| Tuesday, September 5, 2023 |
| City, campus officials celebrate new pathway connecting MSU to Starkville | |
 | A ribbon cutting was held in Starkville between city and campus officials celebrating the opening of a new connective pedestrian walkway. This is part of a joint project between Mississippi State and the city of Starkville to better connect Mississippi State to Starkville for pedestrians and bikers. The transportation commissioner for the Northern District John Caldwell said that this project has been a collaborative effort three years in the making. "These kinds of projects are federal state and local government coming together and when you bring in the university and the engineers here that've designed this project it just becomes instant success," said Transportation Commissioner John Caldwell. "This is part of a larger plan of connectivity between the University and the city it's just another part of our great master plan for bringing Mississippi State Community with the city of Starkville more closely together and it's just a wonderful day," said MSU President Mark Keenum. |
| Roses and thorns: A rose to Mississippi State University, city of Starkville and Mississippi Department of Transportation | |
 | The Dispatch writes: A rose to Mississippi State University, the city of Starkville and the Mississippi Department of Transportation, which on Friday officially opened the "College View Connector," a one-mile multi-use path that connects the MSU campus to the city at the Old West Point Road/Highway 182 interchange. The $2 million project, funded by a MDOT grant as well as money from both the university and the city, is a picturesque paved and lighted path that promotes healthy lifestyles -- walking, running, biking -- as well as providing convenient access between the campus and the city. Starkville and the university continue to work on ways to make themselves pedestrian friendly, something that isn't always the case in major college towns. We congratulate the university and city and predict that the College View Connector will quickly become a well-traveled and much-appreciated path and a symbol of what can happen when university and city officials work together. |
| Power tripping with David Wallace | |
 | David Wallace has all the power at Mississippi State University. Literally. Wallace, a Mississippi State assistant clinical professor of electrical engineering, is the manager of the Paul B. Jacob High Voltage Lab at Mississippi State University. The lab -- built in 1977 -- is the largest university-based high voltage lab in North America. As lab manager, Wallace can generate up to 1 million volts of AC and DC voltage, 3 million volts of lightning, and 300,000 amps of lightning current. He can also generate rain showers and create salt fog conditions, solar radiation, and temperatures ranging from -103 to 347 degrees. Not bad for a Lincoln County native and country boy who grew up on the lines of Magnolia Electric. When he wasn't playing church league softball, floating on the Bogue Chitto River, or hauling hay on the family farm, Wallace was a self-described "science nerd." Inside the lab, Wallace tests electrical industry products to ensure they meet national standard requirements. Wallace tests transformers, breakers, cables, insulators, switches, fuses, and crossarms. He also tests wind turbine blades, solar panels, and airplane panels. Wallace's work directly impacts the work of electric cooperatives and the linemen who restore power after outages. "The testing I perform helps the manufacturers of the electrical equipment improve their product which in turn helps ensure that the components perform properly and provide reliable electrical service. In addition to testing the components, I also work with the electrical utilities in troubleshooting problems that arise in their systems." |
| MSU professor selected for Fulbright International Education Administrators program | |
 | The Fulbright Scholar Program has selected a Mississippi State University associate professor of cultural anthropology as the university's newest recipient of the competitive and prestigious Fulbright International Education Administrators Award. David M. Hoffman, who also serves as director of the Office of Prestigious External Scholarships and a mentor for the university's presidential scholars, travels to Germany for two weeks this October for the U.S.-Germany International Education Administrators, or IEA, Program. The trip is administered by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the U.S. Department of State. It is designed to familiarize U.S. college and university administrators with the latest trends in higher education systems around the world. Hoffman will receive a comprehensive overview of Germany and its higher education system, including campus visits to research universities and universities of applied science. He will participate in lectures, discussions and workshops in Berlin and other regions of the country. The experience gives Hoffman and 14 other education leaders a chance to explore opportunities for academic exchanges and learn about broader European trends. All travel and accommodations, as well as scheduling, are provided by the Fulbright IEA Program. |
| Psychology major discovers her purpose at MSU-Meridian | |
 | Intimidated and uncertain -- this was an apt description of Mississippi State University-Meridian student Tina Dukes six years ago following a divorce and a cross-country move from Arizona to Meridian. Dukes, 47 at the time, was determined to regain her life and discover her purpose, and she knew the best way to do both was to return to school. "It was scary to step out and enroll at Meridian Community College because it had been so long since I had done anything on my own," she said. "But everyone was so willing to support and encourage me, I realized the only way I could fail was not to try." After earning her associate degree, Dukes transferred to MSU-Meridian in the fall of 2022 to study social work, but then quickly switched her major to psychology. "I've always enjoyed studying behavior and the mind, and the field of psychology provided the education I was looking for," she said. "Once I began taking classes I discovered there were things I instinctually understood, and I knew it was where I belonged," Dukes said. She also found a sense of purpose at Aldersgate Retirement Community where she just completed an eight-week internship through The Riley Foundation's summer work program, an annual grant program for nonprofit organizations in Meridian and Lauderdale County to hire college students during the summer. |
| Art exhibition 'Terra Infirma' expresses chaos and order in nature | |
| "How do you grieve something that is still happening to you?" Artist Kariann Fuqua asked this question at her talk "Grief, Loss and Resilience in the Anthropocene" at Mississippi State University on Thursday morning, discussing her anxiety and fear over climate change and her newest art exhibition "Terra Infirma," currently on display at the Cullis Wade Depot Gallery until Sept. 23. Fuqua's talk was followed by a reception on Thursday evening, where she discussed the same concern with The Dispatch. "It's an existential crisis that we're all dealing with," Fuqua said. "It's a very real thing that's happening in a quick ... amount of time and it affects everyone. It already has, on a global scale." Fuqua is an Instructional Assistant Professor of Art and the Director of Museum Studies at the University of Mississippi, and has been creating art for about 20 years. But the collection in her "Terra Infirma" exhibition spans her work from 2021-2023. During Fuqua's talk, she said her previous work was based on natural disasters, including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and her experience living through Hurricane Harvey while living in Houston, Texas. Lori Neuenfeldt, Gallery Director and Instructor, said she was introduced to Fuqua's work by one of her fellow faculty members, collaborating to choose what should be made available to students and the public. "Everyone should find time to come out to this space," Neuenfeldt said. "We're free, we're accessible, we're open to the public. Anyone who has never been to a museum or an art gallery should come to MSU and see this one." |
| Starkville's social media strategy highlights public workers | |
| On June 21, the first day of summer, a photo of Starkville Utilities linemen posted to the city's social media channels reached 22,236 sets of eyeballs and garnered 680 reactions. Another post in recent months, highlighting Starkville Cafe employee Shirley Powell as one of the Stars of Starkville, topped even that -- reaching 25,620 and garnering 753 reactions. Checky Herrington, owner of communications firm Narrative 12, used those metrics Friday at a board of aldermen work session to highlight the firm's first six months contracting with the city. "Is it working?" Herrington asked. "We think so." Narrative 12, which had already been working with Starkville Utilities on a separate contract, started working with all city departments in March. Since then, Herrington said, his team has snapped more than 3,000 photos and shot about 300 video clips that have been distributed in three to five social media posts per week across multiple platforms. Those posts share information about city services, highlight the work of city employees, and even shout out to "star" citizens or businesses celebrating milestones. The firm also generates at least one news release per month that is distributed to media across the Golden Triangle market. The city and Starkville Utilities each pay $4,500 per month to Narrative 12, Mayor Lynn Spruill said, which works out to $54,000 each over a year. Spruill said the entities plan to continue those contracts, with the city including its share in its proposed Fiscal Year 2024 budget. |
| Reeves to decide if Dems can replace Sec. of State nominee by deadline | |
| Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has the sole power to decide whether Mississippi Democrats can replace withdrawn Secretary of State nominee Shuwaski Young on November's ballot, as other Republicans on the election commission and state Democrats say it's up to him to schedule a meeting before Monday's possible statutory deadline. As of Friday, the state Democratic Party had not named a new candidate for secretary of state, executive director Andre Wagner confirmed. State chair Rep. Cheikh Taylor said Monday he hoped to name a replacement this week and said Thursday national Democrats agreed to support whomever is chosen. Wagner told the Daily Journal on Friday the party was now waiting to name a nominee until the State Board of Election Commissioners (SBEC) rules on Young's withdrawal affidavit. Under state law, the party can only replace a candidate on the ballot if the SBEC rules within five days of filing that a withdrawal affidavit is for legitimate non-political reasons. Young submitted a medical withdrawal affidavit Wednesday. It's unclear if officials will interpret the statute's timeframe to mean five business days or five calendar days. The SBEC consists of Republicans Gov. Tate Reeves, Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Secretary of State Michael Watson, Young's general election opponent. Secretary Watson said earlier this week he plans to send a proxy to the SBEC meeting. |
