| Wednesday, March 15, 2023 |
| First great white shark caught in Alabama: People 'should absolutely not be concerned,' researcher says | |
 | A rare catch of a great white shark documented and posted to YouTube is likely the first time the species has been caught from a beach in Alabama, a leading shark researcher says. J. Marcus Drymon, assistant extension professor at Mississippi State University and a leading shark expert, confirmed Tuesday that the early morning March 6 catch by anglers in Orange Beach was exactly what they expected -- a great white shark. "The shark is easy to distinguish from most other shark species in the Gulf of Mexico; some distinguishing features that were noticeable on the video include a homocercal tail, a strong caudal keel and a conical snout," said Drymon. It's a rare catch as well, he said. "I am only aware of a few great white sharks that have been caught from the beach near Alabama," he said, adding that one was caught from a beach a few years ago in Pensacola. "This is likely the first great white shark caught from the beach in Alabama." Larger great white sharks have been tracked offshore in Florida in recent weeks as well, but Drymon said the public has nothing to be concerned about. "This species is still rare this close in the Gulf of Mexico," he said. "People should absolutely not be concerned that this shark is in the water. My three children and I will still swim on coastal Alabama beaches." |
| Blueberry being named state fruit welcome news to Poplarville residents | |
 | Gov. Tate Reeves launched the work week by signing several pieces of legislation into law, including House Bill 1027, officially designating blueberries as the state fruit. It all stems from one fourth-grade class in Madison. "So do y'all think we should sign it? Yes! Well, let's do it then. Okay?" Reeves said during Monday's signing. The announcement is well-received by one Poplarville group that has been celebrating blueberries annually since 1984. "We're excited that this young group, while they were studying Mississippi, realized we didn't have a fruit for Mississippi," said Shirley Wiltshire, president of the Blueberry Jubilee Council. Down the road at Mississippi State University's experimental station, researchers grow blueberries to study, analyzing sugar content among other things across different varieties. "Blueberries are a very healthy product. I think that's one of the main drivers over the last few years is, you know, the marketing behind blueberries and showing that they're really good for you," said MSU researcher Eric Stafne. Stafne said blueberries are the most commercially grown fruit in the state, estimating about 2.5 million pounds produced each year, but that's not all. "We do have a lot of native, wild blueberries in the state that just grow everywhere in the woods, and you can go and find the bushes very easily. And so, it's really fitting that, you know, blueberry was chosen for this honor," he said. Stafne said these berries are blooming early due to this year's warmer weather. |
| Age, drought, rodents and neglect weaken California levees, heightening flood danger | |
 | The levee breach that left an entire California town underwater this weekend is putting a spotlight on how the state's vital flood control infrastructure is being weakened by age, drought, climate change, rodents and neglect -- leaving scores of communities at risk. On Friday night, the swollen Pajaro River burst through the worn-down levee, flooding the entire town of Pajaro and sending its roughly 3,000 residents into what officials are now estimating to be a multi-month-long exile. A second breach was reported on Monday. For decades, the levee was ignored by the federal government -- never rising to the status of a fix-worthy project -- despite repeated pleas, breaches, floods and even two deaths. Throughout Northern California, the Central Valley and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, there are more than 13,000 miles of levees designed to protect dry land from floods, deliver drinking water, and protect homes, businesses, and agriculture from flooding. According to work by Farshid Vahedifard -- a professor of civil engineering at Mississippi State University -- a high percentage were constructed by settlers in the mid- to late 19th century to protect agricultural lands from flooding. In addition, they've suffered the wear-and-tear of time, rodents, seismic events and drought. |
| $2.5M bid approved for downtown water, sewer work | |
 | The city is finally moving forward with the Main Street water and sewer improvements project. Aldermen approved a bid of almost $2.5 million for the project from DNA Underground, a Gulfport-based excavating contractor company, during their meeting last week. It was much more in line with project estimates compared to the first round of bidding, when the low bid came in at a budget-busting $4.8 million. When the contract is executed, DNA Underground will be responsible for installing new water mains and replacing undersized 4-, 6-, and 10-inch water lines with 12-inch lines down Main Street, from City Hall to Jackson Street; and Lampkin Street from Washington Street to the railroad tracks near Montgomery Street. Edward Kemp, general manager for Starkville Utilities Department, said these upgrades are necessary to help with current problems, such as occasional brown water and other complaints from customers, along with future growth. The city plans to use American Rescue Plan Act funds --- half each from the city's allotment and a state match --- to cover the costs. An exact timeline for the project will be determined at a pre-construction conference later this month, but DNA Underground is required to complete the project within nine months according to the contract. Kemp anticipates the upgrades will be completed faster. In February 2022, aldermen approved a $10 million Main Street redesign project that will eliminate turn lanes and expand sidewalks on Main Street. The water and sewer infrastructure upgrade is a "foundation" for the larger Main Street redesign project, Kemp said. |
| Foreign land holdings increase nationwide; Mississippi lawmakers consider restricting those purchases | |
 | Lawmakers in Mississippi have scaled back from preventing any foreign entities from purchasing land in the state through HB 280, and instead are requiring the formation of a study committee to determine what those current holdings look like. The bill would have originally grandfathered in any current foreign country land holdings but prevented any future purchases. According to a 2020 report done by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), foreign entities held land in all 50 states as of 2020 and purchasing trends were on the rise. Foreign agricultural land holdings have steadily increased throughout the country since 2015 at an average of nearly 2.2 million acres annually. The majority of these lands were forests, cropland and pasture. The information indicates that the majority of pasture and cropland, which are mostly purchased to construct wind towers, are not utilized. The USDA report showed that the majority of these holdings were concentrated in the South and West portions of the United States. In Mississippi, as of 2020, 727,906 acres of agricultural land were owned by foreign entities representing 2.8 percent of the state's agricultural acreage. There is a total of 30,020,480 acres of agriculture land in the state with 26,201,244 being privately held. Currently, 10.4 million of those acres house over 34,000 farms creating a $9.8 billion industry for the state producing food. "It is a problem and I support the legislation," said Andy Gipson, Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce, adding that he has already begun doing his own research into the topic. "What we see around the country, including China, have been busy behinds the scenes buying up attractive land including businesses." |
| Extra Table director urges lawmakers to pass bill aimed at further funding food banks | |
| Legislation that would incentivize Mississippi businesses to donate to local food banks is working its way through the state legislature. According to the Mississippi Food Network, one in four Mississippians -- approximately 600,800 people -- go hungry on a daily basis, making the Magnolia State the most food insecure state in the U.S. In order to curb this troubling statistic, House Bill 1723, authored by Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, was introduced. If signed into law, the bill will provide an income tax credit for businesses that donate to one, or more, of the four food banks in the state. The nonprofit food banks representing the Magnolia State are Extra Table, Feeding the Gulf Coast, Mid South Food Bank, and the Mississippi Food Network. Extra Table Executive Director Martha Allen says it is necessary for this legislation to become law because the ramifications of inflation have created a massive influx of individuals showing up to local food pantries to receive a meal within the past year. "A business that pays income tax can write that check to support feeding those hungry in our state. They'll get dollar-for-dollar credit from the Department of Revenue," Allen said on The Gallo Show. "This is something so critical. Those lines that you saw amidst COVID and the number of people attending the food banks, since June and July, those numbers have doubled and tripled. A food pantry that might have been feeding 200 people a week in June and July, they're feeding 800 to 1,000 right now." |
| Electric car stores will be restricted in Mississippi | |
 | Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill Tuesday restricting electric car manufacturers from selling vehicles in person unless they open franchised dealerships. Defying calls from some fellow Republicans in the Legislature to veto the measure, Reeves enacted into law House Bill 401, introduced by Republican Rep. Trey Lamar of Senatobia. The law will force electric car companies such as Tesla and Rivian to sell vehicles through franchises rather than company-owned stores, which is how they currently operate. "Almost 200 small businesses in communities across our state are seeking assurances that big manufacturers can't just destroy their businesses. That's fair!" Reeves, a Republican, said in a statement posted to social media. "I also recognize that innovation in this industry is inevitable. And with innovation comes new companies with new business models. I am committed to find long-term solutions -- in an ever changing market." The bill does not restrict the sale of electric cars, as people can buy them online. But if they want to buy an electric car in person, they would have to drive to the state's only Tesla store in Brandon, which will be allowed to remain open under the new law. Tesla or any other electric car company could not open a new brick-and-mortar location to sell cars unless they enter a franchise agreement. |
| Legislature passes bill regulating tianeptine, 'gas station heroin,' leaves kratom legal for now | |
 | The Mississippi Legislature has agreed on a bill that would ban the sale of tianeptine, commonly known as "gas station heroin," and the bill is now in the hands of Gov. Tate Reeves. The pills, which are sold under brand names like ZaZa Red and Tianna, are commonly sold as supplements in gas stations, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned that it has similar addictive qualities and withdrawal symptoms to opioids, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended anyone taking it to stop before they begin to experience signs of addiction. "This is the red ZaZa that's sold in convenience stores throughout our state that's causing so many problems," said Drug Policy Committee Chair Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Brandon. "We have letters from family members begging for us to get it off the shelves." Yancey said that the Mississippi State Medical Association and Mississippi Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores Association are in favor of adding the drug. Other bills attempted to address another product commonly sold in gas stations: the herbal extract kratom. None of those bills remain alive. "Kratom is still out there waiting for something to happen," Yancey said. "There's not the political will to get rid of kratom at this point." |
| Gov. Reeves signs bill decriminalizing fentanyl test strips into law | |
 | Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday signed legislation into law decriminalizing products that detect the presence of the illegal narcotic fentanyl. "It's a sad reality that fentanyl overdoses are skyrocketing as a result of an open border," Reeves said in a post on Twitter. "This bill will help to save lives." The bill overwhelmingly passed both chambers of the Legislature earlier this year, and it was backed by each chamber's leadership. "I'm grateful the governor signed the legislation, and, hopefully, lives will be saved as a result of it," House Drug Policy Committee Chairman Lee Yancey, R-Brandon, said. "We don't want someone's mistake to be a fatal mistake." Mississippi law currently considers fentanyl testing products such as test strips or testing wipes "drug paraphernalia," and if someone is convicted possessing these products, they could face up to six months in jail. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that's about 50 times more lethal than heroin, and the drug has pushed overdoses to new highs in America. Delivering test strips to people is part of a strategy known as "harm reduction" that gives appropriate products to drug users to prevent accidental overdoses. |
| Ex-rep: Legislative plans in Mississippi are 'Jim Crow 2.0' | |
| Efforts by the majority-white Mississippi Legislature to create courts with appointed rather than elected judges and to expand patrols by state police inside the majority-Black capital city of Jackson amount to "Jim Crow 2.0," a Democratic former state lawmaker said Tuesday. Ex-Rep. Kathy Sykes of Jackson also said people in other parts of the U.S. should pay attention to what's happening in Mississippi because ideas in one state can spread to others. Sykes, who supports abortion rights, mentioned the U.S. Supreme Court using a Mississippi case last year to upend abortion access nationwide. "We're the state that took away a woman's right to choose for her and her doctor to make decisions on her body," Sykes said. "So if we don't get involved around this country and around this world, we're going to have takeovers all over the United States where there is majority-minority representation." The Mississippi House and Senate this year have passed different versions of bills dealing with police and courts in Jackson, which has the highest percentage of Black residents of any major U.S. city. Negotiators from the two chambers are expected to work on final versions of the bills in the next two weeks. |
| Citizens rally against Jackson 'takeover' bills in Legislature | |
| A group organized by Black Voters Matter on Tuesday called on Mississippi lawmakers to kill House Bill 1020 and other measures they see as a "hostile takeover" of Jackson by state leaders. "This is ruthlessly racist ... a land and power grab by a majority-white Legislature," said Carol Blackmon, state manager of Black Voters Matter Fund, at a press conference at the state Capitol. HB 1020, as originally drafted, would create a special judicial district within the city of Jackson with judges appointed instead of elected as they are everywhere else in the state. The original measure, billed as a way to fight crime in Jackson, would create permanent judicial posts appointed by the white chief justice of the state Supreme Court instead of elected by the Black majority population of Jackson. The original measure would also expand an existing Capital Complex Improvement District patrolled by Capitol Police to cover an area of north Jackson that contains most of the city's white population. The Senate recently made major changes to the bill, including making chief justice-appointed judges temporary, through 2026, then adding another permanent elected judge for the Hinds County district that covers Jackson. The Senate also changed it to give Capitol Police jurisdiction throughout the city of Jackson, not just in the CCID. But those protesting the measure on Tuesday -- and most of the city's legislative delegation -- still oppose the Senate amended version. The House has also overhauled a separate Senate bill to include its original CCID Capitol Police expansion. "Our position is if you have real interest in eliminating crime, then why not provide resources to the city's official police force, instead of creating an alternate one," Blackmon said. |
| U.S. to Keep Flying Drones, Undeterred by 'Reckless' Russian Jets, Austin Says | |
 | Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the U.S. would continue to fly surveillance drones in international airspace and denounced the actions of Russian jet fighters that intercepted a U.S. drone and collided with it. In prepared remarks for a meeting of nations providing arms to Ukraine, Mr. Austin said the MQ-9 drone was "conducting routine operations" in international airspace Tuesday, when a pair of Russian jets "engaged in dangerous, reckless, and unprofessional practices." "This hazardous episode is part of a pattern of aggressive, risky, and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace," he said. "Make no mistake: The United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows. And it is incumbent upon Russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner." Russia has disputed the Pentagon's account of the mishap. Moscow's envoy to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, was summoned to the State Department to be handed a formal objection from the U.S. over the incident. Russia regularly scrambles bombers to conduct intercepts of U.S. and allied planes in areas where both Moscow and Washington and its allies share airspace, from the Black and Baltic Seas to the coast of Alaska. Moscow's jet fighters have also regularly harassed U.S. aircraft, but only on very rare occasions have they come into contact. |
| NSF eyes science alliances on 'steroids' to meet China challenge | |
 | The National Science Foundation has been stepping up partnerships and collaborative investments with allies around the world, one element of the Biden administration's push to build a coalition of like-minded researchers in biotechnology, artificial intelligence and other areas. The increased engagement is the administration's way to use alliances and democracies to isolate and outcompete China. The White House said in its 2022 national security strategy that the science and technology spending would enable the U.S. to "anchor an allied techno-industrial base that will safeguard our shared security, prosperity and values." But despite the friction between the U.S. and China, some scientists are still trying to walk a fine line: working with Chinese colleagues without violating U.S. rules. The benefit of doing so is, at least in part, to keep Chinese scientists in the Western world's publishing ecosystem even as Beijing tries to build its own. The NSF -- bolstered by a congressional authorization of $81 billion over a five-year period -- potentially doubling its budget -- is taking long-standing partnerships with allies and "putting it on steroids, if you may, with the CHIPS and Science Act and saying how might we prepare ourselves to be much more globally competitive," NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan said in an interview. |
