Monday, February 14, 2022   
 
MSU drops mask requirements except in instructional spaces
Mississippi State University's COVID-19 Task Force announced Friday, effective immediately, masks will only be required in instructional spaces (classrooms, labs, studios) and the Longest Student Health Center, as was university policy at the end of the Fall 2021 semester. All other indoor locations will be mask optional. The MSU COVID-19 Task Force made this recommendation based on continued downward trends in COVID-19 cases, positivity and other metrics on campus. The university will continue to monitor the metrics, which will be re-evaluated weekly while maintaining continued communication with public health officials. MSU said its goal is to return to normal campus operations as soon as possible. Additional COVID-19 information and resources are available at www.msstate.edu/covid19.
 
MSU: Masks only required in instructional spaces
Mississippi State University has eliminated its mask requirement for indoor locations except in instructional spaces. MSU's COVID-19 task force announced Friday in a press release that masks are only required in classrooms, labs, studios and the Longest Student Health Center regardless of vaccination status, same as the university policy at the end of the fall 2021 semester. All other indoor locations will be mask optional. The task force made this recommendation based on the downward trend in COVID-19 cases, positivity and other metrics on campus, Friday's press release said. The university will continue to monitor case numbers and other metrics weekly while maintaining continued communication with state public health officials. Mississippi University for Women has not announced any changes in its mask mandate. Masks are required in all indoor locations, regardless of vaccination status.
 
Lifestyles Briefs: MSU series to feature tribute to Whitney Houston
Mississippi State's Lyceum Series, presents "The Greatest Love of All," starring Belinda Davids in a tribute to late pop singer Whitney Houston. Showtime is 7 p.m. Tuesday in Lee Hall's historic Bettersworth Auditorium. Individual tickets are available to the general public at $30 for adults and $10 for children 12 and under. MSU students may enter for free with valid student I.D. Purchases can be made at www.lyceum.msstate.edu and at the door, if available. Mississippi State's Theatre MSU debuts its spring season this month. A play about a Black teenager's arrest, the white teenager who witnesses it, and the impact on their communities, "All American Boys" will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23, 24 and 26 on the McComas Hall main stage. The Mississippi State Visual Arts Center Gallery is hosting a month-long exhibition presenting the work of artist Laurel Sucsy. "The Other Way Around" features Suscy's paintings and photographs on display through March 5. Admission is free, and viewing hours are 1-6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1-4 p.m. Saturday. The gallery is at 808 University Drive. The public is invited to Mississippi State to enjoy Science Night at the Museums on Feb. 19. Hosted by the Museums and Galleries Committee, the free 5-8 p.m. event takes place in Hilbun Hall and the Cobb Institute of Archeology. Masks are required in all campus buildings.
 
Alliance fosters 'New Beginning' for Choctaw students
The Mississippi State University Extension Service has been awarded a grant that will help educate, recruit and retain tribal students from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (MBCI) to succeed in college and in a career. MSU and the Choctaw Division of Education signed a memorandum of understanding designed to strengthen partnerships between the university and the Choctaw tribe. The memorandum is associated with the grant, "New Beginning for Tribal Students," awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The $500,000 grant includes a $250,000 match from MSU and MSU Extension. As the administrating organization of the state's 4-H program, MSU Extension will offer a college and career readiness program called Build Your Future to MBCI high school students. MSU Extension is partnering with the Center for 4-H Youth Development, MBCI Youth Opportunity Program, MBCI, MSU Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, Holmes Cultural Diversity Center, Indigenous Students Alliance and Allies (ISAA), and MSU departments of anthropology, sociology, and agricultural economics. MBCI spokesperson Tia Grisham said Build Your Future will help students understand education requirements needed to enter their chosen career, financial requirements needed to take the required courses and how to set goals for the future.
 
High School Students Are Given The Opportunity To Explore The Medical Field
The University of Mississippi Medical Center and Mississippi State held an event in the Colvard Student Union to educate high school students on careers in the medical field. Loretta Jackson-Williams, Vice Dean of Medical Education at UMMC says the goal is to allow these students to dive deeper into each course. "We understand that our students go to college for the most part before they go to the medical center and we want to encourage our students to investigate the wonderful colleges that we have available," said Williams. Each student was assigned a group and learned about what each program has to offer starting from work lifestyle to the pay they could receive. "The schools will let them know about the types of programs that they have a will let them know about the type of work that they do and the type of interactions that they have so that students get a full realization of health careers," said Williams. Williams also says that even though students may be set on what they want to do it's still beneficial to keep their options open. Students also received a goodie bag and a free meal voucher after the event.
 
Former NAACP president to speak at MSU
Cornell Williams Brooks, former president and CEO of the NAACP, will speak at Mississippi State University on Feb. 21. Shackouls Honors College at Mississippi State University will present its third and final Orators Lecture Series of the year at 4 p.m. in the Fowlkes Auditorium, located in the Colvard Student Union on the MSU campus. Brooks, a graduate of Jackson State University, will speak on "Reimagining Mississippi's Past for America's Future," as part of the university's recognition of Black History Month. Brooks is the Hauser Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit Organizations and professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice at Harvard Kennedy School. He serves as director of The William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at the School's Center for Public Leadership and serves as visiting professor of the Practice of Prophetic Religion and Public Leadership at Harvard Divinity School. Brooks also is a civil rights attorney, ordained minister, orator, writer and the executive producer of two films. Brooks holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and member of the Yale Law & Policy Review, and a Master of Divinity from Boston University's School of Theology, where he was a Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar.
 
SOCSD hires Illinois firm for superintendent search
Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District has hired a firm to assist its search for a new superintendent. The board of trustees voted in a special-call meeting Friday to contract with Illinois-based Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates to oversee the hiring process. The board chose the firm from among proposals from several others, board president Sumner Davis said. SOCSD will pay the firm a $21,500 consulting fee, plus some additional fees for other services such as a $3,920 advertising package. Superintendent Eddie Peasant in January announced his retirement, which will be effective June 30. He accepted an administrative position at William Carey University, after spending five years leading SOCSD. HYA Associates provides support for executive searches related to K-12 education, serving several types of school districts across the nation. It led superintendent searches for Petal and Columbia school districts in Mississippi. Associate David Lee, who is based in Mississippi, is one of four members of the HYA team who is assisting SOCSD trustees with the search. Davis said the board plans to create several stakeholder groups composed of parents, teachers, business partners and elected officials to give input on potential candidates. HYA Associates will meet with the board and the stakeholder groups over the next few months to ensure the district hires the best-fit candidate.
 