| Reeves leads Presley by 11 points in new poll | |
| Gov. Reeves leads Brandon Presley by 11 points in the governor's race, according to a new poll out Friday by Mississippi Today and Siena College. The Reeves campaign celebrated the dominant poll result as more accurate than the tied one, while still attacking the news outlet sponsoring it. "Even from a left-wing pollster commissioned by a dark-money Democrat super PAC, the data shows Governor Reeves has a commanding lead," campaign manager Elliott Husbands said in a statement. Gov. Reeves has frequently accused Mississippi Today of partisan bias for its critical coverage of the governor and his ruling party. Reeves communications director Clifton Carroll said the campaign will "act like it's close" and be "firing on all cylinders" until the election but the poll shows voters endorse the governor's record. Mississippi Democrats insisted Presley has a path to victory that can be seen in the poll. Polling typically under-represents the Black voters that are key to Presley's strategy, which hinges on turning out more Black voters than failed 2019 Democratic nominee Jim Hood did, state party executive director Andre Wagner said. National Democrats indicated the latest poll would not affect their support for Presley. The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in Presley's campaign. |
| Presley says Reeves skipped MSU game to duck questions on brother's Favre texts to auditor | |
| Democratic gubernatorial nominee Brandon Presley claims Gov. Tate Reeves is "hiding out from the press" after canceling plans to walk Saturday's Mississippi State tailgate in the wake of recently released text messages between his brother and the state auditor, although the governor's campaign has pushed back against the allegations and now says the governor never planned to go in the first place. On Thursday, after a court date in an ongoing public records lawsuit filed by Mississippi Today, Reeves' campaign "preemptively" released Todd Reeves' 2020 texts with State Auditor Shad White coordinating former NFL quarterback Brett Favre's repayment of misspent TANF welfare funds and relaying Favre's request for a favorable public statement. On Friday, the governor's campaign communications director told the Daily Journal the governor would no longer be campaigning in Starkville for MSU's season opener as originally stated. He cited a scheduling conflict with his daughter's soccer game as the reason behind the apparent change in plans. But Presley said he believes Reeves is "hiding out" to avoid media scrutiny. "He runs from the press, and he is scared to debate," Presley said outside the stadium in Starkville before the Bulldogs game. "It's typical Tate Reeves." In response to the Daily Journal's request for comment on Presley's weekend attacks, Reeves campaign communications director Clifton Carroll denied the governor was avoiding scrutiny and claimed Presley's claims were both unfounded and a distraction from his "past support for sex changes for children and liberal donations." "These are the desperate swings of a failing candidate who cannot talk about the issues," Carroll said Saturday. "Todd Reeves was transparent about the fact that he helped the state recover money, and his wife is a very successful businesswoman in her own right." |
| Faced With Evolving Threats, U.S. Navy Struggles to Change | |
 | A symphony of sorts echoed through the sprawling shipyard on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi -- banging, hissing, beeping, horns, bells and whistles -- as more than 7,000 workers hustled to fill orders fueled by the largest shipbuilding budget in the Navy's history. The surge in spending, $32 billion for this year alone, has allowed the Huntington Ingalls shipyard to hire thousands of additional people to assemble guided missile destroyers and amphibious transport ships. "More ships are always better," said Kari Wilkinson, the president of the shipyard, pointing to the efficiencies that come with a steady flow of contracts and the jobs they create. But the focus from Washington on producing a stream of new warships is also creating a fleet that some inside the Pentagon think is too wedded to outdated military strategies and that the Navy might not be able to afford to keep running in decades to come. Half a world away, at a U.S. Navy outpost in Bahrain, a much smaller team was testing out a very different approach to the service's 21st-century warfighting needs. Bobbing in a small bay off the Persian Gulf was a collection of tiny unmanned vessels, prototypes for the kind of cheaper, easier-to-build and more mobile force that some officers and analysts of naval warfare said was already helping to contain Iran and could be essential to fighting a war in the Pacific. The contrast between the approaches in Pascagoula and Bahrain helps to illustrate one of the biggest challenges facing the Navy. |
| A Georgia trial arguing redistricting harmed Black voters could decide control of a US House seat | |
 | Democrats could gain a seat in the U.S. House and multiple seats in Georgia's Legislature if a judge rules Republicans drew maps illegally weakening Black voters' power. The trial beginning Tuesday is part of a wave of litigation progressing after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year stood behind its interpretation of the Voting Rights Act, rejecting Alabama's challenge to the law. The Voting Rights Act says voting district lines can't result in discriminatory effects against minority voters, who must be allowed a chance to elect candidates of their choosing. Court cases challenging district lines drawn after the 2020 Census could shape 2024 congressional elections in states beyond Alabama and Georgia, including Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Texas. Taken as a whole, those cases could affect the narrow hold Republicans have on the U.S. House. In Georgia, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones is hearing what is expected to be a two-week case without a jury. If he rules against the state, he is likely to order Georgia's Republican-controlled General Assembly to redraw districts to comply with the law. The trial yokes together three different cases, meaning Jones could rule for the challengers in some instances and not others. Jones already ruled in March 2022 that some parts of Georgia's redistricting plans probably violate federal law. He allowed the new congressional and state legislative maps to be used for 2022's elections, finding changes close to elections would have been too disruptive. |
| Biden's Age, Economic Worries Endanger Re-Election in 2024, WSJ Poll Finds | |
 | Voters overwhelmingly think President Biden is too old to run for re-election and give him low marks for handling the economy and other issues important to their vote, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll that offers a stark warning to the 80-year-old incumbent ahead of the 2024 contest. The negative views of Biden's age and performance in office help explain why only 39% of voters hold a favorable view of the president. In a separate question, some 42% said they approve of how he is handling his job, well below the 57% who disapprove. And Biden is tied with former President Donald Trump in a potential rematch of the 2020 election, with each holding 46% support in a head-to-head test. The Journal survey, while pointing to a large set of challenges Biden faces in persuading voters that he deserves re-election, also finds weaknesses in his likely opponent. Voters in the survey rated Trump as less honest and likable than Biden, and a majority viewed Trump's actions after his 2020 election loss as an illegal effort to stop Congress from declaring Biden the proper winner. "Voters are looking for change, and neither of the leading candidates is the change that they're looking for," said Democratic pollster Michael Bocian, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio. The numbers come as Biden has spent months traveling the country promoting his economic record and legislative achievements. But 58% of voters say the economy has gotten worse over the past two years, whereas only 28% say it has gotten better, and nearly three in four say inflation is headed in the wrong direction. |
| Chinese Gate-Crashers at U.S. Bases Spark Espionage Concerns | |
| Chinese nationals, sometimes posing as tourists, have accessed military bases and other sensitive sites in the U.S. as many as 100 times in recent years, according to U.S. officials, who describe the incidents as a potential espionage threat. The Defense Department, FBI and other agencies held a review last year to try to limit these incidents, which involve people whom officials have dubbed gate-crashers because of their attempts -- either by accident or intentionally -- to get onto U.S. military bases and other installations without proper authorization. They range from Chinese nationals found crossing into a U.S. missile range in New Mexico to what appeared to be scuba divers swimming in murky waters near a U.S. government rocket-launch site in Florida. The incidents, which U.S. officials describe as a form of espionage, appear designed to test security practices at U.S. military installations and other federal sites. Officials familiar with the practice say the individuals are typically Chinese nationals pressed into service and required to report back to the Chinese government. Concern over the base intrusions comes amid rising U.S.-China tensions, which spiked after a Chinese balloon overflew the U.S. earlier this year carrying what officials said was surveillance equipment. The incidents also cast a light on concerns that Beijing is using nontraditional means to gather intelligence on U.S. soil, whether through proximity to bases or through Chinese-produced commercial equipment that could be used to spy. The problem of low-level Chinese intelligence collection like this is well known in intelligence circles, said Emily Harding, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a former deputy staff director at the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. It is a numbers game, she said. |
| Bill Richardson, former N.M. governor who worked to free Americans held abroad, dies | |
 | Bill Richardson, a former Democratic governor of New Mexico who went on to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has died. He was 75. Richardson died in his sleep at his summer home in Chatham, Mass., the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, a nonprofit foundation started by the former governor, confirmed on Saturday. Before he was elected as governor in 2002, and later ran an unsuccessful bid as the first Latino U.S. presidential nominee, Richardson served 14 years as a congressman representing northern New Mexico. Under President Bill Clinton, he served as U.N. ambassador and energy secretary. After his career in government, he cemented his legacy as an unofficial diplomat through his volunteer work in securing the release of Americans detained overseas. Richardson visited North Korea on multiple occasions to broker the release of Americans held there. In 1996, he successfully negotiated the release of Evan Hunziker, an American civilian arrested after crossing into North Korean waters. That same year, his talks with Cuban leader Fidel Castro had led to the release of three political prisoners. The prolific diplomat's willingness to negotiate with some of the world's most notorious autocratic governments also drew some critics. After Richardson's visit to Myanmar in 2021, some human rights leaders criticized him for giving its military legitimacy. Days later, the former governor successfully negotiated American journalist Danny Fenster's release. Last week, Richardson was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his global efforts to free political prisoners. The Democratic senators who nominated him noted Richardson's recent role in the releases of professional basketball star Brittney Griner and Marine veteran Trevor Reed, both of whom were repatriated in prisoner swaps with Russia. |
