| Thursday, March 17, 2022 |
| Sonny Montgomery Foundation establishes scholarship for MSU-Meridian program | |
 | A 23-year-old Mississippi State Physician Assistant Studies student from Florida is the first recipient of the G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Physician Assistant Scholarship at MSU-Meridian. Adriana Fuentealba of Gulf Breeze, Florida, previously a surgical technician in medical research at the Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio, Texas, began the MSU-Meridian program this year. "The G.V. 'Sonny' Montgomery Foundation is proud to support the Physician Assistant Studies program at Mississippi State by providing $12,500 to Adriana over the two and a half years of the program," said Brad Crawford, president and executive director. Although Fuentealba is the first scholarship recipient, Crawford noted the foundation plans to "expand the scholarship to three students over the next three years. We see this investment as a win-win for MSU, the Meridian campus and veterans -- all done in the spirit of Sonny Montgomery," he added. MSU-Meridian's program is one of 254 accredited PA programs in the U.S. and is the only publicly funded program in Mississippi. "We are grateful to the G.V. Sonny Montgomery Foundation for supporting yet another initiative aimed at addressing critical needs in the state and region. Sonny Montgomery was passionate about this state, education and our veterans. This scholarship serves all of those," said Terry Dale Cruse, MSU-Meridian associate vice president and head of campus. |
| Food pantries help fill gap when stores close | |
 | Rural Mississippians face the same challenge as every other community across the country when a local grocery store closes: Where do lower-income residents find food? Many communities have chosen to act rather than let this setback destroy the way of life they hold dear. The Mississippi State University Extension Service has been involved in many projects to establish food banks or meal services in underserved areas. Kenya Cistrunk, MSU associate professor of social work, said there are numerous instances of community members leading efforts to address issues that have plagued them for years. "It is important to understand the factors or elements of resilience that exist in a food desert and then take those best practices and share them with other people," Cistrunk said. "If a grocery store leaves, that doesn't necessarily leave the town high and dry." Charlie Estess, a retired MSU Extension agent from Coahoma County, helps operate The Care Station, a service that provides an average of 245 hot meals a day five times a week to residents of Clarksdale. "We get food from grocery stores on the day of expiration; we process it, prepare it and try to get it on the menu that day," Estess said. Everyone at The Care Station is a volunteer, and these community members prep, cook, serve and deliver the food to those in need. "The folks involved in this mission see it with great responsibility that they are counted on to do what they're supposed to do," Estess said. |
| Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum creates programming, internship opportunities | |
| The late entrepreneur George Evans made a career shining shoes. Through the George Evans Shine Parlor, people came from all over to have their shoes shined at the well-known shop, Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum volunteer Joan Wilson said. Shown on display at the Heritage Museum is Evans' shoe shining station and the store's sign that were fixtures of Starkville commerce for decades before Evans passed away in 1980. "One guy came into the museum one time and wanted his picture taken in the George Evans shoe shining chair," Wilson said. "He had always been shining shoes and never had gotten to sit in the chair, so exhibits like these can be very special to people." The Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum is on its way to offering even more opportunities to share the county's history. The museum, located at 206 Fellowship St. in Starkville, features memorabilia of Oktibbeha County residents who were prominent in sports, medicine, pop culture and innovation, such as a display of Mayor Lynn Spruill and her feat of being the first woman to land an airplane on an aircraft carrier. Wilson said the Heritage Museum shows not only the community, but all those who come to visit, the uniqueness of Starkville through its exhibits and programming. Museum Board of Trustees Chair Cory Gallo said the museum is looking to expand not only its financial resources but also exhibits. He said the board is trying to identify various funding options to potentially hire a part-time employee and find ways to have active programming with visitors. The museum board has also created an internship program for Mississippi State University students to help maintain the museum's history and assist in operation. The current student intern has created signage and labels for several artifacts throughout the building, Gallo said. |
| Starkville Parks and Recreation Department hiring in multiple positions | |
 | Are you looking for a job that gets you into the great outdoors? Starkville may have just the thing. The city's Parks and Recreation Department is hiring full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees. There are openings in groundskeeping, event planning, concessions, and the always popular lifeguard positions. Applicants must be at least 17 years old. With a busy summer expected, parks managers are trying to build a solid team. "I would say that it's not a hard time keeping employees, more than we are just basically a new staff hiring a new staff, so we are really just trying to get our staff built up, so we can run our programs and get our parks clean for the community," said Doug Heflin, director of operations. |
| Marty Stuart gala event in Jackson to spotlight Philadelphia | |