| Biden withdraws from Alaskan road deal after pressure from Jimmy Carter | |
| President Joe Biden's administration backed away from a deal to allow a new road through a vast wildlife refuge in Alaska after Jimmy Carter urged officials to reject the construction in one of his last public acts before entering home hospice care. Federal officials on Tuesday withdrew from the Donald Trump-era deal to carve a road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, which was protected by a 1980 law signed by Carter that preserved the park and more than 100 million acres across the state. The land swap would have paved the way for a road that linked King Cove, a town of less than 1,000 people, to a nearby all-weather airport at Cold Bay for easier access to Anchorage and other larger cities. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said the agency will instead consider other land swaps that could provide more restricted road access to the area. Some local leaders had clamored for the road since the 1970s for a quicker route to emergency medical care, while environmentalists worried carving a path through a section of the refuge would sully the pristine wilderness. Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, a supporter of the road project, said the Biden administration caved to pressure from "radical Lower 48 environmental interests, not by Alaskans or the Alaska Native people who've lived in our state for thousands of years." |
| Lawyers to Face Off Before Judge in Closely Watched Abortion Pills Case | |
 | A hearing Wednesday in a lawsuit that seeks to overturn federal approval of a widely used abortion pill will provide the first opportunity to hear the arguments of the anti-abortion groups that filed the lawsuit and of the Food and Drug Administration, which is fighting to keep the abortion pill legal. The lawsuit, which seeks to end more than 20 years of legal use of medications for abortion, could have widespread implications in states where abortion is legal, not just where it is illegal. Medication abortion is used in more than half of pregnancy terminations in the United States and 40 percent of clinics that provide abortion services offer abortion pills only, not the surgical procedure. The hearing on Wednesday will revolve around the plaintiffs' request that Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District in Texas grant a preliminary injunction ordering the F.D.A. to withdraw its longstanding approval of mifepristone, the first pill in the two-drug medication abortion regimen, while the case proceeds through trial. Judge Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who has written critically about Roe v. Wade and previously worked for a Christian conservative legal organization, took some unusual steps leading up to the hearing. In a meeting last Friday with lawyers for the parties in the case, he asked them to keep quiet about the fact that a hearing had been scheduled and told them he planned to delay making the public aware of it and would only enter it into the public court record the evening before. |
| Experts say attacks on free speech are rising across the US | |
| In Idaho, an art exhibit was censored and teens were told they couldn't testify in some legislative hearings. In Washington state, a lawmaker proposed a hotline so the government could track offensively biased statements, as well as hate crimes. In Florida, bloggers are fighting a bill that would force them to register with the state if they write posts criticizing public officials. Meanwhile, bans on books and drag performances are growing increasingly common nationwide. "We are seeing tremendous attacks on First Amendment freedoms across the country right now, at all levels of government. Censorship is proliferating, and it's deeply troubling," said Joe Cohn, legislative and policy director with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. "This year, we're seeing a wave of bills targeting drag performances, where simply being gender nonconforming is enough to trigger the penalty. We're also seeing a wave of bills regulating what can be in public or K-12 school libraries," Cohn said. "On college campuses, we have been tracking data about attempts to get faculty members punished or even fired for speech or expression and the numbers are startling -- it's the highest rate that we've seen in our 20 years of existence." |
| So you began your event with an indigenous land acknowledgement. Now what? | |
 | Land acknowledgments have become increasingly common nationwide over the past few years. Many mainstream public events -- from soccer games and performing arts productions to city council meetings and corporate conferences -- begin with these formal statements recognizing indigenous communities' rights to territories seized by colonial powers. Indigenous leaders and activists have mixed feelings about land acknowledgments. While some say they are a waste of time, others are working to make the well-meaning but often empty speeches more useful. The debate is more than a niche issue; the pros and cons of land acknowledgments are the subject of myriad mainstream media articles, social media posts and online videos. And they've even been parodied on TV, in series like Reservation Dogs, about the exploits of a group of Oklahoma indigenous teens. "If it becomes routine, or worse yet, is strictly performative, then it has no meaning at all," said Kevin Gover, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and undersecretary for museums and culture at the Smithsonian Institution. "It goes in one ear and out the other." (Gover said only one or two Smithsonian museums have land acknowledgments; the National Museum of the American Indian is among those that do, and its acknowledgment is only one sentence long.) "If I hear a land acknowledgment, part of what I'm hearing is, 'There used to be Indians here. But now they're gone. Isn't that a shame?' And I don't wish to be made to feel that way," Gover said. But other indigenous experts say land acknowledgments do have value. |
| National Audubon Society, pressured to remove slave-owning naturalist's name, keeps it | |
 | The National Audubon Society, one of the country's best-known bird conservation organizations, decided in a closed-door vote this week to retain the name of John James Audubon, famed 19th-century naturalist and wildlife illustrator who was also an unabashed enslaver. The move comes even as about half-a-dozen of the organization's regional chapters have pledged to scrub his name from their titles, part of a broader reckoning over the U.S. environmental movement's history of entrenched racism. The National Audubon Society's 27-person board of directors voted to retain its current name during a Zoom meeting on Monday after more than a year of deliberating and gathering feedback from both members and outsiders. Susan Bell, chair of the board, declined to provide a breakdown of the final vote. "The name has come to represent not one person, but a broader love of birds and nature," Bell said in a phone interview. "And yet we must reckon with the racist legacy of John James Audubon, the man." Activists in and outside the organization have called upon the group -- an influential player in national climate and environmental policy -- to jettison Audubon's name. After months of conducting listening sessions and surveying people in both camps, the national organization's board of directors decided the moniker is now nearly synonymous with the avian conservation movement -- and shouldn't be abandoned. |
| GPT-4 has arrived. It will blow ChatGPT out of the water. | |
| The artificial intelligence research lab OpenAI on Tuesday launched the newest version of its language software, GPT-4, an advanced tool for analyzing images and mimicking human speech, pushing the technical and ethical boundaries of a rapidly proliferating wave of AI. OpenAI's earlier product, ChatGPT, captivated and unsettled the public with its uncanny ability to generate elegant writing, unleashing a viral wave of college essays, screenplays and conversations -- though it relied on an older generation of technology that hasn't been cutting-edge for more than a year. GPT-4, in contrast, is a state-of-the-art system capable of creating not just words but describing images in response to a person's simple written commands. When shown a photo of a boxing glove hanging over a wooden seesaw with a ball on one side, for instance, a person can ask what will happen if the glove drops, and GPT-4 will respond that it would hit the seesaw and cause the ball to fly up. The developers pledged in a Tuesday blog post that the technology could further revolutionize work and life. But those promises have also fueled anxiety over how people will be able to compete for jobs outsourced to eerily refined machines or trust the accuracy of what they see online. Public experiments with ChatGPT and the Bing chatbot have shown how far the technology is from perfect performance without human intervention. |
| Itawamba Community College to host lecture on women's writing March 28 | |