| Russia's Putin says there will be no new grain deal until the West meets his demands | |
| Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that the grain deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain safely through the Black Sea won't be restored until the West meets its obligations to facilitate Russian agricultural exports. Putin made the statement after talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who along with the U.N. brokered the deal seen as vital for global food supplies, especially in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Ukraine and Russia are major suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other goods that developing nations rely on. But Russia refused to extend the deal in July, complaining that an agreement promising to remove obstacles to Russian exports of food and fertilizer hadn't been honored. It said restrictions on shipping and insurance hampered its agricultural trade even though it has shipped record amounts of wheat since last year. Putin said that if those commitments were honored, Russia could return to the deal "within the nearest days." Since Putin withdrew from the grain initiative, Erdogan has repeatedly pledged to renew arrangements that helped avoid a food crisis in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. A lot is riding on the talks for the world food supply, and beforehand analysts predicted Putin would drive a hard bargain. Data from the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, which organized the Ukraine shipments, shows that 57% of the grain from Ukraine went to developing nations, with the top destination being China, which received nearly a quarter of the food. |
| SouthTalks series at Ole Miss focuses on creativity in the South | |
| Creativity in the South is the programming theme for the 2023-24 academic year at the University of Mississippi's Center for the Study of Southern Culture. The fall SouthTalks series begins by recognizing that the U.S. South is a region of profound contrast. "Extreme poverty exists uneasily alongside extreme wealth," said Katie McKee, the center's director. "Political and social conservatism digs into the same place that rooted the civil rights movement. Chronically underfunded school districts populate the very landscape that nurtures internationally renowned writers and artists and painters. "This semester, we explore creativity in the South by asking how place shapes -- and sometimes even requires -- the creative expression linked to it. We define creativity broadly to include the processes of making and remaking 'the South' over time and through different mediums." "Daily, I find myself and witness others being inspired by people, movements, moments -- past and present -- where innovation and creativity were necessary forces to move something forward," said Afton Thomas, the center's associate director for programs. James M. Thomas, UM associate professor of sociology, discusses "Whiteness in Crisis?" at 4 p.m. Oct. 11. Through in-depth interviews with white people living in the South -- a region where the nation's color line has arguably been drawn brighter than anywhere else -- this project examines how white people are making sense of both race and region in the 21st century. This SouthTalk is co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. |
| Students transform their drab dorm rooms into comfy living spaces | |
| From $300 studded headboards and $100 coffee table books to custom-made cabinets to disguise your mini-fridge, students are spending big bucks to decorate their dorm rooms, adding yet another layer to the soaring costs of college. Some are even going so far as to hire interior designers to beautify their 12 feet by 20 feet of space. Lesley Lachman, 18, planned her furnishings for her dorm room with her roommate immediately after deciding to attend the University of Mississippi back in May. The Rye, New York resident scoured websites like Pinterest and designed her room herself -- with hues of pink, purple and green culled from a mix of pricey brands like Essentials with Eden as well as less expensive items from Ikea and Facebook Marketplace. Total cost for the design? About $3,000, covered by her parents. "I'm so in love with the room," Lachman said after her redesign. "I want to leave the door open and want everyone to stop by and admire it." Overall, the back-to-college season is big business, with families expected to spend an average of about $1,367 per person, up 14% from a year ago, according to an annual survey conducted this summer by the National Retail Federation and market researcher Prosper Insights & Analytics. Spending on big-ticket items such as electronics and dorm furnishings as well as necessities like food accounted for more than half of the increase, NRF said. Dawn Thomas launched an interior design service -- After Five Designs -- in Jackson, Mississippi 20 years ago for college students after designing dorm rooms for her own children who were going away to school. She said in the past few years, she has seen plenty of other designers now working with students. |
| USM, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center sign STEM partnership | |
| An agreement signed Friday between the University of Southern Mississippi and the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center continues a transformative pathway for scientific collaboration between two of the state's research leaders. USM President Joe Paul and ERDC Director David W. Pittman were on hand to sign the official memorandum of understanding during a special ceremony on the Hattiesburg campus. The agreement establishes a mutual understanding and cooperation between the partners in the implementation of an educational program. "Today's five-year agreement allows us to further expand truly synergistic opportunities through our partnership, including enhancing our cooperative educational collaborations where we are leveraging our faculty expertise and increasing access and engagement for our students -- both undergraduate and graduate scholars," Paul said. The purpose of this partnership is to encourage and enhance study in STEM disciplines, including polymer science and engineering, computer sciences, geology and geophysics, ocean science and engineering, and chemistry and environmental sciences. "At Southern Miss, we are deeply committed to being distinctive and adding value through our academic and research offerings and creating graduates who are ready for life," Paul said. "This partnership allows us to do just that, and we are deeply grateful." |
| New academic freedom policy at Delta State is likely its first, emails show | |
| Delta State University appears to have never had a policy on academic freedom, a core tenet of higher education that ensures faculty will not be disciplined for conducting research that could be considered controversial. The lack of such a policy, which free speech experts called "very unusual," was discovered over the summer by a faculty member who realized the oversight could have imperiled the university's upcoming reaccreditation, according to emails obtained by Mississippi Today. The faculty senate president immediately started drafting a new policy at the request of an administrator overseeing accreditation. But over the summer, discussions hit a hitch on a clause that said free speech cannot disrupt the university's functioning. The faculty senate wanted to include an exception for civil disobedience, given the Mississippi Delta's storied legacy of civil rights protests, and the provost, who stepped down last month, did not. That exception did not make it into the final version of the policy. The policy development comes as Delta State faculty are working to start the university's first-ever chapter of the American Association of University Professors. The advocacy organization's famous 1940 statement on academic freedom forms the basis of many academic freedom policies at colleges nationwide. |
| NatGeo documentary to highlight Millsaps groundbreaking work in Yucatan | |
 | Sharing the history of the Mayan culture with Millsaps College has been the life's work of George Bey, Ph.D. In a National Geographic documentary series, he is sharing his work with the world. "The Rise and Fall of the Maya," a four-part documentary series, is expected to make its American debut in the upcoming weeks. Episode 2, Civilization, will highlight Bey, Millsaps professor Evan Parker and other Millsaps students and staff as new evidence is unearthed in Mexico's Yucatan, transforming long-held ideas about the growth of the Maya civilization. The entire documentary shows that despite decades of research, many mysteries remain about the ancient Maya. Archaeologists, including Bey and Parker are discovering new clues that give pause to how these people came to dominate vast areas of Mexico and Central America. Through lost monuments, ancient inscriptions and new forensic evidence, this series tracks the Maya from their earliest origins all the way to the present day, unlocking the secrets of the rise and fall of the Maya. All of Episode 2 was filmed at a 4,500-acre bio-cultural reserve in the Yucatan that is operated and maintained by Millsaps College. "We call ourselves a reserve without boundaries and there are a number of archeological Mayan sites that we also work at," Bey said. "Millsaps coordinates these programs, but we work with a number of other colleges and universities, including the Mexican government." |
| Archives and History department awarded federal grant for civil rights history teaching workshops | |
| The Mississippi Department of Archives and History has been awarded $187,059 by the National Endowment for the Humanities to present two workshops on teaching civil rights history. This MDAH project was awarded as part of the National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of History and Culture Grant program, and it will mark the 60th anniversary of a pivotal event in American history, 1964's Freedom Summer. MDAH will partner with National History Day to coordinate and lead the program. Seventy teachers from across the nation will have the opportunity to attend one of two weeklong workshops starting at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson and then traveling to specific locations in the state that were central to the historic events of Freedom Summer. "This grant is an incredible opportunity for us to show how this landmark event goes beyond Mississippi history; it's truly a national event," said Al Wheat, MDAH director of education. "Bringing teachers from across the country to Mississippi to see our sites, analyze our primary sources, and visit locations where the history actually happened will make a positive impact not just on workshop attendees, but on their students." The workshops, which will run from July 8-12, 2024, and July 22-26, 2024, will consist of two different groups of K-12 teachers, with 35 per group, who will gather at the Two Mississippi Museums and the MDAH archives to interact with historians, Civil Rights Movement veterans, educators and museum professionals. |
