Writing
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A period of adjustment is happening at the University of Mississippi as the freshman class brings over 4,000 new students to campus. With the largest freshman class to date, organizations have to adjust to the amount of members as well.
On August 20, 2022, sororities had their bid day and welcomed between 170 and 185 new members to each sorority in comparison to less than 150 new members in 2021.
As an active member of Greek life on campus, I have already noticed the effects this is having on our chapter as well as other chapters on campus.
Chapter rooms are not large enough to accommodate the number of members, so women are sitting on the floor and flooding out during meetings. Within sororities, new members are assigned to a girl in the member class ahead of them in a mentorship type way, bigs and littles. More members in the class ahead of the new members have to take multiple littles despite the financial costs.
Each year, the University tends to accept more students than the previous year. If the trend continues, the Panhellenic community needs to put a steady cap on the number of new members accepted into each sorority.
Only one additional chapter is joining the sororities already established. Ole Miss will have eleven chapters when the school year ends, but this will not eliminate the problems with the chapter capacities.
An argument on this issue would be that it would not be fair to some of the girls registered to keep them from joining a chapter.
The campus does not have room to add or expand houses. Therefore, the solution to the problem is to allow fewer girls to go through the formal recruitment process and have a smaller maximum number of new members.
Limiting the number of participants might come across as harsh, but in order to allow the girls within the chapter to enjoy their experience, the Panhellenic community must decide on a way to accommodate such a massive group of women.
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Kaylee Goff started as a freshman at The University of Mississippi just over a month ago and has already found herself involved in many ways. After being the only female to run for a seat, Goff was elected to be an Associated Student Body Senator a few weeks ago.
“I was class president for two years and student body president my senior year,” Goff said. “That was a position that led to learning about my love for student government and writing policy.”
Goff originally planned to run in the formal election in the spring, but she decided to take a chance this semester when she saw there were open seats through the ASB instagram.
“I wanted to get involved as a stepping stone only three weeks into my freshman year,” Goff said.
In the process, candidates must give a speech in front of all of the current senators. Goff realized going in that she was the only female and began to feel anxious.
“I was very nervous at first, but everything I wrote reflected who I am and what I believe in, and those are things I’m very confident in,” Goff said, detailing how she got through the nerves.
Goff’s speech explained how she aided in changing the election rules at her high school to allow the student body to have more of a voice in who was elected.
In the end, when the Senate voted, it was a unanimous decision that Goff would have the seat. Goff was sworn in on September 13, 2022, alongside three others.
After she was given the seat, Goff was assigned to Governmental Operations. Through this committee, she will have the opportunity to work on the legislation within ASB.
Goff looks forward to being a part of the organization as well as others including Delta Gamma Sorority and Ole Miss Ambassadors. She wants to help students around the Ole Miss campus in a similar way she did in high school.
“At the end of the speech, I looked around at all the people around me, and I knew it was a rank I wanted to join because they have the power to be a voice for the students they represent,” Goff said.
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Sydney Spencer grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, and becoming a Feature Twirler for the University of Mississippi was far from what she envisioned for herself as a young child.
Spencer’s mother put her into multiple activities such as gymnastics and competitive cheerleading in an attempt to help with her supposed bad coordination. At age 11, she found her passion through attending Penn State football games.
“I would only go for pregame to watch the Blue Sapphire, their feature twirler, and then I’d want to leave the football game,” she said, smiling at the memory.
After seeing how intrigued young Spencer was by baton twirlers, her mother decided to get in contact with the Penn State Feature Twirler to find out about getting her into lessons. From that point on, she continued to work towards college level in the sport. When it came time to tour colleges, her best friend’s mom that attended Ole Miss mentioned Sydney doing the same.
“We would always joke about it, and she was like, ‘Oh my gosh, just go to Ole Miss,’” Spencer said.
The joke between them became reality when Spencer decided she was going to attend and twirl here in Oxford. After touring, she realized she actually really enjoyed being on campus and looked more into the school.
“It worked out with my major because I’m doing the three-three pre-law. It just all fell into place,” Spencer said.
Now, Spencer is a student at Ole Miss while balancing sorority life with Delta Gamma on top of practices and performances as a Feature Twirler. Free time isn’t really a part of her everyday schedule. School is set off for the morning and night with practices in the gym taking up most of the afternoons.
“Twirling is almost like a break for me. It’s practice, but it’s a mental break from schoolwork,” Spencer said, explaining how she manages her time without getting overwhelmed.
Twirling can be a lot at times, but for Spencer, it’s a time to not stress. Since starting the sport here, Spencer has made many memories especially as she twirls for football games every week in the fall. To add to those experiences, Spencer’s biggest goal was to spin fire batons during her time as a Feature Twirler. In November, fire batons were approved, and she achieved her top goal.
“We finally got to do it. All the lights were out, and everyone had their phones out. It was just a crazy experience being in the middle of it and holding fire.” Spencer said, laughing at the moment thousands of people got to watch her be involved in.
While that goal has been marked off the list, goals remain for Spencer as she works to complete her political science major on the pre-law tract. For the time being, short time goals are also in place. Her time is spent at practice working to nail a new trick for next football season.
“I’m going to hunt down a photographer and tell him this is what I want,” Spencer said, laughing as she showed the picture to the table.
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Standing in an arena during a Harry Styles concert, one would see hundreds of girls screaming, crying, dancing, or a combination of these. Outsiders see girls acting this way over an artist as insane, obsessive, hysteric, but the truth is starting to become more clear.
Teenage-girl fans keep the music industry running and rarely get the credit deserved.
The crazed fans a person would see at a show doesn’t encapsulate all that fandoms can do for artists and the industry as a whole. Update accounts spend every waking minute promoting the artist and encouraging others to do the same. Fans work with event organizers to create massive fan projects and make the experience great for every person attending.
I’ve seen groups of teenage girls spend weeks organizing and pushing artists to top spots on the Billboard Charts. Listening to the same song on repeat for days just for a chance to see the artist succeed. Organizing streaming parties for thousands of listeners at a time, reaching out to radio stations around the world, and convincing friends to stream with them.
One example of this occurrence is “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles in August of 2020. I participated in the actions and saw many others working towards the same goal. Getting the song to the top took weeks, but the fans did it on their own.
Another instance where it happened is Taylor Swift. In the past year, Swift re-released two albums that are both over 10 years old as well as two surprise albums. All four albums went number one despite being repeats of old albums and having no promotion. Things like this happen because of unwavering loyalty from fans.
The musicians carrying the charts and winning awards are often the ones with “insane” fans. Despite being seen as insanity, the dedication leads to success in the end.
The skills gained from being a fan allow many girls to get jobs in the music industry themselves. Obsessing over a celebrity dominoes into managing artists that get the same reaction they once gave to another. At shows, I’ve met several girls going on to work for ticket and tour management companies. My best friend goes to events as often as possible because it counts as experience in her field.
Despite the work put in, teenage girls still have a stigma attached to them. Those getting scrutinized are proving they need to be taken seriously. Countless fans now recognize the abilities they have, and girls appear to be pushing past to start applying fan expertise into an actual career.
A lot still needs to be done to erase the stipulations that come with being a young, female fan. The idea of “fangirls” being obsessive and psychotic needs to be replaced with the image of dedicated, hardworking individuals with a future in the industry.