John Grisham marker to be placed by library in Hernando
A marker recognizing best-selling author and Mississippi native John Grisham's DeSoto County roots will be placed in front of the county library in Hernando. The Board of Supervisors gave its permission this week to erect the marker, which will be the county's first on the Mississippi Writers Trail. Grisham, the author of more than 30 legal thrillers which have sold over 300 million copies worldwide, practiced law in Southaven and wrote his first novel, "A Time to Kill" in his spare time at the old county courthouse. "It's very fitting," said District 4 Supervisor Lee Caldwell, a Grisham fan. "He's from here and that's very exciting. And he puts in little tidbits and things, and you sometimes recognize characters and places from around here. So having him showcased at the library here in Hernando where he wrote his first book, we are very, very excited to honor him." The DeSoto County Convention and Visitors Bureau Tourism Association will be coordinating the placement of the marker, which will include a visit by Grisham sometime later this year when it is unveiled. The cast aluminum markers are shaped like an open book and highlight information about each author including significant locations associated with their career. Lori Barnes, director of First Regional Library, said she is thrilled that the marker will be placed by the library. "As someone who has been a fan of Mr. Grisham's works since the very first one, "A Time to Kill," was published, I cannot think of any Mississippi author who is more deserving of this distinction," Barnes said.
 
Dixie National Rodeo brings excitement (and big revenue) to Mississippi
The fun and excitement started early on Saturday. Thousands lined the streets with their cameras in hand waving and snapping photos as the annual Dixie National Parade passed by. But the parade is only the beginning. Not long afterward, the gates swung open and the show began. People from all over were excited to be a part of this year's Dixie National Rodeo. Andy Gipson, the Agriculture and Commerce Commissioner, admitted that gearing up for the fun-filled weekend didn't happen overnight. "We start preparing for the rodeo right after the State Fair ends in October," he explained. Part of that preparation includes doing renovations inside The Coliseum and making sure all of the sponsors are lined up. Gipson says he's thankful to see everything come together, especially after what happened a year ago. "You remember last year we had a 100-year ice storm, and ice was on the ground... and people couldn't even get in here," he said. "The Lord has blessed us with beautiful weather this year, and it makes it all the more satisfying to see people getting out and having a good time." And that good time is already having a big economic impact not only for the City of Jackson, but the entire state as a whole. "It's a multi-million-dollar direct impact; $10 million immediate impact. You multiply that times the amount of money people are spending in this local economy, it's a huge impact on the state of Mississippi."
 
Back to Basics: Downsized Tupelo Furniture Market to have first event since 2020
For the first time since 2020, the Tupelo Furniture Market is hosting an industry trade show. The Winter Market will be an abbreviated one, starting Wednesday and wrapping up Friday. "We're getting back to the basics," said TFM Chairman V.M. Cleveland. "We're not going to have the awards ceremonies or the free buffets or entertainment or anything like that. We're just going to match up the vendors with the buyers and retailers and just do business like the way we started 35 years ago." The market's last trade show was the summer market of 2020. It skipped all of last year over concerns with the pandemic, although High Point and Las Vegas had their markets. Cleveland said Tupelo wasn't in a position to host a market, however. "We really didn't want people from 40-50 states exposed to COVID or bringing COVID here to us," he said. "But the industry itself was part of the reason, because the delivery times for a lot of manufacturers went from 30 days to 60 days to 90 days to six months or more." The slow delivery times made hosting a market with something new to show difficult, if not impossible. Still, it was a difficult decision to make for a market that had held consecutive twice-yearly markets since 1987.
 
Golding Family donates property for proposed Riverfront Park relocation
A tract of prime riverfront real estate is being offered to the city of Vicksburg and Warren County, as a proposed new home for Riverfront Park. Located at the corner of Lee and Oak streets, Golding Land Company LLC has offered to donate 5 and-a-half acres of land with the hope of it being developed into a park for both young and old to enjoy, president of the company John Reid Golding said. Golding, who is half-owner of the company with his brother, Austin, said the property had been on the market for 15 years and the "right buyer just never came along." Knowing the property had been for sale, Golding said, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. reached out to the family about the potential of donating it for a park. Through joint discussions and seeing the potential the property had of being developed into a park, Golding said, donating the land was something they wanted to do. "Vicksburg has given us and our business so much and such a tremendous work force we wanted to give back, and this was a great opportunity to give back a piece of property that has so much potential to be a fantastic park," he said. The property being offered also sits above Golding Barge Line's office.
 
House Democrats get rare win as divided Republicans approve diminished election bill
Mississippi House Republicans seemed poised to approve a bill Thursday that would purge voter rolls and give the secretary of state the power to audit election results without public oversight. House Bill 1510 had come out of the elections committee where Rep. Dan Eubanks, R-Walls, one of the most far-right members of the legislature, is the vice chair. House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, had saved the bill for deadline day, a time when controversial legislation is often introduced. With the bill called up for a vote, it appeared the post-January 6 election hysteria was set to take root in the Magnolia State. Then something strange happened. Rep. Brent Powell, R-Brandon, offered a strike-all amendment stripping the bill of almost all its controversial language. The bits about auditing election results? Gone. Minutes later, House Minority Leader Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, offered his own amendment to make it harder for election officials to remove people from voter rolls. Powell supported the amendment without argument. After virtually no debate, the House, a Republican supermajority, voted with the Democrats to approve a largely watered-down version of the original bill. "It has happened more this session than it has in the past," Johnson said of Republicans willingness to compromise on legislation. That's in part because of what Johnson perceives as an ideological divide within the Republican party, and his willingness to work on advancing legislation for the common good.
 
Mississippi could rethink a Medicaid managed care contract
The Mississippi House has voted to make the state's Medicaid program end a contract with health care giant Centene, although that plan could change later as lawmakers continue to debate issues. Centene settled a lawsuit last year that accused one of its subsidiaries of overcharging the Mississippi Division of Medicaid millions of dollars for pharmacy benefits management. Centene agreed to pay the state $55.5 million but did not admit fault. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported that during discussion of a Medicaid bill Thursday, the House adopted an amendment that would prohibit the Medicaid program from contracting with a company that has paid over $50 million in a settlement agreement with the state. The amendment to House Bill 658, offered by Republican Rep. Becky Currie of Brookhaven, was aimed at Centene. "I am for doing away with our business to a company who took $55 million of our money that was supposed to be spent on the poor, the sick, the elderly, the mentally ill, the disabled," said Currie, who is a nurse. Currie's amendment would require the state to contract with a nonprofit entity to manage Medicaid services.
 