 | Country Music Hall of Famer Marty Stuart says a fundraising event planned in downtown Jackson Monday night will be Philadelphia's night to shine. "An evening with Marty Stuart and the Congress of Country Music," an event that has been chaired by former Gov. and Mrs. Haley Barbour, will be hosted at the Westin Hotel in downtown Jackson. The gala will spotlight the Congress of Country Music while calling attention to the economic development in the downtown Philadelphia area and showcasing it to the rest of the state. "It's not just a fundraiser," said Stuart, a native of Philadelphia. "In the broader picture, it's Philadelphia stepping up into the spotlight like the B.B. King Museum in Indianola, the MAXX in Meridian, or the Grammy Museum in Cleveland. It's Philadelphia stepping up and weighing in now. "And it's not just Philadelphia. The culture of country music is also stepping up along with the collection and fundraising. This is kind of Philadelphia's night to shine." Stuart will perform during the evening and there will be a raffle. The renovation of the Ellis Theater is in Phase I of the project. Work is about 45 percent complete. It is expected to be finished in September. Located on the southwest corner of Byrd Avenue and Main Street, when completed, the Congress of Country Music will feature a renovated Ellis Theater along with a museum to display Stuart's 20,000-plus piece collection of country music memorabilia. |
| St. Patrick's Day parades turn pandemic blues Irish green | |
 | St. Patrick's Day celebrations across the country are back after a two-year hiatus, including the nation's largest in New York City, in a sign of growing hope that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic may be over. The holiday served as a key marker in the outbreak's progression, with parades celebrating Irish heritage among the first big public events to be called off in 2020. An ominous acceleration in infections quickly cascaded into broad shutdowns. The full-fledged return of New York's parade on Thursday coincides with the city's wider reopening. Major mask and vaccination rules were recently lifted. Celebrations are back in other cities, too. Over the weekend, Chicago dyed its river green, after doing so without much fanfare last year and skipping the tradition altogether during the initial virus onslaught. Boston, home to one of the country's largest Irish enclaves, is resuming its annual parade Sunday after a two-year absence. So is Savannah, Georgia, where the parade's cancellation disrupted a nearly two-century tradition. Some communities in Florida, one of the first states to reopen its economy, were also bringing their parades back. |
| How will year-round daylight saving time affect the economy? | |
| Most Americans recently set their clocks forward by an hour for daylight saving time, making our evenings brighter and mornings darker. But the biannual change to our clocks may end now that the Senate has passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which was originally introduced by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida back in 2018. Last year, he reintroduced the bill, which is co-sponsored by lawmakers from both major political parties. The bill would keep daylight saving time year-round and take effect next year. It now moves to the House of Representatives for approval before it can be signed into law by President Joe Biden. In a press release about the act, lawmakers cited health, economic and public safety benefits for the change, such as the potential for an increase in consumer spending and a reduction in car crashes. David Wagner, an associate professor of management at the University of Oregon, is excited by the move and said it is "a long time coming." This move is important because it would stop us from switching our clocks back and forth, not because having that extra hour of sunlight is inherently better, Wagner explained. And those shifts can be harmful. Wagner has conducted studies on this topic with other researchers, finding that there's an increase in workplace injuries following the change to daylight saving time due to lost sleep. Businesses have the advantage of seeing increased purchasing activity when there's an extra hour of sunlight. |
| Fed kicks off fight against inflation. It could take years. | |
 | The Federal Reserve delivered a sharp message Wednesday on the outlook for the U.S. economy this year: Inflation will cool but it's not going away, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine has created a cloud of uncertainty. Central bank policymakers, who kicked off a series of interest rate increases for the first time in more than three years, were also more pessimistic about GDP growth, given lower congressional spending, the war, and their own efforts to remove the Fed's massive support for the economy. That means even if Fed Chair Jerome Powell succeeds in his plans to ease the worst price surge in four decades while avoiding a recession, the White House will still have to deal with elevated inflation for the next couple of years without the blockbuster growth it has enjoyed since President Joe Biden took office. And that could dim the Democrats' chances of holding onto Congress during this year's midterm elections. The latest forecasts from the Fed demonstrate how economic cycles rarely fit neatly into political ones, with the central bank focusing on the complicated task of cooling inflation without tipping the economy into a contraction, a goal it has often historically failed at. The central bank is projecting it might need to raise rates as many as seven times this year, and another four times in 2023. "It looks like they took out the bazooka," said Beth Ann Bovino, chief U.S. economist at S&P Global. "Maybe the Fed was a little late in the game, but the Fed, when they catch up, they come out running." |
| Mortgage Rates Top 4% for the First Time Since 2019 | |
