| Tuesday, March 19, 2024 |
| Education: MSU students support fish health, farmers in Republic of Georgia | |
 | Mississippi State classrooms extend far beyond the university's sprawling, scenic campus. As MSU fosters the concept of learning without boundaries, students are not limited geographically and can choose to study through many programs leveraging national or international partnerships. One such program involves MSU's Global Center for Aquatic Health and Food Security, known as GCAHFS, working to improve fish health in the Republic of Georgia. The project -- among several GCAHFS has had supporting research in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America -- recently gave one veterinary student and two graduate students a chance to journey across the ocean and dive into work supporting small- and medium-sized aquaculture trout facilities in Adjara, with a focus on veterinary health. GCAHFS is affiliated with the university's College of Veterinary Medicine, or CVM. Stephen Reichley, associate director of GCAHFS and CVM faculty member, leads this project, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Services, or USDA FAS. Along with Reichley, students Kathryn Rapp, Vandana Dharan and Divya Rose traveled to the developing country of Georgia this past fall. "The hope for the 'Bolstering Fish Health in the Republic of Georgia' research project is to increase rural income in the Adjara region through supporting trout farms by improving veterinary health," said Rapp, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine student who expects to complete her degree in 2025. "The risk of trout farming as a source of income in this area is currently quite high due to disease outbreaks that can cause major losses." |
| Education: MSU celebrates 19 teachers earning National Board Certification | |
| Mississippi State's World Class Teaching Program is celebrating 19 teachers who have achieved the prestigious National Board Certification and four who have renewed the credential. Representing school districts across the state, teachers who earned or maintained the certification through the university's WCTP in 2023 recently were honored during a campus pinning ceremony. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, or NBPTS, ranks Mississippi State No. 14 nationally for total number of National Board Certified Teachers, or NBCTs, with 1,086 MSU graduates who have earned the certification. The Magnolia State ranks seventh in the U.S. for total NBCTs with 4,818. "MSU's World Class Teaching Program is excited to welcome these teachers into the ranks of NBCTs from around the nation," said WCTP Director Stephanie McGee. "We applaud them for their dedication to the teaching profession and all the work they put into earning this honor." Established in 1996, the WCTP recruits and mentors teachers seeking advanced certification through the NBPTS process. Candidates are supported in a variety of ways including component preparation sessions and certificate area support cohort meetings. According to the NBPTS, the National Board Certification is the "highest certification a teacher may obtain in addition to being the most respected one." |
| NASA Set to Launch Four CubeSats to Space Station | |
 | NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative is sending a group of four small satellites, called CubeSats, to the International Space Station as ELaNa 51 (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites). These small payloads have been developed by NASA and universities and will be deployed from low Earth orbit. Once circling Earth, the satellites will help demonstrate and mature technologies meant to improve solar power generation, detect gamma ray bursts, determine crop water usage, and measure root-zone soil and snowpack moisture levels. The suite of satellites will hitch a ride aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft set to deliver additional science, crew supplies, and hardware for the company's 30th commercial resupply services mission for NASA. Liftoff is targeted for 4:55 p.m. EDT Thursday, March 21. The SigNals of Opportunity P-band Investigation, or SNoOPI, is a technology demonstration CubeSat designed to improve the detection of moisture levels on a global scale of underground root-zone and within snowpacks. Root zone soil moisture and snow water equivalent play critical roles in the hydrologic cycle, impacting agricultural food production, water management, and weather phenomena. When scientists understand the amount of water in the soil, crop growth can be accurately forecasted, and irrigation can become more efficient. The 6U CubeSat is collaboratively developed by NASA, Purdue University, Mississippi State University, and the USDA. |
| Tools to reduce fertilizer costs | |
| While fertilizer costs are down from their summer 2022 highs, reducing fertilizer expenses, when possible, can be beneficial for Midsouth producers' bottom lines. "Depending on the crop, fertilizer expenses are one of the largest input costs," said Trenton Roberts, University of Arkansas professor of soil fertility. "They can account for 20% to 35% of total inputs." Fertilizer costs have been dropping since 2022, but they remain significantly above the 10-year-average. Mississippi State University enterprise budgets in December had fertilizer estimates at $406.93 per acre for corn, $191.73 per acre for cotton and $82.30 per acre for soybean. This is well above the 10-year-average estimates of $213.71 per acre for corn, $99.78 for cotton and $47.13 for soybean. Several factors led to the increase in prices, beginning in 2021, said Brian Mills, MSU agricultural economist. "Fertilizer prices started increasing in the middle of 2021," Mills said. "We then had large increases in the early part of 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Fertilizer prices peaked around the summer of 2022. Since then, they have been trending downward and are around where they were at the beginning of 2022." Volatility within the market can cause concern for producers. MSU and University of Arkansas soil scientists say there are several practices producers can implement to reduce their fertilizer expenses. This is particularly important now as high input costs are creating thin profit margins. |