Republicans call on Biden to end COVID's public health emergency designation
Republicans in Congress have asked President Biden to end the designation of COVID-19 as a public health emergency (PHE), citing the accessibility of vaccines and effective treatments as well as the harms of long-term isolation on public health. Their request for the president to undo the designation comes as calls grow -- including from former Biden advisers -- for the federal government to chart a course for the next stage of the pandemic. Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have plunged after the dramatic omicron-driven surge, and deaths have begun falling as well, though the seven-day average was still 2,300 deaths per day, as of Thursday. "We're moving toward a time when COVID won't disrupt our daily lives, a time when COVID won't be a constant crisis but rather will be something we can protect against and treat," Jeffrey Zients, the White House COVID response coordinator, said in a briefing on Wednesday. Last week, a number of Democratic-led states announced the end of indoor mask mandates. "Today we call on your administration to do what so many states and other countries already have: accept that COVID-19 is endemic, recognize that current heavy-handed government interventions are doing more harm than good, and immediately begin the process by which we unwind the PHE so our country can get back to normal," the GOP members of Congress wrote in a letter dated Thursday.
 
Every Republican has to answer about Jan. 6, Kinzinger says
One of the two Republicans on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riots said Sunday that every Republican will ultimately have to say whether they believe the events of the day represented "legitimate political discourse." Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) was recently censured by the Republican National Committee with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) over their participation on the House select panel. During its winter meeting in Salt Lake City earlier this month, the RNC accused the two lawmakers "of participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse." Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," Kinzinger said, "This is a moment where every Republican, I don't care if you're running for City Council all the way up to Congress, Senate, etc., every Republican has to be clear and forceful on the record: Do they think Jan. 6 was legitimate political discourse. Don't let them avoid it, don't let them hem haw, don't let them transition to some other subject they'd rather talk about. This is an answer every one of them have to give, and then we can move on once they're clear and on the record." He rebuffed statements by some fellow Republicans that the panel he's serving on, which is chaired by Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, was picking on people who had nothing to do with the violence that day. Kinzinger said those Republicans know better. Stating that he was pleased by recent remarks on Jan. 6 by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and former Vice President Mike Pence, Kinzinger said he wanted to hear from more of his fellow lawmakers.
 
Pedestrian Deaths Spike in U.S. as Reckless Driving Surges
After a festive evening spent viewing a display of holiday lights, Aditya Bhattacharya and his family were crossing a street to head home. Then a driver blew past a red light, slamming into him and his 7-year-old son, Pronoy. "I took one step, that's the last thing I remember," said Mr. Bhattacharya, 45. "When I regained consciousness, all I could hear was my wife sitting on the sidewalk, screaming, 'Pronoy's dead.'" The boy's death at an Albuquerque crosswalk in December, and the seven-week manhunt to find the driver, jolted many people in this part of the West to the grim count of pedestrian deaths, which began surging in New Mexico and other states in 2020. Two years into the pandemic, such fatalities are soaring into record territory amid a nationwide flare-up in reckless driving. In various initiatives to reverse the trends, authorities in one state after another are citing factors from the rise in anxiety levels and pandemic drinking to the fraying of social norms. Last year, New Mexico recorded 99 pedestrian deaths, up from 81 in 2020 and 83 in 2019 and the most since it began tracking such incidents in the 1990s. But while Sun Belt states have been hit particularly hard, the pedestrian death toll spiked last year in many parts of the country. Going into the pandemic, some traffic specialists were optimistic that pedestrian deaths would decline. After all, millions of motorists were slashing their driving time and hewing to social distancing measures. The opposite happened. Empty roads allowed some to drive much faster than before. Some police chiefs eased enforcement, wary of face-to-face contact. For reasons that psychologists and transit safety experts are just beginning to explain, drivers also seemed to get angrier.
 
Monday Profile: Eric Harlan fosters WMUW radio through more than three decades of changes
It is the lifestyle of kings. Maybe not literal kings. Nobody's wearing a crown, there's not a swell chair. But how else do you describe getting paid to do the thing you love? "It's still fun," said Eric Harlan, faculty member at Mississippi University for Women and manager, engineer and faculty overseer of WMUW, the campus' 1,000-watt station. "To me, this is one of those jobs where you constantly think, 'They pay me to do this! This is the greatest job in the world!'" Harlan has been with WMUW for 31 of the station's now 41-ish years. Over that time he's gone from the faculty advisor to also taking on the duties of station engineer and general manager, and has helped nurse its elderly transmitter through some bad patches. He's seen the tide of DJs shift from music-crazed kids to aspiring podcasters. Interest in the station comes in waves, Harlan said, with the peak in the mid 1990s. "Sometimes kids come in and fulfill their requirement by doing one semester and then they're done," he said. "Others like it and stay on. Back in the mid-90s we were live the whole time. It's slowly dropped off since then." Currently the station has about eight DJs, and the rest of the schedule is programming generated by "Daddy Mac," a Macintosh G4 computer that sits in the air booth. The format has slowly shifted over time away from music and towards talk. WMUW is on the FM dial at 88.5, and streams online as well. View the schedule at www.muw.edu/wmuw.
 
Masks now only required in instructional areas and healthcare settings at UM
tarting on Feb. 14, the University of Mississippi will only be requiring masks and face coverings in instructional areas and healthcare settings regardless of vaccination status, according to an email Chancellor Glenn Boyce sent on Friday. "We are certainly in a different place this spring than we were spring 2020 or even spring 2021," Boyce wrote. "We have developed protocols that are proven to be effective when we experience a surge in cases. We have also seen our case counts reduce significantly from the beginning of the semester to today." No masks will be required in dining areas, residence halls, the library, the union, the gym -- only in classes and medical areas like Student Health Services. Boyce asked the university community to respect the needs of those who are at higher risk, unable to be fully vaccinated or feel more comfortable wearing masks. Faculty and staff may also require face coverings for their private offices. Rebecca Marchiel, an associate professor in the history department, is concerned for her young daughter's safety. "Do not come near my office without a mask," she said.
 
