| Monday, January 14, 2019 |
| Mississippi State to celebrate MLK Jr.'s life, legacy with Unity Breakfast, Day of Service | |
 | Mississippi State is honoring Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy as a minister, humanitarian and civil rights activist during the university's 25th Annual Unity Breakfast and Day of Service Monday, Jan. 21. Marcus L. Thompson, deputy commissioner and chief administrative officer for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, is keynote speaker. Also serving as system diversity officer, Thompson is responsible for providing leadership and consultation to develop and implement equity and diversity strategies throughout the public university system. Pastor of Mountain Ridge United Methodist Church in Brandon, he previously served as chief of staff and assistant to the State Superintendent of Education at the Mississippi Department of Education. Breakfast will be served promptly at 8 a.m., followed by a 9 a.m. program at The Mill at MSU, 600 Russell St. in Starkville. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis, and doors open at 7:30 a.m. Reserved tables are available through sponsorship. |
| Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast at Mississippi State University | |
 | Mississippi State University will honor Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy as a minister, humanitarian and civil-rights activist during the school's 25th annual Unity Breakfast and Day of Service on Monday, Jan. 21. Marcus L. Thompson, deputy commissioner and chief administrative officer for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, will be the keynote speaker. He is the pastor of Mountain Ridge United Methodist Church in Brandon, and previously served as chief of staff and assistant to the state superintendent of education at the Mississippi Department of Education. After the program, MSU's Maroon Volunteer Center will lead a "Day of Service" for volunteers at sites around Starkville. Locations include Camp Seminole, McKee Park, Ms. Smith's Educational Services, Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum, Palmer Home Thrift Store, The Salvation Army, Sally Kate Winters Family Services, Oktibbeha County Fire Station and Starkville Community Theatre. |
| Mississippi State's John Grogan hopes C Spire experience a boost to future | |
 | John Grogan's age belies his enjoyment of classic literature. The Mississippi State University senior, who just turned 21, discovered dystopian novels such as 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 as a middle schooler in Clinton. For the uninitiated, dystopian fiction centers on the portrayal of a setting that completely disagrees with the author's ethos. "I can't really relate to 1984 but I did enjoy reading about a different form of government and way of life. The authoritarian/totalitarian form of government is not something I want to be a part of," he said. "As for Fahrenheit 451, I read it my freshman and senior years of high school. It shows that knowledge and power won't be easily toppled or forgotten. "The symbolism in the book, though somewhat bleak, does give hope." However, Grogan's career focus lies not in classic literature but in the computer world -- cybersecurity, specifically. Last month, he and two other college students were chosen to participate in a joint fellowship program between C Spire and Nokia Bell Labs. |
| Rabat University and Mississippi State to Set Archeology Program | |
| A delegation from Mississippi State University (MSU) recently came to Morocco to develop relations with the International University of Rabat (UIR). The MSU delegation, representing the Office of the Provost, the political science and public administration department, and the anthropology and Middle Eastern cultures department, met Morocco's Minister of Culture and Communication Mohamed Laaraj and officials of the UIR to explore academic partnerships. MSU and UIR are developing a study abroad program in which students spend a month working on digs, cultural integration, and language immersion, according to Peter Ryan, MSU's associate provost. MSU's Associate Vice-President of International Programs Julie Jordan said, "We are especially excited to expand the academic collaboration to include archeology, anthropology, and Middle Eastern cultures with Morocco's UIR and Archeology and Heritage National Institute (INSAP)." |
| Statewide theatre conference Jan. 17-20 at MSU Riley Center | |
 | More than 500 high school students and community theatre enthusiasts from across the state will travel to Meridian this week to participate in an annual statewide theatre festival and convention. Hosted by the Mississippi Theatre Association and the MSU Riley Center, the festival will be held Jan. 17-20 at the downtown Meridian venue. According to MTA Executive Director Stacy Howell, the unique festival brings theatres from around the state to perform their one-act productions, to learn more about theatre and how to improve theatre arts in the respective theatres. High schools throughout the state have been rehearsing plays since September in hopes of placing in the regional competitions and then advancing to the state festival. High schools awarded a Distinguished Play Award at the North and South regional festivals held in December advanced to the state festival. Additionally, MTA sponsors a Theatre for Youth Festival on Jan. 18 at the MSU Riley Center-Studio Theatre. |
| Personal finance workshop held in West Point | |
 | Financial literacy was the goal of a workshop in West Point Saturday morning. The Clay County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority sponsored the event. Wilma Peterson from Mississippi State University's Institute for Market Studies was the featured speaker. Topics included how to write a check, creating a budget, and improving your credit score. Member Jeanice Andrews said the new year is a time when most people plan to take charge of their personal finances, so it was the perfect time for Saturday's workshop. "I'm hoping that everybody be aware of their personal finances. Where you are, you may be a little sad not having any money to where you want to accomplish and you know everybody needs to be aware of creating a budget if nothing else from this workshop is creating a budget what they have coming in and what they have going out," said Andrews. |
