| Tuesday, March 21, 2023 |
| Connectivity to city, county central to MSU's master plan | |
 | Mississippi State is in for another facelift following their new master plan. This time, the university is planning decades in advance, according to Executive Director of Campus Services Saunders Ramsey. This past Friday morning, Ramsey presented the university's master plan to the Starkville mayor and board of aldermen. This master plan was finalized in August of 2022 and contains three guiding design principles: enriching student experiences, creating inclusive destinations, and transforming both the outdoor and indoor environment. But Ramsey said another philosophy is also guiding MSU's master plan: connection to the region. "It's valuable to me because it's Mississippi State acknowledging that connections to us are valuable to the region," Ramsey said. "I think in the past, we weren't real comfortable with connectivity. It was more about protection and boundaries. But now we've started to realize that if we can participate in the ability to seek funding, construct it, and connect, that it helps the region." The MSU master plan also prioritizes student wellness through something Ramsey called the "wellness link." In this link, a line can be drawn from the north side of campus to the south side that includes all of the resources for students to care for their physical and mental wellness. |
| OIDI hosts panel discussion at MSU celebrating Women's History Month | |
 | Mississippi State University's Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion continues its celebration of Women's History Month. Monday, OIDI hosted a panel discussion focused on empowering women. The panel featured five distinguished women from a variety of backgrounds sharing their life experiences. They also offered insights on how to encourage, promote, and support women from all walks of life. The University has other events planned for this week, including the third installment of its Health Luncheon Series, "Medical Care as Self-Care" Tuesday beginning at 11:30 and a Women's Empowerment Brunch, Saturday from noon until 2 p.m. |
| Community Profile: Love of words, reading leads fifth-grader to role as International Fiesta host | |
| "I'm not nervous," explained Evan McClelland. "I like speaking in front of people, and showing my own style and personality to a big crowd. The bigger the crowd is, the better." McClelland, 11, is a fifth-grader at Starkville Academy. Already a seasoned speaker and a veteran of spelling bees, he is getting ready to face his biggest crowd yet: the International Fiesta at Mississippi State University, where he will serve as a master of ceremonies for the day's performances. The Fiesta, scheduled for April 1, is a day of cultural exchange and entertainment. Student organizations, departments and other groups on campus and in Starkville will have booths to showcase their cultures through displays and homemade dishes. There will also be performances, including music, singing and dance. McClelland's mom, Nadia McClelland, told The Dispatch that Evan came to the attention of one of the Fiesta's organizers after speaking at a community Thanksgiving event. "After seeing him there, they approached me," Nadia McClelland said. Evan said he's looking forward to it, and he sees the event as a positive one. "I want people to know that they may be from different races or cultures but everybody coming together can make a humongous change," Evan said. |
| These little cubs are part of a growing Mississippi bear population | |
 | They're cute and cuddly and just about anyone would like to hold them, but these cubs are wild animals and they're helping restore Mississippi's growing population of black bears. As researchers push for more information, the cubs and their mothers are also helping them understand how many there are in Mississippi and what it takes for bears to flourish. "With the population growth and the calls we're getting, we definitely have a healthy population," said Anthony Ballard, Bear Program coordinator for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. "We're working to get more data to form a more solid population estimate." At the heart of the research are several bears that have been outfitted with GPS tracking collars. The collars allow researchers at MDWFP and Mississippi State University to monitor the bears' movements and understand what habitats they prefer, home ranges and den site selection. "There's a lot of good data you can get out of that," Ballard said. The collars also allow researchers to pinpoint dens of female bears and see if they have offspring; something they've been working on in recent weeks. |
| Columbus, Starkville see sales tax revenue jump 10 percent | |