| Bridget Smith Pieschel will present "Women's Private Writing as a Public Resource" at 6 p.m., Mar. 28, at the W.O. Benjamin Fine Arts Center Lecture Demonstration Room on the Itawamba Community College Fulton Campus. A native of Louisville, Pieschel earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in English from Mississippi University for Women and the doctorate from the University of Alabama. Now retired after 39 years, 25 of those in supervisory positions, she is Emerita Professor of English and Women's Studies. Her career at The W included serving as the director of the Honors Program, as the dean of the Division of Humanities and twice as chair of the Department of Languages, Literature and Philosophy. She became the director of the Center for Women's Research and Public Policy at The W in 2005. Her honors include recipient of the MUW Medal of Excellence in 2005 and the Kossen Distinguished Faculty Award in 2012. She gives numerous presentations each year to university, professional, civic and student groups about MUW's history and 19th-century women's education. She has published articles also about individual Southern women, including Eudora Welty and the founder of the O Henry prize, MUW alumna Blanche Colton Williams. |
| Morgan Freeman to host 20th anniversary gala at Ole Miss' Ford Center | |
| Ole Miss will be welcoming award-winning Morgan Freeman later this month as he hosts the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts' 20th-anniversary gala. The event on March 25 will honor Ole Miss alumni Mary and Sam Haskell, who will receive the Ford Center's third Concerto Award for their patronage of the center and the arts. "In honor of our 20th anniversary, I wanted to find a way to publicly recognize exceptional patrons, who have supported the center from the beginning and continue to provide their guidance, energy, and treasure," Julia Aubrey, Ford Center director and associate professor of music, said. The first two inaugural Concerto Awards were presented to the Gertrude C. Ford Foundation and Chancellor Emeritus Robert Khayat. All performers will be supported with musical accompaniment by the Mississippians Jazz Ensemble, which is an Ole Miss student group under the direction of Michael Worthy. |
| JSU president formally resigns post. Hudson had been on paid leave since March 2 | |
| Former Jackson State President Thomas K. Hudson formally resigned Tuesday. Hudson has been on paid administrative leave since March 2. Hudson will be paid through the end of the month. Commissioner of Higher Education Dr. Alfred Rankins Jr. has accepted the resignation. Dr. Elayne Hayes-Anthony was named temporary acting president on March 2. She will continue to serve in that role. The Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees will discuss the future leadership of Jackson State at its regular Board meeting later this month. Hudson received a vote of no-confidence from the faculty senate in January. The IHL has not disclosed why Hudson was placed on administrative leave. Hudson did not respond to request for comment Tuesday night. With Hudson's departure and Hayes-Anthony's ascension, there have been seven presidents at the West Jackson HBCU since 2010. Prior to Hudson, in February of 2020, then-JSU President William Bynum was arrested in Clinton on charges of procuring services of a prostitute, false statement of identity, and simple possession of marijuana. |
| Hudson resigns as JSU president, IHL announces | |
| Nearly two weeks after being put on administrative leave, Thomas Hudson has resigned as president of Jackson State University. According to a Tuesday news release from the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees, Commissioner Alfred Rankins has accepted Hudson's resignation. It will be effective March 31. Hudson will remain on administrative leave, with pay, until then. A call and text to Hudson's cell phone was not returned. A JSU spokesperson told Mississippi Today that the university would not be releasing its own statement. Elayne Hayes-Anthony will continue serving as temporary acting president, according to the release. At a press conference last week, Hayes-Anthony told students, faculty and members of the media that IHL gave her no timetable for the appointment. "I'm going to be here as long as I'm needed," she said. Hudson is a JSU alum and Jackson resident who was appointed president by the IHL board in November 2020 in the wake of a scandal. Earlier that year, his predecessor, William Bynum Jr., had resigned after he was arrested in a prostitution sting at a Clinton hotel. Bynum had been an unpopular pick for president, and under his tenure, JSU's enrollment fell faster than any other public university in Mississippi. |
| New center designed to build innovation skills for U. of Alabama students | |
 | With a $2 million charitable gift from alumnus James "Jim" Kennemer, the University of Alabama has launched a new center within the UA Honors College that aims to promote learning experiences and research opportunities for students. UA officials say the James C. Kennemer Center for Innovation and Social Impact will offer students a highly visible platform to build critical thinking skills, which will prepare them to be engaged citizens in whatever career path they choose. "The Kennemer Center, made possible by Jim and Nancy Kennemer's continuing generosity and support, is another remarkable step forward in our mission to transform lives," said UA President Stuart R. Bell. "By focusing on experiences that will make a positive impact on our world through innovation, student engagement and social influence, the new center will foster advanced experiential learning and positive social change." The center also provides support for the Bama Innovation Gateway (BIG) program including the BIG Ideas contest, and funding for undergraduate research, speakers, forums and outreach programs, along with other initiatives. Kennemer, who was a member of the charter class of the Computer-Based Honors Program, now known as the Randall Research Scholars, said the inspiration for creating this center stemmed from the success of the BIG Ideas contest, which challenges students to come up with creative solutions to social challenges. |
| SGA discusses reforms in hopes of improving student experiences throughout campus | |
| Auburn SGA passed an amendment to the recruiting requirements for the Friends of Aubie on Monday night. The changes align the legislation with the program's modern recruiting practices and clearly define those permitted to select future candidates. Aubie surprised SGA by making an appearance while senators cast their votes. During the meeting, the various committees and representatives from the colleges began outlining the work they intend to accomplish this semester. The Committee of Academic Affairs has the most extensive array of action items so far. The committee is trying to put televisions in every academic study and learning center on campus and is working with the University to develop consistency across campus in grade rounding. Currently, professors can round a grade up to the nearest whole number or choose to keep a grade "as is." Additionally, Academic Affairs is working with the university to respond to ChatGPT, a free-to-use artificial intelligence that "interacts in a conversational way," according to their website. The program can maximize efficiency by writing otherwise superfluous reports or promote academic dishonesty by allowing students to cheat on papers and essays. |
| College hopefuls have a new ultimate dream school -- and it's not Harvard, Princeton or Yale | |
| With an acceptance rate of just under 4%, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is considered the ultimate dream school, according to a new survey of college-bound students and their families. However, it's not only one of the hardest schools to get into but also among the nation's priciest institutions -- tuition and fees, room and board and other student expenses came to more than $79,000 this year. At the same time, most college-bound students and their parents now say affordability and dealing with the debt burden that often goes hand-in-hand with a college diploma is their top concern, even over getting into their first-choice school, according to The Princeton Review's 2023 College Hopes & Worries survey. Most of the colleges at the very top of students' wish lists are "perennial favorites," according to Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's editor-in-chief. They are also among the most competitive: Stanford's acceptance rate is also just below 4%; at Harvard, it's about 3%. Coming out of the pandemic, a small group of universities, including many in the Ivy League, have experienced a record-breaking increase in applications this season, according to a report by the Common Application. The report found application volume jumped 30% since the 2019-20 school year, even as enrollment has slumped nationwide. |
| S.C. Lawmakers Discussed Going After Colleges' Diversity Efforts. Things Got Heated. | |