| Conservative book ban push fuels library exodus from national association that stands up for books | |
| After parents in a rural and staunchly conservative Wyoming county joined nationwide pressure on librarians to pull books they considered harmful to youngsters, the local library board obliged with new policies making such books a higher priority for removal -- and keeping out of collections. But that's not all the library board has done. Campbell County also withdrew from the American Library Association, in what's become a movement against the professional organization that has fought against book bans. This summer, the state libraries in Montana, Missouri and Texas and the local library in Midland, Texas, announced they're leaving the ALA, with possibly more to come. Right-wing lawmakers in at least nine other states -- Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming --- demand similar action. Part of the reason is the association's defense of disputed books, many of which have LGBTQ+ and racial themes. A tweet by ALA President Emily Drabinski last year in which she called herself a "Marxist lesbian" also has drawn criticism and led to the Montana and Texas state library departures. "This is the problem with the American Library Association, it has changed from an organization that helped communities and used common sense into one that just promotes a view," said Dan Kleinman, a blogger and longtime ALA critic. The nonprofit American Library Association denies having a political agenda, saying it has always been nonpartisan. |
| Auburn University faces two federal lawsuits over in-state tuition | |
 | Auburn Blackstone Law Group voluntarily dismissed a $10 million state lawsuit against Auburn University over in-state tuition to instead file a new case representing eight families in federal court. Mark Tippins, an attorney from Auburn Blackstone Law Group, said they filed the federal lawsuit "under the civil rights statute for violation of constitutional rights belonging to bona fide Alabama residents." The eight families are seeking reimbursement for paying out-of-state tuition, which is three times more than in-state tuition. Tippins said they are also in the process of filing a second federal lawsuit representing seven more families with freshmen students and first-year transfer students. "Their parents legitimately live in the state of Alabama, and Auburn says, 'no, you got to pay out-of-state tuition,'" Tippins said. "If you just look at it on the surface, this is fraud." In 2020, Tippins filed a lawsuit in the Lee County Circuit Court alleging that Auburn University discriminates against students, like Nicholas Pero, who moved to Alabama to work and attend school. Pero was a former Florida resident who was told in 2017 by university admissions employees that he could establish Alabama residency to qualify for the lower tuition rate available to the state's residents, Tippins said. Pero's long-term plan was to establish a branch of his family's electrical engineering business in Alabama. A year later after following the university's guidelines, Pero was denied in-state tuition. |
| A drunk bus at LSU: Amid safety concerns in Tigerland, LSU unveils late-night routes | |
 | Students leaving the bars of Tigerland will soon be able to take Tiger Trails back home for free. Beginning Sept. 14, LSU's bus service will begin its Night Express route, designed to transport students back to campus safely, the university's office of parking and transportation services said in a mass email. The Night Express will run two routes to and from three locations on campus. The Tigerland East route will have stops at fraternities on Dalrymple Drive, Laville Hall and West Campus Apartments. Tigerland West will have stops at the fraternities, Sorority Row and Canal Hall. Security officers will also be present at each stop to assist. The service will be offered Thursdays through Saturdays from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. Shuttles will not be offered during reduced service hours, university holidays and closures or days when LSU has a home football game. LSU students have long complained that it is unsafe to walk to and from Tigerland. Former LSU landscape architecture student Taylor LaSorsa, who graduated earlier this year, made it the goal of her senior capstone project to make the area safer. LaSorsa chose Tigerland as the subject of her project to honor her friend Sarah James who, in 2019 as a sophomore, was hit by a car and killed at the busy intersection of Nicholson Drive and Bob Pettit Boulevard. In the plan, LaSorsa proposes less parking and a roundabout to allow for faster drop-offs and pickups in order to deter drinking and driving. |
| Why the U. of Tennessee and ORNL are asking scientists for $20 million ideas | |
 | The University of Tennessee System and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are looking for two brilliant $20 million ideas. The two research projects they're looking for are meant to tackle some of the biggest research topics out there, from sustainable energy to biotechnology and manufacturing. In the space of two pages, researchers must propose a research area that could make the two institutions national leaders on important innovation and could marshal a team of 20 researchers and at least 25 doctoral students over five years. Proposals are due to the University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute by Sept. 15, and the winning ideas will be selected by December. The $20 million in funding is not simply a grant, but comes with the expectation that researchers will secure around $15 million in additional external funding. It takes at least two years to get from selecting the projects, called convergent research initiatives, to actually beginning research, interim executive director of the institute David Sholl said at a town hall Aug. 21. Sholl said new research faculty would be hired, with a potential path towards tenured positions at UT. The projects also will include dozens of doctoral students. Around 125 graduate students work with ORNL, and the lab hopes to increase that figure to 500 students. |
| Workers urge U. of Missouri to reverse decision to close print shop, outsource work | |
 | Susan Washington, a former employee of the University of Missouri's Print and Mail Services, said she always thought she would be proud to work at MU. Now that the university has announced it will be closing its printing department, Washington said "that's not the case anymore." Washington and other workers, politicians and residents gathered Friday for a press conference hosted by the Laborers' International Union of North America Local 955, urging MU to reverse its decision to outsource printing services. The printing department, which is part of MU's Print and Mail Services, creates printing cards, pamphlets, posters and other promotional materials for the university. It currently employs about 25 staff members, according to Washington. Print services will be phased out within the next calendar year, according to a July news release. The decision was made following a comprehensive review, which included the printing department's "operations, financial health, and staffing," the news release said. The release cited multiple reasons for ending the program, including a 50% drop in revenue over the past 10 years and a decrease in staff numbers. Basi added that the print shop was not the only operation MU employed for its services, and that other outside vendors had already been utilized prior to the decision to end the program. Basi said that while the decision to end the program has been made, the university is working to help employees transition to other jobs both within and outside of the university. |
| West Virginia University crisis looms as GOP leaders focus on economic development, jobs | |
| On the same day that dejected students pleaded with the board of West Virginia's flagship university not to eliminate its entire foreign languages department and dozens of other programs, Gov. Jim Justice said he was feeling hopeful about the future of education in the state. "We've had tough times -- there will be more tough times -- but absolutely we are rising from the ashes," Justice said Aug. 22, while signing a bill allocating $45 million for another state school, Marshall University, to open a new cybersecurity center 200 miles from West Virginia University. Lawmakers approved the Marshall project, heralded as the nation's "new East Coast hub" for cybersecurity, in a hastily called special session last month but rejected calls to send WVU funds to address its budget deficit, currently about $45 million. The Legislature's lack of interest in bailing out the state's largest university comes as WVU struggles with the financial toll of dwindling enrollment, revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic and an increasing debt load for new building projects. Administrators have pushed to take drastic action that raises questions about the responsibilities of states to offer diverse academic offerings -- particularly at land-grant institutions in rural areas that traditionally lack access -- and could be an early indicator of shifting priorities nationwide. |
| Meet the Cybersecurity Threat Haunting Community Colleges: 'Ghost Students' | |
 | There's a rising trend that's been especially scary for community colleges lately, beyond declining enrollments: "ghost students." Fraudsters are using bots in an attempt to steal community colleges' financial aid, gumming up their easy-to-enroll admissions systems and wasting human capital. When courses moved online during the pandemic, scammers flooded community colleges with bots, or automated software applications, to fraudulently enroll in courses and interact with course materials and professors until the college issued a financial-aid check. Because community colleges prioritize accessibility, their admissions processes are easy. But that makes them especially vulnerable to fraud, said Nick Merrill, a lecturer specialized in cybersecurity for the University of California at Berkeley's School of Information. Community colleges are now training their staffs to better detect fraud, and making changes to admissions. But with this could come increased barriers to enrollment, Merrill said. The Department of Education's Office of Inspector General said in a statement that they are investigating the phenomenon. Community colleges are especially vulnerable to fraud because of their open-access model, meaning anyone with a high-school diploma or equivalent can enroll as a student. The scams are known as "sybil attacks," where fraudsters generate many false identities to "overwhelm the system," Merrill said. The scam is so ubiquitous that anyone can go to YouTube and find hundreds of videos on how to obtain a college email address and enroll using a bot. |
| 'Extraordinary and Historic': Student-Worker Unionization Explodes While Faculty Action Stalls | |