| Sales tax collections in Columbus and Starkville saw a more than 10-percent jump in March compared to a year ago, while West Point showed a marginal improvement from last year. Starkville received $671,259 in March, compared to $606,633 in March 2022. The city's fiscal YTD collections sit at $4,424,729, a 9.6-percent improvement over last year. The city is right at the halfway point in its fiscal year and has made almost half of the $9.3 million budgeted for the current fiscal year. Mayor Lynn Spruill said the city's success year over year can be attributed to a continuation of more people coming to eat and shop in town. I think part of it is that people are still coming into town for our new shopping area that opened near the end of last year (Triangle Crossing)," Spruill said. "So I think that as well as the fact that we are just, we're growing in popularity as a place to do business and to come in and eat and enjoy the different fare that we have." Triangle Crossing Shopping Center opened at 601 Hwy 12 W. in November, and is home to several popular retail brands such as Rack Room Shoes, Ulta Beauty, Marshalls and Aldi, among others. According to figures released with its sales tax numbers, the city has continued to see growth in its 3-percent restaurant sales tax diversions and in its 1-percent hotel tax as compared to last year. |
| Bills prohibiting buying and selling of whitetail deer die in Mississippi legislature | |
 | Two pieces of legislation that would prohibit the purchasing and selling of whitetail deer in Mississippi no longer have a chance at becoming state law this legislative session -- sparking elevated concerns from conservationists and other outdoor enthusiasts. House Bill 1026 and Senate Bill 2536 were introduced to outlaw buying and selling whitetail deer but did not make it out of their respective chambers. Proponents of the bills argue that a handful of wealthy elites are looking to change the laws so they can breed, sell, and transport deer between high-fenced enclosures in Mississippi. This would be a departure from the North American Wildlife Model, which is at the core of Mississippi's wildlife conservation success. The key principle of this model is that all wildlife in this state belongs to the people of Mississippi. A recent opinion from Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch granted the Commission of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks plenary authority over regulations put in place over matters pertaining to transactions of wild animals, which opens the door to a drastic change in policies that have been held for years. Conservationists argue she potentially opened a conservation Pandora's Box. James Cummins, the executive director of Wildlife Mississippi, fears that the individuals behind the push to allow whitetail deer to be bought and sold legally intend to place purchased deer in high-fence enclosures for people to pay to hunt them. |
| Tables turned with Gunn, Hosemann on state revenue estimate | |
| Last year, when it was Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann's turn to run the Legislative Budget Committee, House Speaker Philip Gunn was anxious to raise the state's revenue estimate to grease the skids for his proposal to eliminate the income tax. This year, Gunn's turn to run the LBC, Hosemann wants the estimate upped to help his proposal to fully fund K-12 education. But Gunn says he does not intend to call a meeting of legislative leaders during the final days of the 2023 session to raise the revenue estimate to give lawmakers more money to budget for the upcoming fiscal year, beginning July 1. What a difference a year makes. This time last year, Gunn was urging Hosemann to call a meeting of the Legislative Budget Committee to raise the revenue estimate. A key difference is that last year Gunn wanted to raise the revenue estimate to ensure enough money was available to enact the income tax elimination that he and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves coveted. Now Hosemann is wanting the revenue estimate raised, in part to make it easier to enact a plan to put an additional $181 million in kindergarten through 12th grade schools and achieve full funding of the Mississippi Adequate Program. |
| It's still early, but there are already three public polls looking ahead to likely Governor's race match-up | |
| You'll cast your ballot this year for statewide elections. However, the early polls are jumping past the primaries, and they're going straight to the anticipated general election match-up for governor between Tate Reeves and Brandon Presley. The earliest you could see Tate Reeves and Brandon Presley's names on the same ballot is the November general election. So, when it comes to polls: "It's very early in the game," said Mississippi College Political Science Professor Dr. Glenn J. Antizzo. "And I think right now, you need to take whatever you're seeing with a grain of salt." Numbers we have seen so far? The Mississippi Today/Siena poll released in January, just a week after Brandon Presley launched his campaign, showed Tate Reeves with a four-point lead. A month later, the tables turned, and Presley took the lead in a Southern Poverty Law Center and Tulchin Research poll. The latest poll from Magnolia Tribune and Mason-Dixon more closely reflects the January poll but this time with Reeves 7 points ahead of Presley. "I think that people do know who the Governor is, for the most part, and so they have some opinions that have crystallized to an extent they don't really know as much about Presley," said Antizzo. "And so Presley is getting a little bit of a benefit of the doubt." |
| Mississippi Legislature sends bill changing medical marijuana law to governor | |