| Starkville moves ahead with development code rewrite | |
| Starkville is hoping to have the first draft of a long-awaited development code rewrite completed by early March. The development code lays out the city's requirements for certain zoning and land type designations and the processes for building new developments or altering existing ones -- whether they be residential, commercial or industrial. The code rewrite is meant to revamp and modernize the development. City Planner Daniel Havelin, who has worked on the rewrite alongside Assistant City Planner Emily Corban, said the process is correcting errors city staff have discovered in land use designations and emphasizing a more user-friendly code for ordinary citizens. At Friday's work session in City Hall, Havelin said the code rewrite is about 64 percent complete. Starkville began its code rewriting process in 2017, after adopting the updated comprehensive plan. |
| Yulanda Haddix named new Oktibbeha NAACP president | |
| Yulanda Haddix has always had an eye for community service. Now she'll take her passion for involvement in the community to a new phase, as the newest president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Oktibbeha County chapter. Haddix, a Starkville native, assumed the president's position on Thursday after six-year chapter president Chris Taylor stepped down from the role. An alumna of Mississippi State University, Haddix left Starkville for New Jersey after graduating when her husband, Michael Haddix, got drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles to play in the NFL. While in New Jersey, Haddix worked with a juvenile detention center for about 16 years. She also ran a program with her husband in Camden, New Jersey, that focused on rehabilitating former gang members. The Haddixes also lived in Atlanta, Georgia, for about two years before returning to Starkville, where she was involved in community churches and taught parenting classes. Being away from Mississippi offered perspective on the struggles some people can face, Haddix said. |
| Flu Index: Tupelo, Golden Triangle top 5 in flu activity gains | |
 | If the flu caught you last week, you're not alone in Tupelo, Houston, West Point and Columbus. The Columbus-Tupelo-West Point-Houston market area ranked fifth out of 138 market areas on Walgreens Flu Index for gains in flu activity the week ending Jan. 5. The ranking is based on prescriptions for antiviral medications filled by the 12 Walgreens in the local market area. On Thursday, the Mississippi State Department of Health reported flu activity had increased sharply in Mississippi as well as the nation in the past two weeks based on surveillance data gathered by the state health department and the Centers for Disease Control. "The predominant flu strain circulating this season is H1N1, which can particularly affect children," the state Public Health Report stated. |
| 'GENSummit' program connects college students with lawmakers | |
 | A program launched by the Mississippi Future Cacus is teaching college-age students about politics and voting. Through a partnership with the Millennial Action program (MAP), students from all over the state gathered at the state capitol Saturday to discuss the voting process. State Representatives Roun McNeal (R), Shane Barnett (R), and Jeramey Anderson (D), are all co-chairs of the Mississippi Future Cacus. Students shared in a discussion how they work to get their peers out to the polls during critical elections. However, several explained during the recent special and run-off election their peers encountered problems when trying to vote. Jailand Williams from Mississippi State University said, "Confusion... As far as like which station you need to go to." Others mentioned absentee voting issues, "I know for myself, I'm a resident of Cleveland, Mississippi, but I reside in Clinton. I sent for an absentee ballot, and it came a week later," explained Anthony Jackson from Mississippi College. |
| Gray Tollison, called 'a senator's senator,' chosen to replace Terry Burton as pro tem | |
| Education Chair Gray Tollison, who has been in near lock step with Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves on his efforts to expand school choice and on other education issues, was elected unanimously Friday as Senate president pro tempore. While Tollison was selected by the other 51 members of the Mississippi Senate, by tradition the lieutenant governor, who presides over the Senate, has a huge influence on who is elected to the post. "Sen. Tollison's election by his peers to this leadership position shows the deep respect senators have for him," Reeves said in a statement. "His 24 years of experience in the Legislature and his passion for good public policy make him the right fit to serve as the 'senators' senator.'" The unusual vote for pro tem in the final year of a four-year term was necessitated by the decision of Terry Burton, R-Newton, to resign from the post under pressure from Reeves after being arrested for a third time for driving under the influence in December. |
| Legislative candidates piling up | |
| A number of state Senate seats in Northeast Mississippi will be wide open for challengers, with at least four incumbents choosing to end their legislative careers. Nickey Browning, R-Pontotoc; Russell Jolly, D-Houston; Gray Tollison, R-Oxford; and J.P. Wilemon, D-Belmont, have all confirmed their intent not to seek re-election this year. All have served multiple terms, but Browning and Tollison in particular have had long legislative careers. Both have served since 1996. State Senate vacancies like this could potentially help change the legislative landscape when new terms begin in 2020. Browning and Tollison both began their careers as Democrats and switched parties later. Browning's seat would be a favorite to remain Republican. But without a powerful incumbent like Tollison on the ballot, Democrats in Oxford may be encouraged to mount a vigorous campaign. Republican Jeff Olson has qualified to seek Browning's District 3 Senate seat. |