School of Journalism and New Media welcomes dean candidates to campus
The University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media is moving into the next phase of finding a dean to lead the school. Throughout the next two weeks, the school will be hosting four candidates, for presentations, forums and meetings. The SJNM has been without a dean since the resignation of Will Norton. Debora Wegner has been serving as interim-dean while the search for Norton's replacement presses forward. Today the SJNM and the university at large will welcome Deanna D. Sellnow, who is currently a professor of strategic communications in the Nicholson School of Communication & Media at the University of Central Florida. Johnny V. Sparks of the School of Journalism and Strategic Communication at Ball State University will be welcomed on Feb. 20. Andrea E. Hickerson of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina will be welcomed on Feb. 23. Jesse J. Holland of the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University will be welcomed on Feb. 25.
 
U. of Southern Mississippi opens new veterans center
The University of Southern Mississippi is opening a new building with the aim of supporting military veterans. The new facility is about supporting those who served the nation, Jeff Hammond, the director of the university's veterans program, told WDAM-TV. "It's an amazing program and an amazing university, and when you mix all those three things together with a big heart that says, 'Let's help our veterans, their family members.' You have a remarkable story," Hammond said. The new home of the Center for Military Veterans, Service Members and Families held its opening ceremony on Friday. The new Quinlan-Hammond Hall of Honor will serve the more than 1,700 military students attending the university, The Hattiesburg American reported. It will be a 5,500-square-foot facility, and include a conference room, study space for small groups or individuals, and a library with an adjoining lounge and study, its website shows. It will also have other meeting areas and office spaces. The center's staff provides guidance and support to military students as they move through the admission process, on to graduation and career placement.
 
USM Professor Publishes Breakthrough Paper on Bee Research
During their brief lifespan, stingless bee soldiers face complex tasks as part of their social organization. Yet do they require larger brains to complete these duties? Kaitlin Baudier, assistant professor of ecology and organismal biology at The University of Southern Mississippi, sought to answer this question while conducting extensive research on stingless bees with a team of scientists from across the country. As fate might have it, Baudier teaches and works in the School of Biological, Environmental and Earth Sciences (BEES) at USM. What Baudier's team discovered is that the soldier bees in question did not possess larger brains to complement their bigger task repertoires. The research findings are available online at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cne.25273 and will be published soon in an upcoming issue of The Journal of Comparative Neurology. Baudier notes that a central question in neuroscience is how does our hardware (brains) allow us to run our software (behaviors)? And within that framework lies another query: How does brain size relate to cognitive demand? The research team set out to study how individuals with different numbers of jobs in an animal society differ in terms of their brain size and architecture. The group ultimately homed in on stingless bees, whose lifespan typically lasts no more than a month.
 
USM students coordinate cleanup of Chain Park
Two University of Southern Mississippi students have organized a new cleanup effort at Hattiesburg's Chain Park. Students Presleigh Beach and Lizzie Atwood coordinated the event Saturday morning. Several teams picked up trash at the park and some surrounding areas. Tri Delta and Alpha Chi Omega sororities assisted with the project, along with the City of Hattiesburg and USM's Pre-Dental Society. "We had a great time, got a lot of trash," Beach said. "We had about 15 people come out, so that made me really excited and we had fun doing it." "We've got one cent money that went into the basketball court and pickleball court behind Ebeneezer (Missionary Baptist Church) and a new mural, and so we're just trying to continue to improve and beautify this area of town," said Shawn Harris, one of the volunteers for the cleanup. The Downtown Hattiesburg Association also assisted with the project.
 
In Reversal, U. of Alabama Will Strip Ex-Klansman's Name From Campus Building
The first Black student to enroll at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa will now be honored alone on a campus building, replacing a former Alabama governor and Ku Klux Klan leader. The university system's Board of Trustees voted on Friday to reverse course on an initial plan to merge the names of Autherine Lucy Foster, who enrolled in 1956 but was quickly run off campus by racist protesters, and Bibb Graves, a former grand cyclops of the Klan's chapter in Montgomery, Ala. The proposed "Lucy-Graves Hall" had sparked outrage over the past week among many students, faculty members, and alumni. During a special board meeting, Judge John H. England Jr., a former trustee who had led the board's working group on building names, acknowledged that he and other members had been wrong to suggest the hyphenated name. The group "certainly intended for that paired name to generate educational moments that can help us learn from our complex and rich history," said England, who is Black, at Friday's meeting. But the celebration of Foster had been lost in the controversy over Graves, England said. Critics slammed the idea of honoring both Foster, now 92, a prominent symbol of racial justice, and Graves, a man who held racist views, on the same building. Ultimately, England, who also has a campus building named for him, agreed. "We've heard enough from people whose opinions matter to us -- students, faculty, staff -- that we can do that in a better way than what we've done," he said.
 
In replacing Hardgrave, Auburn will begin with an interim provost, and three AU leaders vie for job
Three Auburn University faculty in the running to become the university's interim provost spoke of their ideas for helping shape an ever-changing campus environment during public open forums held virtually Thursday. The candidates were Vini Nathan, dean of the College of Architecture, Design and Construction; Gregg Newschwander, dean of the College of Nursing; and Emmett Winn, associate provost for faculty affairs. Each was granted a 30-minute segment to present their platforms, followed by 20 minutes of questions from fellow faculty members about student retention, diversity, budgeting and other topics. The final choice will assume the role of interim provost as a fill-in for Bill Hardgrave, who is vacating the job at the end of the spring semester to become the next president of the University of Memphis. The Auburn administration will continue the search for a permanent provost, but the interim provost could serve for as long as 24 months in the meantime. Faculty were given the opportunity to fill out evaluation surveys and give their input on each candidate.
 
Catholic college in Alabama gets its own locally brewed beer
A small Roman Catholic college on the Alabama coast now has its own beer. Spring Hill College in Mobile said it is joining with Braided River Brewing Co. to launch Portier Pale Ale, a low-alcohol craft brew made for the school. It was developed by a 2019 graduate of the college, Hannah Shankman. The beer was released Thursday at a restaurant in the student center called McKinney's. The first 50 people got custom glasses decorated with the name of the beer, which Shankman said has a taste that includes hints of orange and pineapple. "The bitterness is dialed way down so that all beer lovers from beginners to seasoned can enjoy it," she said. Founded in 1830, Spring Hill describes itself as the oldest Catholic college in the Southeast. Located in Mobile, Braided River Brewing says it produces beer inspired by the Gulf Coast.
 
