| Monday, March 27, 2023 |
| 17th Ragtime Festival takes MSU back to Roaring '20s | |
 | On Thursday night, the Mitchell Memorial Library on the MSU campus roared with the sounds of a clarinet, piano and drum playing ragtime music, meaning the 17th annual Charles H. Templeton Sr. Ragtime and Jazz Festival is underway. Stephen Cunetto, co-chair for the festival, said the library will not be quiet again until the festival ends tonight, and it all stems from the event's namesake. "Charles Templeton Sr. was a lover of music, obviously, and he amassed this collection and donated it to us," Cunetto said. "His love in terms of the music industry was ragtime, because ragtime is the root of all American music. Everything stems from ragtime music. Jazz, blues, all of that started as ragtime." Cunetto said the festival represents a partnership between many departments of the university, and includes music, painting, photography, video and fashion. At the Gatsby Gala on Thursday night, the audience could see an example of this partnership, as MSU fashion design students displayed their work while ragtime music played. "We really would love for people to come out and try it," Cunetto said. "Some people see the name 'ragtime and jazz' and think 'that's not for me,' but what we've found is that if people come out and give it a try, they keep coming back." |
| Women's empowerment event challenges women to support each other | |
| "Be kind to each other," Abby Buck, coordinator for fraternity and sorority life at Mississippi State University, told a roomful of young women Saturday afternoon. "... Being a woman in a man's world is hard enough on its own, so why would we make it harder on ourselves by tearing each other down? Buck was one of four panelists at a women's empowerment brunch Saturday afternoon at MSU's Bost Auditorium. A yearly event put on by student group IDEAL Woman, the brunch seeks to give good advice to female students who are getting ready to get out in the world, according to President Jalea McCauley. "We are a leadership program that caters to women on campus," said McCauley, a senior biochemistry major from Huntsville, Alabama. "We work with leadership development and career and academic success. Every year we host this brunch to allow women professionals to talk to the students about how to build our careers and how they have gotten to where they are in their lives." Buck was part of a four-woman panel that included Assistant Dean of Students Jackie Mullen; Kerrigan Clark, graduate assistant for the office of institutional diversity and inclusion; and Kimberly Mason, assistant director for the MSU counseling center. They answered prepared questions for a little over an hour about the importance of women helping women and common obstacles young women will face over their careers. |
| Are these mudbugs rare or just 'tough to catch'? | |
| If the crawfish boils held across the South during spring and summer are any indicator, you wouldn't think the clawed crustaceans rare at all. While the soon-to-be Cajun-spiced ones aren't, other species -- like the Oktibbeha Rivulet Crawfish -- may very well be. At least, that's what a team with the United States Geological Survey aims to find out. Corey Dunn, a research fish biologist for USGS and assistant professor at Mississippi State University, is working with graduate student Devin Raburn, to survey the population and more than 150 potential habitats for the species, which is a distant cousin to the red swamp crawfish commonly eaten at restaurants. As part of that research, Dunn and Raburn have been improving upon a small number of studies conducted since 1950, which noted the species as rare. Those findings were part of a lawsuit issued to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 2010 by the Center for Biological Diversity. In the lawsuit, the center petitioned that 403 aquatic and semi-aquatic species should be placed on the endangered list based on limited information about them -- certain fish, crawfish, mussels and birds, to name a few. |
| International Fiesta set for Saturday | |
| The 31st International Fiesta will take place on the Mississippi State University Drill Field with the Parade of International Flags starting at 11:00 a.m. (everyone is invited to carry a flag.) Participants are asked to meet at 10:45 a.m. in front of Allen Hall -- flags will be provided. There will also be wonderful entertainment, children's activities, display booths, traditional native attire and international cuisine will be available until 3 p.m. Admission is free! Food prices are set by each booth. Please join us for a tour around the world and the opportunity to learn from our global community. For questions contact Kei Mamiya at (662) 325-2033. |
| School closures, delayed start due to storms | |
 | Schools and colleges in the surrounding area announced closings or changes to their school today due to the severe weather that swept through the region on Sunday night. Lauderdale County announced all county schools will remain closed today due to widespread power outages and downed trees on the sides of roads in the county, according to LCSD Communications Director Andrea Williams. Meridian Public School District Public Relations Director Matt Davis said all MPSD schools also will be closed today due to last night's weather. Russell Christian Academy will delay its opening until 10 a.m., including the RCA Pre-K and Potter's Wheel Daycare classes. Due to widespread power outages and damage associated with the storm, the Meridian Community College Campus will be closed, said Kay Thomas, director of public information. The MSU-Meridian Campus will operate on a delayed start today due to conditions caused by severe storms moving through the area. Campus offices will open at 10 a.m., according to Lisa Sollie, project coordinator for MSU-Meridian. |
| Federal officials arrive in Rolling Fork after President Biden declares disaster in Mississippi | |