| The Legislature has approved changes to Mississippi's cannabis law that will limit the information available to the public about businesses' citation records and will attempt to crack down on inconsistencies from the agencies tasked with running the new medical marijuana program. The bill, first filed in the House, was amended by a Senate committee and the full Senate before the House passed it last week. Gov. Tate Reeves must sign the bill before the new regulations are added to the law. The changes span from minor language tweaks to new provisions on background checks and public records. The medical marijuana program has been fully operable -- with dispensaries selling Mississippi-grown cannabis -- for just under three months. The rollout hasn't been without hiccups. A Mississippi Today investigation found the Department of Health wasn't being consistent, especially in its approval of cultivation plans, while dealing with a backlog of applications. Legislators echoed businesses' concerns throughout hearings over the bill. "Unfortunately the Department of Health in their rules and regs probably accepted some things that were not intentioned (sic) by the bill," said Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven and one of the bill's authors on the floor on March 8. "So we are trying to correct those ... and we do so in the bill." |
| GOP freshman class president Russell Fry talks dad jokes, new House Republicans and Trump | |
 | South Carolina freshman Russell Fry came to Congress by beating Rep. Tom Rice, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Shortly after being sworn in, the jocular, 38-year-old conservative accepted a position on Trump's leadership team in South Carolina. Asked whether Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 election, Fry demurred, but he raised questions about election integrity. While some Republicans may be looking toward new allegiances, Fry has remained loyal while also drawing people together as the Republican freshman class president, which requires him to develop and communicate policy goals and build relationships with colleagues. Fry, who's got a penchant for dad jokes, met with Heard on the Hill recently to discuss his first few weeks in the job. |
| How the Potential Arrest of Donald Trump Could Unfold | |
 | The Manhattan grand jury hearing evidence about Donald Trump's role in a payment to a porn star appears to be wrapping up its work, indicating that prosecutors could soon ask jurors to vote on an indictment of the former president. Mr. Trump, who has denied wrongdoing, has said the probe by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, is politically motivated. A grand jury indictment would kick off a process in which Mr. Trump would likely travel to Manhattan to face charges. Here is how that could play out. An indictment and an arrest warrant would be filed under seal with the court before becoming public. Prosecutors would notify Mr. Trump's lawyers of the sealed indictment and negotiate a time and date for his surrender. The indictment would remain sealed until after Mr. Trump was formally arrested and booked. "We won't see a copy of that indictment or know definitively what the charges are until he is arraigned by a judge," said Karen Agnifilo, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office. A defendant who is allowed to surrender typically reports at an agreed-upon date and time to the Manhattan district attorney's office, which is attached to the Manhattan criminal courthouse. Detective investigators from the district attorney's office then arrest the defendant. This approach avoids the public spectacle of an arrest elsewhere -- and the perp walk that often comes with it. |
| What the Biden administration isn't telling Congress about spy balloons | |
 | Lawmakers have been asking the Biden administration for weeks for details about hundreds of aerial objects floating in U.S. airspace and how many of them may be foreign surveillance tools. They haven't gotten much of an answer. One reason: The administration is still trying to determine how bad the problem is. Even in classified briefings, officials working on the issue inside the Pentagon and the intelligence community have yet to answer key questions. Those include how many foreign surveillance balloons the U.S. has identified in the past, what sort of tracking the current detection system allows and why the Chinese spy balloon the administration shot down in February required more action than previous ones, according to a U.S. official and two congressional aides. All were granted anonymity to speak freely about a sensitive national security matter. The administration has been slow to respond in part because officials are still reviewing the historical data on the unidentified aerial phenomena, also known as UAPS, and are running into problems trying to retroactively determine whether past sightings were surveillance tools or other objects such as academic weather balloons, according to the official. The information officials are using for their analysis is at times dated and incomplete. |
| Supreme Court backs disabled student in special education clash | |