 | The era of ultralow mortgage rates is over. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage topped 4% for the first time since May 2019, Freddie Mac said Thursday. At the beginning of the year, the average rate on America's most popular home loan was 3.22%. It hit a record low of 2.65% in January 2021 and spent more than half the year under 3%. Home-lending costs had been rising ahead of the Federal Reserve's decision Wednesday to raise rates for the first time since 2018. And while the Fed's quarter-point move didn't affect Freddie Mac's weekly average of 4.16%, recorded before the central bank's announcement, it is likely to send rates even higher. Mortgage rates are closely tied to the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury, which tends to rise in tandem with the Fed's benchmark rate. Rising borrowing costs pose another challenge for would-be homeowners already facing soaring home prices. An average rate around 4%, while still historically low, is sharply higher than the sub-3% rates that were available for much of last year. And the last time the 30-year mortgage rate topped 4%, the median home price was $277,000 -- 26% lower than it is today. |
| It's a deal: Mississippi teacher pay plan awaits final votes | |
| Negotiators from the Mississippi House and Senate reached a deal Wednesday to boost some of the lowest teacher salaries in the nation. The two Republican-controlled chambers will vote on the plan in coming days, and members are expected to pass it by wide margins. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has said he supports higher pay levels to recruit and retain teachers. During a meeting Wednesday, negotiators from the Senate offered an average increase of about $5,100 -- a jump of more than 10% over teachers' current pay. That is a few hundred dollars higher than the House offered last week. "We think that this is a doable proposal," said Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar, a Republican from Leakesville. Republican Rep. Kent McCarthy of Hattiesburg said House leaders were eager to reach a deal. "Let's get this done," McCarty said. Within hours, negotiators from the two chambers signed the final plan. Teachers' base pay would increase by a few hundred dollars most years, with larger increases with every fifth year of experience and a more substantial bump at 25 years. |
| Top lawmakers reach deal on historic teacher pay raise plan | |
 | The state's top lawmakers have agreed to a historic pay increase for Mississippi's chronically underpaid K-12 public teachers. Leaders from the Senate and House signed off on a conference report that creates a new pay scale for public teachers, raises their base salaries and contains yearly pay bumps. "The winners today are our teachers who are helping grow the next generation of Mississippi leaders," Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said in a statement. "Thank you for all of your work on behalf of our state." Now that the report has been signed, it will go back before the House and Senate for consideration. Since both chambers previously passed versions of a teacher pay raise plan, they will likely vote to adopt the conference report. If both the House and Senate approve of the latest plan, it would be a substantial pay raise for public teachers and would provide an average raise of more than $5,000 for the next school year. The new compromise is a mesh of the House's and Senate's plans. Antonio Castanon Luna, executive director of the Mississippi Association of Educators, said that he and the dozens of member educators that attended the committee meeting were glad to see significant progress happen on a teacher pay bill. "We believe our Legislature working together on this is encouraging," Luna said. |
| As Mississippi cities opt out of medical marijuana, business hopefuls shut out | |
| Mississippians hoping to start medical marijuana businesses are up against a new obstacle: city aldermen. Despite voters overwhelmingly passing Initiative 65 to create a medical marijuana program in November 2020, the state supreme court struck it down on constitutional technicality. After months of uncertainty, Gov. Tate Reeves signed the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act into law in February 2022. Now, some local business people hoping to get a foothold in the industry are being blocked by their elected officials. One Mississippi pharmacist's plans to open a dispensary in Brandon are paused indefinitely and cultivators with hopes of growing the plant in nearby cities are facing the same hurdles. Four city boards in Brandon, Ridgeland, Gluckstadt and Pass Christian have already voted to sit out of the state's medical marijuana program and at least a few others from Winona to Sumrall are likely to take up their own opt-out vote ahead of the state's May deadline. Patients in opt-out cities can still possess medical cannabis, but the municipalities won't allow dispensaries or cultivators to open businesses within their limits -- at least for now. "This was expected," said Slates Veazey, a Jackson attorney and expert in cannabis law. "It's something businesses and the industry have been watching closely. More cities are likely to do the same." Advocates for medical marijuana call the choice to sit out the program short sighted. City leaders say they're just being careful: They'd rather see how medical marijuana businesses play out in other cities before allowing them in their own communities. |
| Mississippi Legislature passes resolutions to cut all ties with Russia and condemn Ukraine invasion | |
 | The Mississippi House and Senate have both passed resolutions condemning the invasion of the Ukraine and calling for the state to cut all ties with Russia. In the Senate, Concurrent Resolution 563 passed unanimously. The House resolution, HCR 77, was also passed unanimously. Both have been transmitted to the opposite chamber. "Every morning we see more and more horrors occurring in Ukraine at the hands of Russia's leadership," Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann said. "This resolution sends a clear message to the Ukrainian people who are fighting for their lives: Mississippi supports you, you are in our prayers, and we will not associate with Russia or its murderous dictator." The Senate resolution provides that the state of Mississippi sever all economic, financial, and other connections with Russia and its businesses. The House resolution is similarly worded. However, in the House resolution, representatives call Russian President Vladimir Putin "a dictator." Both versions convey that the State of Mississippi reaffirms its commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity. Depending on which resolution is approved by the full Legislature, a copy would be sent to the President of the United States and the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States. |
