| Thursday, June 4, 2026 |
| From rural Mississippi to JSI@HKS to the MPP Program: A Q&A with Lily Langstaff MPP 2027 | |
 | Growing up in rural Mississippi, Lily Langstaff MPP 2027 never imagined she would one day pursue a master's degree in public policy. She was studying conservation biology as an undergraduate at Mississippi State University, when a formative summer internship in Washington, D.C. opened her eyes to the world of environmental policy. Lily's interest in policy and public service deepened when she joined the inaugural cohort of the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute at HKS (JSI@HKS), a rigorous seven-week summer program that prepares undergraduates for graduate programs in public policy and international affairs. As the first JSI@HKS Summer Scholar to enroll at HKS, Lily just wrapped up her first year of the Master in Public Policy (MPP) Program. We asked her to reflect on her journey to HKS and experience so far. Here's what she shared. |
| ERDC Alumni Association awards 11 scholarships | |
| The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Alumni Association recently announced the recipients of its 2026 scholarships. Eleven high-school graduates were recognized for their leadership, academic excellence, and promising futures in their respective fields of study. Supported by donations and successful fundraising events, the ERDC Alumni Association awarded a total of $11,000, including: Elizabeth Bednar, a graduate of St. Aloysius High School, will attend Mississippi State University with a major interest in Physics. Hayden Bell, a graduate of St. Aloysius High School, will attend Mississippi State University with a major interest in Microbiology. Laura Ertle, a graduate of Warren Central High School, received the Sills Engineering Scholarship. She plans to attend Mississippi State University with a major interest in Mechanical Engineering. Kinley Lott, a graduate of St. Aloysius High School, will attend Mississippi State University with a major interest in Biochemistry. Austin Watson, a graduate of Lake High School, plans to attend East Central Community College and Mississippi State University with a major interest in Mechanical Engineering. |
| President Nora Miller honored for dedication and service | |
| Mississippi University for Women President Nora R. Miller has been recognized with several accolades for her distinguished record of academic leadership and service to her alma mater and higher education over the last 30 years. Miller was recently awarded an honorary doctorate, the university's highest honor. Each university is allowed to award two honorary doctorates per year, and the selections must be approved by the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning. Dr. Scott Tollison, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, made the announcement at spring commencement exercises. He was accompanied by Dr. Alfred Rankins, Jr., commissioner of higher education for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, and IHL Trustee Jerry L. Griffith. During spring commencement, Miller was also awarded the status of president emeritus in recognition of her years of leadership and service to the university. Additionally, the Medal of Excellence, the university's highest non-degree honor, was bestowed upon Miller at her retirement celebration in April. |
| Mississippi Court of Appeals Brings 'Court on the Road' Program to Natchez | |
 | The 9th through 12th-grade students in the Miss-Lou Pre-Law Academy received a firsthand look at Mississippi's judicial system on Wednesday as the Mississippi Court of Appeals brought its "Court on the Road" program to Alcorn State University's Natchez campus. The event allowed students and members of the audience to observe a live appellate court proceeding before a three-judge panel and later ask questions about the judicial process. The court heard oral arguments in McGee v. State of Mississippi, case number 2025-KA-00161-COA. The appeal involves Shawnzell Lee McGee, sentenced to life imprisonment by Circuit Court Judge John R. White for a January 2019 homicide in Prentiss County. Amber Stewart of the State Public Defender's Office represented the appellant, while Alexandra LeBron of the Mississippi Attorney General's Office represented the state. Alfred Galtney, Alcorn State University compliance officer and a member of the academy's planning committee, said the experience helped students understand the role law plays in everyday life. "I hope they'll get an understanding of how law impacts society and the important role lawyers play in our everyday lives," Galtney said. |
| The Test for Leading a Red-State Flagship: Deny Your DEI Darlings | |
 | In his first visit to the University of Florida as the sole finalist for its presidency, Stuart Bell again distanced himself from his past support of DEI, and said his focus as president would be predicated on "merit." The third question of the day asked Bell to confront the topic head-on. "Let me start by being crystal clear: I have not come to Florida to bring DEI or any form of woke back. Period," Bell said to a room of a couple dozen students, taking a dramatic pause to look back from the podium toward Rahul Patel, the vice chair of the Board of Trustees and chair of the presidential search committee. "I have come to build on Florida's commitment to merit, excellence, academic achievement, equal opportunity, and what I call hard work." In a series of hour-long forums with students, faculty, and staff on Wednesday, Bell did not take live questions from the audience. Instead, he answered prescreened questions that were largely about engaging faculty and students on campus, supporting athletic teams at the championship level, university rankings, and how he would sharpen the university's research, medical, and agricultural edge. In the student forum, however, he was asked why he had allowed gender-neutral bathrooms on the Tuscaloosa campus, why he had hired "DEI advocates" in the administration, and if he had simply "rebranded" DEI instead of dismantling it. |
| LSU names Joseph Messina as senior vice chancellor and provost | |