 | Lawmakers in South Carolina sparred on Monday over the possibility of eliminating funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts from the state's public colleges -- highlighting the debates to come as Republican-controlled state legislatures further scrutinize higher ed's spending on diversity. South Carolina is one of several states where Republican politicians recently requested information from public colleges and universities on programs, trainings, and activities targeted toward people based on race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. According to Adam Morgan, a Republican lawmaker, the state's 33 public colleges collectively reported spending about $7.8 million in total on such activities. The debate in South Carolina comes amid increased legislative scrutiny of higher ed this year. A Chronicle analysis has found that, so far this year, at least 21 bills in 13 states have been introduced that would stifle colleges' diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Monday's heated discussion in the South Carolina House of Representatives happened during an hours-long session to consider amendments to the chamber's state budget. One would have created an office to investigate colleges' spending on diversity. Several others would have stripped diversity funding from specific public colleges. Though none of the amendments were adopted, the debate showed the tactics that state lawmakers are using to take on colleges' diversity programs. |
| UGA student who fell seriously ill in Mexico moved to Florida hospital | |
 | A University of Georgia student who fell seriously ill while on a spring break excursion last week to Mexico is on life support. Liza Burke, a senior at UGA, was found unresponsive in her room by friends at the Cabo San Lucas coastal resort town, according to a GoFundMe Page narrative posted by friend Jennifer Ritter of Athens. The fund has already received more than $125,000 in pledges by Tuesday to help with expenses to life-flight her to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. Atlanta 11 Alive TV reported today that she and her parents had arrived at the hospital. Burke has been diagnosed with Arteriovenous malformation (AVM), which caused her brain to hemorrhage, according to Ritter. AVM is a condition of blood vessels in the body that form incorrectly, according to the Johns Hopkins website. The major concern is "they will cause uncontrolled bleeding, or hemorrhage. Fewer than 4% of AVMs hemorrhage, but those that do can have severe, even fatal, effects," the hospital reported. When Burke was discovered unconscious, she was taken to a hospital, where the diagnosis of AVM was made, according to Ritter. |
| 'A Huge Red Flag': How Florida Colleges' Controversial Statement on Diversity Came Together | |
| As Ron DeSantis, Florida's Republican governor, was taking fresh aim at diversity initiatives in higher education, the state's college presidents put out an unusual statement. Some diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives "have come to mean and accomplish the very opposite and seek to push ideologies such as critical race theory and its related tenets," said the statement, which was dated January 18 and stamped with the logos of the 28 state and community colleges that belong to the Florida College System. (These don't include the four-year public universities, which are part of the separate State University System of Florida.) The 28 Florida college presidents promised not to "fund or support" any practice "that compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts such as intersectionality." They pledged to find and remove instruction, training, and policies, though it was difficult to parse what exactly they would get rid of. They said they'd excise anything "opposed to the forms of discrimination described in this statement." The statement prompted outrage from faculty members and academic-freedom organizations. Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, lamented to Inside Higher Ed that the statement didn't "defend academic freedom or challenge the false narrative put forth by DeSantis and others that discussing important topics in the classroom is somehow akin to indoctrination." |
| In own driveway, GOP lawmaker confronts FSU gun activist critical of permitless carry bill | |
 | Gun rights advocates unleashed a social media video bombardment of Rep. Charles Brannan, R-Macclenny, this week as part of an effort to do away with restrictions on the open carry of firearms in most public places. Open carry is the top legislative priority for Young Americans for Liberty, a student organization that grew out of the 2008 Ron Paul presidential campaign. Members of its Florida State University chapter were distributing flyers last weekend in Brannan's neighborhood, and captured on video Brannan threatening to pull the bill and telling one of their members that their demand for an open carry provision was "hurting Republicans." The exchange between Brannan and FSU junior Serena Barker captured Florida gun politics in a small-town setting, Brannan's driveway in rural Baker County, population 28,000. YAL posted a three-minute video of the exchange to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. YAL grassroots director Daniel Stuart said the group expected more professional behavior from an elected official. "He needs to have thicker skin," said Stuart about Brannan. "HB 543 is not a true constitutional carry bill and based on Chuck's action, it is clear that he only cares about getting a cheap win so he can pretend that he is a pro-gun champion." |
| How a group of A&M students tried and ranked every Blue Bell ice cream flavor | |
 | Cohen Thompson and his roommates wanted to collect something unique for their house when the Texas A&M students moved into a townhome together as sophomores. A stack of beer cans? Nope. Bottles of energy drinks? That wasn't it. After the group brainstormed, Thompson's roommate, Calvin Small, had an idea: they could stack cartons of different Blue Bell ice cream flavors in their living room cabinets. The house of guys often had ice cream in their freezer, so the idea took off and it's now become something much larger than goofy college house décor. Thompson and his roommates -- Small, Nick Wright-Eulitt and Wilson White -- have since been on a mission to collect and rank every flavor of Blue Bell ice cream. The journey started over a year ago and has been documented over YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Thompson creates videos of them trying different flavors and then ranking them into six different tiers. Thompson's YouTube channel has 271,000 subscribers. His TikTok page has 104.1K followers and 5 million likes. Thompson and his roommates are now seniors in their final semester at A&M and have tried and ranked all 67 known flavors of Blue Bell. |
| Amid legislative pressure, Iowa public universities ordered to pause new diversity programs | |
| Iowa's three public universities have been ordered to halt any new diversity, equity and inclusion programs while the Board of Regents reviews existing DEI efforts, Board of Regents President Michael Richards announced Tuesday. Richards directed the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa to "pause the implementation of any new DEI programs." Three members of the Board of Regents will conduct "a comprehensive study and review" of the DEI programs and efforts already in place at the universities. Richards said in a Tuesday statement that the process will take place "over the next few months." How the review will be conducted will be decided by Regents David Barker, Jim Lindenmayer and Greta Rouse, said Josh Lehman, board spokesperson. There is no set timeline, but the study is expected to take several months. "None of the current DEI efforts that (universities) are currently doing are stopping," Lehman stressed in an interview. University of Iowa and University of Northern Iowa officials deferred to Lehman for comment. The moratorium comes as Iowa Republicans take aim at university diversity programs. |
| Disruption of Speech at Stanford Prompts President to Apologize -- and Criticize Staff's Response | |
| A student protest that interrupted a controversial speaker at Stanford University last week led its president and law dean to criticize campus staff, including, apparently, the associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion who joined the speaker at the podium and discussed the students' concerns. Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, was invited to give a talk titled "The Fifth Circuit in Conversation With the Supreme Court: Covid, Guns, and Twitter," by the law school's chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative and libertarian legal organization. Duncan was met with a room of loud student protesters who said his history of court rulings had caused harm to LGBTQ+ students, and that giving him a platform on campus diminished their safety. (His confirmation to the Fifth Circuit was opposed by groups like the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which cited Duncan's decisions against rights for same-sex couples and against gender-affirming bathroom access for transgender children.) But a free-speech advocate contacted by The Chronicle said the protesters took it too far and prevented Duncan from completing the speech he was invited to give, which she said infringed on his speech rights. The situation at Stanford comes amid a national debate over how to balance free expression and student safety. It is common for conservative student groups to invite provocative speakers to give lectures on campus, which then face backlash from protesters. |
| Students reveal lack of clarity in course outcomes | |