| Sen. Wicker returns from Poland amid Russian invasion of Ukraine | |
 | Miss. U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker returned from Poland Monday amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While there, he met with senior Polish officials, visited U.S. troops and evaluated refugee sites. "We were able to talk to our diplomatic leadership from Kyiv who had to move for safety into Poland," Wicker said. "We spoke to the Polish defense minister... We talked to some very brave troops, including some troops that are citizens of my home state of Mississippi. And so, we are able to get a good picture with some intelligence briefings with the 82nd Airborne... We witnessed as thousands and thousands of people were fleeing Ukraine for the safety of countries that were willing to take them as refugees." Wicker says many Ukrainian refugees discussed defenses they believe need to be taken against Russia. "We experienced the resolve of the Ukrainian people that we talk to, and we ask them what they needed," Wicker said. "And they said we need a No-Fly Zone, we need air superiority. They may not get that, but we can help them defend their skies against Russian aircraft." While the senator says those may not be options, he says the U.S. and its allies need to think creatively to help the people of Ukraine. |
| Biden's sending more arms to Ukraine, but some in Congress call it lacking | |
 | President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced the U.S. government will send $800 million in weapons to Ukraine, bringing the total over the past year to $2 billion, but pressure is growing on Capitol Hill to do even more. According to Biden and senior U.S. officials, the new package will include 800 shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft weapons, and the president said his administration is working with Ukraine to obtain an unspecified type of longer-range anti-aircraft systems. The package also includes 9,000 shoulder-fired anti-armor weapons, including Javelins; nearly 7,000 small arms, from machine guns to grenade launchers; 20 million rounds of ammunition; and 100 drones, including what Biden called "our most cutting-edge" ones. Also about to be sent: more body armor and helmets. "These are direct transfers of equipment from our Department of Defense to the Ukrainian military to help them as they fight against this invasion," Biden said. "We're going to continue to do more in the days and weeks ahead." But as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, now 21 days old, rages on, many in Congress support Biden's efforts but say his administration is a step behind Ukraine's rapidly mounting wartime needs. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a dramatic virtual address to Congress on Wednesday, asked for NATO to enforce a no-fly zone in Ukraine and to provide his country with combat aircraft. He also requested more air defense capabilities and other weapons. So far there's no consensus in Congress on trying to require the administration to ensure the Ukrainians get fighter jets. But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. -- arguably Capitol Hill's most outspoken advocate of sending the MiGs to Ukraine -- has drafted a resolution that would encourage the White House to do just that. Although the resolution is nonbinding, if it were to get a vote, Graham said at least 60 senators would support it, and its approval would significantly increase the pressure on Biden. |
| Biden calls Putin a 'war criminal' | |
 | President Biden explicitly called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "war criminal" Wednesday, after weeks of avoiding the term and at a time when his administration is still determining whether that label officially applies. Biden made the dramatic accusation seemingly off the cuff, in response to a reporter's shouted question at an afternoon event on an entirely different topic. "I think he is a war criminal," Biden said, after delivering comments on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The asseveration was emblematic of the day's high emotions and dramatic agenda, which were driven by a forceful speech to Congress delivered by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, rather than by Biden's own carefully laid plans and message. Biden watched Zelensky's 9 a.m. address from the private library of his White House residence, absorbing an emotional plea that invoked both Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11 -- two deadly attacks on the United States that came from the sky -- and beseeched the president to close the skies above Ukraine. Almost exactly four hours later, Biden responded with his own remarks praising Zelensky's "passionate" and "significant" speech, outlining the help his administration is providing Ukraine and announcing significant new aid. But he also made clear that the crux of Zelensky's appeal -- a no-fly zone above Ukraine -- remains a nonstarter for the United States. The administration has sought to draw a careful line between defensive and offensive weapons, arguing that the latter risked setting off a direct confrontation with Russia that could turn into a larger war. |
| Ukraine's Digital Ministry Is a Formidable War Machine | |