| LSU announced Wednesday that it has named Joseph Messina as its next senior vice chancellor and provost. This decision comes after a months-long national search, and the new provost will begin his role on Aug. 3, pending approval by the LSU Board of Supervisors. As senior vice chancellor and provost, Messina will serve as chief academic officer and oversee all academic affairs, faculty development and research partnerships to help support LSU's students and its goal of becoming a top research institution. Messina is currently dean of the J. Frank Barefield College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Alabama, a position he has held since 2019. Before becoming dean at Alabama, Messina held a variety of positions at Michigan State University over his 20 years at the school, including assistant vice president for research and innovation, senior associate dean for faculty affairs, associate dean for research and associate dean for graduate studies. "LSU is one of the country's great flagship institutions, and the opportunities ahead are extraordinary," Messina said. |
| Dee and Jimmy Haslam invest $130M in U. of Tennessee, its largest gift ever | |
 | University of Tennessee at Knoxville alums, life partners and business moguls Dee and Jimmy Haslam are pledging $130 million to the Haslam College of Business and the university as a whole, marking the largest investment in UT System history. It's an investment the Haslams have been considering for years, Dee Haslam said, and it's about giving students the best experience at the state's flagship campus that's been "a part of our family's fabric." In total, Dee and Jimmy Haslam have given $195 million to UT. Their investment is largely designated for the business college, named after Jimmy's father, James A. Haslam II. $100 million will be used to hire top faculty members, offer graduate student scholarships, bolster Student Success and launch a new undergraduate honors program. The remaining $30 million will cover the university wide hiring of preeminent scholars, contributing to Chancellor Donde Plowman's "Next Level" plans. It's all about identifying top scholars to bring to UT with a few fields of focus in AI, cybersecurity and nuclear, with the latter specialty leveraging UT's neighbors leading the nuclear renaissance in Oak Ridge. |
| North appointed dean of Texas A&M's College of Arts and Sciences | |
| Following a national search, Simon North has been appointed dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M University, effective June 1. "Dr. North is well prepared to lead the college at this important moment," Alan Sams, provost and executive vice president, said in a press release. "He brings a strong record of academic leadership, a deep understanding of Texas A&M and a demonstrated commitment to advancing excellence in teaching, scholarship and service." North has served as interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences since September 2025. He is the John W. Bevan Professor of Chemistry and previously served as executive associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences beginning in June 2024. Prior to that role, he served as head of the Department of Chemistry beginning in 2016, following appointments as interim head and associate head of the department. North played a significant role in the planning and development of Texas A&M's Instructional Laboratory and Innovative Learning Building. |
| A Flagship's Civics Center Saw Low Enrollment. Now Students Will Be Required to Take Classes There. | |
| The University of Iowa's Center for Intellectual Freedom got a slow start. Created by legislation passed last year, the center offered two one-credit classes this spring -- one on American culture and one on political and economic systems -- but they saw a combined enrollment of less than 20 students. That's all about to change. On Tuesday, Iowa's budget bill became law, including a provision requiring all students completing an undergraduate degree at the state's flagship to take six credit hours, or two classes, through the center. Other states have added incentives for students to take courses at their new civics centers, which critics call a conservative intrusion onto public campuses. Courses at the centers have been included in general-education curricula, and in some states officials have pushed for new civics or American-history requirements that could benefit the centers. Iowa's legislation, which takes effect in fall 2028, goes further, and is more specific. The budget law creates two new statewide general-education requirements, a course on American history and one on government. The legislation specifies that at the University of Iowa, these new courses can be offered solely through the Center for Intellectual Freedom. The center has been criticized for an alleged partisan bent. |
| U. of Maryland, College Park laid off 84 employees, noting 'uncertain' future for the school | |
| The University of Maryland, College Park, laid off 84 employees on Wednesday, according to a letter sent to the faculty and students. The cuts came after reductions in federal and state funding and an increase of $18 million in energy costs, according to the letter signed by the university's President Darryll Pines, Senior Vice President and Provost Jennifer King Rice and Chief Financial Officer Greg Oler. The University of Maryland has lost about 10%, or $104 million, in state funding over the last three years, and has had its federal research funding slashed. "Arriving at these decisions required months of difficult analysis across the university," Pines said. While the layoffs will be the last for this fiscal year, Pines added that the future is "uncertain." "State budget forecasts continue to indicate significant fiscal pressures in the years ahead, and federal funding conditions remain unpredictable," he said. In the letter, university officials said they attempted to reduce discretionary spending, limit hiring and eliminate vacant positions, but the layoffs were still necessary "to ensure the university's long-term financial sustainability." |
| College Presidents Navigate ‘Ultra-Politicization’ | |
 | As policymakers ramp up their scrutiny of higher education, the job of a university president is evolving -- and perhaps more difficult than ever. While college presidents are accustomed to "hat-switching" in service of a diverse constituency -- including students, faculty, staff, alumni and legislators -- "the real change" over the past five years has been "the ultra-politicization of the presidency," Elaine Maimon, a higher education columnist and former president of Governors State University, said Wednesday at the 79th Education Writers Association National Seminar here. "It's become such a [source of conflict] that it makes the president's job especially hard." The panel, titled Many Hats and Increasing Pressure: College Leaders Discuss Their Evolving Roles, featured Maimon; Harrison Keller, president of the University of North Texas; and Charles Nies, president of the University of Minnesota at Duluth. Over the past several years, college and university leaders have increasingly become targets of conservative policymakers pushing for more control over curricula and campus operations. Presidents are also under pressure to get creative about helping students find new funding sources, especially as new federal regulations have placed limits on graduate student loans. |
