The Daily Mississippian - January 26, 2016

THE DAILY

MISSISSIPPIAN

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Volume 104, No. 71

T H E S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F M I S S I S S I P P I S E R V I N G O L E M I S S A N D OX F O R D S I N C E 1 9 1 1

lifestyles

lifestyles

sports

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Black Star shows the many faces of David Bowie

Oxford adds another notable author

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Early recruits prove promising

Most expensive arena in the SEC draws attention, opportunity ABBIE MCINTOSH

mamcint1@go.olemiss.edu

PHOTOS: CAMERON BROOKS, LOGAN KIRKLAND

Top: Students form a line in front of The Pavilion Sunday for the free Brad Paisley concert. Left: Stefan Moody dunks the ball in a game earlier in this season. Right: A large crowd cheers at a basketball game in the new The Pavilion.

After more than a year of construction, The Pavilion at Ole Miss has officially become the new home for Rebel Hoops and a main topic of conversation around campus. The $96.5 million arena opened in January with a sold-out crowd watching the men’s basketball team defeat Alabama Crimson Tide. The Pavilion’s price tag makes it the most expensive college basketball arena in the SEC, just ahead of Auburn’s $92.5 million coliseum built in 2010. The Pavilion is pricier than even the homes of basketball powerhouses such Duke University’s Cameron Indoor Stadium and the University of Kentucky’s Rupp Arena. Ole Miss basketball’s former home, affectionately called the Tad Pad, was built in 1966 and cost $1.8 million to build, which would translate into around $13.1 million today. The Pavilion accommodates roughly 800 more spectators than its predecessor. The stadium’s 9,500-person capacity exceeds the 9,314 seats of Cameron Indoor Stadium, but falls short of Rupp’s 23,500-person arena. Joe Swingle, associate athletics director for facilities and game operations, said The Pavilion provided the program an opportunity to introduce some needed upgrades. “Tad Smith Coliseum was built in 1964 and has been a wonderful building, but it’s a little bit tired and it was time to build a new facility for our basketball programs,” Swingle said. Features of the new arena include an

SEE ARENA PAGE 3

Salary increases for local police boosts morale, retention rate WILL CROCKETT

jwcrocke@go.olemiss.edu

The Oxford Police Department’s salary initiative in 2015 led to an increase in officer retention and morale while saving the city thousands of dollars in training fees. The department asked for an increase in salaries for their officers November 2014 because many officers were leaving Oxford to take jobs with higher-paying salaries in other cities. The salary increases took effect in January 2015. The majority of the money affects officers who are currently in their second to eighth year of experience with the department, McCutchen said.

OPD has lost 18 officers during its previous two years, many of whom left because the pay in Oxford wasn’t as competitive as other police forces within the state. Oxford Police put together a study which compiled salaries of police officers from neighboring Mississippi towns like Southaven, as well as other towns in the Southeast that have SEC schools. The study also included population statistics, median income value, cost of living and median home value for Oxford and other towns in order to show the Board of Aldermen why a pay increase was necessary. OPD also researched how much money the department

FILE PHOTO

lost in previous years through training officers who went on to leave Oxford, according to McCutchen. McCutchen estimated Oxford lost over $250,000 invested in officers who left to go to other departments. The board approved near $83,000 from

Oxford’s general fund to go toward increasing the police department’s salaries, according to McCutchen. Since the raise, the department hasn’t lost any officers due to dissatisfaction with pay, McCutchen said. Now, officers in the two- to

eight-year experience range will earn a salary increase with each passing year until it’s capped off after eight years, which drives officers to seek a promotion to a ranked position. Ranked officers such as the sergeants also received raises. Mayor Pat Patterson, who was a part of increasing the salaries, said he was happy the department’s pay was able to become more competitive. “I’m glad we were able to help them out— we needed to,” Patterson said. “We needed to get (the police department’s) salaries up to a more competitive place.” Oxford Chief of Police Joey

SEE SALARY PAGE 3