| A report released Friday by the City University of New York's School of Labor and Urban Studies illustrates the extent of the labor-organizing boom in higher education over the past few years. While growth in faculty unionization has remained stagnant, student-worker unionizations have skyrocketed, amounting to an "extraordinary and historic" phase of student-labor organizing. A special feature in the report, written by CUNY's National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, at Hunter College, tallies the sharp increase in new student-worker collective-bargaining units. In 2020 that number was zero. It jumped to 12 new units in 2022, followed by 18 more units formed in the first six months of 2023. The 30 new unions founded over the 18-month period represent a total of 35,655 student workers. Among the 2022 and 2023 union victories were institutions where previous organization attempts had failed, including at Yale University, the University of Chicago, the University of Minnesota, and the Johns Hopkins University. New unions included teaching and research assistants in both STEM and humanities disciplines, along with undergraduate workers like resident advisers, dining-hall workers, and library staffers. About three-quarters of new student-worker units were at private universities -- a departure from historical trends, the report says. Meanwhile, just 11 new faculty collective-bargaining units have been recognized since January 2022. The report says the recent upsurge in student-worker organizing reflects a "wider labor awakening" in young workers. |
| Biden fights back against GOP onslaught on education -- cautiously | |
 | As students settle into classrooms and the Republican presidential campaign kicks into high gear, President Biden has begun pushing back on hot-button issues related to education -- but in an often-indirect way while trying to stay focused on issues his campaign believes matter more to voters. Biden regularly denounces Republican efforts to remove or restrict certain books in schools, but he has opted against fully engaging in the culture wars being waged by many Republicans. Instead, Biden and his administration are emphasizing areas they see as more resonant: increasing school funding, combating pandemic-era learning loss and addressing students' mental health. Republicans, for their part, are zeroing in on issues such as transgender athletes in schools and how Black history is taught. As Labor Day marks the unofficial start of both the campaign and the school year, the emerging split screen underscores the vastly different approaches the two parties are taking to education politics. "Republican culture wars have really moved education onto the national agenda," said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. "One of the strongest strategies for responding to the divisiveness on these culture war wedge issues is to actually talk about an investment in our schools." Biden's campaign wants to link the battle over what is taught in schools to its broader effort to brand Republicans as extremists trying to control what Americans can learn, teach and do with their bodies. His campaign launch video and first television ad included references to book restrictions as one example of GOP infringements on freedom. |
| Modern Conservatism Was Born on College Campuses. So Why Does the GOP Hate Them? | |
 | If you spend enough time listening to Republican politicians talk about higher education today, it would be easy to believe that America's colleges and universities are -- and always have been -- bastions of uncontested leftism. On the presidential campaign trail, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has attacked colleges for their role in spreading "woke ideology," touting his efforts to restrict discussion of race and gender in Florida's universities. Following DeSantis' lead, former President Donald Trump has claimed that America's colleges and universities are "dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics" while vowing to "reclaim" campuses from "pink-haired communists." On Capitol Hill, Republicans like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have doubled down on their attacks as well, denouncing schools as "cesspools of Marxist indoctrination." But the political battle over higher education in America has never been as one-sided as these comments might lead you to believe. As University of New Orleans historian Lauren Lassabe Shepherd documents in her new book, Resistance From the Right: Conservatives and the Campus Wars in Modern America, America's college campuses have given rise to a long tradition of conservative political activism, much of it focused on the same issues that preoccupy conservative culture warriors today. Shepherd's book, published Aug. 22, focuses on the "campus wars" of the late 1960s, when powerful conservative student groups like Young Americans for Freedom and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute clashed with left-wing groups like Students for a Democratic Society over civil rights, the Vietnam War and the women's liberation movement. |
| What the Public Really Thinks About Higher Education | |
| Americans today believe in the value of a college credential, but they aren't convinced higher education is fulfilling its promise to society. That ambivalence toward colleges -- general support with some real caveats -- infused responses to a national poll by The Chronicle to gauge public perceptions of higher education. The goal was to probe attitudes about the value of a degree and, beyond educating individual students, institutions' broader activities and goals. This is the first of several stories that will explore the poll's findings and the issues they raise. Most people, whether they have a four-year degree or not, would advise others to pursue one, our poll found. Yet many don't think institutions do a great job educating their students -- or that they are of great benefit to graduates. Alternatives like trade school strike many Americans as just as good of a path to a successful livelihood. And colleges' value to communities and to society also draws skepticism. Growing dissatisfaction with higher education has been a common concern in recent years, as some polls sound a drumbeat of doom -- that confidence is falling, that institutions are moving in the wrong direction, that more people think they have a negative effect on the nation. At the same time, conservative politicians have heightened attacks on colleges, claiming that institutions further progressive agendas and indoctrinate students. Many Democrats still voice support for higher education, though often with demands to improve graduation rates and limit student debt. Caught in the middle, college leaders are under pressure to defend their institutions' value, and often argue that wide access to higher education is essential to the nation's civic and economic fortunes. |
| Declaration Center at Ole Miss to provide students with American civics education | |
| The University of Mississippi's Steven Skultety writes for the Magnolia Tribune: Mississippians rightly expect that institutions of higher learning will expose students to learned versions of fundamental debates. We fail students if we introduce them only to esoteric exercises and contentiousness. We also fail them if, when confronting divisive issues, we do not provide a wide variety of views to help inform their considerations. As Director of the Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom, I am striving to open new opportunities for study, and deepen students' intellectual engagement with a number of profound issues facing our civic society. ... Higher education is often seen as championing the perspective that justice should be understood as "equity." Some propose that equity alone should be the foundational commitment of higher education and they seek to transform all levels of education accordingly. We all have a responsibility to think carefully about the implications of this view. For its part, the Declaration Center encourages students, faculty, and citizens to consider the possibility that American public institutions should embrace broad ideals of liberty and justice for all, and carefully study how freedom, like equity, has transformative potential. ... As Director of the Declaration Center, I hope to increase viewpoint diversity in higher education, and am actively working to ensure that ideas about freedom, opportunity, and our Nation retain a platform in academic discussion. In addition to supporting faculty research across the state, the Declaration Center will support a new academic minor in Freedom Studies at the University of Mississippi and act as a clearinghouse for expanded student opportunities and scholarships. |
| Opinion: Heading to DC to help save local journalism | |
| Mississippi newspaper publisher and columnist Wyatt Emmerich writes: Later this month, I'm heading up to Washington, D. C. to lobby Congress to help save local journalism in our country. Over the last 20 years, we've lost two-thirds of our professional journalists. A third of all newspapers have shut down. Instead, people get their news from Tik-Tok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and bloggers. The world has changed. Newspaper revenues are a fraction of what they once were. All that ad revenue has gone to Google and the other Internet mega platforms. It's not that we don't have the eyeballs. If you include our websites, we have more readers than ever before. Our problem is we don't have the scale to run a massive spying apparatus like Google, Apple and Facebook. They track your every move, your every keystroke. They eavesdrop through your cell phone. They use this information to target ads. It's an unfair advantage. In Europe, laws are being enacted to prevent this snooping. But not in the United States. Why? Because the mega platforms are the richest, most powerful companies in the history of the world. They can buy Congress. It's disgusting and scary. ... Not only that, Congress gave legal immunity to Internet platforms. It's called Section 230 of the Communications Act. The Northside Sun can get sued for every single word we print. Yet Google and Facebook can publish whatever they want without the fear of libel lawsuits. It's unfair and wrong. |
| Attorney General Fitch not supporting all state laws with vigor | |
| Syndicated columnist Bill Crawford writes: Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch's prosecution of state laws has come under scrutiny. Months ago, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann filed a complaint with the attorney general alleging campaign finance violations by his opponent Sen. Chris McDaniel. It wasn't until recently that Fitch said her office would investigate. Mississippi Today reported, "She has faced criticism this election cycle over lack of action on allegations of campaign finance violations, particularly in the lieutenant governor's race." Only the attorney general has authority to prosecute campaign finance violations. Weeks ago, Secretary of State Michael Watson complained that Fitch was failing to enforce tidelands leases. "I write once again to express my concerns about matters in which we have requested assistance from your office to no avail," Watson said in a letter to Fitch. "I have included a chronology below outlining our multiple attempts to obtain assistance from your office, as the state's 'law firm' and its failure to act on behalf of my office to protect the state's interest." He added, "In a desperate attempt to spark some activity from your office, you will recall I emailed you specifically on March 24, 2023, to request a meeting on these matters so that we can move forward and ensure the interests of the state are preserved." The attorney general's lack of a strong defense of Mississippi's K-12 compulsory vaccination law in federal court also raised eyebrows. |