| $50M TRIO Grants? ED Gives States a Leg Up in College Access Program | |
| The Trump administration is giving states a significant leg up over higher ed institutions and other nonprofits in grant competitions for long-standing college-access efforts -- a move that some advocates worry could fundamentally change the programs. However, it's not yet clear how many states took the Education Department up on its offer, though several told Inside Higher Ed they applied. Applications were due last month, and decisions are expected later this year. Historically, colleges and universities have directly received grant funding for the programs, which are part of TRIO, and then used that money to help low-income middle and high school students and some adults attend and complete college. But recent solicitations for grant applications show the administration wants to give states the funding. States -- or rather, any organization "designated by their governor as the state-level applicant," or Native American tribes -- that applied this year for the Talent Search grant, which is the second-oldest part of TRIO, are eligible to receive up to $10 million a year for five years, while all other recipients are limited to $1 million annually. (The Talent Search grants are awarded on a five-year cycle, with annual payments to the winners.) |
| Trump officials went after dozens of colleges. Now they're rewriting the rules for all of academia | |
 | A year ago, the White House was unleashing a blitz on higher education. At one campus after another, Trump officials opened investigations and cut federal funding unless schools fell in line with the Republican president's political agenda. Now, after a campaign that put dozens of universities under investigation, President Donald Trump's administration is taking a wider approach, moving to rewrite the federal rules that govern all of higher education. Demands that were being pressed on individual schools are being written into the fine print for thousands of U.S. universities. "We're coming over the higher education system and course correcting," Nicholas Kent, undersecretary for the Education Department, said in an Associated Press interview. Unlike investigations that target individual campuses, he said the new tactic has power "to affect 6,000 institutions." Through regulation, the administration is going after many of the same targets it hammered with investigations -- diversity, equity and inclusion policies, transgender athletes, antisemitism and a variety of practices perceived as anti-white discrimination. |
SPORTS
| Men's Tennis: Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez Earn Academic All-America Honors | |
| Mississippi State men's tennis standouts Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez have been named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-American team, the organization announced Wednesday. Jovanovic, who also earned first team honors in 2025, becomes the first player in program history to earn multiple First Team Academic All-America honors. This is also just the third time in program history, first since 2012, that Mississippi State has had multiple players earn CSC Academic All-American honors in the same season. Mississippi State now has 18 total Academic All-American honors (CoSIDA and CSC), which is the third-most among all NCAA and NAIA divisions. State's 18 honorees all-time is also the most of all Division I institutions. Stanford and Texas are tied for second with 12 honors all-time. Jovanovic has earned a 3.94 GPA in Finance. Sanchez Martinez has earned a 3.60 GPA in Business Administration. |
| Nick Saban lends support to Senate college sports bill amid SEC, Big Ten opposition | |
 | Nick Saban threw his support behind a bipartisan bill designed to regulate college sports during a Senate hearing Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the SEC and Big Ten said the legislation still needs work. The Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the Protect College Sports Act, sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas-R) and Maria Cantwell (Wash.-D), lasted just over three hours. "I'm not here representing a conference or a team but to preserve college athletics as a whole," Saban said in his opening testimony. Saban touted the bill for creating "competitive balance." "If you had the biggest, baddest Ferrari that you could ever have, and it was going 150 mph toward the Grand Canyon, someone needs to tap the brakes," Saban said of college sports. "That's what we all need to do here." The NCAA, which represents more than 1,100 schools in three divisions, has yet to publicly give unconditional support to the senate bill. |
| Amid talk of Trump attending NBA Finals game in New York, Silver says sports can be unifying | |
| There has been no announcement that President Donald Trump plans to attend an NBA Finals game at New York's Madison Square Garden next week, though Commissioner Adam Silver hinted at Trump's intentions Wednesday when he said sports remain something that unifies even in divided times. Silver, without saying Trump's name, responded to a question about "unique people" coming to finals games in New York and how the league prepares for such events. The New York Post, citing anonymous sources, reported Wednesday that Garden officials have "performed security walkthroughs" in anticipation of a Trump visit. Game 3 of the series is Monday in New York, Trump's hometown. The series opened Wednesday in San Antonio, and Game 2 is there on Friday. "I think what's really so special about sports in our society -- and it's a little bit of a cliché, but our increasingly divided society, and that goes to people who will be attending the first home game at Madison Square Garden -- it truly brings people together," Silver said. "It creates a sense of connectivity among people. It creates a sense of belonging, and I feel that every day." |
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