OLOL, LCMC pledge $245M to LSU: a lot for medical research, large chunk for athletics
Our Lady of the Lake and the Louisiana Children's Medical Center pledged a combined $245 million to LSU over the next 10 years, with a portion of the money dedicated to helping the school pursue National Cancer Institute recognition and decreasing cancer rates throughout the state. In addition to the funds intended for cancer and medical research, money is earmarked for a new sciences building, science-and-technology education and health-related facilities for LSU's athletic programs. "Not only will this allow LSU to position itself as a national leader in basic research, this gift will support our commitment to reducing cancer disparities for the people in our state and meaningfully improve the quality of healthcare for many people," LSU President William F. Tate IV said. LSU billed the investment as the largest in its history. Because it is earmarked for specific purposes, it does not count as an addition to the university's general endowment fund of $594 million, the LSU Foundation said Friday. "Today's announcement is one of the most significant healthcare investments in Louisiana's history with the true ability to transform our state," Our Lady of the Lake CEO Scott Wester said. "We will chart a new, long-term course to change the trajectory of health in Louisiana." Our Lady of the Lake will provide $170 million, split evenly between academics and athletics, and LCMC Health will invest $75 million.
 
UF partners with foundation to fund Blockchain Lab
The University of Florida received $270,000 to provide resources to students who want to learn and develop blockchain technology including cryptocurrencies and NFTs. The grant, received on Jan. 25, will fund the development of two undergraduate courses and four free professional courses on Canvas that will be available to the public, said Marko Suvajdzic, associate director and professor at the Digital Worlds Institute. The Blockchain Lab will be housed within UF's Digital World Institute at the College of Arts and Sciences. Blockchain is a complex technology, and its applications have not yet been fully defined. Some popular applications of the blockchain include cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, which are typically digital artworks, like Bored Ape. Suvajdzic applied for the grant through the Algorand Foundation Grant Program. "The blockchain lab by its very mission exists to support blockchain related activities both on campus and in Gainesville in general," Suvajdzic said. Fifty students are already enrolled in Blockchain Innovations in Digital Arts and Sciences. The class has been steadily increasing in size since its inception three years ago and will also be funded with the grant, Suvajdzic said
 
U. of Kentucky alumni makes bourbon history
The bourbon business is a Kentucky trademark, and a University of Kentucky alumni couple is beginning to make their mark on the industry. Tia Edwards, a 2001 integrated strategic communication graduate from the College of Communication and Information, entered the world of spirits by helping found a bourbon distilling company. In 2017, she started Fresh Bourbon with her husband, Sean Edwards, a business management graduate from the UK Gatton College of Business and Economics. Together the Kentucky natives are hoping to put a new spin on a local tradition while also reaching some historic milestones. What makes Fresh Bourbon different from its competitors is its recipe and flavor profile. While most bourbons use three-grain recipes, Fresh Bourbon uses four: corn, honey malt, malted rye and malted wheat. While the couple was focused on making a good product, they unknowingly made history in the process. In February 2020, Fresh Bourbon was recognized by the Kentucky Senate as "the first Black-owned bourbon distillery in Kentucky" and that the distillery "produces bourbon with an African American Master Distiller, the first in Kentucky since slavery."
 
Texas A&M President Banks directs The Battalion to cease regular print edition by end of spring semester
Texas A&M University President M. Katherine Banks informed leadership at The Battalion, the university's student newspaper, Friday afternoon that the publication will pivot to a digital-only outlet at the end of the spring semester. Banks' announcement came after A&M Dean of Students Anne Reber and A&M interim director of Student Life Stefanie Baker told Battalion leadership in a meeting Thursday afternoon that Banks had directed The Battalion to cease its print edition immediately. Banks modified her decision after meeting with The Battalion's student leadership Friday. Currently, The Battalion prints on a weekly basis. During Friday's meeting with Banks, Battalion editor Myranda Campanella said Banks reiterated that the world is moving toward digital media as justification for directing the move. When asked if the decision was made in response to a story or advertisement from The Battalion, Campanella said Banks told her, "Absolutely not." Financial aspects were not a part of Banks' reasoning, either. "Obviously, the world is moving more towards digital, but The Battalion is digital," Campanella said. "It's been digital since the '90s. We have a website. We have all social medial platforms. It's not like we're falling behind. We're staying up with the trends. We even have a TikTok. We're not just printing once a week, and I personally don't see any harm with us continuing to do that when we are getting the ads to pay for that ourselves. We're not asking the university to pay for that in any way, shape or form."
 
Texas A&M ag economist shares factors, trends behind continued high meat prices
Brandon Hurtado said he had a joke to share before leading a workshop on how to grow business through social media at the seventh annual Texas Barbecue Town Hall. Hurtado then pulled up a slide on a screen with two words: brisket prices. The owner of Arlington's Hurtado Barbecue garnered a few soft laughs from a crowd of approximately 60 people attending the Jan. 24 meeting inside Texas A&M's AgriLife Center, but high meat prices continue to pose a serious ongoing issue for pit masters and restaurant owners. Across the board from beef to pork and poultry, meat prices continue to be high nationwide. David Anderson, a professor and AgriLife Extension economist in A&M's Department of Agricultural Economics, shared some of the contributing factors of this continued issue during an economic update of the livestock and meat industries at the town hall meeting. "They're focused on running their restaurant business," Anderson said of the town hall attendees. "They're buying meat from the packers, these different cuts that they need, so they don't have a lot of time to see, to look at what are the underlying conditions that are affecting those meat prices to them. They're buying at this wholesale level, but there's a whole bunch of things happening on farms and ranches and cattle numbers and chicken numbers and hogs that are really directly affecting what they're paying for meat. I think a better handle of what's going on at that fundamental level, I think it helps them better plan for the future."
 
Gov. Mike Parson talks workforce development at Mizzou's NextGen with mid-Missouri leaders
With state finances in good shape, funding for areas that will advance workforce development will be forthcoming, Gov. Mike Parson on Friday told a group of area leaders gathered at the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building. "We have an opportunity of a lifetime to get it right for the next generation and generations after that," Parson said. The state's core funding for the University of Missouri will give the state opportunities it has never had before, he said. "We're building a foundation this year," Parson said. "We will build on it next year and the year after that." The funding won't be a "one-and-done" situation, he said. "The education environment piece of workforce development is critical," Parson said. Broadband improvement is another area he emphasized. "We're going to make the largest investment in the state's history in broadband," Parson said. Marshall Stewart, MU vice chancellor for extension and engagement, said the need for high-speed internet became real to people during the COVID-19 pandemic. "This is no longer an optional thing," Stewart said. "This is a must."
 
