| Thursday, June 25, 2026 |
| MSU's College of Professional and Continuing Studies helping skilled workers advance careers through leadership credential program | |
 | Mississippi State's College of Professional and Continuing Studies is spearheading a new leadership and project management credential program to help skilled workers advance into supervisory roles. Thanks to a U.S Department of Education grant, MSU is receiving approximately $2.6 million in federal funding through 2029 for its new Skills Trade Empowerment Program, or STEP, a 10-week leadership initiative for early and mid-career workers in trade industries such as construction, manufacturing and energy. The university is the only Mississippi institution of higher learning to receive the award serviced through the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, or FIPSE, Special Projects Program. "There is a gap between knowing a trade and leading a team. STEP closes that gap with a structured, industry-recognized credential built around what supervisors in construction, manufacturing and energy actually need," said Kenna Vowell, CPCS assistant professor and STEP principal investigator. "Over four years, we expect more than 240 Mississippi workers to hold this credential. That is a workforce shift you can measure." |
| Americans are inundated with suspected scams. New polling shows why few victims report them | |
 | Most Americans are inundated with scam attempts on a daily basis -- and about 3 in 10 have personally lost money or personal information to scams, according to a new AP-NORC survey. The poll, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in February, highlights the obstacle course that U.S. adults navigate daily as they screen calls, ignore messages or try to puzzle out if that urgent request from their cellphone provider is legitimate. A separate survey conducted by Gallup and the Stop Scams Alliance that was provided exclusively to the AP found that last year alone, about 1 in 10 U.S. adults said they or someone else from their household was deceived by a scammer into losing money or providing access to a financial account, with nearly half saying they lost more than $500. That leaves many Americans feeling like they're constantly at risk of falling for a scam, often without a sense of recourse. In both surveys, few victims said they reported the scam to the federal government or local law enforcement. Many victims didn't report the scam, Gallup found, because they didn't think it would make a difference in getting money back. |
| AI is plowing through the workplace. This new group wants to help people adapt and have jobs | |
| America has been rushing into an artificial intelligence future without much of a plan to stop what could be catastrophic job losses. Critics warn of doomsday scenarios out of a sci-fi thriller, while backers say AI will generate so much new wealth that no one should worry too much about millions of layoffs. A new bipartisan nonprofit hopes to ensure that America can realize the economic gains promised by AI without its workers suffering. RAISE US is starting with more than $500 million to deploy on new forms of education and training, putting a focus on partnering with states and major employers rather than the federal government. Founded by former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, and former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, the group aims to pilot programs and incentives to help American workers pivot to new careers in an economy that will increasingly be automated by artificial intelligence. The nonprofit is initially partnering with officials in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland and Utah, along with several of America's largest companies and charitable organizations. The group intends to develop policies that connect schools more closely to employers, so that layoffs can be replaced by the potential for new jobs with higher incomes. They also are exploring changes to corporate taxes and other incentives with the goal of keeping people working. |
| Once roiled by sexual abuse issue, Southern Baptist leadership now downplays its extent | |
| Four years ago, the Southern Baptist Convention received a landmark report asserting that top leaders in the nation's largest Protestant denomination had long minimized reports of sexual abuse by clergy, intimidated survivors and stonewalled reforms. The convention's 2022 annual meeting passed a resolution apologizing to abuse survivors, several of them by name. It authorized reforms that included the creation of a database of credibly accused church workers. It appeared to mark a reckoning within the SBC in tandem with the wider #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements -- and a recognition that clergy sex abuse extended far beyond the much-publicized scandal in the Catholic Church. But prominent survivors and advocates have largely given up trying to bring about change in the SBC after witnessing what they view as increasingly faltering efforts toward reform. And now a counternarrative has reached the highest levels of convention leadership. Prominent Southern Baptists are promoting the view that although sexual abuse has occurred in the SBC, it never rose to a "crisis" level. Christa Brown -- a survivor of sexual abuse by an SBC pastor and longtime advocate for reforms -- said that if anyone was politicizing the abuse issue, it was people involved in SBC power struggles, not the victims. |
| Pope: Universities are powerful channels to promote solidarity and common good | |
 | By promoting the search for truth, being close to those who are marginalized and young people, and working to protect the environment, colleges and universities become important spaces to confront the challenges facing humanity today, Pope Leo XIV said on Thursday, June 25. "Your institutions are called not only to teach your students about the injustices faced by those on the margins of society, but also to be powerful channels in promoting systemic change through proposing new models rooted in solidarity and the common good," the Pope said, in a meeting at the Vatican with the presidents and representatives of Jesuit colleges and universities in North America. In his address, Pope Leo offered a roadmap to how these institutions can help their members confront society's most pressing issues. The Pope emphasized that young people often don't have hope for a better future and that the planet's resources are regularly being used for personal interests. He also noted the growing impact of artificial intelligence on humanity. |
| Governance fight throws U. of Florida presidency into turmoil | |