 | Connecting students' coursework to their future career is seen as an engagement tool and a necessity for career development. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, gathering data to evaluate how students view their own learning outcomes and how general education courses are targeting those outcomes required creative solutions. Sarah Wu, the academic assessment manager at the Office of Academic Effectiveness at Georgia Tech, shared the results of a feedback project her team orchestrated at the American Association of Colleges and Universities' recent conference on general education, pedagogy and assessment. What's the sitch: Georgia Tech established its learning outcomes in 2011: communication; quantitative; computing; humanities, fine arts and ethics; natural sciences, math and technology; and social sciences. As the institution looks to redesign its general education courses and, in turn, their learning outcomes, administrators turned to student perspectives. Wu has found it challenging to embrace the student perspective in reports or decision-making, something that is reflective of a larger concern in academics. Survey data from her department often fell short in response rates, making it hard to elevate issues to more senior leadership, she adds. While some institutions add students to their curriculum review committees, Georgia Tech's general education subcommittee lacked student representation. Instead, that team used faculty judgement based on student artifacts for outcome-level assessment. |
| Students Want More Workplace Skills From Colleges. Will Higher Ed Adjust? | |
| Today's high school graduates are increasingly questioning whether higher education is worth it, and that's pushing colleges to rethink the value they bring students. This was a key theme I heard at last week's SXSW EDU conference, where several panels addressed what today's generation of students want, and how colleges can respond. It was also a top-of-mind issue for me coming into the conference. As a graduate student in Stanford University's School of Education and Public Policy department, I've been examining the intersection between higher education and the working world for the past two years. One survey presented by ECMC Group during a session on "Is College Worth It? Re-bundling Higher Education" noted that today's students are very much focused on the tangible --- specifically, maximizing future career outcomes and earnings potential and building durable, technical skill sets. The survey found that 81 percent of students want skills they'll use in the working world after college. What they're not interested in, however, is paying the ever-rising price of tuition just to graduate without a job that can pay off those debts. As a sign of how many students worry about the return on a college investment, about half of Gen Zers surveyed believe they can be successful through alternative pathways, said Laura Graf, senior director at ECMC Group. She and other panelists discussed the need to think more deeply about how colleges are defining the purpose and value of higher education, especially within the context of the latest generation of learners. |
| Pell Grants will return to prison, but for many, college will still be out of reach | |
 | Caddell Kivett is ready to go back to college. He sorted out some old, defaulted student loans. He figured out what he wants to study. And he thought he found a new way to pay for his classes. Except Kivett, 52, is in prison. He'll be able, in theory, to use a federal Pell Grant to help pay for his education come July. It marks the first time in nearly three decades that incarcerated people -- as many as 700,000 of them, according to the Education Department -- are broadly eligible for the aid, and the policy change could open up new college opportunities across the country. The expansion of Pell Grants has been a long-sought change since the 1994 crime bill eliminated them for people in prison and ended the majority of prison education programs. Although educating people in prison has been shown to have a number of benefits, the new money may be difficult for many to access for a host of reasons. In Kivett's case, the only higher ed option at his North Carolina facility is a theology degree. He wants to study journalism after working for the prison newspaper, the Nash News. And he learned a harsh reality following months of phone calls and letters to colleges that offer accredited, paper-based correspondence courses: The federal aid can be used only at prisons that have Pell-eligible college programs. His doesn't. Studies show that prison education increases the chance of someone getting a job after release and decreases the likelihood that they'll go back to prison. |
| Education Department to use secret shoppers to catch colleges lying | |
| The Education Department is planning to use undercover agents -- known as "secret shoppers" -- to monitor colleges and universities that receive federal financial aid for potentially deceptive practices. The move, announced Tuesday, is the latest step in the Biden administration's efforts to hold low-performing and predatory colleges accountable. Other efforts include revamping regulations for debt-relief programs, including borrower defense to repayment; re-establishing an enforcement office within the Office of Federal Student Aid; and issuing guidance on how the department will require private nonprofit and for-profit college executives to assume personal liability. The department's secret shoppers will be looking for "potentially deceptive or predatory practices used to recruit and enroll students," according to a news release. That includes misrepresentations regarding the cost of attendance, transferability of credits and job-placement rates, among others. The secret shoppers will be tasked to monitor any institution that receives federal financial aid, not just those in one sector, such as for-profit colleges. "Schools that engage in fraud or misconduct are on notice that we may be listening, and they should clean up accordingly," said Kristen Donoghue, chief enforcement officer for the Office of Federal Student Aid. "But schools that treat current and prospective students fairly and act lawfully have nothing to fear from secret shopping." |
| Will food price inflation spur Mississippi to drop or eliminate the sales tax on food? | |
| Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: For well over three decades, Mississippi has been home to a population that features the poorest citizens in the country paying the highest sales tax on food. The sales tax on food remains at seven percent. For those same three decades, there has been the ebb and flow of efforts to cut or eliminate "the grocery tax" in Mississippi. Neither Democrats nor Republicans can lay a particular claim to the moral high ground on the issue. Sales tax was the brainchild of Depression Era Democrat Gov. Mike Conner. The monolithic Democratic Party in Mississippi perpetuated and raised that tax until Republicans gained a legislative majority and the GOP began to dominate statewide offices and they kept the issue at status quo. But Conner's sales tax -- created in the early 1930s to erase a nearly depleted state treasury by creating a tax that everyone would pay including those who owned no property to tax -- evolved into a system that provided funds for municipal and county governments as well through diversions. ... Fast forward to the current 2023 state election cycle. While there have been trial balloons floated to cutting or eliminating the state's grocery tax, those proposals have in some manner been intertwined with the ongoing effort to further reduce or eliminate the state's income tax. With a 2023 income tax cut looking increasingly like a legislative nonstarter, there have been pockets of support for the concept. |
SPORTS
| Bulldogs roster rich with NCAA tourney experience | |
| When Sam Purcell was hired as Mississippi State's new women's basketball coach last March, he believed the Bulldogs' return to the NCAA tournament could be a lot quicker than expected. When he spoke Tuesday afternoon at Notre Dame's Purcell Pavilion, he continued the "Why Not Us?" mantra he and his team have believed in all season. "I knew if we put a product together real quick to restore that roster and get the right transfers, then why not us?" Purcell said. "Why not get back in year No. 1 and get this where we are talking on the national stage and making national news?" Just over a calendar year since Purcell was brought in from Louisville, MSU (20-10, 9-7 SEC) makes its return to March Madness as an 11-seed, where it will meet 11-seed Illinois (22-9, 11-7 Big Ten) in Wednesday's First Four game (6 p.m./ ESPNU). The winner will advance to Friday's Round of 64 contest against six-seed Creighton (5 p.m./ESPNEWS). "This is what you live for. You came in the summertime, put the work in the fall to get to this point," Purcell said. "We are embracing it, loving it and can't wait to play tomorrow." For Purcell, Wednesday will be his first time on the bench in the NCAA tournament as a head coach. He has been a part of deep tournament runs in the past with Louisville where he was an assistant from 2017-22 under Jeff Walz. Though his role is now slightly different, the preparation for a team in Illinois that he says is quick in transition, remains the same. |
| Bulldogs win sixth-straight in Hancock Whitney Classic opener against Nicholls St. | |
| The Mississippi State offense proved to be too much for Nicholls, as the Diamond Dawgs improved their winning streak to six straight games following a 12-4 victory. The Bulldogs had five extra base hits with three being home runs in the win. Hunter Hines had his fifth multi-hit game of the year, as he finished 2-for-4 on the day with two home runs. This continued a hot streak for Hines, as he has hit a home run in five of his last seven appearances. Bryce Chance and Lane Forsythe also continued to hit the ball well, as they both finished with two-hit days. Brock Tapper earned his first victory on the year as he pitched two scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh. Bradley Loftin was the starter for the Bulldogs, striking out six Colonels in four innings of work. The Bulldogs are back in action tomorrow as they take on Louisiana. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. with the game being broadcast on SECN+. |