Mun Choi's path to two leadership posts
When Mun Choi became chancellor of the University of Missouri-Columbia in July 2020, the curators made an unprecedented decision. The positions of chancellor of MU and president of the UM System -- the latter Choi has held since 2017 -- had been separate since the system was created in 1963. Prior to that, there was just the president of MU, with no chancellor at the only other campus, located in Rolla, then named the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy and now known as Missouri S&T. In some ways, Choi's accession to both top jobs was the mirror image of Elmer Ellis, who oversaw the system's creation in 1963 and later made the step from president of MU to president of the UM System. Choi, on the other hand, went from president of the system to chancellor of MU -- doing so without relinquishing his original title in the way Ellis once did. When the decision was made, a number of explanations were provided for the merger of the president and chancellor positions. Following chancellor Alexander Cartwright's departure, and faced with the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the board named Choi interim chancellor. The main reasoning stated was the need for stable leadership. "During this time of unprecedented challenges, it is important that our continuity of proven leadership is enabled for swift and efficient actions that benefit our students, faculty, staff and communities," Julia Brncic, chair of the UM System Board of Curators, said in a March 2020 news release. Even then, there were strong indications the interim tag would soon be removed.
 
George Washington University apologizes for data project monitoring student and staff locations on campus
George Washington University interim president Mark S. Wrighton apologized Friday to the campus community for the university's failure to inform it in advance of a data analytics pilot program that monitored locations -- though not individualized data -- of students, faculty and staff last fall. The project, Wrighton wrote in his letter to the campus community, was a combined effort of the school's IT, student affairs, and safety and facilities divisions that used data collected from Cisco WiFi points across GWU's campuses "to determine density and use of buildings by students, faculty, and staff in the aggregate in order to assess how this could help inform the Safety and Facilities team's operational priorities." The research also accessed "de-identified student data for use by the Division of Student Affairs to assess capabilities for providing insights into the utilization rates of various campus facilities by broad segments of the student population." Wrighton referenced an article that said the project "analyzed individualized data of each individual" and said he wanted to emphasize that did not happen. Although the project did not analyze data about individual students, Wrighton acknowledged that some descriptors, such as gender, were used to analyze how campus facilities were used.
 
Colleges have hired more minority presidents amid racial reckoning
More than a year and a half after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd in May 2020, prompting a national reckoning about institutional racism and societal inequity, signs of change in higher education can be hard to spot. One place you might not have thought to look is behind the college president's desk. But in the 18 months from June 2020 through November 2021, more than a third -- 35.4 percent -- of the presidents and chancellors that American colleges and universities hired were members of racial minority groups. A full quarter (25.3 percent) were Black, an Inside Higher Ed analysis of its database of presidential appointments shows; that figure is 22.5 percent when excluding historically Black colleges and universities. By comparison, fewer than a quarter, 22 percent, of presidential hires in the 18 months from December 2018 through May 2020 were nonwhite. Just 14.6 percent of the campus leaders hired in that period before Floyd's death were Black. The proportion of Latino presidents also grew in the months after that June 2020 dividing line, to nearly 7 percent from 4 percent in the previous 18 months. There was no change in the representation of Asian or Native American presidents. To the extent these crude data can be used to measure progress in the diversification of the college presidency, not all signs point up. The proportion of women who were hired, for instance, actually declined slightly, to 34.8 percent in 2020–21 from 35.3 percent in 2019–20.
 
The Academic Conference Will Never Be the Same
In January, Marisa Mills, a Ph.D. candidate in medieval literature at the University of Southern Mississippi, traveled from Pensacola, Fla., to present at the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association. Her advisers and professors had impressed upon her the importance of delivering a paper and networking at a conference, and the MLA was a golden opportunity -- one of the few she'd had over the last two years. But when she arrived at the Marriott Marquis Washington, D.C., a behemoth hotel in the nation's capital, she found 100,000 square feet of mostly vacant meeting space. "You think, 'MLA,' and you expect so many people, and it's huge, and that's where the big-name scholars are," Mills said, sitting in the hotel lobby after the first day of the conference. "And it's just odd to see it's mostly empty." In the exhibit hall, exhibitors outnumbered the perusers. Some of the university press booths were stocked with books, but unstaffed, because their editors were attending virtually. Two years after the pandemic forced academic groups out of hotels and conference centers, many are eager to return to in-person meetings. Conference fees provide associations with critical revenue. They offer university presses space to court potential authors and show off recent publications. And while online conferences may be easier to attend, many scholars long for the tradition of collaboration and conversation that can be difficult to replicate on a laptop screen. The MLA had planned for the January conference to be mostly in person, with some online panels and attendance. But in late December, the association saw projected in-person attendance numbers plummet as the Omicron variant gripped the U.S. -- a sign that the conference of the Before Times remained out of reach.
 
College Students Have to Learn How to Make Small Talk Again
When students at San Jose State University returned to campus last fall after more than a year of remote learning, lecturer Damon Moon thought they would be chatty and excited to see one another. Instead, he noticed something concerning: They weren't talking at all. Before class, students were looking at their phones or laptops. Even in the campus cafeteria, Mr. Moon saw that most students were eating alone, sandwich in one hand, phone in the other. "They lost the skill to have small talk," said Mr. Moon, who teaches international business classes. To get a close-up look at this phenomenon, I spoke to Mr. Moon and his students at the university. "When I was in elementary school or middle school, if I wanted to talk to someone new, I would go up to them and try to strike up a conversation," said Kian Kashefi, a 19-year-old business accounting major. Now, he said, "it feels weird to talk to anybody new without first connecting on social media." In a prolonged pandemic that has shifted more interactions online, college students are finding it harder to strike up conversations and make friends. In the past, socializing wasn't just a perk but also a big incentive for students choosing campus life. College instructors worry that if they don't do something to facilitate conversation in class, their students will be unprepared to enter the workforce. To overcome screen-reinforced social awkwardness, some even lean on smartphones and web browsers to encourage students to interact.
 