 | Hours after President Joe Biden declared a major disaster declaration in response to Friday's deadly tornadoes in Mississippi, local, state, and federal officials stood side-by-side in Rolling Fork to promise that they would do everything they could to support the community and rebuild. At least 25 have died across the state, with Rolling Fork being the hardest hit. Gov. Tate Reeves, U.S. Senators Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, Rep. Bennie Thompson, and Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker appeared with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell on Sunday, in front of a backdrop of twisted metal and splintered trees. "I want to begin by thanking, particularly, our federal delegation for being with us today, the homeland security director and administrator Criswell from FEMA. I want to personally thank President Biden and his team for very quickly signing the emergency declaration that we sent up yesterday. Obviously, the resources that the people here in Rolling Fork and throughout Mississippi need, the help is on the way," Reeves said. "It's been my experience, in times like this, that there is no such thing as politics. This doesn't have anything to do with politics. All this has to do with is helping our friends and our neighbors. And what you've seen behind me, and what you've seen over the last 36 hours, is a united front in working with the administration, working with the state officials, working with the local officials," Reeves said. |
| Mississippi tornado recovery tough for low-income residents | |
 | A massive tornado obliterated the modest one-story home that Kimberly Berry shared with her two daughters in the Mississippi Delta flatlands, leaving only a foundation and some random belongings -- a toppled refrigerator, a dresser and matching nightstand, a bag of Christmas decorations, some clothing. During the storm Friday, Berry and her 12-year-old daughter huddled and prayed at a nearby church that was barely damaged, while her 25-year-old daughter survived in the hard-hit town of Rolling Fork, some 15 miles (24 kilometers) away. Berry shook her head as she looked at the remains of their material possessions. She said she's grateful she and her children are still alive. "I can get all this back. It's nothing," said Berry, 46, who works as a supervisor at a catfish growing and processing operation. "I'm not going to get depressed about it." Like many people in this economically struggling area, she faces an uncertain future. Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the U.S., and the majority-Black Delta has long been one of the poorest parts of Mississippi -- a place where many people work paycheck to paycheck in jobs tied to agriculture. |
| After Tornado's Destruction, Mississippi Towns Look to Future While Coping With Grief | |
 | Several hard-hit Mississippi towns continued to dig out after a powerful tornado cut a path of destruction through parts of the state Friday night, as residents balanced grief with a hope that the disaster could eventually spur renewal in their rural communities. Driving down Highway 61 into the Delta town of Rolling Fork, population 1,800, on Sunday, the smell of barbecued meat and wood smoke was overpowering. Much of the town, located not far from the Mississippi River, was leveled by the storm, including its business district. The tornado claimed at least 25 lives in Mississippi, more than a dozen of them around Rolling Fork, as residents lost parents, cousins, lifelong friends and what some said were their dream homes. Volunteers across the region came to offer muscle, equipment and moral support. Three local businesses set up outside the Sharkey County Department of Human Services with mobile grills giving out chicken wings, hot dogs, ribs and corn to the community. Kenneth Williams, a 51-year-old postal worker who owns a traveling barbecue business, drove in from nearby Greenville to distribute food. While outsiders viewed the area as a poor part of the country, "there is life outside of what you guys are thinking, and I wouldn't trade it for the world," he said. "The thing about living in the Delta, the housing is very cheap so they'll use the federal money they get to build stronger housing." The tornado that smashed into Rolling Fork tore across the state in a continuous path for 70 minutes. At its strongest, preliminary data show it had wind gusts anywhere from 166 mph to 200 mph, the weather service said. It traveled 59 miles before it lifted off the ground. |
| A disaster in Mississippi: How severe EF-4 tornadoes wrecked Rolling Fork | |
 | For many of the residents of the community of Rolling Fork, the recovery is not going to be quick. In fact, it may never come. It's not for a lack of promises or commitments from local, state and federal officials, which have come steadily over the weekend. It's just that everything that once stood for their lives is gone. Glenn Spells was busy hurling waterlogged mattresses, clothing and broken pieces of furniture from the bare wood frame of his devastated duplex. Seven years of Rolling Fork life lay in a colorful pile around his ankles. So few pieces of his rental unit remained upright that there was no guarantee it would not be carted off to a landfill in the coming days. Uncertain of tomorrow, he and two friends worked beneath the nonexistent roof to throw the home's contents to the lawn as his 9-year-old daughter looked on. The damage from Friday night's tornado -- one of the worst on record in the state's history -- presents tough challenges for the majority-Black communities that were most affected. Questions also remain about how various levels of governments should have better prepared and warned residents, many of whom live below the poverty line. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell said Sunday during a news conference near wreckage in Rolling Fork that teams will be going door to door in Mississippi's hardest-hit communities to help residents register for assistance. Criswell was joined by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who assured reporters that victims will be helped "regardless" of their socioeconomic conditions. |
| Belzoni to Rolling Fork to Greenville: One mom's mission to get her son medical help after the tornadoes | |
