File Photo (Austin McAfee) | The Daily Mississippian
Campaign signs are seen in front of the Union during the personality elections in the fall of 2012.
The Associated Student Body Judicial Council ruled the “Colonel Reb” title, the male counterpart to “Miss Ole Miss,” was unconstitutional, and investigation has been initiated regarding that decision
The Associated Student Body (ASB) Judicial Council has ruled that the name “Colonel Reb” will no longer be the title given to the equivalent of “Mr. Ole Miss,” according to multiple current and former ASB members.
Former ASB Judicial Chair Courtney Pearson, who presided over the ruling, confirmed that the decision was made by the judicial council March 25, the night before the inauguration of the newly-elected ASB officers.
“An anonymous complaint was filed and the ASB Judicial Council took the appropriate steps to hear the complaint,” Pearson said. “We followed the appropriate guidelines that we could have according to the most current Codes and Constitution. The decision is final.”
Newly-elected ASB Attorney General Rob Pillow also confirmed that the Judicial Council’s decision is final. However, an investigation into how the Judicial Council came to the decision is underway.
“The final decision cannot be appealed,” he said. “However, we are searching for more avenues to look at the way the process was done. If we find that the process was unconstitutional, the results would be null and void.”
Newly-elected ASB President Gregory Alston believes that the situation was not handled correctly.
“I completely disagree with how this whole situation was handled,” Alston said. “It doesn’t appear to have been handled properly at all, and the students didn’t have representation. That’s not what the students of Ole Miss deserve.”
Pillow admits that there are flaws in the current Constitution and Code of the University of Mississippi ASB, which does not directly address procedures involving anonymous complaints to the Judicial Council.
“There is no avenue to proceed through an anonymous submission to the Judicial Council,” he said. “All submissions are supposed to be made to the Attorney General, and then from the Attorney General to the Judicial Chair.”
Pillow, not yet inaugurated to the ASB Attorney General office, was at the Lyceum on the night of March 25 with then-ASB Attorney General Matthew Kiefer, and the two were told to sit in a different room while the case was being heard by the Judicial Council.
Pearson said that it is common for the ASB Attorney General to not be present during hearings, unless counsel is sought. She also said that the quorum of five voting judicial members was present when the decision was made.
“(Kiefer and Pillow) were brought in in case the council had questions,” Pearson said. “The council did not have questions, and they were told to leave.”
Pillow said the next step in the investigation is not yet clear.
“This is a very unique problem that hasn’t come up before,” he said. “We’re not sure who’s gonna be the governing body over it, how it will be appealed or the process of appealing something like this.”
There is no set timetable on the completion of the investigation.