 | Valeriya Ionan, a deputy minister at Ukraine's Ministry for Digital Transformation, was breastfeeding her two-month-old son Mars when the first explosions boomed over Kyiv in the early hours of February 24. "I didn't get at first what was happening," she says. Cold truth soon dawned: Russia was invading Ukraine. Ionan, a 31-year-old MBA who previously worked in marketing, hastily set up a call with other leaders at Ukraine's digital ministry. The department, staffed by tech-savvy millennials and led by Mykhailo Fedorov, a 31-year-old founder of a digital marketing startup, was established to digitize government services and boost Ukraine's tech industry. Now it had to figure out what digital bureaucrats can offer in wartime. The projects the ministry came up with have made it a linchpin of Ukraine's fight against Russia -- and the country's broad support among world leaders and tech CEOs. Within three days of the first missiles falling on Kyiv, Federov and his staff launched a public campaign to pressure US tech giants to cut off Russia, began accepting cryptocurrency donations to support Ukraine's military, secured access to Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service, and began recruiting a volunteer "IT Army" to hack Russian targets. More recent projects include a chatbot for citizens to submit images or videos of Russian troop movements. "We have restructured the Ministry of Digital Transformation into a clear military organization," says Anton Melnyk, an adviser to the department. |
| Biden to call China's Xi to discuss Russia, economic issues | |
| President Joe Biden will speak Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss ongoing economic competition between the two countries and Russia's war against Ukraine. White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced the upcoming phone call in a Thursday statement that said it's "part of our ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication" between the United States and China. The call follows an intense seven-hour meeting in Rome on Monday between White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi. U.S. officials have warned that China has amplified Russian disinformation that could be a pretext for Putin's forces to attack Ukraine with chemical or biological weapons. There are also reports -- denied by the Kremlin -- that Russia has reached out to China for aid as it faces sanctions and an invasion that faces stiff resistance by Ukrainians. At the meeting, Sullivan wanted more transparency on Beijing's posture regarding Russia and repeated that any attempts by China to help Russia avoid sanctions would be costly for Xi's government. |
| Jeff Zients to Leave as Biden's Covid Czar and Be Replaced by Ashish Jha | |
 | Jeffrey D. Zients, an entrepreneur and management consultant who steered President Biden's coronavirus response through successive pandemic waves and the largest vaccination campaign in American history, plans to leave the White House in April to return to private life, President Biden said in a statement. Mr. Zients will be replaced as the White House coronavirus coordinator by Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a practicing internist who has urged an aggressive approach to the pandemic in frequent television appearances. Dr. Jha will coordinate the government's Covid-19 response from inside the White House, officials said. Now, with three-quarters of Americans having received at least one dose of a vaccine, officials said the federal response would become more of a long-term public health effort and less of a moment-by-moment crisis requiring rapid government action. If new variants of the virus spread, they said, Dr. Jha would be able to draw upon the tools his predecessor put in place during the past 14 months. Officials said his background as a medical doctor makes him the right choice as the virus becomes more an endemic part of the country's health challenges. In 2014, Dr. Jha was a co-chair of an international commission on the global response to the Ebola outbreak. And he has argued that agencies like the World Health Organization are critical in dealing with diseases like Ebola and Zika. The decision to replace Mr. Zients with Dr. Jha reflects Mr. Biden's desire to keep management of the pandemic close at hand. |
| Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science closer to finding executive director | |
| Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science is one step closer to selecting its next leader. Applications for the new executive director closed on March 11. According to Mississippi Department of Education's Director of Communications Jean Cook, the selection process will include a committee representing MSMS leadership and stakeholders. MDE is leading the search for the new director, and it expects to have someone in by the end of the current school year, which ends June 30. "MDE is reviewing applications to determine which applicants meet the qualifications outlined in the job posting, and interviews are tentatively scheduled for the end of March," MDE Public Information Officer Shanderia Minor said. MDE appointed Rick Smith to stand in as the interim executive director, a role that officially began Jan. 1 when previous executive director Germain McConnell left MSMS to become chief of staff for the Oxford School District. Across the MSMS campus, students, staff, faculty and Smith have high expectations for the eventual appointment of the new executive director. MSMS is nationally recognized for its academic excellence, and those invested in the school's and students' success want a leader who understands that and will work to achieve and maintain that national reputation, Smith said. One challenge MSMS is looking to improve upon is making sure the school can serve its full capacity of students. There are currently 100 seniors and 119 juniors at MSMS, but the capacity of the school is closer to 300. |
| Up For the Count: UM math professor receives NSF funding | |
| Numbers are Micah Milinovich's passion. A respected mathematician, the University of Mississippi professor of mathematics has spent years studying the properties of integers and recently was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to fund his research. Milinovich's award for "The Distribution of Zeros of L-Functions and Related Questions" supports his research in number theory, a branch of mathematics that studies properties of integers. Within all integers is a special set of numbers called primes: numbers whose only factors are 1 and themselves, such as 2, 5, or 17. Numbers such as 4, 12, and 26 are not prime. "Since the time of the ancient Greeks, number theorists have tried to find patterns within the integers," Milinovich said. "It turns out that every positive integer can be written as a product of primes, much in the same way that molecules can be written in terms of atoms. "So, we can think of primes as the 'building blocks' or 'atoms' of the integers." Despite thousands of years of investigation, many basic questions about primes, such as how far apart primes can be or how often primes can be close together, remain unsolved and subject to conjecture. |