| Ag. commissioner and legislature at odds over bills dictating how money is spent at state fairgrounds | |
| Tensions are flaring between the Mississippi legislature and Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson over two bills aimed at establishing oversight of how money is spent on events and upgrades at the state fairgrounds. House Bill 1357, which revises the authority of the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce (MDAC), and Senate Bill 2361, which modifies how the department would be able to spend money it receives, have been scrutinized by Gipson as an attempt by lawmakers to take control of private donations he has acquired for events in his jurisdiction. More specifically, the proposed legislation would give lawmakers the authority to disperse funds for repairs to infrastructure at the Agriculture Museum and the state fairgrounds as well as the events that take place there such as the Dixie National Rodeo and Live Stock Show and the Mississippi State Fair The agriculture commissioner argues that being at the mercy of the legislature to appropriate funding for events and operations at the fairgrounds could yield harsh repercussions like private sponsors withdrawing their financial contributions. He finds the measures to be a bad-faith move by greedy members of the legislature. Senate Appropriations Chair Briggs Hopson believes otherwise. He noted that all other state agencies have to go through a special board or through the legislature to acquire funding for projects and that the Department of Agriculture and Commerce should not be granted any special treatment. "This is not a bill about our current [agriculture] commissioner ... This bill is not a 'sweeps' bill. This is not to try to sweep any special funds from the department of [agriculture] and commerce," Hopson said. "This just says they're going to be appropriated funds just like any other state agency." |
| Effort to revive Mississippi ballot initiative process is squelched in state Senate | |
 | Mississippi legislators are unlikely to restore a ballot initiative process this year after a Senate chairman killed a proposal Monday. The move came days after the Senate voted 26-21 to pass a bill that would have allowed Mississippi residents to put some policy proposals on statewide ballots. But the bill needed another Senate debate and that never happened because Republican Sen. David Parker, of Olive Branch, who chairs the Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Committee, didn't bring it back up before a Monday deadline. Parker said last week that efforts to revive an initiative process were "on life support" because of significant differences between the House and Senate. Republicans control both chambers. Parker and some other senators said they wanted to guard against out-of-state interests pouring money into Mississippi to get issues on the ballot. Both the House and Senate proposals would have banned initiatives to alter abortion laws. Legislators cited Mississippi's role in enacting a law that laid the groundwork for the U.S. Supreme Court to upend abortion rights nationwide. |
| For third-straight year, ballot initiative likely dead in Senate | |
| The state Senate will likely allow all proposals to restore voters' right to circumvent the Legislature and place measures on a ballot to die during the lawmaking process without taking a final vote. Senate Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Chairman David Parker, R-Olive Branch, recently allowed two Senate measures to restore the initiative process to die on key legislative deadlines, which only left him and the Republican-controlled Senate with a House plan to consider. Parker technically has until April 2 to advance a House proposal to restore the initiative process out of the committee he leads, but he said he has no plans to take that measure up in committee or on the Senate floor. "It's not on life support anymore," Parker said. "It's dead. It doesn't have the votes anymore in the Senate." The 52-member Senate by a narrow 26-21 vote Thursday approved a statutory plan that required 67% of voters to approve a potential ballot initiative that appeared on a statewide ballot. The measure was held on a procedural motion, which Parker allowed to stand by Monday's deadline. The DeSoto County Republican said the cold reception to his proposal was enough evidence that the GOP-controlled chamber did not have the required two-thirds votes needed to pass the House's proposal that amended the state Constitution. |
| Ballot initiative reform dies in Mississippi Senate Monday | |