 | Tameka Myles was at work Friday evening when she got the call every mother dreads. "You need to get here," her neighbor in Rolling Fork said. "Jay is hurt pretty bad." Immediately, Myles got in her Nissan Maxima with a coworker and raced home, with one thing on her mind: her son. Myles knew the weather was bad that night, but she assumed it would pass, as usual. She figured her 10-year-old son Gregory "Jay" Brady Jr. would be safe at her cousin's house while she was at work at the Bumpers in Belzoni about an hour away. Instead, her hometown was decimated. An EF-4 tornado ripped through the Mississippi Delta on Friday night. At least 25 people died, and dozens more were injured. Gov. Tate Reeves issued a state of emergency Saturday morning. "My city -- my city is gone," Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker told CNN Saturday morning. "But we are resilient and we are going to come back strong." That night, Myles drove down pitch black roads and through downed power lines, one hand permanently pressed down on her car horn. She couldn't fathom the devastation around her in the place she had grown up. |
| In the Mississippi County Where a Legend Was Born, Damaged Sculptures of 'Teddy's Bear' | |
 | In the hours after tornadoes ripped through the community of Rolling Fork, Fred Miller took stock of what needed to be rebuilt and repaired: the homes and businesses, the newly refurbished visitor's center and its trove of artifacts, and the beloved restaurant, Chuck's Dairy Bar. But Mr. Miller, the former mayor of the town, was also thinking about the bears. Scattered across town were 12-foot-tall wooden bears, carved with chain saws, to commemorate one of Sharkey County's most famous legends: the day former President Theodore Roosevelt, nicknamed Teddy, refused to kill a captured bear on a hunting trip here, declaring it unsportsmanlike. That decision, memorialized in a political cartoon, led a New York toymaker to create a stuffed bear and name it "Teddy's Bear," which later became known as the teddy bear. The legend is told throughout town, Mr. Miller, 73, said in an interview, describing the statue of a bear reading outside the library and one dressed like a policeman outside the police station. In a tradition that began in 2002, the 100th anniversary of the hunt, the town celebrates the Great Delta Bear Affair in October, in part to raise awareness about the Louisiana black bear, which was until recently considered endangered because of habitat loss and hunting. Meg Cooper, the director of the festival, said though some of the town's 18 bear statues had toppled over in the storm, someone had gone around and stood some of them up. Before the tornado hit, festival organizers had been discussing where to put this year's statue and had considered placing it in front of Chuck's Dairy Bar -- but that was demolished in the storm. |
| Lawmakers eye tornado relief as they haggle over state budget in final days of 2023 session | |
| Legislative leaders, negotiating a state budget during the final days of the 2023 session, said they intend to provide funds to help with recovery efforts from Friday's tornadoes that tore a path of death and destruction through the Delta and north Mississippi. The storm has thus far resulted in 25 deaths in Mississippi and destroyed buildings stretching from the south Delta to the Amory area in northeast Mississippi. House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, was among the legislative leaders who visited Rolling Fork that suffered massive destruction. On Sunday he said legislators "stand ready to provide whatever monetary resources we can to help them." He said Sunday he was first told by Mississippi Emergency Management Agency officials $5 million might be needed to provide the state's share to match the federal funds that will be available as a result of President Joe Biden issuing an emergency declaration. Later in the day, as more research was conducted, Gunn said $8 million might be needed. But he said as the recovery effort continues that number is fluid. Gunn said the funds could be incorporated in the budget bill for MEMA. Unless a rules suspension is passed, legislators face a Monday night deadline to pass the appropriations bills to fund state government. "I don't think money will be the issue," Gunn said. "I think the issue is how we help them get their lives back ... I saw devastation like I have never seen before." |
| Legislature planning to send relief money to areas impacted by weekend storms in Mississippi | |
 | Legislative leaders are preparing to send relief money to areas of the state, including Monroe County, that were battered by deadly tornadoes over the weekend that killed at least 25 people. House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, told reporters at the Capitol on Sunday evening that he and the vast majority of House members "stand ready" to send money that would help with recovery efforts. "I don't think money is going to be an issue," Gunn said. "I think the issue is how do we help people get their lives back together. That's the more pertinent issue for me right now. I went, and I saw devastation unlike I had ever seen before." Rolling Fork, a small town in the Delta, bore the brunt of the tornado damage, but the storm also caused widespread damage and power outages in some areas of north Mississippi, such as Amory. Monroe County Coroner Alan Gurley told the Monroe Journal that the Friday storm killed two people in the small town of Wren. Senate Education Committee Chair Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, told reporters that he and other legislative leaders are wanting to spend state dollars to cover the insurance deductible for school buildings that were damaged. DeBar also said he's working on legislation to create a short-term fund to provide immediate assistance for school districts until they receive the federal money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. |
| Here are five things to look out for in the last week of the legislative session in Mississippi | |
