The University of Mississippi announced the 2014 personality election candidates Sunday. The elections include candidates running for Mr. and Miss Ole Miss, homecoming queen, homecoming maids and class favorites.
Kelly Savage, Associated Student Body attorney general in charge of the elections this year, said she thinks the personality elections serve an important role for the campus.
“I think our university and Ole Miss community really gets excited about these personality elections,” Savage said. “It’s exciting to see who the leaders on our campus are going to be, the people that are going to represent our university at homecoming and also as the name sake throughout the next year.”
Savage said during the personality elections meeting Sunday that the rules for campaigning are in place to avoid distractions in the academic environment.
“The (classrooms) are places for learning, not a place for campaigning,” Savage said.
For example students are not allowed to campaign at all during classes, and only one flyer per candidate can be posted in an academic building.
Savage also explained a few more rules about campaigning during the meeting in regard to social media. In addition to campaigning to individuals directly, candidates are now allowed to use applications such as Snapchat and Groupme to campaign to students.
According to the ASB Constitution and Code, there are qualifications each candidate must have in order to be able to run in the elections.
Miss Ole Miss and Mr. Ole Miss have to have 60 completed semester hours and 12 of those hours must have been completed at Ole Miss. Each candidate must have a minimum 3.0 GPA and have completed 10 hours of community service in the one year period prior to the election. The candidates must serve as a representative of the university through the Office of Admissions in two or more university-sponsored high school college fairs during their elected term.
Mr. Ole Miss and Miss Ole Miss must also work together to select a local charity to partner with for the duration of their terms. Their chosen charity will be announced at halftime of the homecoming football game. They will work in collaboration with the ASB director of community service to raise campus awareness of their charity and encourage the student body to donate time and money to the selected charity.
Homecoming Queen has to have completed 60 semester hours, and 12 hours must have been completed at Ole Miss. She must be a female and must have a minimum 3.0 GPA.
Voting will take place Oct. 7 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through MyOleMiss.