 | A push to bring back ballot initiatives, albeit in a more restrictive and cumbersome way than its original process, died in the Senate on Monday when Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Committee Chair Sen. David Parker, R-Olive Branch, allowed it to fall on a motion to reconsider. Senate Bill 2770 passed through the Senate on a slight majority Thursday afternoon, but was pushed back onto the Senate calendar. Over the weekend, Parker was informed that some further support he garnered for the bill last week, coupled with opposition from Democrats and Senate Republicans alike, had been lost, Parker told the Clarion Ledger. "Some Democrats voted against it and change their vote, so we just barely had a majority vote (initially)," Parker said. "Over the weekend when I got word that there were no changes and not enough votes to even get close to two thirds vote... We'll see what we can do about it in the future." Many Republicans in the Senate also voted against the general bill. Parker said those actions from fellow GOP members told him the bills need even more work before more Republicans will be open to it. Spence Flatgard, chairman of Ballot Access Mississippi, a statewide nonprofit advocacy group that has been pushing for a return of ballot initiatives, said he was shocked by the Senate's action Monday afternoon, but he has hope that House leadership will continue to push for the return of ballot initiatives. |
| Insurance chief says he supports Medicaid expansion -- but only for the poorest Mississippians | |
| State Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney said he supports expanding Medicaid to provide health care coverage -- but only for Mississippians earning less than 100% of the federal poverty level, or those earning up to $15,000 annually. Federal law allows states to provide Medicaid coverage to those earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level, or those who make about $20,800 annually. Chaney does not want to provide coverage for those people earning between 100% and 138% of the federal poverty level. Those low-income people, the commissioner said, can currently receive private health care coverage for $20 a month or less through the health insurance exchange, and he does not want them to leave the private market and sign up for a government-run Medicaid program. The insurance policies on the exchange, while relatively inexpensive as Chaney said, include high deductibles and often include out-of-pocket costs of as much as $5,000 that the policyholders might have to pay to cover their health care costs. The polices, though, do include low copays to see physicians and require certain preventive care to be performed at no costs. Morgan Henderson, principal data scientist at the non-partisan Hilltop Institute at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, said the high deductibles and high out-of-pocket costs make the policies cost prohibitive for many low-income people despite the low monthly premiums. |
| Former Mississippi Archives and History department leader Elbert Hilliard dies at age 87 | |
| Elbert R. Hilliard, who led the Mississippi Department of Archives and History from 1973 to 2004 and established a grant program to preserve courthouses and other historical buildings, has died. He was 87. Hilliard started working for the department in 1965 and became its fifth director in 1973. After retirement, he was named director emeritus. The department said he died Sunday, but did not say where. The department's current director, Katie Blount, said in a statement Monday that the agency grew to have "a national reputation for excellence" under Hilliard. "His work had a profound impact on the effort to preserve, interpret, and promote Mississippi history," Blount said. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann called Hilliard "a true icon of the state." Hilliard worked with legislators to give Mississippi one of the strongest historic preservation laws in the country, the department's statement said. "He dedicated his career to promoting the preservation and understanding of Mississippi history," said Brother Rogers, secretary-treasurer for the Mississippi Historical Society. "He will be remembered not only for his achievements, but also for his personal rectitude, humility, and generosity." |
| Supreme Court Voices Skepticism Over Social-Media Censorship Claims Against Government | |
 | The Supreme Court seemed likely Monday to reject a bid by GOP-led states to restrict the federal government from urging social-media companies to remove allegedly misleading posts or disinformation on their platforms, unless there is a threat of official retribution. The Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, along with several individuals who complained that online platforms such as Facebook suppressed their views against vaccines and lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic at the government's demand, filed the First Amendment suit in 2022. Lower courts have largely sided with the plaintiffs, finding that Biden administration officials' content requests amounted to government coercion, but the high court during oral arguments on Monday voiced more sympathy with the administration's defense. The social-media companies themselves aren't involved in the case, and liberal justices questioned whether any plaintiffs suffered harms that gave them a right to sue. And justices across the spectrum expressed skepticism that the government's interactions with the platforms, even if heated, amounted to official restraint. For one, said Chief Justice John Roberts, "the government is not monolithic." Different individuals, agencies and branches of government can have different views, he said, and the media has contacts with a variety of official sources. "That has to dilute the concept of coercion," he said. Justice Brett Kavanaugh offered a national-security analogy to the government's campaign against disinformation---something that conservative critics contend has targeted their opinions. |
| Biden, lawmakers announce government funding deal that could avert shutdown | |