 | An intense two-hour long discussion by the Board of Governors on university governance concerns took the place of what would have been the consideration for Dr. Stuart Bell to be confirmed as the University of Florida's interim president. As a result, the board's nomination and governance committee voted during a June 24 meeting for a third-party expert in university governance to review the governance documents of all universities in the system, delegated authorities and Board of Governors policies. The lengthy conversation among governing board members -- including sharp comments made by UF board chair Morteza "Mori" Hosseini -- came after Board of Governors chair Alan Levine said in a letter last week that he would not allow Bell's confirmation to be placed on the board's June 24-25 agenda until governance issues at UF are resolved. UF board members and state officials, including Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's office, reacted to Levine's decision through social media posts and letters, calling it "unfair" and "incorrect." |
| Meet the Externs: How Faculty Use Workplace Experience to Help Students | |
 | Dan Hatch, a user experience and web design professor at Utah Valley University, has spent seven summers externing at technology companies to brush up on industry-specific skills that will give his students a leg up when they join the workforce. He enters each two-week externship with a similar mission: to understand how students get into the industry, how they gain experience and how they can get a job right out of college. But this year, while spending a week in May at JobNimbus and a week in June at Awardco, something else was top of mind: How will students need to understand, work with and utilize artificial intelligence? AI use in the workplace is booming. In April, Gallup found that 13 percent of American employees use AI daily in their jobs -- up from 8 percent about a year prior -- and 50 percent of employees use AI at least a few times per year. Meanwhile, AI's capabilities are growing at breakneck speed. At this rate, the versions of ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude that students become familiar with during their freshman year will be very different from the AI models available when they graduate. Colleges are grappling with the task of preparing students for increasingly AI-integrated careers. At some institutions, faculty are getting up to speed by stepping out of the classroom and into the workforce. |
SPORTS
| NCAA proposes shorter college football transfer portal window, new spring practice format | |
 | College football has moved one step closer to a new offseason calendar that changes spring football, shortens preseason camp and further condenses the transfer portal window. The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Oversight Committee this week proposed replacing spring football and summer workouts with 21 on-field practices across two time periods, reducing preseason camp practices from 25 to 21 and shrinking the 15-day winter transfer portal window to 10 days. The proposed changes, announced by the NCAA on Wednesday, are still subject to a final vote by the oversight committee in August. If approved at that time, they would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2027. The offseason changes -- which have been compared to the NFL's "OTA-style" schedule -- have been long discussed by coaches as the sport adapts to a longer playing season with an expanded College Football Playoff and more frequent roster turnover because of the transfer portal. Many teams have used fewer than the allotted 15 spring practices and eliminated spring football games in recent years to reduce wear and tear on their rosters and minimize injury risk. The Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Oversight Committee has also recommended all three of the changes but added one more: FCS schools would be allowed to hold joint practices with another four-year school in the spring. |
| Suit alleges new NCAA rule unfair to high school Class of 2022 | |
| Less than 24 hours after the NCAA Division I cabinet approved a monumental change in eligibility rules, a group of 15 college basketball players filed a lawsuit in an Ohio state court claiming the new age-based model unfairly shuts them out of further competition. The NCAA now will allow athletes five seasons of competition over a five-year period that begins with their full-time enrollment or the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs first. The move will all but eliminate waivers or redshirt years for extended eligibility except for religious missions, pregnancy or active-duty military service. No longer will extensions be considered for athletes who are injured. Athletes whose eligibility expired by spring 2026 under the traditional model -- four years of competition over five years -- will not be allowed a fifth year of competition under the new rules that go into effect this fall. The new eligibility rule "unjustifiably restrains their ability to earn money through use of their name, image, and likeness ('NIL') connected to their work as Division I athletes," attorneys Ryan Downton and Charles Rittgers wrote in the complaint. Similar lawsuits are expected to be filed in other states. |
| There Are Thousands of Brendan Sorsbys on College Campuses | |
| Inside Higher Ed Editor in Chief Sara Custer writes: Brendan Sorsby bet more than $90,000 on games while he quarterbacked the football teams at Indiana University and the University of Cincinnati. Court records show that he began gambling in high school at casinos with friends and started experimenting with sports-betting apps that allowed him to make wagers on his phone before he was even 21 -- the legal age. Sorsby said he was enticed by introductory offers that allowed him to deposit a few dollars and receive hundreds in free betting credits. ... Sorsby's story isn't unique among college students. Researchers estimate that 6 percent of college students have a serious gambling problem, and men are most affected. A survey from the American Institute for Boys and Men found that 26 percent of young men age 18 to 24 have used a sports betting app, daily fantasy sports, prediction market or other gambling platform in the previous six months, compared to 14 percent of the general public. While there's no evidence that those users will develop gambling addictions, psychiatrists who study gambling note that without fully developed adult brains, college students are more impulsive and less risk-averse when they're betting. ... Sorsby's story brought the problem of gambling on college campuses into the spotlight. But thousands of other lower-profile students not involved in athletics struggle with similar compulsions. |
The Office of Public Affairs provides the Daily News Digest as a general information resource for Mississippi State University stakeholders.
Web links are subject to change. Submit news, questions or comments to Jim Laird.