Demand for college peer counselors is booming. But training only goes so far
As a first-year student at Boston College in fall 2020, Ella Snyder recalls feeling isolated and being anxious about the university's new COVID-19 safety restrictions. "I was very worried about how I would make friends while also having to social distance," she says. "It was kind of like I was trying to figure out this impossible balance." Walking across campus, Snyder spotted a flier advertising Lean On Me, a peer support network that hosts online, confidential conversations with students who have received about 30 hours of initial training, including crisis protocols. Snyder signed up, sent a text and started to chat with a peer. She says the conversation helped her process her anxiety. "It was just really nice to have my opinion validated," she explains. "I felt like a bad person for having questions about the COVID concerns, because obviously you want to respect the pandemic and not spread the virus but also it takes a toll on your own mental health, too." During the pandemic, a nationwide crisis of isolation and anxiety has fallen particularly hard on young people -- and more and more, those young people are turning to each other for help. In a new national survey, nearly half of college students said pandemic disruptions have made them more likely to seek out peer counseling, as Snyder did, including 20% who said it has made them "much more likely." At Boston College, Snyder, 19, has moved from receiving peer counseling to providing it through Lean On Me. She says she has a lot of conversations about how the pandemic has impacted college life this year, especially during the omicron-driven case surge.
 
Amid nationwide enrollment drops, some HBCUs are growing. So are threats.
Randolph Smith applied to college following a year of anguish for many Black people. The year prior, in 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd were killed within weeks of one another. Protests erupted in Smith's final summer of high school. "It was like, yeah, I've got to be around my own people," said Smith, 19, of Baltimore, now a freshman here at Morgan State University. Choosing a historically Black school struck him as a necessity. "I told myself, this is improving myself and improving my mental." Thousands have made similar calculations in the past two years, flocking to prominent HBCUs. Morgan State, North Carolina A&T State, Prairie View A&M and Howard universities have reported surging enrollment during the coronavirus pandemic --- at a time when student head counts nationwide have slumped. Historically Black colleges and universities also gained huge visibility through the election of Vice President Harris, a graduate of Howard, and are drawing high-profile student-athletes and unprecedented gifts from billionaires. "We are in a stronger position than we have ever been as it relates to our brand and our position," said Harry L. Williams, president and chief executive of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which supports the public HBCU sector. A few years ago, Williams said, he spent a lot of time explaining to lawmakers on Capitol Hill why these schools exist. "We don't have to do that now," he said. "They know." But old tensions have also returned to HBCUs.
 
From campus to Congress, colleges urged to end legacy boost
America's elite colleges are facing growing calls to end the decades-old tradition of giving an admissions boost to the children of alumni -- a practice that critics say is rooted in racism and bestows an unfair advantage to students who need it least. Fueled by the national reckoning with racial injustice, opponents say they are gaining momentum in the battle over the contentious policy of legacy preferences. Ivy League students are pressing administrators to abandon the policy. Yale's student government took a stance against the practice in November. A recent vote of Harvard students found that 60% oppose it. Hundreds of students and alumni across 30 colleges have promised to withhold financial donations over the issue. Civil rights groups are increasingly adding their support, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which is tackling legacy preferences as part of a campaign against systematic racism. And a bill in Congress aims to eliminate the practice. The proposal from Democrats would outlaw preferences for children of alumni or donors at colleges that receive federal money. It's being pushed by the party's progressive wing but has gained support from some conservative activists who want college admissions to be based on merit alone.
 
The Red-State Disadvantage: Public flagships in conservative states face reputational and recruiting challenges
A Georgia professor quit when the state university system refused to require her students to wear masks. A Ph.D. candidate crossed Florida colleges off his job-search list after the University of Florida blocked professors from testifying against a state voting law. In North Carolina, prominent professors and administrators of color on the Chapel Hill campus left to take jobs elsewhere, citing the university's racial and political climate. The departures came amid a brouhaha over whether a largely state-appointed Board of Trustees would award tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times reporter and creator of the controversial "1619 Project." Colleges have been pulled into the red-hot center of America's raging culture wars. And as higher education is attacked as an institution, employees up and down the ladder find their professional lives more difficult. Faculty members at state institutions are feeling under siege, worried about the intrusion of elected officials and politically appointed governing boards into what they can teach, research, and write. Student-life and diversity offices can suddenly find their programming the subject of op-eds and legislative debate. Presidents, especially at public colleges, are in the hot seat. Opposition by many Republican governors and lawmakers to mask and vaccination mandates have exacerbated the sense that colleges are beleaguered. The caustic political climate risks reshaping and disrupting the career paths of young and seasoned academics alike.
 
Reversing the historic move of Bilbo statue could prove difficult
Bobby Harrison writes for Mississippi Today: House Clerk Andrew Ketchings has etched himself an entry in Mississippi's history. His admission that he moved the controversial statue of white supremacist Mississippi politician Theodore Bilbo from public display in the state Capitol has earned the normally inconspicuous house clerk a mention in the history books. Unless House Speaker Philip Gunn is the best actor this side of Sir Lawrence Olivier, he did not play a role in removal from public view of the Bilbo statue. "I don't have any idea," Gunn, sounding earnest, told reporters two weeks ago when asked about the missing statue. "I heard about it at lunch." Almost a week later, Ketchings finally confirmed he was the culprit and acted alone -- with the aid of movers who received between $4,000 and $5,000 for moving the bronze statue that is reportedly life-size at 5 feet 2 inches tall on an enormous base. The statue is currently tucked away in a storage room on the first floor of the Capitol, and restoring it to public display could prove troublesome. To restore it legislators will have to argue that Bilbo should be the only governor memorialized with a statue in the Mississippi Capitol. No other governor has such an honor. Bilbo, who served two terms as governor and was elected twice to the U.S. Senate, advocated for moving Black Americans to Africa and for opposing anti-lynching laws.


SPORTS
 
Mississippi State wins rematch against Ole Miss, finds itself firmly in tournament conversation
The Mississippi State faithful inside Humphrey Coliseum on Sunday afternoon understood the assignment at hand. They knew Mississippi State was outsized and outnumbered against rival Ole Miss, and so the small plays were met with standing ovations. With each rebound, a State guard got over one of the four Ole Miss players taller than 6 feet, The Hump got louder. When State's lone available forward, Charlotte Kohl, boxed Shakira Austin of Ole Miss to create a lane for guards such as Anastasia Hayes, State fans noticed. And then, finally, after watching this Cinderella story lead an Ole Miss team receiving AP votes for nearly 37 minutes, Mississippi State fans got to give one final standing ovation. Mississippi State 70. Ole Miss 59. Suddenly, Starkville has a team in mid-February with legitimate NCAA tournament aspirations. Mississippi State entered this week among the last four teams in the NCAA tournament feed and had the chance for resume boosting wins. It fell Thursday at home against No. 19 Florida -- a team just inside the top 50 of the NET rankings. State responded in resounding fashion with a Quadrant 1 win against an Ole Miss team sitting at No. 26 in the NET.
 