 | Mississippi lawmakers have one week left to iron out any differences and send bills to the governor's desk. In the nearly three months since the session began, a number of key bills have died, while many have made it to the desk of Gov. Tate Reeves to either be vetoed or become law. Now the only bills that remain are those that, while they passed by both the House and the Senate, did so in different forms and went to a conference committee to be negotiated. Senators and representatives on conference committees had until Sunday to negotiate on budget and appropriations bills and have until Monday on general bills. If agreements cannot be reached by those deadlines, the underlying bill is dead. Both chambers will then have until Friday to either approve or reject the agreements that those conference committees came to. Here are five things to look out for as you follow along with the final week of the 2023 regular session: The Budget, Mississippi Adequate Education Program, House Bill 1020, Hospitals, and Guns in Schools. |
| Senate agrees to revive debate on restoring ballot initiative | |
| The state Senate on Monday morning agreed to use a parliamentary tactic to revive debate on restoring the ballot initiative process, potentially giving voters a path to place issues on a statewide ballot. "We felt like this is important," Senate Rules Chairman Dean Kirby told the Daily Journal. "No one was happy that we weren't able to come to an agreement." Only four senators of the 52-member chamber voted against the resolution: Chris Johnson of Hattiesburg, John Polk of Hattiesburg, Mike Thompson of Long Beach and Angela Hill of Picayune. Sen. John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, last week killed a proposal to restore the initiative by failing to advance the plan before a key legislative deadline. But if two-thirds of lawmakers from both chambers vote to suspend the rules and allow for more debate on the initiative process, the deadlines would be suspended. The resolution only applies to legislation dealing with the ballot initiative process. The proposal now heads to the 122-member House of Representatives for consideration. House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, told reporters on Sunday evening he was unsure if he would support a Senate-sponsored suspension resolution on the initiative process. "I'd have to think about that," Gunn said. |
| Hosemann accuses McDaniel of 'clear violations' of law with campaign money | |
| Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann's campaign has filed a complaint accusing his Republican primary challenger state Sen. Chris McDaniel of "clear violations of Mississippi law" with his campaign money. The secretary of state's office, records show, has forwarded the complaint to the criminal investigations division of the attorney general's office. Hosemann's complaint comes after a Mississippi Today article last month pointed out McDaniel's financial reports for his campaign and a political action committee he runs leave voters in the dark about the source of hundreds of thousands of dollars and raise questions about whether donations violated state law. McDaniel, through a campaign spokeswoman, said he has done nothing wrong, but will be returning a $237,500 contribution from what has been described as a "dark money" nonprofit corporation in Virginia that dumps millions of anonymously sourced funds into campaigns nationwide. "We are confident we would prevail in court," said McDaniel campaign spokeswoman Nicole Tardif. "However, to avoid a protracted legal fight with the establishment, we decided to refund the contribution." Tardif declined to answer several questions, but fired at Hosemann: "Delbert Hosemann has spent the past four years rewarding Democrats and hoping no one would expose him. So we aren't surprised Delbert is obsessing over an alleged campaign finance issue to avoid talking about his abysmal, liberal record." |
| Judge to remove PSC candidate Mandy Gunasekara from ballot over residency issues | |
| Circuit Judge Lamar Pickard has determined that Mandy Gunasekara, a Republican running for Northern District Public Service Commissioner, does not meet the citizenship requirements to run for the office and is not a certified candidate for the August primary. The judge notified attorneys on Thursday evening in a letter that Gunasekara, who worked in Washington D.C. for the Trump administration, has not shown that she became a Mississippi citizen at least five years before the November general election, as is required by the Mississippi Constitution. Pickard is expected to enter a final order soon. Public records show that Gunasekara voted in Washington on Nov. 6, 2018. Mississippi's general election this year is on Nov. 7, meaning Gunasekara had a 24-hour window from her 2018 vote to become a Mississippi citizen. "It is admitted by the respondent that she voted in Washington D.C. on November 6, 2018, clearly expressing her declaration of citizenship in Washington D.C. at that time," Pickard wrote to the attorneys. "There is nothing in the evidence that indicates any change in that intent following that 24-hour period." Gunasekara and her legal team are expected to appeal Pickard's decision to the Mississippi Supreme Court, where it will be heard on an expedited basis. |
| Americans Pull Back From Values That Once Defined U.S., WSJ-NORC Poll Finds | |
| Patriotism, religious faith, having children and other priorities that helped define the national character for generations are receding in importance to Americans, a new Wall Street Journal-NORC poll finds. The survey, conducted with NORC at the University of Chicago, a nonpartisan research organization, also finds the country sharply divided by political party over social trends such as the push for racial diversity in businesses and the use of gender-neutral pronouns. Some 38% of respondents said patriotism was very important to them, and 39% said religion was very important. That was down sharply from when the Journal first asked the question in 1998, when 70% deemed patriotism to be very important, and 62% said so of religion. The share of Americans who say that having children, involvement in their community and hard work are very important values has also fallen. Tolerance for others, deemed very important by 80% of Americans as recently as four years ago, has fallen to 58% since then. Bill McInturff, a pollster who worked on a previous Journal survey that measured these attitudes along with NBC News, said that "these differences are so dramatic, it paints a new and surprising portrait of a changing America.'' He surmised that "perhaps the toll of our political division, Covid and the lowest economic confidence in decades is having a startling effect on our core values.'' |
