Over my four years at this university, I have grown weary of the often successful attempts of the administration to eradicate time honored traditions.
The recent actions taken by the ASB, Faculty Senates and the administration are nothing new.
There exists a lengthy history of university officials distancing themselves from our traditions.
It is a mistake for us to imagine that each new controversy is a stand alone event. The truth is that each one is a battle in a larger war.
Thus, the latest controversy is only part of the war to rid our university of everything it has been since 1896, when the name Ole Miss was first applied to the yearbook.
A brief review of the history of the university’s vanishing traditions seems most appropriate.
Since 1983, faculty and staff have been banned from displaying any Confederate images in their offices.
1997 saw the passing of an ASB resolution which encouraged students to forgo displaying Confederate flags. In turn, this request brought about an administration imposed ban on sticks and flags larger than 12-by-14 inches.
In 2003, Colonel Reb was banned from being the official mascot.
Of course, the current battle is quite familiar.
In early October, the ASB Senate passed a resolution encouraging fans to stop chanting “The South will rise again.”
Instead, it suggested that fans should chant “to hell with LSU.” This same language was later approved, in a resolution, by the Faculty Senate during an emergency meeting.
“From Dixie With Love” has already been altered at the behest of Chancellor Dan Jones.
If the words “the South will rise again” are not stripped from the vocabulary of fans at Vaught-Hemingway, the song will be thrown on the ash heap of now unapproved traditions.
Some say fans should simply acquiesce to administration demands. They say this is the only way to save a beloved song and tradition.
I don’t feel the same way.
Is something really still a tradition when it is being phased out? Don’t fall for it.
The administration is trying to hoodwink us into giving up our right to free speech and expression.
I support free speech and the right of someone being able to chant or say whatever they like in a public setting, so long as no laws are broken. Unless someone is breaking a state law, the administration should stay out of it. I agree they have the right to forcibly stop the playing of a song, but where does it go from there?
There has been more than a little talk of how to actually get students to cooperate.
The resolution passed by the Faculty Senate says that university officials should admonish students who continue to participate in chanting “the South will rise again.”
Depending on how the word “admonish” is used, this could mean that the administration intends to notify uncooperative students of their having committed a fault.
What would this mean: an escort out of the stadium, expulsion from the university or other possible penalties?
The administration is treading a fine line between exercising its authority and limiting free speech and expression.
What happened to a free marketplace of ideas?
Oh, that’s right; I forgot that at every turn university officials have been unable to produce any good ideas for replacing our now defunct traditions.
If the goal of the administration has been to improve our image by ridding ourselves of potentially offensive traditions, it has done a very poor job.
While the chant “the South will rise again” is offensive to some, there are those who find “to hell with LSU” equally offensive. When someone says “to hell with LSU,” how can one not conjure up the idea that the speaker wishes for LSU fans to be sent to the eternal “lake of fire burning with brimstone?”
Everything said or done in public will never be acceptable to everyone.
I am offended by swearing; however, this is a big part of game day at Ole Miss. Instead of demanding that the administration remove chants which contain swearing, I support the right of people to say what they want.
I do this because I hope these same people support my right to free speech. This is what living in a free society is all about.
No matter what happens with the current controversy, don’t expect the war to be over.
Administrators will never stop until the University of Mississippi no longer has a name, a nickname, a mascot, a chant, a song or anything else that will ever call to mind the time when “Ole Miss [was] calling, calling, to our hearts fond memories.”
At that time our student body will be full of students with no voice who attend a university with no name.
--As Appeared in The Daily Mississippian on Wednesday, November 4, 2009
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