| Governor's race disconnect: Brandon Presley's positions have more support than his candidacy does | |
| Mississippi Today's Bobby Harrison writes: Likely Mississippi voters by an overwhelming margin continue to support the issues touted by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley even if they do not support him. The latest Mississippi Today/Siena College poll further highlights the electoral disconnect that has been evident in earlier polls conducted by the same pollster. The polls have consistently shown that people support Presley's proposals, but he still trails Republican incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves. The latest poll, conducted Aug. 20-28 of 650 likely voters ahead of the Nov. 8 general election, shows Reeves leading Presley 52% to 41%. Yet a whopping 92% are concerned with the financial condition of Mississippi hospitals that put them at risk of closure. While Reeves has barely spoken of the hospital crisis unless asked about it by the media, Presley has made the issue key to his campaign. And one of Presley's primary solutions to the hospital crisis -- expanding Medicaid to provide health care to primarily the working poor while at the same time providing another source of revenue for struggling hospitals -- is supported by 72% of poll respondents and opposed by 23%. To further amplify that voter disconnect, poll respondents are evenly split on which candidate "would do a better job addressing the Mississippi hospital crisis" at 44% each. |
| Hattiesburg, Southern Miss recall Jimmy Buffett before he was legend | |
| Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: Former Southern Miss president Martha Dunagin Saunders was a USM undergrad in the late 1960s at the same time as Pascagoula native Jimmy Buffett, the future billionaire singer-songwriter. The two were friends. "My most vivid memory of Jimmy from those days is of coming out of night class, and seeing him racing across campus with a guitar over his shoulder, obviously running late to play a gig," Saunders said Saturday, hours after learning of Buffett's death. "All Jimmy wanted to do back then was play his music. He really had a passion for it." Saunders, now the president of the University of West Florida in Pensacola, described a young Buffett as, "Crazy witty. Always smiling. Always funny. Always with a story." That wit and passion, along with a keen business acumen developed later in life, catapulted Buffett to remarkable fame and fortune. At the time of his death early Saturday, at age 76, he was ranked No. 18 on the Forbes' list of the Richest Celebrities of All Time with a net worth of $1 billion. Saturday, in Hattiesburg, news of Buffett's death superseded even the anticipation of the Golden Eagles football opener with in-state rival Alcorn State. An announced crowd of just over 30,000 watched Southern Miss defeat Alcorn 40-14 and was serenaded with Buffett's familiar ballads during timeouts throughout the night. A video tribute and moment of silence to honor Buffett preceded the opening kickoff. Thousands stood, swayed and sang his hit anthem "Margaritaville" during a timeout midway through the second quarter. ... Buffett's family moved from Pascagoula to Mobile when he was young and he grew up in Alabama's port city. He first attended Auburn University but flunked out, and then found his way to Pearl River Junior College in Poplarville -- and from there to USM. |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State honors Mike Leach in first home game since his death | |
 | The Mississippi State Bulldogs are playing their first game since the sudden death of head coach Mike Leach. Leach was 61 when he died in December. He had just wrapped up his third season coaching the program. University President Mark Keenum and athletic director Zac Selmon presented Leach's family with a framed jersey with the No. 21 and a signed executive order that all flags on state buildings and grounds would fly at half-staff for a day in his honor. Leach died of complications from a heart condition as the team was gearing up for the ReliaQuest Bowl against Illinois. The Bulldogs won that game, 19-10. "Coach Mike Leach cast a tremendous shadow not just over Mississippi State University, but over the entire college football landscape," Keenum said in a statement at the time of Leach's passing. "His innovative 'Air Raid' offense changed the game. Mike's keen intellect and unvarnished candor made him one of the nation's true coaching legends. His passing brings great sadness to our university, to the Southeastern Conference and to all who loved college football. I will miss Mike's profound curiosity, his honesty and his wide open approach to pursuing excellence in all things." "Mike's death also underscores the fragility and uncertainty of our lives," Keenum added. "Three weeks ago, Mike and I were together in the locker room celebrating a hard-fought victory in Oxford. Mike Leach truly embraced life and lived in such a manner as to leave no regrets. That's a worthy legacy. May God bless the Leach family during these days and hours. The prayers of the Bulldog family go with them." |
| Mississippi State honors Mike Leach as Bulldogs play first home game since legendary coach's death | |
| Mississippi State president Mark Keenum and athletic director Zac Selmon presented Mike Leach's family with a framed jersey in a ceremony after the first quarter of the Bulldogs' game vs. Southeastern Louisiana. It was the team's first home game since Leach's death in December. The family also received a signed executive order that mandated state flags be flown at half-staff following his death. The Bulldogs also honored Leach during their ReliaQuest Bowl victory by wearing pirate flag helmets. It was a nod to the famed offensive guru, who among many other quirks, was an avid pirate enthusiast. But Saturday's game marked the program's first chance to offer tribute to Leach and his family in front of a home crowd. Though he spent only three years of his storied career at Mississippi State, he made a significant impact during that time. Leach was responsible for the development of quarterback Will Rogers, who is the SEC's all-time leader in completions. Leach's Mississippi State tenure was book-ended by huge wins. In his first game, the Bulldogs knocked off reigning national champion LSU in 2020. In his final game, the Bulldogs defeated arch rival Ole Miss 24-22. |
| Mississippi State football honors Mike Leach, family in 2023 opener | |
| While Mississippi State football kicked off the Zach Arnett era Saturday against Southeastern Louisiana, the Bulldogs made sure to honor former coach Mike Leach, who died in December. Leach's signature was painted on the Davis Wade Stadium sideline accompanied by a cowbell with a pirate logo. Following the first quarter, members of the Leach family -- his wife, Sharon; his son, Cody, Cody's wife and Cody's son -- were honored on the field. Athletic director Zac Selmon and president Mark Keenum gifted them a framed Leach jersey. They were also given a framed executive order in which Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves ordered all flags on state buildings and grounds be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Dec. 20, 2022, in remembrance of Leach, who died Dec. 12. Leach spent three seasons at MSU to cap an iconic coaching career. |
| Will Rogers leads Mississippi State in Zach Arnett's debut, Bulldogs roll past SE Louisiana, 48-7 | |
| Will Rogers threw for 227 yards and Mississippi State overcame a slow start with a running game that churned out 300 yards on the ground en route to a 48-7 win over Southeastern Louisiana in the season opener for both schools on Saturday. The game marked the debut of head coach Zach Arnett, who coached the Bulldogs in the ReliaQuest Bowl win over Illinois to close the 2022 season after legendary coach Mike Leach died suddenly last December. Leach was honored by the Bulldogs following the first quarter with his widow, Sharon in attendance. The Bulldogs had just a 3-0 lead at the end of the first quarter before putting up 17 points in the second in a 20-7 lead at the half. MSU managed to find its footing in the second half to pull away for good. "I thought we got better in the second half," Arnett said. "I thought (SELA) had a great plan. I think they did a tremendous job with their plan. We've got a long way to go and it only gets tougher from here. We can either get complacent and think we've done something special or be truthful to ourselves, watch the film and improve." Rogers was 20-of-29 passing and passed Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel for seventh in SEC history in career passing yards. Rogers now has 10,916 yards and is chasing Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray's mark of 13,166. "I think it took a second for us to get settled in," Rogers said. "As a leader and a senior, you stay the course. You let the game come to you and I thought that we did that. With that being said, we've got to do a lot better." Mississippi State hosts Arizona next. |
| Arizona, de Laura crush NAU in season opener | |
| The University of Arizona Wildcats got a bit of revenge Saturday night with a 38-3 rout of the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks in the season opener for both teams at Arizona Stadium. Arizona's Jayden de Laura was nothing short of spectacular, passing for 285 yards and three touchdowns in the win. Last season, the standout quarterback threw for more than 3,600 yards. The Wildcats' Tetairoa McMillan caught three passes for 65 yards and a score. Jeff Fisch, in his third season in Tucson, proved again he has his Wildcats headed in the right direction. Arizona went 1-11 in 2021 but improved to 5-7 last season. While an FBS school is expected to easily handle an FCS opponent, things didn't work that way two years ago. The Lumberjacks beat the Wildcats 21-19 in 2021, an embarrassing loss these Wildcats refused to let happen again. While Arizona does have a tough schedule in its last season in the nearly defunct Pac-12, no one should be surprised if the Wildcats earn a bowl bid. Competing for a conference title isn't off the table for Arizona, a fitting end to its tenure in the Pac-12. Arizona hits the road next week for a game against Mississippi State. That game should go a long way in determining how good these Wildcats really are. Kickoff on Sept. 9 is set for 4:30 p.m. (Arizona time) and the game will be on the SEC Network. |
| How Mississippi State football, Kevin Barbay should utilize QB Mike Wright moving forward | |