| Fiscal issues among DeSoto County lawmaker priorities | |
 | With November elections looming on the horizon, Mississippi lawmakers will be tempted to dodge the spotlight and avoid controversial legislation during the 90-day legislative session that started on Jan. 8th and is scheduled to go through April 7. Even though lawmakers will likely wait until after the votes have been counted and the 2020 session has begun to tackle many difficult issues, voters still have plenty of reasons to pay close attention to the 2019 session of the Mississippi Legislature that started this week. Six critical issues that will be on the priority list for this legislative session include public education, infrastructure, economic justice, criminal justice reforms, election reforms, as well as health care, which includes bills related to Medicaid expansion. When asked in an email to identify his top priority for the 2019 Mississippi legislative session, Sen. Kevin Blackwell's (R-Southaven) response reflected the potential for a relatively uneventful legislative session. |
| Lawmakers: Rural internet not a guarantee | |
 | Teacher pay raises are coming whether they are funded or not, and power companies are in no hurry to bring high-speed internet to the middle of nowhere, local lawmakers said. District 92 Rep. Becky Currie, District 53 Rep. Vince Mangold and District 39 Sen. Sally Doty all agree the long-discussed pay raises for teachers across Mississippi will happen in the 2019 legislative session -- an election year -- that started off last week, but allowing the state's 26 electric power cooperatives to offer internet service to their customers may not be the cure-all for bringing broadband to rural areas everyone thought it would be. Doty, chairwoman of the Senate Energy Committee, said only "three or four" of the state's coops are willing to develop the infrastructure needed to offer broadband services right away. Mangold, meanwhile, is working on legislation that would require proper labeling for meat to combat "fake meat." |
| Melanie Sojourner announces run for state Senate | |
 | Former State Senator Melanie Sojourner announced today that she will be running for Mississippi Senate District 37, soon to be vacated by Democrat Senator Bob Dearing's retirement. "I've always championed a strong Republican platform and was elected by the people in district 37 because I'm committed to Republican ideals, so it will be an honor to continue working to give the voters of Southwest Mississippi a Republican voice in our State Senate," Sojourner said. Sojourner is seeking to be re-elected to the Senate after she previously became the first Republican to hold the seat in modern history when elected in 2011. The seat covers Adams, Amite, Franklin and Pike counties. Sojourner is a cattle producer and comes from a six generation family farming operation at Oakwood Plantation in southeast Adams County. |
| Motorists frustrated over hours-long wait for licenses | |
| Renewing licenses in Jackson is a hassle that motorists dread, and some of those drivers want to know why the process isn't quicker. "I don't have three to four hours," said Courtney Paine, after leaving the Department of Motor Vehicles in Jackson on Friday. She is one of many frustrated drivers who was told it would take her up to four hours to renew her driver's license. "I tried four times, and I didn't have time to try the kiosk again," she added. The Madison resident doesn't understand why, with 21st century technology, the process doesn't go faster. Some were upset that lines were also long in Pearl and Walnut Grove. |
| 'I will subpoena if I'm forced': Rep. Thompson, in new power broker role, takes aim at Trump border policy | |
| Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi's only Democratic congressman and incoming chairman of House Homeland Security Committee, said he is willing to use subpoena power to investigate the Trump administration's immigration and border policies. Thompson, in an interview this week with Mississippi Today, slammed the Trump Administration for spreading "outright lies" about what's happening at the U.S.-Mexico border. "I will subpoena if I'm forced to," Thompson told Mississippi Today in his Capitol Hill office on Wednesday. "I'm very concerned about much of what's been said and published by several officials in the administration. You can expect an active committee. We will probably swear in more witnesses -- we didn't do a lot of that the last two years -- with the thinking being that swearing them in gives that extra sense of seriousness." |
| Bennie Thompson to focus committee on domestic far-right groups | |
 | For years, Republicans have watched white supremacists claim the GOP is on their side. And on Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers did little to clamp down on race-based hate groups. But as of last week, Democrats are in charge of the House. And that means Rep. Bennie Thompson, an African American lawmaker from Mississippi, is in charge of the House Homeland Security Committee. He plans to act. Thompson intends to hold hearings to spotlight what experts say is a growth of deadly right wing extremism in America, even if the hearings could feature members of white supremacist groups. "There are some people, I understand, who have belonged to those groups in the past, so there might be an opportunity for dialogue there," Thompson said. Several terrorism experts say attention to the issue is long overdue. They say that the government has largely ignored the growth of a violent far right that exploded into the public consciousness with the deadly explosion of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, by Timothy McVeigh, an anti-government extremist. |