 | The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a deaf student who sought to sue his school for damages over profound lapses in his education. The case, Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools, involved the interplay between two federal laws, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. At issue was whether students may sue a school for damages under the ADA when they haven't finished the administrative process required by the IDEA. The decision may help parents and schools clarify one piece of a byzantine puzzle of laws that govern the nation's 7.2 million special education students. Experts have predicted it may also give parents more leverage in their negotiation with schools. In the case, Miguel Perez's parents discovered their son was assigned an aide who didn't know sign language. After 12 years in school in his southern Michigan district, and with no other disability, Perez was reading at a 3rd-grade level. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Perez didn't exhaust the requirements of the IDEA process before filing a lawsuit for damages under the ADA. The decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, allows Perez's case to continue. |
| TikTok Trackers Embedded in U.S. State-Government Websites, Review Finds | |
| More than two dozen state government websites contain web-tracking code made by TikTok parent ByteDance Ltd., according to a new report from a cybersecurity company, illustrating the difficulties U.S. regulators face in curtailing data-collection efforts by the popular Chinese-owned app. A review of the websites of more than 3,500 companies, organizations and government entities by the Toronto-based company Feroot Security found that so-called tracking pixels from the TikTok parent company were present in 30 U.S. state-government websites across 27 states, including some where the app has been banned from state networks and devices. Feroot collected the data in January and February of this year. The presence of that code means that U.S. state governments around the country are inadvertently participating in a data-collection effort for a foreign-owned company, one that senior Biden administration officials and lawmakers of both parties have said could be harmful to U.S. national security and the privacy of Americans. Site administrators usually place such pixels on the government websites to help measure the effectiveness of advertising they have purchased on TikTok. It helps government agencies determine how many people saw an ad on the social-media app and took some action -- such as visiting a website or signing up for a service. The pixels' proliferation offers another vector for data collection beyond TikTok's popular mobile app, which is increasingly under fire in Washington as a possible way for the Chinese government to collect data on Americans. |
| World on 'thin ice' as UN climate report gives stark warning | |
 | Humanity still has a chance, close to the last, to prevent the worst of climate change's future harms, a top United Nations panel of scientists said Monday. But doing so requires quickly slashing nearly two-thirds of carbon pollution by 2035, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said. The United Nations chief said it more bluntly, calling for an end to new fossil fuel exploration and for rich countries to quit coal, oil and gas by 2040. "Humanity is on thin ice -- and that ice is melting fast," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. "Our world needs climate action on all fronts -- everything, everywhere, all at once." Stepping up his pleas for action on fossil fuels, Guterres called for rich countries to accelerate their target for achieving net zero emissions to as early as 2040, and developing nations to aim for 2050 -- about a decade earlier than most current targets. He also called for them to stop using coal by 2030 and 2040, respectively, and ensure carbon-free electricity generation in the developed world by 2035, meaning no gas-fired power plants either. |
| Deadly fungal infection rapidly spreading in U.S. health facilities | |
 | A deadly and highly drug resistant fungus is spreading at "an alarming rate" in long-term care hospitals and other health facilities caring for very sick people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday. Fungal infections from the yeast strain known as Candida auris tripled nationally from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021, according to CDC data. Cases where a person carries the fungus but is not infected nearly quadrupled from 1,077 to 4,040 in the same time period. Preliminary data suggests the numbers have continued to rise. Scientists believe the fungus is not a threat to healthy people whose immune systems can fight it off. But it poses a danger to medically fragile people, including nursing home patients on ventilators and cancer patients on chemotherapy. Between 30 to 70 percent of hospitalized people who develop bloodstream infections are estimated to die. CDC experts say the increased spread underscores the need for robust infection control plans to reduce transmission of a fungus that can cause outbreaks because it lingers on surfaces and spreads through contact with patients and contaminated objects. Authorities first detected Candida in the United States in 2016. The fungus is considered a serious global public health threat because it is resistant to different classes of antifungal drugs. |
| Feral Hogs Are the Worst Invasive Species You've Never Thought About | |