| Mississippi State football's offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay wasn't lying. Throughout the offseason, he promised the Bulldogs would utilize the explosiveness of Vanderbilt transfer quarterback Mike Wright. In Saturday's season-opening 48-7 win against Southeastern Louisiana, the talent was on display. Wright collected 95 rushing yards on just five carries -- highlighted by a 53 yard run midway through the third quarter. However, playing against an FCS school likely meant Barbay didn't open the playbook. The opener felt like only a glimpse of what Wright can do for the Bulldogs this season. Wright is good enough, and fast enough, to break a big play even if the defense knows he's in to run. Combined with Barbay's pre-snap disguises and fake handoffs, teams will hesitate and allow Wright to blow by players. However, a pass on occasion could keep the defense on its heels. His career completion percentage is above 50% to go with his 21 passing touchdowns and 2,067 passing yards. |
| Mississippi State tight ends are building culture amid NCAA ruling on Geor'Quarius Spivey | |
| When Mississippi State football coach Zach Arnett and new offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay brought in transfer tight ends Ryland Goede and Geor'Quarius Spivey, they were looking for players who could do more than block and catch. For a position room that had been barren the last three years due to Mike Leach's Air Raid offense, getting on-field production was only part of the goal for MSU's staff. The Bulldogs needed veterans who could establish a culture to better the future of tight ends in Starkville. However, the group was met with adversity last week. The NCAA ruled Spivey was ineligible to play this year despite graduating from TCU before transferring for his second stint at Mississippi State. The room was rocked with what Arnett called a, "gigantic blow." Despite this, the identity in the tight end room hasn't changed and plenty of that falls on Spivey's shoulders as he continues to be involved despite being unable to take the field. "He's been a great teammate throughout the whole process," Goede said Monday. "We love Spivey. He's an unbelievable human and a great player. We're supporting him throughout this and just thankful he's still part of the team, just being here with the guys and still holding a leadership role because he's important to us." |
| Jett Johnson signs NIL deal with Natt Grubbs Agency to benefit Tupelo football booster club | |
| On Friday, two big names announced they're giving back to Tupelo in a big way. Mississippi State linebacker and Tupelo High alum Jett Johnson has signed an NIL deal with the Nat Grubbs Agency. As part of the deal, the agency will donate a certain amount of money to the Tupelo High Football Booster Club for every big play the Mississippi State linebacker makes throughout the season. This includes tackles, sacks, fumble recoveries and interceptions. The owner of the agency, Nat Grubbs, is an agent at ALFA Insurance and has known Johnson for many years. Through those years, he's seen Johnson become the role model for the community that he is now. "He just exemplifies everything that my company is all about; faith and family and community and integrity," Grubbs said. Grubbs hopes that NIL deals like this, where players use proceeds to give back to their communities, become more commonplace as a result of what he and Johnson are putting forward. "Isn't it exciting to think that it could be even bigger than Tupelo, Mississippi and Mississippi State University and Jett Johnson and Nat Grubbs?" he said. "It could be nationwide. This is a vehicle that people use to give back." |
| Could former Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen be part of ESPN's Egg Bowl broadcast? | |
| While appearing on The Stringray Show on Monday, former Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen said he'll be part of ESPN's broadcast of the Egg Bowl this year. Mullen said he'll be joining play-by-play voice Matt Barrie for Thursday night college games, which would include MSU vs. Ole Miss at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 23. However, game assignments won't be confirmed until later in November, according to an ESPN spokesperson. "I'm really happy it's in Starkville. I get to go back to call the game in Starkville and see all the great Mississippi State fans that were so awesome to me, the family, everything throughout the years," Mullen said. "I love Mississippi State and all the fans." Mullen spent nine seasons (2009-2017) coaching the Bulldogs before departing for Florida. He was 69-46 at MSU with a bowl appearance in all but one season and a pair of seasons with at least 10 wins. In 2014, behind quarterback Dak Prescott, Mississippi State debuted at No. 1 in the College Football Playoff poll. Mullen went 5-4 in the Egg Bowl with a 31-28 loss in Starkville marking his final game as MSU's coach. He went on to coach Florida for four years before he was fired and replaced by Billy Napier in 2021. ESPN signed Mullen last year to be part of its college football lineup. |
| Bulldogs Kick Off Season With A Strong Second-Place Finish at The Opener | |
| A quartet of freshman counted toward the team score for Mississippi's State's cross country team Friday night as the Bulldogs placed second to kick off its season at The Opener. In her collegiate debut, Ramat Jimoh (18:22.99) started and finished strong, claiming the second-place spot in the race. Also counting toward the team score, Gabrielle Boulay (18:56.09), Madelyn Keating (19:10.46), and Brooklyn Quanz (19:17.76) made their mark by finishing 10th, 13th, and 17th, respectively, in their very first collegiate race. Notably, seasoned runner Zoe Brito (18:23.51) found herself with a fourth-place finish and setting a new personal best, shaving off an impressive 39 seconds from her previous collegiate record. This accomplishment marked a significant milestone for Brito, as it was her highest finish in the 5k race at the collegiate level. The young Bulldogs demonstrated consistency, with all members of the lineup finishing within the top 40 positions. Among the newcomers, Maci Mills (19:57.68) and Trinity Holland (20:27.69) showcased their talent in their debuts, securing the 26th and 31st positions, respectively. |
| Mississippi State splits a pair of matches at UCF Challenge | |
| Mississippi State volleyball traveled to Florida for the UCF Challenge in Orlando on Friday and Saturday, emerging 1-1 with matches against UCF and FIU. The Bulldogs (4-1) opened up the event with a four-set loss against the Knights for their first loss of the season. Mississippi State, despite having fewer total errors than the Knights, couldn't get things going offensively as UCF had 22 more kills in the match and a .246 hitting percentage compared to MSU's .153 hitting percentage. Saturday was a different story as the Bulldogs pulled off a close straight-set victory over the Panthers. MSU dominated the match, hitting over .300 in two of three sets, finishing with a .284 hitting percentage. The Bulldogs had 11 more kills, assists and digs, and fewer errors than FIU overall. Mississippi State continues its non-conference schedule in Georgia this weekend at the Kennesaw State Invitational. |
| SEC's Greg Sankey tops college football Most Influential list | |
| SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey tops the list of the 25 Most Influential People in College Football as determined by the San Jose MERCURY NEWS's Jon Wilner, who noted Sankey has "immense sway" in the CFP discussion. Sankey runs the SEC with "deft oversight" and has co-chaired the NCAA transformation committee. Wilner: "Not everyone in college sports agrees with Sankey on all the issues, but we have yet to encounter anyone, anywhere who does not have immense respect for his strategic acumen, management style and interpersonal skills." The list compiles the "key movers and shakers behind the scenes" -- including Mississippi State President and CFP Chair Mark Keenum -- and is designed to "lift the curtain on the sport's complicated, layered machinery and identify the people and issues that shape the terrain." Coaches (with one exception), ADs, players and front-facing media members were not considered for the list (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 8/31). Sankey last month ranked 11th in SI's list of the top 25 Most Intriguing People in College Football; ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips topped that list (SBJ). |
| Josh Harris to succeed Kerry Tharp as president of Darlington Raceway | |
| In what looks to be a seamless and well-suited transition, Darlington Raceway has named its Vice President of Business Operations Josh Harris to be the next president of the historic race track. Harris will officially assume the role when current president Kerry Tharp retires at the end of the 2023 season. In so many ways, this position seems a natural fit for Harris, a Mississippi native whose earliest NASCAR connections came as a young fan attending events at Talladega Superspeedway before eventually working as an executive for the sanctioning body at the local and national levels. His love of the sport and his 12-year tenure learning the ropes as a NASCAR executive working at Talladega, Daytona and now Darlington have given him a strong foundation as he prepares to step into his new role with the company. Tharp, one of the most respected executives in the sport, also had nothing but praise for his successor. "Josh Harris is the right person to lead Darlington Raceway,'' Tharp said. "This is one of the most historic race tracks in motorsports and I am certain it will be in great hands." It's exactly the kind of faith and goodwill that Harris has earned through more than a decade of working in the industry. He came to NASCAR 12 years ago after earning his undergraduate degree at Mississippi State University and then a Master's Degree in Sports Administration from the University of Miami. |
| The Deion Sanders Experiment at Colorado Begins With a Wild Win | |
| Texas Christian last season came within one win of a national championship. Colorado won one game. But with one wild win to open the 2023 season, the Buffaloes and their audacious new coach Deion Sanders made a case that overnight success is very possible in the increasingly unhinged world of college football. Since moving to Boulder from Jackson State in the lower tier Football Championship Subdivision this offseason, Sanders has made Colorado a test lab for the theory that a losing program can be made over in a flash. A whopping 57 players joined Colorado via the transfer portal in the offseason, including nine who came along with Sanders from JSU. Colorado isn't the first program to rely on transfer players to execute a turnaround -- Southern California added 26 transfers in the first year of Lincoln Riley's tenure to jump from 4-8 in 2021 to 11-3 last year. But no program has doubled down like the Buffaloes, nor has one started from so far down in the dumps. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders -- the coach's second-youngest child and a JSU transfer -- completed 38 of 47 passes for 510 yards and four touchdowns. It was a career day for the 21-year-old, who became the first and only Colorado quarterback to pass for 500 yards. It was a performance that suggested the revived Buffaloes might not be merely competent. They could actually be good. "We told you, 'we coming'," Sanders said after the game. "You thought we was joking?" |
| Kentucky football fans wanted alcohol. Now they have it. Here's how opening day went | |