| Trump's Efforts to Hide Details of Putin Talks May Set Up Fight With Congress | |
 | President Trump's efforts to hide his conversations with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and new details about the F.B.I. inquiry into his ties to Moscow have intensified debate over his relationship with Russia, adding fuel to Democrats' budding investigations of his presidency and potentially setting up a clash between the White House and Congress. Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, who now leads the Intelligence Committee as part of the new Democratic House majority, implored his Republican colleagues Sunday to support his effort to obtain notes or testimony from the interpreter in one of the private meetings between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin. Mr. Trump has repeatedly withheld details of his conversations with Mr. Putin, according to current and former American officials, a practice that has left officials blind to the dynamic between the two leaders and intensified questions within the administration over the president's actions. |
| Volkswagen goes electric: Automaker to spend $800M, launch new Tennessee facility | |
 | Volkswagen selected its Chattanooga manufacturing plant for the company's first electric vehicle facility in North America, state officials announced Monday. The $800 million project by the German automaker is expected to generate 1,000 additional jobs. Volkswagen expects to roll out its first Volkswagen electric vehicle from the Chattanooga facility in 2022. "The shift toward electric vehicles is a trend that can be seen worldwide, and Volkswagen's decision to locate its first North American EV manufacturing facility in Chattanooga underscores Tennessee's manufacturing strength and highly-skilled workforce," Gov. Bill Haslam said. State officials said they could not yet provide information on financial incentives for the electric production and that they are still completing negotiations. The agreement will be made public once the project is contracted. The plant has received more than $800 million in federal, state and local incentives in the past decade, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. |
| Doctors condemn pelvic mesh lawsuits in Mississippi, 3 other states | |
 | Doctors who specialize in female pelvic medicine say lawsuits by four states -- Mississippi, Washington, California and Kentucky -- over products used to treat pelvic floor disorders and incontinence might scare patients away from the best treatment options -- or maybe even push the products off the market. Sixty-three Washington surgeons signed a letter to state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, arguing his consumer-protection lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson and its Ethicon Inc. subsidiary is off-base. The lawsuit says the companies failed to disclose risks associated with the products, but in their letter the doctors said they were never deceived and that the case is based on a misconception about how they assess dangers posed by medical procedures. Washington, California, Kentucky and Mississippi are pursuing lawsuits that claim Johnson & Johnson deceived doctors and patients, and that the surgeries ruined some women's quality of life. They say product marketing brochures and instruction pamphlets should have contained much more detail about the risks. |
| Report: Americans Are Now More Likely To Die Of An Opioid Overdose Than On The Road | |
 | For the first time in U.S. history, a leading cause of deaths, vehicle crashes, has been surpassed in likelihood by opioid overdoses, according to a new report on preventable deaths from the National Safety Council. Americans now have a 1 in 96 chance of dying from an opioid overdose, according to the council's analysis of 2017 data on accidental death. The probability of dying in a motor vehicle crash is 1 in 103. "The nation's opioid crisis is fueling the Council's grim probabilities, and that crisis is worsening with an influx of illicit fentanyl," the council said in a statement released Monday. While the leading causes of death in the U.S. are heart disease (1 in 6 chance) and cancer (1 in 7), the rising overdose numbers are part of distressing trend the non-profit has tracked: The lifetime odds of an American dying from a preventable, unintentional injury have gone up over the past 15 years. |
| Mississippi University for Women names new vice president of administration and CFO | |
| Mississippi University for Women has announced Mark Ellard as its new vice president of administration and chief financial officer. Ellard entered his new role with MUW on Monday, replacing previous CFO Nora Miller, who was appointed the university's president in September. Ellard's appointment still awaits approval from the State Institutions of Higher Learning board of trustees, which meets Thursday. llard previously served as CFO for nearly two decades with Bevill State Community College in Jasper, Alabama. Before his tenure with Bevill State, he worked for the state auditor's office in Alabama where he audited colleges and universities for nearly a decade, which pushed him into higher education. In recent years, Ellard served as interim president for three separate community colleges in Alabama, most recently with Southern Union State Community College. Ellard's lengthy experience with higher education was key in the university's decision to hire, Miller said. |
| 'Black Panther' inspired artwork on display at The W | |