 | Think of the worst invasive species you know. Kudzu: smothering trees and houses, growing a foot a day. Burmese pythons: stripping the Everglades of small animals. Asian carp: hoovering streams clean of plankton and swimming toward the Great Lakes. They all came from somewhere else, arrived with no natural predators, outcompeted local flora and fauna, and took over whole ecosystems. But they all have their limitations: Kudzu dies in a hard freeze, carp can't tolerate salt water, and pythons can't cover long distances very fast. (Thankfully.) Now imagine a species with all those benefits -- foreign origin, no enemies -- and no roadblocks to dominance: One that is indifferent to temperature, comfortable in many landscapes, able to run a lot faster than you, and muscular enough to leave a big dent in your car. That describes any of the possibly 6 million feral hogs in the United States, the most intractable invasives that most people have never heard of. To a wild hog, modern human landscapes -- farm fields, flower gardens, golf courses, landfills -- are all-you-can-dig-up buffets. "Anything that has a calorie in it, they'll eat it," says James LaCour, the state wildlife veterinarian in Louisiana's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. "They're a mammalian cockroach." The challenge inherent in wild pigs isn't only the damage they do, though that is estimated to total $2.5 billion per year. Nor is it the diseases they may transmit to domesticated pigs or humans, though the dire possibilities keep biologists awake at night. It's that there is no way of controlling them. |
| USM teacher awarded 2023 Miss. Humanities Council Scholar award | |
 | One University of Southern Mississippi teacher has been awarded the 2023 Mississippi Humanities Scholar award. Dr. Rebecca Tuuri is an associate professor of history at USM, who researches and teaches women's history and the American civil rights movement. She also takes part in leading discussions about race, rights and democracy. "I am so honored to be given this award by the Mississippi Humanities Council," said Tuuri. "It's a wonderful organization in the state that tries very hard to bring the humanities to everyone. It tries to bring scholars to the public and tries to bring in that scholarship that we so often are kind of working on in our profession to the larger numbers of people in Mississippi." Tuuri will be presented the award on Friday, March 25, during the Mississippi Humanities Council awards ceremony at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson. |
| Students call for NCAA to boycott Mississippi; Tougaloo students protest HB 1020 | |
| Students at Tougaloo College rallied against House Bill 1020 Monday. The measure would expand state police and judicial authority in Jackson. The House version allows for state-appointed judges, and the Senate version looks to expand Capitol police patrol authority to the entire city. "It is very disheartening that the Black people of the city of Jackson are not being counted when it comes to what they have to do for their city," said Tougaloo student Kaitlin Myricks. Pre-law students at Tougaloo gathered in protest. They said neither version should be allowed to pass. They're calling on the NCAA to boycott the entire state until the bills are killed. The measure at the State Capitol is headed to a conference committee, which will be tasked with finding a compromise on how expanded authority the state should have in Jackson. |
| 'We are greatly concerned': Tech leaders urge state to support Birmingham-Southern | |
 | Two dozen tech leaders are urging the state's business commission to back a $37.5 million bailout for Birmingham-Southern College. In a letter addressed to Innovate Alabama, a commission established in 2020 by Gov. Kay Ivey, 24 founders of tech companies in Birmingham, Huntsville and Mobile called on the group to support Birmingham-Southern's request for a one-time infusion of public money. "Over the past several decades, Alabama's workforce development efforts have placed emphasis on manufacturing to meet the needs of industrial recruitment successes," they wrote. "Even so, Alabama needs more candidates with bachelor's degrees and, more significantly, the specific skills of critical thinking, problem-solving, the ability to adapt, learn, and lead, upon which all of our businesses depend." The letter, sent on March 17, comes as legislators mull a bailout plan that would allocate $30 million from the state's pandemic recovery and education funds toward the private college. Financial problems at Birmingham-Southern emerged in 2010 when David Pollick, who had been president since 2004, resigned after a controversy over accounting errors, overspending and increasingly dire budget deficits. |
| Bill prohibiting university diversity statements passes committee in Missouri House | |
 | When a public hearing was held earlier this month on bills that would prohibit Missouri universities' use of diversity requirements, four witnesses testified in support and 67 testified in opposition in a hearing that lasted from noon to 10 p.m. Nonetheless, on Monday, House Bill 1196, which would prohibit institutes of higher education from requiring prospective employees to submit statements of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), passed the House Special Committee on Government Accountability by an 8-6 vote, sending it to the House for consideration. The bill defines 'diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging' as an "effort or perspective" that "requires applicants to promote or support the idea that disparities are necessarily tied to oppression, involves collective guilt ideologies, and emphasizes the importance of activism and structural reforms based upon intersectional, divisive, or political identities." This definition, which bill sponsor Rep. Doug Richey, R-Excelsior Springs, wrote himself, was met with opposition and skepticism from Democratic members of the committee. One objection to the bill was raised by Rep. Chris Sander, R-Lone Jack, who read from a letter from Paul Wagner, executive director of the Council on Public Higher Education in Missouri, about the potential impact on Harris-Stowe State University and Lincoln University, Missouri's two HBCUs. |
