ASB Vice President Morgan Gregory and ASB Senator Rod Bridges look on as poll results are presented Tuesday. / (Holly Wigman)
BY CATY CAMBRON
cjcambro@go.olemiss.edu
Members of ASB Senate Tuesday night did not come to a conclusion regarding the renaming of the title of male personality election which was formerly ‘Colonel Reb.’ Last night’s meeting was the final ASB Senate meeting of the semester, so the selection of the new name will be reassessed by the Senate in the fall. Because no decision was made, there is not currently a name for the title.
Members of the senate failed to motion four amendments to the current bill prior to reaching the conclusion of the meeting. The lack of action by senators to make a decision on the bill was due to their concern with the desire of their constituents.
“I think that every vote, whether it was for or against, was a vote with really good intention,” ASB Vice President Morgan Gregory said. “Some senators had legitimate concern about the timing of deciding on a name. Others were more concerned with a vote being just a placeholder for something that we would change in the fall anyways.”
Results of an online student survey, which was conducted by the senate last week, showed that the majority of voters, 40-50 percent, wrote in the name ‘Colonel Reb.’ Twenty-five percent of voters chose the name ‘Mr. Ole Miss.’ While last night’s bill proposed the new title to be ‘Mr. Ole Miss’, senators felt that ‘Mr. Ole Miss’ was not an accurate representation of what students wanted.
“What we have now is a blank,” ASB Senator Rod Bridges said. “This decision won’t be filled until the second or third week of (the fall semester).”
While there is no set deadline for ASB to make a decision about the new title, there is a concern of time and lack thereof.
According to the ASB Consitution and Codes, fall student elections must be held five weeks prior to Homecoming. This means candidates would begin campaigning the third week of school in the fall. While some senators proposed passing the bill now to allow for a later amendment, others pointed out that this could inconvenience male candidates running for election.
“Switching the name back and forth means those getting ready to campaign have no idea what title they’re running for,” former ASB Senator Jeremy Holliday said. “They have to make stickers, flyers, t-shirts and videos.”
Another concern is how long it takes for a bill to take effect. A bill goes into effect upon publishing. In order to be published, a bill must be signed and put in a book– all in a certain time constraint.
Bridges urged members to “re-focus” in order to move forward in last night’s decision-making process.
“We owe it to the students to make a decision tonight,” Bridges said.
Some senators speculated in the debate that without a final decision in last night’s meeting, a male personality election would not take place at all in the fall.
“The judicial ruling only took away the title ‘Colonel Reb’,” Gregory said after the meeting. “It did not take away the personality election. There will be a personality election regardless of whether there is a set name or not.”