| In an exhibition at the Mississippi University for Women Galleries, ceramic artist Stephen Phillips displays his most recent artwork, all of which are functional vessels in which he explores the juxtaposition of textures and colors. The exhibition runs through Friday, Feb. 8, with a reception on Thursday, Jan. 31 from 5:30 to 7 pm. Phillips' work primarily features two series of vessels, one of which he calls his "Black Panther Series." This group of pots are raku fired, which leaves the surface a matte black color. The pieces are finished with a gold wax-turned-bronze color on the front. The other series, which is equally bold, features stoneware fired with dark blue and black glazes in sweeping linear embellishments. All of his pots feature design elements inspired by Native American and African pottery. Many of the pots have depressions created by his finger on the surface, a reminder of the artist's touch. Phillips is a local artist who graduated from The W in 2013 with his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art. |
| Survey finds many U. of Kentucky students face hunger, food insecurity | |
 | At the University of Kentucky, officials often tout that nearly half a billion dollars has been spent on new buildings for students in recent years, from gleaming new dorms to dining areas that feature everything from Chik-fil-A to sushi. But according to a recent survey done at the school, those shiny facades mask a more depressing reality: of nearly 2,000 UK students interviewed, 43 percent said they experienced food insecurity on campus, with nearly half of those reporting actual hunger because they couldn't afford to buy food. Eight percent said they had experienced housing insecurity, too. UK spokesman Jay Blanton urged caution in drawing conclusions from the survey's findings, because it was not a scientifically random sample of students. "The survey is helpful and makes clear we need to do more research on this pressing issue," Blanton said. However, because the sample mirrored UK's demographics, it is considered a representative sample, said Amanda Hege, director of community outreach in dietetics and human nutrition in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, who was involved in the survey. |
| UGA ranks No. 1 in U.S. for new products to market | |
 | Building on its continued growth in research and innovation, the University of Georgia ranked first among 193 U.S. institutions for the number of commercial products reaching the market in 2017. In 2017, 52 new products based on UGA research reached the market, according to a survey released by AUTM, a nonprofit organization that tracks technology transfer among universities, colleges and other research institutions. That number of new products outpaced the second-place institution, the University of Michigan, by 15. UGA also ranked fourth among universities for the number of new intellectual property licenses to industry, its 11th consecutive year in the top 10. "The success we are experiencing results from strategic decisions to support and encourage a wide-ranging culture of research and innovation that promotes economic development and helps elevate the University of Georgia to the top tier of research universities in the United States," said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. "We are not only expanding the research activity on campus and our ability to attract sponsored research dollars, but also expanding our partnerships with industry to make research-based products available to the world." |
| UT Knoxville advisory board meets for first time, approves bylaws and student representative | |
 | The advisory board for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, met for the first time on Friday afternoon to elect a chair and set meeting dates for 2019. The advisory board was created out of the FOCUS Act, a bill that was passed last March and reduced the number of Board of Trustees members by more than half. The board will advise the chancellor and create recommendations related to the operating budget, tuition and fees and other campus policies, including the campus master plan and campus life. Gov. Bill Haslam attended the meeting and spoke about why he pushed for a smaller board of trustees and the advisory board. "My experience has been, the larger [boards] are, the more ineffective they are," Haslam said. "The smaller it is, the more people own it." Haslam said he thought the move to a smaller board would "be a good move for the system." |
| SC GOP Senate President wants a top Democratic lawmaker to be U. of South Carolina's next president | |
 | Two of the most powerful Republicans in the South Carolina legislature have signaled a favored candidate for the next president of the University of South Carolina. S.C. Senate President Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, wants Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw to be the next president of the state's flagship university, he said in a tweet and confirmed in an interview. "I think @vincentsheheen would be an excellent choice for the next President of the @UofSC. He has a pedigree of public service with an emphasis on Higher Ed. He is without a doubt the person for the job. #gaffnese" In response to that tweet, S.C. House Majority leader Gary Simrill tweeted: "One fine Clemson grad agreeing the other fine Clemson grad should lead USC. I mean the U of SC." Sheheen, who could not be reached for comment Monday morning, received his bachelor's degree from Clemson in 1993 and his law degree from USC in 1996, according to this legislative bio page. |
| VeoRide bicycles arrive on Texas A&M campus | |
 | With the return of students to the Texas A&M University campus also comes a new bike-share company. Ofo's bright yellow bikes have mostly been removed from campus and the wider community, and taking their place for the spring semester are turquoise models from Texas A&M's new bike-share vendor, VeoRide. The company has its license to operate in College Station, and many of its bikes are already on campus. Texas A&M University Transportation Services says about 800 more should be arriving early this week. VeoRide has committed to providing 2,400 bikes through the program, which will be A&M's second bid at rolling out a major bike-share initiative on campus. Its program with Chinese bike-share company Ofo, which launched last March, ended with the city of College Station revoking the company's license to operate twice and A&M cutting ties with the company. The program was popular with users, but the city first revoked Ofo's license in mid-October after the company let its auto liability insurance coverage lapse, which kept its employees from accessing the vans they used to collect and relocate bikes around town. |