Mississippi State women avenge loss at Ole Miss
Anastasia Hayes, JerKaila Jordan and Myah Taylor combined to score 58 points, but it was a team effort defensively down the stretch that clinched a 70-59 win for the Mississippi State women's basketball team over Ole Miss on Sunday at Humphrey Coliseum. It was the sixth time this season the Bulldogs responded to a loss with a win, and they showed plenty of toughness and determination in yet another game they went into outnumbered. "It's so much fun," MSU interim coach Doug Novak said. "I don't know what our story is. We're all over the map, and it is fascinating to watch. "I have no idea which direction we're going. I know we're having a blast at practice, and we're really there for each other. To have the fans recognize it, and again if that's all we're doing it for we're not doing it for the right thing, but I'm not going to lie. It makes you feel like a million bucks to get patted on the back." After a tight first quarter, the Bulldogs were able to create some distance between themselves and their in-state rivals during the second quarter. They went into halftime up 35-22 on the back of good shooting from Hayes and Jordan, as well as an all-around strong defensive performance. Up next the Bulldogs travel to Lexington, Kentucky, to take on the Wildcats at 5 p.m. Tuesday before returning home to face LSU at 6 p.m. Thursday. Both games will be available through ESPN+.
 
Mississippi State women's basketball exacts revenge, beats Ole Miss
Mississippi State remembered. Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin proclaimed the Rebels the best women's basketball team in Mississippi after last month's win and announced her intentions to run the Bulldogs out of the Humphrey Coliseum during the rematch. "I think we showed who's the best right now. That's us," McPhee-McCuin said Jan. 16. "We plan on doing that again when we go to Starkville." But that statement -- however rooted in truth, considering the Bulldogs are led by an interim coach and deal with an undersized roster -- struck a chord, as Mississippi State's 70-59 win Sunday displayed. The idea the game's outcome was a foregone conclusion had left the Bulldogs fuming for a month. "People have counted us out," guard Myah Taylor said. "But we just keep fighting and keep using it as fuel." Perhaps it should have been, considering the Bulldogs (15-8, 6-5 SEC) had seven players available and just one of them was taller than 5-foot-9 -- and she fouled out with eight minutes to play. That generally isn't a promising set of circumstances. And yet, as Mississippi State has been known to do this season, those obvious issues didn't merit dwelling. A month ago, Mississippi State was rushed into turnovers and couldn't compete down low against the Rebels (18-6, 6-5). That changed Sunday, even though the circumstances didn't, and it allowed interim coach Doug Novak and his team to gut out a victory against the odds.
 
'All you can do is just trust him': MSU players are buying into Doug Novak; wins are following
Doug Novak typically falls back on coach-speak, which he admits, and rarely discusses the personal aspect of his position as Mississippi State's interim head coach. When reflecting on the obstacles he and his team have overcome this season, Novak rarely says more than this: his team is resilient, and it's one day at a time. For him, that means preparing for Tuesday's matchup at Kentucky. But just before Novak took the podium Sunday for his postgame press conference after his team's Quadrant 1 win against Ole Miss, guard Anastasia Hayes was giving Novak all the praise he won't give himself. "It just feels good to have a coach that just won't give up on you," Hayes said. "When you have a coach like that, it's very inspiring. You can't do anything but trust." That wasn't a slight at former head coach Nikki McCray-Penson stepping down due to health reasons a month before this season started. It was a testament to Novak delivering on his promises when stepping into an unfavorable position. Novak harped on building relationships with players when he was named interim head coach just a month after joining the staff. Before he could draw up schemes, Novak said, he had to learn who his players were off the court. Some of that came from non-basketball conversations. Some of it came from his ability to not show too much emotion either way throughout the highs and lows of this season.
 
Mississippi State football's 2022 schedule rated toughest in country
Mike Leach and Mississippi State football have their work cut out for them in 2022. The Bulldogs are in line to take another step in Year 3 under Leach, with most of their offensive talent returning, but Mississippi State's schedule was projected as the most difficult in college football, according to 247Sports. Its 12 opponents combined for a 98-58 record in 2021 and includes the national champion and national runners-up. That's often the life of an SEC West team, with annual matchups against Alabama. But the nonconference slate for the Bulldogs isn't light, either. They open the season Sept. 3 against Memphis at Davis Wade Stadium before traveling to Tucson to face Arizona, although the Wildcats finished 1-11 last year. Another trip to LSU follows in the third week before facing Bowling Green to end September. But as the calendar flips to October, the most treacherous stretch begins. It opens with home games against Texas A&M (Oct.1) and Arkansas (Oct. 8) before consecutive road matchups with Kentucky (Oct. 15) and Alabama (Oct. 22). Last year, the Bulldogs dropped two of those four games, upsetting the Aggies and Wildcats while having a chance at knocking off the Razorbacks. From there, Mississippi State hosts Auburn, defending champions Georgia and East Tennessee State in November before the Thanksgiving Egg Bowl fixture against Ole Miss.
 
MSU's Phelps touched by the power of the sticky note
Recruiting is about relationships, and coaches like to identify prospects early. Mississippi State defensive line coach Jeff Phelps has an eye for talent, and on a recent recruiting trip to Alabama he stopped to visit Alabama Christian Academy's Ken Fleming. If Fleming isn't on your radar right now it might be because he's in the fourth grade. There can be a hard edge to recruiting with its fast pace and fierce competition as all coaches try to land the next big thing. On this particular recruiting trip it was a random act of kindness that stopped Phelps in his tracks. After visiting with Alabama Christian coach Michael Summers, Phelps, who followed MSU coach Mike Leach from Washington State, headed back to his car. From a distance he noticed a sticky note attached to his wind shield flapping in the breeze. He braced himself for a tongue-lashing for parking in someone else's spot. That wasn't what he got. "I read the note, and the note said, 'I hope you have the best day today. If you have tests, I hope you have all 100s.' There was a smiley face, and on the back was written from Ken, fourth grade," Phelps said. That day's assignment in Suzy Weed's fourth-grade class was simple. "Write something encouraging." For a moment Phelps was distracted from landing the next big thing, but it was a good distraction. Fleming took the assignment and knocked it out of the park. "There was no question he knew the game plan, and he did outstanding," Phelps said.



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.
Mississippi State University  •  Mississippi State, MS 39762  •  Main Telephone: (662) 325-2323  •   Contact: The Editor  |  The Webmaster  •   Updated: February 14, 2022Facebook Twitter