| Privacy fears stymie government surveyors as responses dive | |
| Erik Paul didn't mind answering government questions about where his software development business was located or how many employees it had. But when queries from the U.S. Census Bureau broached the company's finances, the chief operating officer hesitated. "When you start asking financial questions, I get a little squirrelly," said Paul, of Orlando, Florida, who recently responded online to the 2022 Economic Census. It's a problem the Census Bureau and other federal agencies are facing as privacy concerns rise and online scams proliferate, lowering survey response rates in the past decade. The pandemic exacerbated the problem by disrupting in-person follow-up visits. Low response rates introduce bias because wealthier and more educated households are more likely to answer surveys, which impacts the accuracy of data that demographers, planners, businesses and government leaders rely on to allocate resources. Survey skepticism has grown so much that the Federal Trade Commission this month put out a consumer alert reassuring the public that the American Community Survey, one of the Census Bureau's most vital tools, is legitimate. |
| Chisholm biographer Curwood will be part of Martha Swain Speaker Series | |
| Mississippi University for Women and the Martha Swain Speaker Series are excited to welcome author Anastasia C. Curwood to campus for a talk about the life and experiences of Shirley Chisholm from 7-8 p.m. Thursday, in Nissan Auditorium, Parkinson Hall. The Mississippi Humanities Council, the Center for Women's Research and Public Policy and the Department of History, Political Science & Geography are co-sponsors of the event, which is part of The W's Women's History month programming and part of Homecoming. There also will be a book signing with Curwood from 3-4 p.m. Thursday at Friendly City Books in downtown Columbus. Both events are free and open to the public. Chisholm's 1972 bid for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party made history and helped pave the way for women's political activism. Curwood's forthcoming biography "Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics" highlights the important role Chisholm played in American politics and women's leadership. "Few women figure so large in women's political history than Shirley Chisholm," said Erin Kempker, professor of History at The W. Chanley Rainey, who directs the Center for Women's Research and Public Policy at The W, said women's representation in the United States continues to lag behind that of its peers, with Mississippi women ranking among the least represented. |
| U. of Tennessee suspends Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity | |
 | The Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity has been suspended for four years by the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. The university accused the fraternity of alcohol, drug and property damage violations. The chapter has been suspended until the spring 2027 semester due to "repeated violations of the Student Code of Conduct and their disciplinary sanctions," UT spokesperson Kerry Gardner said. Members must leave the on-campus house at 1832 Fraternity Park Drive by April 3. The university said the chapter has had several violations over the years. "The chapter's prior conduct record and current status under interim restrictions due to repeated violations of their disciplinary sanctions serve as aggravating factors," the university wrote to fraternity leaders. The Tennessee Alpha Chapter was founded in 1913, the university said in a news release. The current list of members is less than 30, and each undergraduate member will be expelled from the fraternity and excluded from frat alumni status. Former members can appeal for fraternity alumni status after graduation. |
| Texas A&M launches Institute for Early Childhood Development & Education | |
 | The launch of the Texas A&M Institute for Early Childhood Development & Education within the School of Education and Human Development has opened the door for expanded research and solutions in the early childhood sector, according to a recent press release. "The mission of our institute is to engage in rigorous research that generates solutions to the complex challenges facing early childhood today," said Hope Gerde, professor in SEHD and director of the institute. In addition, the institute will create a space for multidisciplinary research teams of faculty from across campus and across the A&M system, including education, psychology, nutrition, health, agriculture and policy to collaborate and focus on those challenges from multiple perspectives, Gerde said. "We're really trying to create the most comprehensive institute with faculty, students, centers, clinics across the campus and the state so that we can lead rigorous research that informs the change of those systems within the program with the ultimate goal of transforming the lives of young children and their families across Texas and beyond," she said. "Our research doesn't have any impact unless we can get it to those practitioners and families in the field in ways that they can actually use them," she said in regard to the institute's partnership with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service to ensure its research is widely shared through in-person and multimedia approaches. |
| U. of Missouri System scrapping diversity statements for job applicants | |