| U. of Mississippi Medical Center plans Ridgeland facility | |
| The University of Mississippi Medical Center and Kerioth Corporation plan to bring a new medical facility here just off of the interstate near the Washington Monument cell tower. UMMC purchased the property on Colony Park Boulevard for $14,253,045 in January of this year following approval from the IHL Board of Trustees. On Tuesday, the Ridgeland Mayor and Board of Alderman approved a petition by the Highland Colony Land Company, Kerioth and UMMC to close and vacate certain parts of rights-of-ways on the property in a 6-0 vote at their regular meeting on Tuesday. Alderman Chuck Gautier, who works with Kerioth, was absent. Public Works Director Alan Hart said the motion would eliminate platted streets, alleys and rights-of-way the city has potentially planned for the area. We have no current uses and no potential uses for these streets and alleys," Hart said. A document from the IHL board concerning the purchase of the property says that the "surgical capacity" at the UMMC Jackson campus is "quite limited, which also constrains teaching opportunities" and the new property will allow UMMC the opportunity to "increase academic opportunities for students and trainees in facilities with healthcare settings that more closely match those of the providers in which many will eventually be employed, outside the academic medical center setting." |
| JSU president addresses Homeland Security committee about HBCU threats | |
| Jackson State University President Thomas Hudson is one of the leaders to appear before the Committee on Homeland Security in a hearing about recent bomb threats to historically Black colleges and universities. JSU was one of more than 30 HBCUs targeted by the threats in the past three months. The White House announced Wednesday that the HBCUs are now eligible for federal grants as part of a program designed to help improve campus security and provide mental health resources. "These terrorists -- and they are terrorists, whether they be engaged in physical violence or threats of such -- seek to intimidate good people from exercising their religious beliefs and receiving an education," U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson said during Thursday's hearing. "While these institutions have shown remarkable resilience under terrible circumstances, their academic or religious missions are too often hampered by having to divert resources to ensure safety and security." Thompson, a Democrat from Bolton, is the chairman of the committee. |
| JSU Education Endowment, Ezra Jack Keats Awards and Out of the Darkness Campus Walk at USM | |
| Jackson State University recently received a $75,000 education endowment named for the late Stephen F. Mason, the 17th pastor of the Greater Pearlie Grove M.B. Church. The university will use the scholarship to pay for tuition, textbooks, supplies and other fees included in the cost of education for eligible students, a release from JSU says. Mason graduated from JSU in 1976 and worked as a teacher in the Canton and Jackson Public School Systems for more than 20 years before becoming an ordained minister in 1988. He served as pastor for Mt. Charity M.B. Church in Carthage for seven years before transferring to Greater Pearlie Grove M. B. Church of Jackson in 1995. The church relocated from Grand Avenue to its current location at 1640 West County Line Road and held its first worship service in the new location on Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012. Mason led the church for more than 26 years until he passed away in October 2021. Eligible students for the Stephen F. Mason Education Scholarship must be incoming freshmen or sophomores pursuing a degree in the field of education who maintain a minimum 2.75 GPA; submit three letters of recommendations from school officials reflecting exemplary behavior, leadership, excellence of character or community involvement; and submit a one-page essay explaining how the Stephen F. Mason Education Scholarship will impact their academic career at JSU and beyond. |
| 'Divisive Concepts' Ban Targets Tennessee's Public Colleges | |
 | Students and staff members at Tennessee's public colleges and universities may soon be able to sue if they feel that they have been punished for not accepting "divisive concepts" during discussions of topics like race and gender. A Republican-backed bill moving through the state legislature outlines 16 divisive concepts, including someone being considered "inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive because of their sex," and Tennessee or the United States being described as "fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist." The legislation says it covers "public institutions," which seems to mean all public institutions of higher education. The bill -- spearheaded by the Tennessee House speaker, Cameron Sexton -- will be voted on by the state Senate next week. A top lawmaker told The Tennessee Star that he believes the legislation will pass. Similar "divisive concepts" proposals are being considered in other states, such as Georgia and South Dakota, but Tennessee's bill is unique in several ways. In addition to facing potential lawsuits under the bill, Tennessee's public institutions would have to investigate complaints by students or staff members who felt that they had been discriminated against for not "subscribing to a divisive concept," such as in a class or training session. If the college determined that a violation had occurred, the employee deemed responsible would be disciplined. A second offense could result in termination. Colleges would be required to report annually to state lawmakers on the aggregate number of complaints, investigative findings, and actions taken. |
| U. of Arkansas board committee OKs proposed 2023 launch of art history graduate program | |