| Mississippi State falls in First Four heartbreaker to Pittsburgh | |
| Mississippi State men's basketball's first NCAA Tournament win since 2008 will have to wait. While the No. 11-seeded Bulldogs vastly outperformed preseason expectations in head coach Chris Jans' first season by earning the program's first NCAA Tournament berth since 2019, MSU's season ultimately ended in disappointment Tuesday. In a First Four matchup at University of Dayton Arena the Bulldogs couldn't muster enough buckets against fellow 11-seed Pittsburgh as MSU fell to the Panthers, 60-59. With the loss, Mississippi State's season ends with a 21-13 record. "There was no doubt in our minds that we would fight, and scratch, and claw, and we did," Jans said. "We had a couple of chances there at the end to win the game, but it didn't happen." "We're extremely disappointed with the outcome, but you have to give Pitt a lot of credit," Jans said. "They played well enough to win, and we struggled to guard them in the first half ... I'll always remember this group for the belief, the buy in and the coachability. I told them that many times throughout the year. I'll remember them because they're my first group at Mississippi State." |
| SEC picks new schedule format for baseball, four more sports | |
 | The Southeastern Conference on Tuesday released the framework for regular-season scheduling and/or championship formats in five sports: baseball; gymnastics; volleyball; indoor track and field; and swimming and diving. According to the SEC, conference presidents and chancellors approved the scheduling plans and formats last week during the men's basketball tournament in Nashville, Tennessee. The change in formats was necessitated by Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC for the 2024-25 athletic year. Starting in 2025, the baseball regular season would continue to include 30 conference games spread over 10 three-game series. Each school would play two permanent opponents in baseball and eight rotating opponents, meaning the number of teams a school doesn't play each regular season would increase from three to five. Currently teams' permanent opponents are from within their home division. As is the plan for football starting with the 2024 season, the SEC will do away with East and West divisions in baseball and go to what is being called a single-division format. Still to be determined is a format for the SEC baseball tournament. The current format includes 12 teams. Previously, regular-season and championship formats for a 16-team SEC were approved for men's and women's basketball, softball, soccer and men's and women's tennis. The formats for men's and women's golf, outdoor track and field, equestrian and men's and women's cross country will be able to accommodate the addition of Texas and OU without changes, the SEC said. |
| Collegiate rodeo returns to Lauderdale Agri-Center | |
 | Collegiate rodeo action returns to Meridian this week as East Mississippi Community College's 11th Annual Intercollegiate Rodeo kicks off Thursday at the Lauderdale County Agri-Center. The three-day event, which will conclude with Saturday night's championship round, marks the seventh year that EMCC has hosted a collegiate rodeo in Meridian. "We always enjoy hosting this rodeo in Meridian, and we encourage everyone to come out to the Lauderdale County Agri-Center again this year to support all of the outstanding student-athletes who will be competing next week," said EMCC head rodeo coach Morgan Goodrich. Gates will open at 7 p.m. nightly. Tickets at the door are $10 for adults and $5 for students. Admission is free for children ages 5 and younger, and there will be a pig scramble available for children in that age group. Men's and women's rodeo teams from several colleges and universities that comprise the Ozark Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA) will compete in the event, including in-state foes Pearl River Community College and Northwest Mississippi Community College as well as the University of West Alabama. As the spring rodeo season gets underway following five fall regional events, the EMCC men are presently ranked third within the Ozark Region and 19th nationally as a team with 1,995 total points. The Lions concluded the fall rodeo campaign in November with consecutive runner-up men's team finishes at events hosted by Southern Arkansas University and Murray State University. |
| Introduced at Ole Miss, Chris Beard sidesteps arrest questions | |
| Mississippi on Tuesday introduced new basketball coach Chris Beard, who repeatedly declined to discuss specifics regarding his December domestic violence arrest that led to his eventual firing at Texas. "Respectfully, Randi [Trew] and I have agreed not to talk about the details of what happened, not only that night, but in the nights we went through during this process," Beard said. "But what I can tell you is that much of what was reported is not accurate, and that has been proven with the case being dismissed and the charges being dropped, and also Randi's statement on Dec. 23. I think that statement speaks for itself." Beard's two-year tenure at alma mater Texas ended abruptly in January, though felony domestic charges were ultimately dismissed on Feb. 15. A prosecutor said his office determined that the charge of assault by strangulation/suffocation-family violence could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Texas suspended Beard after his Dec. 12 arrest and fired him three weeks later when Texas officials told Beard's attorney he was "unfit" to lead the program. Beard was arrested when his fiancée, Randi Trew, called 911 and told officers that Beard strangled, bit and hit her during a confrontation in his home. When asked specifically about the injuries documented on a police affidavit from the night of Dec. 12, Beard again declined to get into specifics. |
| Chris Beard discusses creating a winner at Ole Miss, allegations and firing from Texas | |
| Chris Beard didn't mince his words. The goal is to have Ole Miss men's basketball in the national conversation sooner than anyone expects. And that was sweet, sweet music to the ears of the hundreds of fans gathered at SJB Pavilion. Beard was introduced as the 23rd head coach in Ole Miss history Tuesday night, a day after the news of his hiring became official. He replaces Kermit Davis, who parted ways with Ole Miss in February after five seasons. Beard told fans Tuesday his goal wasn't to make the NCAA Tournament. It's to win the whole thing. He took the stage to loud applause and a "Hotty Toddy" chant. "We don't apologize for our expectations, and we don't apologize for our goals. It's certainly not arrogance, we don't think we're better than anybody. But at the same time, we don't think anybody is better than us," Beard said. "We're going to work as hard as anyone, and we have a great product." According to the term sheet provided by Ole Miss, Beard will have a base salary of $3.25 million in 2023, $3.35 million in 2024, $3.45 million in 2025 and $3.55 million in 2026. Beard was hired by Texas before the 2021 season and took the Longhorns to the tournament his first season and started the 2022 season 7-1. He was suspended in December after he was arrested and charged with a third-degree felony -- alleged assault by strangulation/suffocation-family violence -- and was fired on Jan. 5. |
| Chris Beard, Will Wade are just using Ole Miss, McNeese State on their way back | |
| There is nothing stopping Chris Beard from being employed. Same with Will Wade. They are free to work. That does not mean they have to be offered employment. And yet here we are. Ole Miss is hiring the coach who was accused of assault by his fiancee, and McNeese State is bringing on Will Wade before the NCAA even has ruled on the strong-ass accusations against him. The stench you smell is the sewered-up stink that comes with trading in everything for a few extra Ws. There are, believe it or not, plenty of great coaches in college basketball who would arrive at either of those jobs with a carry-on suitcase, a backpack and no other baggage. Decent, hard-working assistants or mid-major success stories who would love to start their career by turning around McNeese or prove their mettle at a power-conference school via Ole Miss. But, no. Why take the time to go search for those sorts of folks? ... Ole Miss hired a coach who three months ago appeared in handcuffs to await a bond hearing while his team was getting ready to play a game. The charges may have been dropped, but the 911 call still was made. Something happened, and UT ultimately fired Beard in the middle of what turned out to be an incredibly successful season (the Longhorns won the Big 12 Tournament and are a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament). In letters to Beard's lawyer, UT's vice president for legal affairs, Jim Davis, cited not just what happened between Beard and his fiancee, Randi Trew, but the fact that Beard, "does not understand the significance of the behavior he knows he engaged in,'' and his "lack of self-awareness.'' |
| Ole Miss hire of Chris Beard proves nothing except Rebels' unapologetic desperation | |