 | The University of Missouri System is standardizing the language that campus leaders can use in asking job candidates about diversity. The move comes as the Missouri General Assembly considers bills that would prohibit public universities from asking prospective employees any questions about diversity, a situation that has privately worried school officials who for years have sought to attract more students and faculty members of color. The new language, written by UM System President and MU Chancellor Mun Choi, was sent Friday in an email to a small number of faculty from all four UM system campuses. According to the letter, instead of asking job candidates for a statement on diversity, equity and inclusion, people responsible for hiring in the UM System will only be allowed to ask prospective employees for a "values commitment" statement. The values commitment language would read as follows: "We value the uniqueness of every individual and strive to ensure each person's success. Contributions from individuals with diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives promote intellectual pluralism and enable us to achieve the excellence that we seek in learning, research and engagement. This commitment makes our university a better place to work, learn and innovate. "In your application materials, please discuss your experiences and expertise that support these values and enrich our missions of teaching, research and engagement." The new language is starkly different from diversity requirements previously made by many schools and colleges on job postings in the UM System. |
| Accreditor emerging for intellectual disabilities programs | |
 | As demand continues to grow for colleges and universities to serve students with intellectual disabilities, a recently formed accreditation council is focused on ensuring that programs meet quality standards. Programs can be choosy in which students they enroll, often bringing only small numbers of students to campus. Typically, students can earn a credential but not a degree. A federal definition used with some programs describes students with intellectual disabilities as having "significant limitations" in cognitive functioning, as well as with social, practical and conceptual adaptive skills. Leaders of programs say they see potential advantages to showing they've met certain accreditation standards. Martha Mock, a clinical education professor and executive director for the accreditation council, said the evaluation of programs can work "in tandem" with expanding college access and providing helpful information to students and their families "about what they're going to get and what they're going to experience" before a student decides to enroll. Programs for this population of students, which vary in length and scope, have grown dramatically since 2004, when an informal survey found about 25 programs nationally, according to the Think College National Coordinating Center, which offers support to postsecondary programs for students with intellectual disabilities. The center now counts about 315 such programs, though that amounts to a presence at less than 10 percent of colleges and universities. |
| If retirement isn't your thing just yet, what about ... college? | |
| We think of college as a place you go to begin adulthood and ideally prepare yourself for working life. But more and more universities are offering programs to people at the other end of the career spectrum: adults in their 50s and 60s who may have finished one career but don't want their parents' retirements, and may want to use their past experience to give back to their communities. It makes financial sense for schools to court this market: Fewer 18-year-olds are enrolling in college, while the number of people over 50 is steadily growing, and they often have money to spend. Returning to school hadn't occurred to Terri Harrington until last year when she found herself at an impasse. She has lived in Denver and practiced law there for decades. At 66 and divorced, she was torturing herself with questions about her future: Should she keep working in the business she founded? Move to live near her son and grandkids? Or maybe go back to her family farm in Nebraska? "I don't know if it's like when you're going to college and you've got to choose a major, but it is an unsettling feeling to not really know what the remainder of your life looks like or what you want to do with it when you have that choice," she said. Then, Harrington spotted a Facebook ad for a new program called Change Makers at the University of Colorado, Denver. It's aimed at professionals at or near the end of their careers who want to repurpose their energies for what some people call their encore phase of life. |
| The role of politics in where students want to go to college | |
| When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the Constitution did not guarantee a right to abortion, many expected the result to influence where students chose to enroll at college. There were anecdotal reports of some students changing colleges, but the timing of the decision, in June, limited students from changing, especially at competitive colleges with strict May 1 deadlines for responding to an offer of admissions. This is the first year when the decisions students are making about where to enroll will be after that Supreme Court decision -- and after a palpable coarsening of relations between conservatives and liberals. We won't know the impact for sure until after the May 1 deadlines, or, for more colleges, until students actually enroll. But a new study from the Art & Science Group, being released today, found that nearly one in four high school seniors "ruled out institutions solely due to the politics, policies, or legal situation in the state" where the college was located. Further, the study found that "this behavior was statistically true across liberals, moderates and conservatives." In addition, Intelligent.com found that 91 percent of prospective college students in Florida disagree with the education policies of Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and one in eight graduating high school students in Florida won't attend a public college there due to DeSantis's education policies. The first thing about these studies is to gauge their significance. Most college students attend a college in their home state, and this has been the case for decades. |
| 1 in 4 Prospective Students Ruled Out Colleges Due to Their States' Political Climates | |