| North Carolina Lawmakers Want Details on UNC's Diversity Training | |
 | North Carolina's public universities must provide a detailed accounting of their diversity, equity, and inclusion training to Republican state lawmakers by next week. The assignment comes from the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations of the North Carolina General Assembly, which requested information from the University of North Carolina system on diversity training programs and associated spending at its 17 campuses. Both chambers of the state legislature are controlled by Republicans. With the request, North Carolina joins Florida, Oklahoma, and South Carolina, where state officials have issued similar directives to public colleges in 2023. The letters vary in scope, but they generally ask colleges to detail their spending on efforts to recruit and retain diverse students, faculty, and staff. The North Carolina letter, obtained by The Chronicle, was addressed to a UNC-system official and dated March 14. It requests information for the current fiscal year and the previous three fiscal years. The letter does not mention the state's community colleges. NC Policy Watch first reported on the letter's existence. |
| The Unraveling of the U.S. News College Rankings | |
| Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken floated the idea past a small circle of colleagues. She had a sleepless night and queasy morning. And then, on Nov. 16, she started the revolt. Like many university administrators, Ms. Gerken had tried for years to get U.S. News & World Report to rethink its law-school rankings. The problem for Ms. Gerken wasn't Yale Law's score -- it had been No. 1 for more than 30 years straight. She worried about the broader effect on schools and their priorities. "The U.S. News rankings are profoundly flawed," Ms. Gerken said in a letter that day. And with that, Yale Law pulled out. Within three months, more than 40 law schools---about 20% of the programs that U.S. News ranks -- said they would also end their cooperation and no longer share data with the publication, including 12 of the top 14. A wave of medical schools, led by No. 1 Harvard Medical School, followed. At the undergraduate level, the Rhode Island School of Design (No. 3 among regional universities in the North) and Colorado College (No. 27 in the latest measure of national liberal-arts colleges) withdrew last month. The rebellion, which has thrown into tumult the most famous source of college rankings for generations of would-be students, was decades in the making. College presidents, deans and institutional research officers said they have regularly raised concerns with the company's chief data strategist in letters, on phone calls, at conferences and during in-person meetings at the company's Washington, D.C., headquarters. The rankings, they argued, were opaque, favored the wealthiest schools and promoted practices that didn't benefit students. They warned against simplifying something as complex as an education into an ordinal rank. |
| Higher Ed's Research Footprint Is Growing | |
| Higher education's hunger for conducting research is typically measured in terms of grant dollars. Another way to look at the sector's deep investment in the research enterprise is by looking at how much space it develops and dedicates to this purpose. Recently released data from the National Science Foundation show that research space at colleges and universities increased by more than 30 million square feet over a decade. According to the NSF's biennial survey, academic institutions had 236.1 million square feet of science and engineering research space in the 2021 fiscal year, the most recent data available, up from 202.2 million square feet in the 2011 fiscal year. Biological and biomedical sciences largely fueled that growth. From the 2019 fiscal year, the amount of research space rose 4.1 percent by 2021 -- the same fiscal year in which colleges conducted almost $85 billion in science and engineering research. Five fields accounted for nearly 84 percent of research space in the 2021 fiscal year: biological and biomedical sciences, engineering, health sciences, agricultural sciences, and physical sciences. |
| ChatGPT sends shockwaves across college campuses | |