| U. of Missouri professor developing integrated drones to predict spread of wildfires | |
 | What makes wildfires so dangerous is their unpredictability, according to MU researcher Ming Xin. "Currently, the (nation's) firefighting, or fire management system, is not very effective and efficient," said Xin, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. "One of the main issues is we cannot predict where fires spread." Last year, almost 56,000 wildfires burned 8½ million acres across the country, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In November, the Camp Fire became the deadliest and most destructive wildfire on record in California, killing almost 90 people. He is working together with Haiyang Chao, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Kansas, and Xiaolin Hu, an associate professor of computer science at Georgia State University. The $1.2 million project, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation, began last month and is in the first of four years. |
| The Government Shutdown Is Reaching Historic Territory. Here's What That Means for Higher Ed. | |
 | The University of Arizona has a grim message for professors on its website: If the partial government shutdown stretches on, the impact on research and science will only grow. New funding? Don't count on it. Payment on existing grants? On pause. Peer-review of pending grant applications? Postponed. On Friday the 21-day shutdown was tied for the longest in U.S. history, and it appeared poised to break the record as elected officials adjourned for the weekend early in the afternoon. Federal agencies that have not been funded for the remainder of the 2019 fiscal year, including the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Department of Agriculture, closed in late December. Other agencies, whose 2019 budgets were approved by Congress and signed by President Trump, are open. |
| Can 'light-touch, targeted feedback' to students improve their perceptions of and performance in a class? | |
 | Students benefit from increased faculty engagement. Yet many professors still resist more student-centered teaching. Part of the problem is that graduate schools are slow to adopt pedagogical training, meaning that some professors may want to up their interaction with students but don't know how. Another part of the problem is that becoming a better teacher takes time, an increasingly scarce faculty resource. What if engagement wasn't complicated and didn't take that much time? Preliminary research called "My Professor Cares: Experimental Evidence on the Role of Faculty Engagement," presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Economics Association, suggests that even "light touch" interventions can make a difference to students. "Everything we know from K-12 education is that teaching matters," said co-author Michal Kurlaender, professor and chancellor's fellow in education at the University of California, Davis. "Yet somehow we've left the college classroom alone. We have wraparound services for students, but the classroom space is considered sacrosanct and faculty can do whatever they want. We wanted to interrogate that by having faculty members provide some simple, individualized feedback to students as an intervention." |
| Tulane agreement with Office for Civil Rights leads to debate over gender bias | |
| Conservative websites this weekend announced what they said was a major victory in the battle against discrimination against men in higher education. "Female Lawyer Gets Tulane University to Stop Discriminating Against Men" was the headline on PJ Media. The article says, "Tulane University has agreed to stop financially discriminating against male students in an unprecedented response to a Title IX complaint made against the school." Mark J. Perry, a professor at the University of Michigan at Flint who has filed many complaints against colleges that maintain scholarships or programs for women, proclaimed victory on the website of the American Enterprise Institute. He sent an email to reporters about this win against "Tulane University's ongoing, systematic and illegal gender discrimination." But Tulane officials and other experts on higher education law suggest that what the university has committed itself to is only to review various programs to make sure that they don't discriminate against men, and to make changes if needed. And many legal experts say that there is no evidence -- as the complaint against Tulane suggests -- that having some programs for women is inherently illegal under federal antibias laws. Some critics of scholarships and programs for women have been filing complaints against a number of colleges and universities, in some cases prompting changes. |
| Students in Rural America Ask, 'What Is a University Without a History Major?' | |
| Chancellor Bernie Patterson's message to his campus was blunt: To remain solvent and relevant, his 125-year-old university needed to reinvent itself. Some longstanding liberal arts degrees, including those in history, French and German, would be eliminated. Career-focused programs would become a key investment. Dr. Patterson's plan came as Stevens Point and many other public universities in rural America face a crisis. Such colleges have served as anchors for their regions, educating generations of residents. Now student enrollment has plummeted, money from states has dropped and demographic trends promise even worse days ahead. Kim Mueller, 21, a senior who hopes to become a history teacher at a Wisconsin high school, said her first reaction to the proposal was: "What is a university without a history major?" The turmoil is not unique to Stevens Point, where nearly half the students are the first generation in their family to attend college. In large parts of the Midwest and Northeast, public universities far from urban centers are hurting for students and money. And they are facing painful choices. |