 | States' political climates are significantly influencing where high-school seniors are choosing to attend college in the fall, according to the results of a survey released Monday by the Art & Science Group, a higher-education consulting firm. One in four students said they ruled out institutions due to the politics, policies, or legal situation in the state where the college was located. Students who identified as LGBTQ+ reported rejecting institutions for these reasons at a higher rate than did students who identified as straight. There had been anecdotal evidence and speculation in recent months to suggest that some prospective students, among the small subset of those who travel out-of-state to attend college, might rethink their choice of institutions because of increasingly disparate state policies, particularly on issues such as abortion. So David Strauss, principal of Art & Science, said the researchers weren't necessarily surprised by the survey's findings, but rather, by the magnitude of the number of students who indicated they felt the way they did. "What this suggests is that institutions that are in states where significant parts of their constituencies might not be comfortable, they're going to have to mount an appeal that is strong enough to be compelling that it would overwhelm these kinds of concerns," Strauss said. |
| 'I won't sit idly when some try to attack our schools,' Cardona says | |
 | Miguel Cardona is sick of the political strife that's consuming classrooms, and he's ready to say so out loud. President Joe Biden's education secretary -- a former elementary school principal from Connecticut -- has sought to avoid conflict since arriving in Washington. But Cardona has been shaken by the country's fractured education politics over curriculum, parents' rights, LGBTQ students and race. "I was hired to improve education in the country. I'm not a politician. I'm an educator. I'm a dad, and I want to talk about raising the bar in education," Cardona said in an interview with POLITICO last week. "But I won't sit idly when some try to attack our schools or privatize education." Cardona advocated for tighter gun laws after last year's killings at Robb Elementary and has warned that the country risks failing students in Covid-19's wake. Yet his newly public exasperation with school-centered partisanship comes as the Republican-controlled House approved sweeping "Parents Bill of Rights" legislation that captures broad strokes of pandemic-era conservative education wars. "When we talk about politicization, when we talk about book banning, when we talk about Black history curriculum being picked apart -- I think there are deliberate attempts to make sure that our public schools are not functional so that the private option sounds better," the education secretary said. "I don't doubt that's intentional." Elections are also at play. Nearly 30,000 school board seats are on the ballot this year across the country. |
| House passes parental school oversight measure | |
 | House Republicans on Friday passed a bill that would mandate local school systems give parents greater oversight over education, making good on a 2022 campaign pledge by Speaker Kevin McCarthy and providing fodder for a 2024 campaign battle over public schools. The measure, which passed by a vote of 213-208, is unlikely to be considered in the Democrat-controlled Senate. It would affirm a parent's right to address the local school board and would require education officials to provide parents with lists of books and other curriculum materials, online budgetary information and alerts about incidents of violence at their child's school. Schools also would have to notify parents if their child uses a different name or pronoun at school. Parental rights have become a key rallying point for the GOP in response to COVID-19 school closures and mask mandates. In Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin's emphasis on parents' battles with school systems was widely credited with helping him win the governor's race in 2021, a year after President Joe Biden carried the state by 10 percentage points. "This has all been really motivated by the COVID restrictions," said Michael Barth Berkman, a political science professor at Penn State University. "Then the issue sort of morphed away from COVID to other issues like critical race theory, attacks on LGBTQ rights and book bannings." |
SPORTS
| Three New Legends Added To Ron Polk Ring Of Honor | |
| On a picture-perfect day at the Carnegie Hall of College Baseball, three more Mississippi State greats were enshrined into the Ron Polk Ring of Honor. Ken Tatum, Tommy Raffo and Mark Gillaspie saw their plaques unveiled on the pillars of the Adkerson Plaza in a ceremony prior to the Diamond Dawgs game against Vanderbilt on Saturday. That trio was the fifth class of baseball legends to have their legacies greet the throngs of fans that enter Dudy Noble Field through the right field entrance for the rest of time. "The fact that my name is up there means a lot to me," Gillaspie said. "This is amazing." "It's overwhelming and humbling to be alongside so many that I've looked up to in the Ron Polk Ring of Honor," Raffo added. Tatum pitched for MSU from 1964-66, Gillaspie roamed the outfield from 1980-81 and Raffo not only played first base for the Bulldogs from 1987-90 but also coached under Polk from 1994-2008. "We have spent a considerable amount of time discussing these individual's impact on the MSU baseball brand," said Ring of Honor committee chairman and former Bulldog reliever Saunders Ramsey. "I think our brand is second to none and those being recognized today played an integral part in that continued success." |
| Lane Kiffin 'struggled' with criticism after Auburn overtures | |
| Lane Kiffin is confident he did the right thing by rebuffing overtures from Auburn to remain at Ole Miss, signing a long-term contract extension in late November. But during an interview with ESPN on Friday, Kiffin said he felt conflicted with the criticism he received from some fans over how he handled the process, which took weeks to resolve. "We screw up all the time," he said. "But when you think you're doing the right thing and then you're really criticized for it -- especially by your own people -- I struggled with that because I feel like I went through a decision-making process that you're supposed to go through. "I mean, you got to decide. It's your life and your family's life." It was clear from the moment Auburn fired Bryan Harsin on Oct. 31 that Kiffin would be a top target in the Tigers' search. But Kiffin took his time weighing the opportunity. And during that time, he didn't make any public statements that he wasn't going anywhere -- a tactic he'd seen backfire with football coaches in the past who wound up going back on their word. It wasn't until the night before the final game of the regular season against rival Mississippi State that Kiffin informed the team he was staying. |