 | In four short months, the GPT family of artificial intelligence chatbots have upended higher education like nothing since the arrival of Wi-Fi connections in classrooms. ChatGPT and its smarter, younger cousin, GPT-4, can create a realistic facsimile of a college term paper on command, or populate the answers to a midterm. At the start of the 2022-23 academic year, few professors had heard of it. They are learning fast. "I think this is the greatest creative disruptor to education and instruction in a generation," said Sarah Eaton, an associate professor of education at the University of Calgary who studies AI. The impact of this quickly developing technology has sparked varying concerns across colleges and fields of study due to its implications for academic honesty and learning. Not everyone sees this technology as an earth-shattering phenomenon, however. Some are excited about the implications it can have on learning. "There just hasn't been panic here on campus. In fact, the university is absolutely a wonderful place to consider all the implications both good and bad, and challenges and new questions raised by any kind of new technology, because we have people who are going to think about the problems from so many different angles and orientations," said Jenny Frederick, executive director of the Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning and associate provost for Academic Initiatives. |
| Congress considers family farm and small business FAFSA exemption | |
 | Higher education administrators say a change in the federal student aid formula could mean lower levels of financial aid for children whose parents run family farms or small businesses, and they want Congress to take action. Currently, a family with an adjusted gross income of $60,000 and a farm worth $1 million would be expected to contribute $7,626 annually for college. But under the new federal financial aid formula that will launch later this year, that same family would be expected to contribute $41,056, the Iowa Student Aid Commission found in a recent report. "It makes people look richer than they actually are," said Mark Wiederspan, executive director of the commission. Currently, the net worth of farms or businesses with fewer than 100 employees is exempt from the formula. However, the recent law that overhauled the federal student aid system known as the FAFSA Simplification Act removed that exemption, treating those assets as liquid. (Families that make less than $60,000 won't have to answer questions about assets.) The changes from the act, which includes a simplified version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, will go into effect for the 2024–25 academic year. The new application is supposed to launch in the fourth quarter of this year, though some are skeptical the Education Department will meet that deadline. Some experts are doubtful that Congress will make any changes before the new application rolls out, and the farm and small business exemption will likely be considered in future years. |
SPORTS
| Zach Arnett leaning on experienced staff for Mississippi State football | |
| When Mississippi State football kicks off its season against Southeastern Louisiana on Sept. 2, cameras will find coach Zach Arnett. They'll find offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay. They'll find defensive coordinator Matt Brock. Among the trio, there are a combined three years of college experience at their current positions -- all belonging to Barbay. Mississippi State, after former coach Mike Leach owned more than three decades of experience, appears to have one of the nation's least experienced staffs. However, that isn't the case. Arnett, with the understanding of the youth atop his staff, ensured deeper down the line he found veterans to hire. "There's over 100 years of SEC coaching experience on the staff," Arnett said last week. "I have many shortcomings, and I've got to hire a stable of guys around me who can make up for them. Fortunately, they're there to help me out on a daily basis." It started with retaining Tony Hughes as running backs coach. Hughes is in his second stint at MSU, but his coaching career stems back to 1985 with Philadelphia High School in Philadelphia, Mississippi. As he worked his way up the college ranks, Hughes primarily coached in the secondary. However, with his ties to the state throughout the last three decades, maintaining him in any role was crucial for wisdom and recruiting. "In terms of my discussions with full-time coaches, he was the first one I spoke to about the need to retain him here and how much assistance he could give me," Arnett said. |
| Diamond Dawg Gameday: Arkansas State | |
| The Mississippi State Bulldogs open up a nine-game homestand on Tuesday night at Dudy Noble Field when they host Arkansas State in a non-conference contest. First pitch from The Dude is set for 6 p.m. This midweek contest will be broadcast on SEC Network+, with Sunday's game also on the SEC Network. The game will also be carried on the Mississippi State Sports Network powered by Learfield, along with a live audio stream via HailState.com/Listen. Tommy Raffo, a former player at State, leads the Red Wolves. This will be his second trip to play his alma mater, with the first coming in 2021. Arkansas State enters the week with 52 doubles, averaging 2.89 doubles per game, leading the Sun Belt. This ranks inside the top 10 nationally in both. The Red Wolves come to Starkville with a record of 7-11 on the season and are looking at snapping a six-game losing streak. The Dawgs and Red Wolves meet for the 51st time on Tuesday when they play at Dudy Noble Field in a non-conference matchup. This will be the first matchup since April 13, 2021, when the Dawgs came away with an 18-10 victory. |
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