 | The early morning scene Saturday outside Kroger Field was reminiscent of plenty of prior UK football home games. Tailgating tables and tents were erected, and Kentucky football fans settled in for a few hours of fun prior to the Wildcats' 2023 season-opening win against Ball State. From beer to bourbon to vodka, plenty of alcoholic options were brought and shared in these communal settings. While this was familiar, the fan experience inside Kroger Field has undergone a major change. Beer and seltzer drinks are now available for the public to purchase at Kroger Field, which has a capacity of about 61,000 people. Months have passed since Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart made the long-awaited announcement that alcohol would be available for the public to buy at all UK athletics home events. But while a successful spring implementation of beer and seltzer sales occurred at Kentucky Proud Park for UK baseball games and John Cropp Stadium for UK softball games, nothing approached the large-scale nature of Saturday's UK football home opener. Brad Wampler is in his fourth season of having UK football season tickets at Kroger Field, and he said he thought Barnhart would have to leave his post before alcohol was sold to the public inside the venue. "I thought it would take him moving on before it happened," Wampler said. "But he changed his opinion, or at least his stance." Wampler said the beer he purchased about an hour before kickoff of Saturday's UK-Ball State game may be the only one he buys all season. He cited the cost of in-stadium alcohol, along with the fact that he can just drink at a bar or restaurant before coming to the game, as reasons why in-stadium alcohol sales isn't a huge change to his UK football experience. |
| Paul Finebaum 'congratulates' the ACC for essentially voting out Clemson, Florida State and UNC | |
| It was a big week for the ACC. The conference voted to add three new schools, SMU, Stanford, and Cal. Then, on the field, the conference got several marquee wins against the SEC, including North Carolina over South Carolina and Florida State over LSU. It was while Paul Finebaum was talking about the South Carolina-North Carolina game on the Matt Barrie Show when he raised concerns about the conference's decision to expand, arguing that it's going to end with Florida State, Clemson, and North Carolina leaving the conference. "What's so fascinating about that game was North Carolina, the standard bearer of the ACC," Paul Finebaum said. "And somebody sent me audio this morning of Carolina fans chanting, 'SEC! SEC!' Because there was a screenshot of Bubba Cunningham talking to Jim Phillips, the ACC commissioner. Bubba is the athletic director. There is such a fissure right now in the ACC and, Matt, I know we're reacting to games, but I just want to congratulate the ACC for essentially voting out Clemson, North Carolina, and Florida State." Finebaum believes that the schools the ACC added are actually going to devalue the conference membership. This is going to be the force that pushes those other schools from the conference, as they look for a larger media deal. "Because what happened Friday with [the] admission of SMU, Cal, and Stanford, they have essentially given those three a ticket out. That league, which was already teetering toward irrelevancy, has just taken on three schools that devalue an already discounted product even more, and that league is just heading toward the iceberg." |
| 'It is insane': How the ACC's contentious, back-and-forth expansion deal ultimately got done | |
| On Aug. 4, hours after the Big Ten acquired Oregon and Washington and the Big 12 acquired Arizona, Arizona State and Utah, ACC presidents gathered with commissioner Jim Phillips late on that Friday night. Many within the league thought their pursuit of expansion had ended. The conference had been seriously exploring for more than a week adding the Arizona schools, Utah, Cal and Stanford, even holding communication with the presidents of those schools. With three of the five heading elsewhere, the book on ACC expansion was expected to be closed. Not so fast! Conversations persisted, talks intensified and Phillips continued to move forward on the expansion proposal despite some of his biggest brands -- Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina -- pushing back against the measure. On Friday morning, within the first 20 minutes of their meeting, ACC presidents got the required 12 votes to approve expansion before the clock struck 7:30 a.m. What happened in between? We take you inside the ACC's pursuit and eventual agreement to expand to 18 members -- a month-long endeavor with a variety of twists and turns. |
| Another Athletic Conference Just Got Bigger. Much More Than Sports Is at Stake. | |
| The Atlantic Coast Conference is adding three colleges to its membership -- Southern Methodist University and the recently orphaned Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley -- the conference announced on Friday. The three institutions will join the ACC in the 2024-25 academic year, bringing the conference to 18 members. Campus leaders approved the change on Friday morning in a 12-to-3 vote, several news outlets reported. The expansion is the latest development in a chaotic series of athletic-conference realignments as the major conferences consolidate in pursuit of more-lucrative broadcast deals. Colleges that opposed the expansion cited long travel for teams and income disparities between ACC members and other conferences. The chair of North Carolina's Board of Trustees released a statement on Thursday night objecting to the additions. Long, cross-country travel for games has sparked opposition to recent conference realignments. Experts told The Chronicle that the travel time will exacerbate a growing mental-health crisis among college athletes and will have detrimental effects on coursework as well. With the changes, coast-to-coast flights stand to become much more common for already time-strapped players. With the ACC and the Big 10 at 18 members each and the Big 12 and Southeastern Conferences at 16 apiece starting next year, experts say the changes are also creating an environment that increasingly mimics professional leagues. That could make it harder for the National Collegiate Athletic Association to defend its effective ban on directly paying athletes. |
| Conference realignment poses risks to big-time college sports | |
 | The Atlantic Coast Conference made an aggressive move Friday to preserve its status as a major college football league, in part by putting what appears to be the final dagger in the heart of the Pacific-12 Conference, effectively dissolving the Power Five. Nine of 12 presidents of the universities in the Atlantic Coast voted to add Southern Methodist University, Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, to the conference. The presidents of Clemson and Florida State Universities and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill voted no, even though the new members had agreed to either forgo or accept reduced amounts of conference revenue to ease some current members' concerns about diluting their own shares. Much of the conversation about the latest round of conference reshuffling has focused on the competitive landscape on the football field, the impact of the rejiggered conferences on other sports and athletes (especially the likely toll cross-country travel might take on players), and which conferences will be poised to get the biggest television contracts. Those issues are not unimportant, but they are the province of ESPN and the legions of passionate sports journalists and football bloggers. Inside Higher Ed is much more interested in the legal and political issues that could flow from this fall's acceleration of trends that have been unfolding in and around big-time college sports for two decades. |
| 1984 Supreme Court verdict 'released the tiger' in college athletics | |
| During this summer realignment craze, Chuck Neinas' wife always reminds him, "You created this monster!" Neinas knows she's right. As TV rights dollars drive all these realignment moves -- including some that defy practicality -- it's impossible not to reflect on the landmark 1984 U.S. Supreme Court verdict that unlocked the door leading to escalating TV rights revenue for schools. Neinas, 91, and Andrew Coats, 88, played leading roles in the case, Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma v. NCAA. They could teach a master class on how the 7-2 verdict has led the industry to this inflection point. Remember, the NCAA had monopolized the TV rights market for decades, limiting schools' appearances on TV. No team could appear on television more than six times in two years. Plus, each network had to schedule appearances for at least 82 schools in each two-year period. No school could negotiate TV rights on its own. But that was about to change with the antitrust suit Oklahoma and Georgia initially brought in 1981. Neinas served as executive director of the College Football Association, formed to negotiate TV contracts and push back on the NCAA's monopoly. Coats, an Oklahoma-based attorney, became the legal mind who successfully argued the case against the NCAA on behalf of the Sooners and Bulldogs. Coats called Neinas his "henchman," telling On3, "I've probably screwed up college football so much you can hardly fix it. When we released the TV money, it released the tiger. It has changed things ever so much." Neither ever envisioned that the decision would super-charge the TV rights market to this extent. |
| As sports betting spikes, help for problem gamblers expands in some states | |
| When the NFL season kicks off this week, Kentucky residents and visitors -- for the first time -- will be able to legally place sports bets on something other than horse racing. When they do, some of that money will also fund the state's first-ever program for people with gambling problems. Since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for legalized sports betting five years ago, nearly three-fourths of the states have moved swiftly to allow it. State funding for problem gambling services has not kept pace, although more states -- like Kentucky -- are requiring at least a portion of sports wagering revenues to go toward helping addicted gamblers. "The funding is starting to flow, but the amount is still clearly inadequate in most states," said Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. He added: "Most of these amounts are token." In Mississippi, a long-standing $100,000 annual allotment to a compulsive gambling organization was eliminated in 2017 amid other state budget cuts. The next year, Mississippi launched sports betting in casinos and authorized a state lottery. Yet lawmakers continued to appropriate nothing for problem gambling until restoring $75,000 in the 2024 budget that began in July. To remain afloat without state aid, the nonprofit Mississippi Council on Problem and Compulsive Gambling relied largely on donations from casinos. It dipped into reserves, cut in half the salaries of its two staff members, relocated to a smaller office, eliminated travel to conferences and suspended a program that provided several weeks of free counseling to people seeking to overcome gambling problems, said Executive Director Betty Greer. |
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