| The newest academic art program at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville supported by millions in Walton family grant money received preliminary approval Wednesday to enroll its first students in fall 2023. planned master's program in art history -- the only such graduate degree program in Arkansas -- will provide "immersive" travel opportunities and offer internships at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, according to documents presented to the University of Arkansas System board of trustees. A trustees committee on Wednesday backed the proposed 2023 launch of the two-year graduate program, expected to enroll five students in its first year and 10 students in later years. Board documents described arts specialists as working in museums or galleries or in academic jobs, among other "art spaces." Final approvals remain pending, but art history at UA is receiving financial support from the $120 million Walton grant announced in 2017 to support arts education at the university. Charles Robinson, UA's interim chancellor, said tuition and fees for 36 hours in the academic program would normally come out to about $18,000. "But for these students, there will be no cost, because the students will be fully funded from the art history graduate endowment provided by the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation gift that established the [UA] School of Art," Robinson told trustees. |
| U. of Florida internal probe concludes no improper pressure exerted on COVID-19 data | |
 | An internal investigation by the University of Florida has concluded there is no basis for allegations that the state or university administrators sought to destroy or suppress research data related to COVID-19 over political concerns. An investigative committee composed of UF faculty members said they were not able to identify who made the allegations to the UF Faculty Senate but determined the data in question belonged to the Florida Department of Health, not UF. The Faculty Senate did not divulge the names of those complaining because they had promised them confidentiality. The nine-page report was signed by Adegbola Adesogan, in the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences; Michele Manuel, in the College of Engineering; and Richard Yost, in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and dated March 9. UF released the report publicly on Wednesday. UF administration initiated the investigation on Dec. 9 following a report from the UF Faculty Senate that included claims of pressure to destroy and barriers to publishing COVID-19 data. "It looks to me like they did a very thorough investigation," Faculty Senate President David Bloom said to the Gainesville Sun on Wednesday. "The unfortunate thing is that the person who made the initial complaint did not come forward to provide the data." Bloom said the internal investigation appears to put to rest the earlier allegations that COVID-19 research data was suppressed, but the Faculty Senate will continue to listen if similar complaints are brought forward. |
| U. of Missouri Commits $500 Million to Faculty and Staff Raises | |
| At a time when many colleges are having to penny-pinch amid pandemic-era challenges, the University of Missouri system's president is committing an eye-popping $500 million toward performance-based salary increases for faculty and staff members over the next five years at the Columbia flagship. Before the pandemic, Mizzou was grappling with significant enrollment declines and tens of millions of dollars in budget shortfalls, but that tide has turned in the last couple of years. Proving that point was Mun Y. Choi's commitment to "annual performance increases as well as retention of high-performing faculty and staff," which came during his State of the University address on Tuesday. "We need a long-term, sustained plan" for awarding raises, Choi, who is also chancellor of the flagship campus, said during the speech. Choi and other Mizzou officials are pitching the raises as an effort to reward faculty members they consider to be productive. University leaders have recently clashed with faculty advocates over a policy that allows for tenured professors' pay to be cut by up to 25 percent for productivity- or workload-related reasons. All faculty and staff members on the Columbia campus will be eligible for salary increases, though because the raises are based on merit, not every campus employee will receive one. "We don't hand out across-the-board raises at Mizzou," Christian Basi, a university spokesman, told The Chronicle. Not every college or department at Mizzou will receive the same pool of money to use on raises, Basi said. Instead, the funding breakdown will be based on "merit, market, and retention factors." |
| Student interest in law school grew during the pandemic | |
 | Student interest in legal education has ballooned in recent years, driven by the pandemic, the movement for racial justice and a hot job market, experts say. "All the events that we've had -- the pandemic, the Jan. 6 Capitol insurgence, the Black Lives Matter movement, the murder of George Floyd -- everything has put a spotlight on why law matters," said Kellye Testy, president and chief executive officer of the Law School Admission Council. "It's galvanized in young people a desire to pursue justice and to find a way to contribute and to make a difference positively in the world. Law is always seen as a really good pathway for that." Flush with students, the U.S. legal education sector is undergoing some of its biggest changes in years. Law schools are amending their curricula to include more work experience and consideration for student well-being. LSAC, which administers the Law School Admission Test, is developing an undergraduate curriculum that could one day replace the test for some students. And a private university in Florida is planning to open its own law school -- the first new one in eight years. Law schools received especially high numbers of applications in 2021, and volumes remain above historic levels this year. As of early March, the number of law school applicants for the upcoming academic year was down 9.5 percent over last year, but it was still 8.3 percent higher than in 2020, according to data from LSAC. |
