, however I think the issue is on a grander scale of course, even here in the United States.” Despite maintaining a more general focus on human rights, Rutledge echoed Kofele-Kale and Charest in urging individuals to consider involvement, even if the issues seem distant from their own lives. Kofele-Kale implored the university to make noise, whether for this particular issue of Marafa’s human rights or any other issues where human’s rights are violated. He also offered his e-mail address – nkofele@smu.edu – to any student interested in human rights activism. “Make noise,” he urged. “… the more noise we make, the more we attract attention.”

Around Rocky Top

Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon

Junior Colton Norton returns a tough shot during the Murray State match at Goodfriend Tennis Center on Jan. 21.


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