| Current events can stimulate classroom discussion | |
| Angela Farmer, an assistant professor of educational leadership at Mississippi State, writes: While there are so many harsh realities and seemingly endless opportunities to experience negative news, it is tempting for many educators to shield their students from political, social, and even global information that doesn't follow the classroom script or might prove contentious. However, attempting to avoid discussing all things one might consider controversial or even tragic, would itself be a tragedy. Students live and study in the same environment as the adults. While they may not regularly elect to follow the same informational sources as their teachers or even parents, they are accessing information. Without the adults to shepherd some of the conversations, the students are at a danger to either discount the discussion or to make profoundly erroneous conclusions. Furthermore, by incorporating viable topics into the lessons, teachers have a unique opportunity to allow the students to actually see how the real world impacts them and the information they are learning. |
| Is Mississippi in its best financial shape ever? | |
| Syndicated columnist Bill Crawford of Meridian writes: State revenue collections are running ahead of target. The state rainy day fund and other reserves are full of cash. Agency budget cuts appear to be behind us. Pointing to all this, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves said "Mississippi is in our best financial and fiscal shape in our history." Speaker of the House Philip Gunn chimed in saying, "This is the result of conservative practices over the last seven years." That seven years covers the tenure of Reeves, Gunn and Gov. Phil Bryant in their current leadership positions. So, all is good, right? Well, not so fast, according to a column Bobby Harrison wrote last week in Mississippi Today. The state's financial condition, he said, is debatable. And debated it will be during this year's election bombast. Here are some tidbits that will add to that debate. |
SPORTS
| State shooting for sixth straight win over Auburn | |
| No. 7 Mississippi State has had an extra day to prepare for its road trip to Auburn. The Bulldogs are vying for their sixth straight win over the Tigers and will tip off at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network. MSU (15-1, 3-0 SEC) remains second in the nation averaging 91.4 points and also leads the country in blocked shots. Senior center Teaira McCowan tops the Bulldogs in both categories at 16.5 points, 2.7 blocks and also adds 13.5 rebounds. Auburn is 14-2 on the year and 2-1 in SEC play after winning back-to-back road games at Florida (64-56) and Alabama (66-56). The Tigers have four starters scoring in double figures led by senior guard Janiah McKay at 14.3 points. |
| No. 7 Mississippi State will try to extend SEC streak at Auburn | |
| Vic Schaefer and the Mississippi State women's basketball team don't want to become "spoiled." Sometimes it's hard to avoid that pitfall when you have won 19-straight regular-season games in the Southeastern Conference. It also can be a challenge to demand more from some of your players, especially center Teaira McCowan, who continues to be a double-double machine in her senior season. But that's the situation Schaefer and the reigning SEC regular-season champion Bulldogs find themselves in following back-to-back appearances in the national title game. After fighting off a pair of tests from then-No. 16 Kentucky and Georgia, MSU will look to remain undefeated in the SEC when it takes on Auburn at 6 p.m. Monday (SEC Network) at Auburn Arena. "It has just come to be expected, yet (McCowan) knows, I know, we can find areas that we need to work on and improve on," Schaefer said. "We just need to come to appreciate the things that are going on in women's basketball. These kids continue to carry it on." |
| 'It's my life': Vic Schaefer is all in as Mississippi State continues SEC play | |
 | Vic Schaefer woke up from an accidental nap at 4:15 a.m. Friday morning to the sound of Chicago P.D. blaring on the television. His No. 6 Mississippi State Bulldogs finished off a win over Georgia roughly six hours earlier. Schaefer was hardly watching the TV show. He had it on for background noise. He was instead focused on game notes, film and what went wrong in his team's narrow victory over an inferior opponent. Georgia is good, but Mississippi State is a whole lot better. So when MSU trailed the visiting Bulldogs in the fourth quarter, Schaefer was stressed. He feared he didn't prepare his team well enough to live up to the substantial standard Schaefer set. "I want my whole team to continue to be so dominant and so good," Schaefer said. "And yet you have situations like (the Georgia game), just different situations throughout the course of the game that you almost feel helpless with at times." The home Dawgs dominated down the stretch and secured the victory, but it wasn't as easy as Schaefer would have liked. That's why he didn't go home and push his film review off until the morning. He got right back to work because he wants this team to be great. |
| Vic Schaefer looks to take State to another level | |