| Education Department will provide grants for HBCUs targeted by bomb threats | |
 | More than 30 historically black colleges and universities across the country have been targeted with bomb threats in the past three months, and the White House announced Wednesday that they'd be eligible for special Department of Education grants as a result. "The bomb threats against HBCUs, particularly concentrated in Black History Month, constitute a uniquely traumatic event, given the history of bombings as a tactic to intimidate and provoke fear in Black Americans during the long struggle for civil rights," Dietra Trent, who leads the White House's efforts to support HBCUs, wrote in a statement announcing the initiative. The awards, which typically range between $50,000 and $150,000, are from Project SERV, which supports schools "that have experienced a violent or traumatic incident," the department said. "It's tough enough to reopen and go to school during a pandemic, and to have this added on, it increased the level of anxiety and apprehension, and they're feeling it," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told All Things Considered. He said the funds could be used to improve security or increase mental health resources. Cardona noted that the move comes on top of previous funding increases to HBCUs by the Biden administration, including $5.8 billion in COVID-19 stimulus from the American Rescue Plan. |
| Rise in defense spending means smaller increase for science in new U.S. budget | |
| Last week, Congress agreed to give roughly 5% more money to many federal science agencies when it passed a $1.5-trillion government budget for 2022. But what science advocates had hoped would be a banner funding year fell victim to a bipartisan push to spend much more on defense than President Joe Biden had requested -- and to one Democratic senator's rejection of a separate Biden plan to allocate billions of additional dollars for research. Besides beefing up the U.S. military, appropriators reduced by more than half the 16%, $110-billion increase Biden had sought for civilian programs -- including a slew of new and expanded research initiatives. Biden had proposed boosting defense programs by only 1.8%, or $12 billion, but the annual spending package he signed into law on 15 March gives defense a 5.6% boost and civilian programs a 6.7% bump. Having a final 2022 budget also ends a 5-month governmentwide spending freeze that prohibited any new initiatives. For the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the government's biggest funder of academic research, that shift in priorities shrunk Biden's proposed 21% hike, much of it for a new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to develop cutting-edge medical treatments, to 5%. The final bill, which gives NIH $45 billion, means ARPA-H will be launched with $1 billion rather than the $6.5 billion Biden had requested. The National Science Foundation (NSF) had an even wilder roller-coaster ride. |
| What's in the 2022 budget for higher education? | |
| The $1.5 trillion fiscal 2022 spending package President Joe Biden signed this week earmarks $76.4 billion in discretionary appropriations for the U.S. Department of Education, nearly $3 billion more than the previous year's budget. About $3 billion for higher education programs and a separate $25 billion for federal student aid will go to the Education Department. A $400 increase will bring the maximum Pell award to $6,895 for the 2022-23 year. The spending package also sets aside $885 million to assist historically Black colleges and other minority-serving institutions, $96 million more than the previous year. HBCUs have been subject to continual bomb threats in recent months. Biden's budget represents a stark departure from the Trump administration's proposals. They called for major spending cuts for the Education Department, which Congress largely disregarded. However, the package may disappoint some college affordability advocates who have pressed the White House to double the Pell Grant, which has significantly lost its purchasing power over time. The grant once offset about three-quarters of the cost of attending a public four-year college in the 1970s. Now it covers barely a third of expenses. The appropriations package also dedicates $1.2 billion for Federal Work Study, $20 million more than last year. |
SPORTS
| MSU Softball Releases Additional 40th Anniversary Details | |
| State will celebrate the Ladies of the 80s, who took part in the first iteration of the school's softball program from 1982-86, on Saturday, March 19 against Ole Miss. That day will also mark the anniversary of the Bulldogs' first victory in program history. The 2022 season marks the 40th anniversary of MSU's first varsity fastpitch softball game on March 10, 1982. Recognizing the anniversary against Ole Miss is equally fitting, as State claimed its first SEC victory once the league sponsored the sport against the Rebels on March 6, 1997. Members of the team during the 1980s period, prior to the suspension of the program in 1986, are invited to return to Starkville and be recognized on March 19. Alumni from the 1980s will be served a pregame lunch and have the opportunity to reconnect with former teammates. There will also be a reserved seating block for the Ladies of the 80s during the game. Janice DeNomie Skinner, who threw the first pitch in MSU history in 1982, will be welcomed back to throw the first pitch on Saturday. She will be joined by Vicki Bonar Earnshaw, another significant contributor during the 1980s era. Between innings, a tribute video will be played on the board and the alumni will be recognized roll-call style for those in attendance. The full gameday experience on Saturday against the Rebels will be a throwback to the 80s. Fans in attendance will receive free slap bracelets with MSU softball's retro logo on them. Additionally, music in the ballpark will be 1980s hits throughout the day. |
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