| LSU's concealing of Les Miles' sexual misconduct probe was potentially criminal, judge says | |
 | A federal judge has determined that LSU, aided by attorneys from the Taylor Porter law firm, may have committed a crime a decade ago when they agreed to conceal from the public a sexual harassment complaint and subsequent investigation into former LSU football coach Les Miles. U.S. Judge Susie Morgan wrote in a March 13 order that the facts surrounding how LSU and Taylor Porter handled the sexual harassment complaint could meet the definition of injuring public records, which is prohibited by state law. Morgan's order came in a long-running lawsuit between former Associate Athletic Director Sharon Lewis and LSU. Lewis has alleged that her superiors retaliated against her for trying to report that Miles sexually harassed a student and that they created a hostile work environment. LSU terminated Lewis last year, after she'd filed suit against them. Miles' attorney has repeatedly denied that he engaged in any misconduct at LSU. The football coach reached a settlement in 2013 with the student who accused him of harassment, though the terms are unknown. Her attorney originally requested $2.15 million from Miles. Morgan's order was in response to a request from Lewis' attorneys for unredacted copies of the student's complaint against Miles and Taylor Porter's billing records. Morgan ruled against Lewis on that issue, and instead granted a protective order blanketing the documents that LSU's Board of Supervisors had requested. |
| Final Four newcomers: Grab your name tag at the door | |
| Everyone's heard of UConn. All these other guys? They'll need name tags at the Final Four. When they travel to Houston next week to play for the national title, Florida Atlantic, San Diego State and Miami will be making their first appearances at college basketball's grand finale, the first time since 1970 that three first-timers all showed up in the same year. If the unfamiliar names -- to say nothing of the seedings -- are any indication, fans might look back on 2022-23 as the season when true parity finally sunk down deep into the bones of America's favorite basketball tournament and turned March Madness into a total free-for-all, all the way to the last weekend. There will be no No. 1 seed at the Final Four for the first time since 2011. Instead, there will be a 9 seed in Florida Atlantic, a pair of 5 seeds in SDSU and Miami, and a 4 seed in UConn. The combined seed total of the four teams is 23, the second-highest total since the seeding began in 1979. This marks the first time that not a single top-3 seed made it. The matchups for Saturday: San Diego State against FAU, in a not-so-classic 5-vs-9 matchup. (San Diego State, a 57-56 winner over Creighton on Sunday, is a 1.5-point favorite, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.) Who saw that coming? In the later game, it's the Hurricanes as 5 1/2-point underdogs against UConn, which is the prohibitive favorite, at minus-135, to bring a fifth national title home. |
| Jim Phillips: ACC to meet about changing men's hoops narrative | |
| ACC commissioner Jim Phillips told ESPN on Saturday that he will meet with his league's men's basketball coaches and athletic directors as soon as the season ends to discuss ways to be more "proactive" and "aggressive" in changing the narrative surrounding the conference. The ACC got only five bids this season to the men's NCAA tournament, a big disappointment to Phillips and to those inside his league. He remains steadfast in his belief that Clemson and North Carolina should have made the tournament. Although conferences such as the Big Ten and SEC got more bids (eight each), the ACC remains standing with Miami advancing to the Elite Eight. "We have to portray ourselves in a different way, and maybe it's our scheduling, maybe it's our providing information back to the committee, but we're going to be aggressive in how we look at it -- but we're also going to be proactive," Phillips said. "We feel the narrative hasn't been quite right the last two years. We're going to try to do something about that in the offseason. "I get it, I've been on the men's selection committee. I've been on the women's committee. It's a hard assignment, and so we're going to try to make it easier for them from an ACC standpoint to make sure we're structured and set up in a way where we will have more teams in the tournament in the future based on merit." |
| The Income Gap Is Becoming a Physical-Activity Divide | |
| Over the last two decades, technology companies and policymakers warned of a "digital divide" in which poor children could fall behind their more affluent peers without equal access to technology. Today, with widespread internet access and smartphone ownership, the gap has narrowed sharply. But with less fanfare a different division has appeared: Across the country, poor children and adolescents are participating far less in sports and fitness activities than more affluent youngsters are. Call it the physical divide. Data from multiple sources reveal a significant gap in sports participation by income level. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that 70 percent of children from families with incomes above about $105,000 -- four times the poverty line -- participated in sports in 2020. But participation was around 51 percent for families in a middle-income range, and just 31 percent for families at or below the poverty line. A combination of factors is responsible. Spending cuts and changing priorities at some public schools have curtailed physical education classes and organized sports. At the same time, privatized youth sports have become a multibillion-dollar enterprise offering new opportunities -- at least for families that can afford hundreds to thousands of dollars each season for club-team fees, uniforms, equipment, travel to tournaments and private coaching. "What's happened as sports has become privatized is that it has become the haves and have-nots," said Jon Solomon, editorial director for the Aspen Institute Sports and Society Program. |
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