 | Thursday night brought No. 6 Mississippi State its 29th-consecutive home win and 19th-straight Southeastern Conference regular season win, but it didn't bring coach Vic Schaefer much comfort. Schaefer and his players went through their post game routine of signing autographs and taking pictures with the fans, followed that up with a post game press conference where he voiced his grievances and gave a "Praise the Lord and go Dogs" and he went home. That brought hours of restlessness for the head coach as he continues to find a way to take the Bulldogs to another level and improve on what was a scary 80-71 win over Georgia. "I'm real critical of myself and my team," Schaefer said. "We hold ourselves to a real high standard. If we don't attain the goals that we have set forth this year, it won't be skill set. It will be the intangibles that hold us back. That's how good this team can be and it's the battles that we fight each day." Schaefer has spent enough time in the SEC to know that any team is capable of winning on any given night in the league and it's what made the Bulldogs' run to 16-0 and a title last year so remarkable. He knows MSU's 6 p.m. tip Monday with Auburn is just as dangerous as it heads to the Plains to take on a 14-2 team with a 2-1 league mark after consecutive wins against Florida and Alabama. |
| Auburn chases big opportunity in home showdown with No. 7 Mississippi State | |
 | The Auburn women's basketball team is looking to make it three and a row. And the third time would be quite the charm. Auburn hosts No. 7 Mississippi State tonight in Auburn Arena, tipping off one of its biggest on-court opportunities of the season at 6 p.m. in front of its home fans, with a chance to pick up a third straight win and one against one of the nation's top teams. Auburn enters off road wins last week at Florida and rival Alabama. Mississippi State is 15-1 and 3-0 in the SEC, looking like every bit of the top-10 team it's billed to be. Mississippi State's only loss this season came on the road at Oregon across the country in December. Auburn is 14-2 and 2-1 in the SEC, with its only conference loss coming close to perennial power Tennessee, now ranked No. 13. |
| More chronic wasting disease cases found in Mississippi, Tennessee | |
| More cases of chronic wasting disease have been found inside deer in Mississippi and Tennessee, state officials said. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency reported the findings on Friday. "I got confirmation back on two of them in Marshall County," said Russ Walsh, MDWFP Wildlife Bureau executive director. "They were both hunter-harvested deer. So that gives us three cases in Marshall County." The latest cases bring the total to six in Mississippi -- three cases in Marshall County, one in Pontotoc County and two in Issaquena County. Since the department found Mississippi's first case of CWD in Issaquena County in January 2018, Walsh said about 6,000 deer have been tested in-state. |
| Ross Bjork to address Ole Miss fan base with town hall meetings | |
| It has been a tumultuous few years for Ole Miss athletics and Ross Bjork is ready to discuss them. On Tuesday the school announced they would hold town meetings all across Mississippi and Memphis next month where Ole Miss' vice chancellor for intercollegiate athletics will tackle any and all questions from the Rebel fan base. The seven town hall meetings will begin on Feb. 11 at the Grammy Museum in Cleveland include stops in Corinth (Feb. 12), Jackson (Feb. 18), Oxford (Feb. 23), Tupelo (Feb. 25), Gulfport (Feb. 26) and conclude in Memphis on Feb. 28. There is potential for the meetings to get contentious as the Ole Miss fan base has voiced their displeasure over several topics throughout the years including the NCAA case, the past couple down years for the football program as well as changes with the basketball program. Bjork is prepared for the good and the bad. "I think you want to hear everything and that's why we're doing it," Bjork said. |
| Dan Mullen increases the stakes with Florida fans | |
 | Dan Mullen doesn't miss many opportunities to discuss Florida's improvement on the football field in 2018. Speaking in front of a sold-out crowd prior to the UF basketball team's match-up against No. 3-ranked Tennessee, Mullen thanked fans for the support during Florida's 10-3 season, which culminated in a 41-15 victory over Michigan in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Dec. 29. "I want to first of all thank all of you. Because I challenged everybody here. It wasn't just about the coaches, or the players, or Coach (Nick) Savage and the strength staff, or the administration," Mullen said. "It was about all of us working together. You all bought into that, and you helped lead us to a 10-win season, you helped lead us to a Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl victory. You helped lead us to a No. 6 national ranking, we finished second in the SEC overall and you helped restore that Gator standard." Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin, also in attendance at Saturday's game, repeated the plans for some of the new facilities on campus: The new baseball stadium will be ready by summer 2020, then the stand-alone facility for football will be built on the site of McKethan Stadium when it is demolished. |
| South Carolina players get first look at new footaball ops building | |
| In his time, new South Carolina running backs coach Thomas Brown has been around a few high-powered programs. He's seen the facilities at Georgia and at Wisconsin. He was at Miami as it started to up its investment in recent years. So how does that compare to South Carolina's new 110,000-square foot, $50-million building? "Not even close," Brown said. "It's the best I've been around by far. I just left a place where we just built a brand new indoor, which is a really nice facility. But that one doesn't compare to anything else I've been around. It's phenomenal." The players who returned to campus on Sunday got their first look at the Cyndi and Kenneth Long Family Football Operations Center, and the school's social media team followed them through. Some posted videos on social media as well, showing off the palatial weight room, recording studio in the players' lounge and locker rooms. |
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