 | SEC columnist Blake Toppmeyer writes for the USA TODAY Network: Given the chance to tell his side of the story about the night that cost him a job at his alma mater and altered his career, Chris Beard hid behind his ex-fiancée's statement. Beard, in a news conference Tuesday after being introduced as Ole Miss basketball's coach, initially claimed he's waited for months to speak up following his December arrest on felony domestic violence allegations that preceded Texas firing its successful coach. A Texas county district attorney dropped the charge against Beard last month, and the case was dismissed. "The tough part of this has just been not being able to speak publicly," Beard said. OK, well, let's talk about that night, the night Randi Trew called police and told them she "did not feel safe" after a days-long argument with Beard, her fiancé of three years, had become physical. ... On Tuesday, I asked Beard whether that happened. Did he put his arm on Trew's throat? He declined to say. ... No amount of "very thorough" vetting, as Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter described the hiring process, will change that two people were in Beard's home on the night of his arrest. One, Trew, called 911. The other, Beard, won't discuss the events of that night, at least not publicly. ... This hire, this soon, reeks of Carter's desperation to elevate a program that has five all-time NCAA Tournament wins. "No one loves this program more than I do," said Carter, a former All-America Ole Miss basketball player. |
| Kirby Smart addresses UGA football players racing and reckless driving, program policies | |
| Georgia football coach Kirby Smart opened Tuesday's spring football press conference by addressing the rocky couple of months that followed the program's second straight national championship game before any questions came. It included two player arrests for reckless driving and racing, one connected to the fatal crash that killed two from the program. "I feel like our players are starting to be able to acknowledge and they understand when you make mistakes, decisions that are costly can cost you your life," Smart said. "That's not to be taken lightly. I think our guys understand that and we continue to educate them and we'll continue to do all we can as a university to make sure they behave and do that in a proper way." About the first half of the press conference of some 22 minutes was related to the headlines that came from the off-field incidents because it was the first time Smart was available to reporters since Jan. 10, the day after the national championship game, other than an interview he did March 3 with ESPN. Five days before the crash, Georgia starting inside linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson allegedly was racing side-by-side with another driver also in a Dodge Charger near campus. Dumas-Johnson was booked on Feb. 22 for racing on highway/streets and reckless driving. Police tried to make a traffic stop but could not catch up to Dumas-Johnson and the other driver after accelerating up to 75 miles per hour on College Station Road. Police said they attempted to elude police. |
| U. of Arkansas looks at Bud Walton Arena plans through '26 | |
| Bud Walton Arena has "served us well" as home of the Arkansas Razorback basketball teams since it opened 30 years ago, but it is now "somewhat tired and in need of renovation," University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek said Tuesday. During a meeting of the University of Arkansas System board of trustees, Yurachek presented three possible scenarios for renovating the facility that opened in November 1993, but he stressed those are from a "very preliminary feasibility study, [and] are only concepts right now." The university will look for an architect and general contractor to work together on design possibilities, Yurachek told trustees, who met on the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences campus in Little Rock. By having the architect work alongside the general contractor, "we'd get an idea of pricing," as opposed to "the architect designing a building you love but can't afford." Yurachek plans to present an architect and general contractor for approval by the trustees this summer, then -- in January or March of 2024 -- bring a recommendation with details of the potential renovation to the trustees for approval, he said. Under that timeline, work could begin on the arena in March 2025 with an "ideal" grand opening in November 2026, but "we'd have to be very fortunate to hit all these dates." Under this plan, the Razorback basketball teams would need to play home games away from Bud Walton Arena in November and December of 2025, he said. Other events accustomed to using the arena, such as the university's commencement, would also have to find a new home for a year or two. |
| SBJ College: NIL making its mark on March Madness | |
| Give me South Carolina in the women's bracket and Arizona in the men's bracket. Yet another indication that big brands are willing to spend on name, image and likeness -- several NCAA partners are making big commitments in the NIL space in addition to their heavy spends as official sponsors. In recent days, we've seen NCAA official partners such as Buick, TurboTax and Dick's Sporting Goods create new ads around college athletes. Reese's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Unilever (Degree), Nissan (Heisman House with Bryce Young) and Great Clips are among other NCAA official partners that have college athletes starring in new creative. It wasn't that long ago that major brands were hesitant to invest in NIL arrangements, but that reluctance seems to be wearing off as NIL gains more and more acceptance, even among NCAA partners. "We're absolutely seeing increased participation and confidence from big brands surrounding NIL," said Opendorse CEO and co-founder Blake Lawrence. "The increased presence will be extremely evident during March Madness. We know of dozens of big brands that are including student-athletes in national campaigns. If last year was about testing the NIL waters, this year is about treating NIL as a core tactic surrounding the tournament." Altius Sports Partners has collaborated with Powerade to educate the brand on NIL state laws, school policies, NCAA guidelines, best practices and trends so that the energy drink is prepared to enter the NIL space during its marketing for March Madness. The guidance Altius is providing for Powerade, a Coca-Cola brand, is intended to help it partner with individual college athletes on NIL deals representing the Powerade brand. |
| Charlie Baker, new NCAA president, admits 'tumultuous time' in college sports | |
 | Charlie Baker has been NCAA president for less than two weeks, but he knows he is coming into his role in the governing body of major college sports during a tumultuous time. Baker, most recently the governor of Massachusetts, said his friend Utah Sen. Mitt Romney described the transition from leader of a state to leader of a rule-making organization for student-athletes nationwide as "going from the frying pan and into the fire." "I don't think the people who say it is going through a tumultuous time are exaggerating. I mean, that's the reason I took the job," said Baker in his first televised interview since replacing Mark Emmert on March 1. "I could have done a lot of other things that would be a lot easier." On the first day of the men's basketball tournament, Baker – who played basketball at Harvard – discussed with CNN's Chris Wallace the challenges of the job, including rules on transgender athletes; gender equity; how student-athletes can profit from the use of their names, images and likeness (NIL) and transfers. And he also told CNN why he thinks there's so much excitement for March Madness. "The fact that so many times the underdog wins, and the unpredictability and the competitive equity that seems to exist drives a big piece of that. As somebody who has witnessed major upsets in both the women's and the men's tournament over the years ... I think that's a big part of it," Baker said. "You just don't have that many places anymore, where it's so obvious that no one knows who's gonna win." |
| House to hold hearing on NIL rights under new NCAA president | |
| Federal lawmakers are taking their first steps toward considering legislation for college sports since a new Congress was installed. A spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee told ESPN on Tuesday it plans to host a hearing to discuss the name, image and likeness (NIL) rights of college athletes on March 29. The spokesman did not provide any information about who may be asked to testify at the hearing, but this will also be the first NCAA-related public meeting on Capitol Hill since NCAA president Charlie Baker began his tenure March 1. Baker, who took the job after completing his second term as the governor of Massachusetts, has been asked by NCAA member schools to lead their efforts to convince Congress to help them regain some control over how college athletes make money and help them fend off an onslaught of legal challenges to the current amateurism-based business model. "I think the conversation with Congress will inform the conversation with membership about this stuff, and vice versa," Baker told ESPN last month. "I understand and appreciate the difficulties of working something through a legislative process. It's incredibly complicated." The hearing will be led by a pair of Republicans: committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers from Washington and Florida's Gus Bilirakis, who chairs the subcommittee of Innovation, Data and Commerce. |
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