Ashton Nash
Staff Writer
A surprise twist to this year’s Miss Jackson State University pageant had students in an uproar on social media on Tuesday, March 31.
Twitter posts expressing outrage over the outcome of the pageant flooded many social media sites including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat.
Anticipation of the Roaring 20’s themed pageant, The Blue Gatsby, was high as seven candidates vied for the top three spots and the chance to make it to the ballot.
All contestants where judged on five individual categories: Interview, On- Stage Questions, Tiger Pride, talent and evening wear. The ladies could receive a total of 300 points.
At the end of the pageant, three young ladies where announced as the top three contestants moving out of the pageant. They were: Markeisha Robinson, Robin Jackson and Charance Higgins.
The evening took an unexpected turn however, when the Election Commission comprised of 11 JSU students, discovered discrepancies with the tally sheets for the candidates. After much deliberation, the election commission reached a unanimous decision and determined that all candidates in the pageant would be allowed to run for Miss JSU.
Candidates were informed of the decision in an emergency meeting later that evening.
“After the pageant, it is the duty of the election commission to review all score sheets submitted by the judges. Upon doing so, we found that several judges had scored contestants more than one time per category. Then the official score sheet went missing and the election commission never received it so we decided to be fair and allow all seven girls the opportunity to run for the title of Miss JSU,” said Guy King, Chair of the Election Commission.
Many students across the campus were shocked at the news and an uproar on social media ensued.
Some of the comments found on Twitter included:
“Jackson State’s SGA elections are crucial but not crucial enough to be this damn political. JSU is NOT the end all be all….well at least not in real life. Cheater’s never win”
“JSU had an Oprah moment… ‘YOU GET TO RUN! YOU GET TO RUN! EVERYBODY GETS TO RUN!’”
“What’s the point of all this s*%#. Just appoint who yall want. Don’t do all the extras*%#.”
“I see JSU started April Fools early with the pageant.”
Many students on the campus are divided on what happened at the pageant.
“The pageant overall was nice. I’m not exactly sure if I agree with how everything with the results turned out just because it’s kind of taking away that honor from those who originally made it out of the pageant,” said Stacie Hopkins, a senior psychology major from Chicago, Ill.
Cherese Pendleton, a senior mass communications major from Hattiesburg, Miss. said, “I think that what ever happened, it happened for a reason. It is extremely impossible for a candidate who was running to mess with the score sheets. I think who ever is over the election; their advisors should go over the score sheets to make sure that everything was fair.”
JSU students will head to the polls on April 10 to make their selections for the 2015-2016 Miss JSU and other SGA positions.
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