 | President Joe Biden and congressional leaders announced Tuesday that they had reached a government funding deal, signaling the close of a months-long saga that featured numerous shutdown threats. With a tight window left to consider funding bills, it is possible that there will still be a brief government shutdown over the weekend. However, it will likely have little impact on services or federal workers unless it stretches into next week. "We have come to an agreement with Congressional leaders on a path forward for the remaining full-year funding bills," Biden said in a statement Tuesday. "The House and Senate are now working to finalize a package that can quickly be brought to the floor, and I will sign it immediately." House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a separate statement that negotiators reached a deal on spending for the Department of Homeland Security, which had become a flashpoint over the weekend. This "will allow completion of the (fiscal year 2024) appropriations process." If lawmakers aren't able to pass the bills in time, a longer funding gap would lead to a government shutdown that could have real effects for many Americans. Lawmakers had initially planned to release the legislation on Sunday, but disagreements over border security funding got in the way of a deal. Now, lawmakers are racing to put together a bill they can release in time to avoid the 12:01 a.m. Saturday deadline for a partial shutdown. |
| Tuberville says GOP leadership should have vetted claims in Katie Britt's speech | |
 | Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said GOP leadership should have more carefully reviewed the claims in Sen. Katie Britt's (R-Ala.) response to President Biden's State of the Union address as she faces criticism for sharing a story of sexual violence from two decades ago as an attack on Biden. Asked by CNN's Manu Raju about Britt's decision to share the story in her response, Tuberville said, "Yeah, well, that obviously didn't go over too well." "I would think that our leadership would have vetted that a little bit more, because I would imagine they helped her with that," he said Sunday on CNN's "Inside Politics With Manu Raju." "You know, and that's again -- that's a mistake made. But it was a good point of emphasis of what really goes on from the border. And I think that's what she's trying to get over, more than anything." During her State of the Union response, Britt told the story of a woman she met who experienced human trafficking from between 2004 and 2008. The first-term senator used the story as an attack on Biden's border policies. Britt defended the story against criticism, arguing the story represents Biden's border policy, despite it happening before his presidential term. When asked about her delivery, Tuberville said he thought it was "good." "She really expressed heart and she's the type, you know -- she gets emotional. It's not like that wasn't something that was just brought up. I mean ... she's really emotional about being a mom and her kids." |
| Trump is making the Jan. 6 attack a cornerstone of his bid for the White House | |
| Republican Donald Trump has launched his general election campaign not merely rewriting the history of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, but positioning the violent siege and its failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election as a cornerstone of his bid to return to the White House. At a weekend rally in Ohio, his first as the presumed Republican Party presidential nominee, Trump stood onstage, his hand raised in salute to the brim of his red MAGA hat, as a recorded chorus of prisoners in jail for their roles in the Jan. 6 attack sang the national anthem. An announcer asked the crowd to please rise "for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6th hostages." And people did, and sang along. "They were unbelievable patriots," Trump said as the recording ended. Having previously vowed to pardon the rioters, he promised to help them "the first day we get into office." Initially relegated to a fringe theory on the edges of the Republican Party, the revisionist history of Jan. 6, which Trump amplified during the early days of the GOP primary campaign to rouse his most devoted voters, remains a rally centerpiece even as he must appeal more broadly to a general election audience. In heaping praise on the rioters, Trump is shifting blame for his own role in the run-up to the bloody mob siege and asking voters to absolve hundreds of them -- and himself -- over the deadliest attack on a seat of American power in 200 years. |
| The most important Senate primary of the year is just one of today's elections | |
 | Donald Trump is trying to drag a few allies across the finish line on Tuesday. The former president is himself certain to cruise to easy victories in the five states holding presidential primaries, but his power will be tested in a handful of down-ballot races. That includes Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, who has spent the final days of the closely contested GOP primary trying to move quickly past an Associated Press story about an account on an adult website that he says was created by an intern in 2008. Or five-term House incumbent Mike Bost, who's brandishing Trump's endorsement as a shield against a MAGA-aligned challenger in Southern Illinois. The presidential primaries will also provide a key signal about the November rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden. Though both men have already mathematically clinched their respective parties' nominations, the campaigns will be monitoring Tuesday's results for the latest check-in on the holdouts: voters who still aren't on board with their party's nominee and in November could cross over, vote third-party or stay home. There's even more to watch down-ballot: Tuesday's primaries also represent the latest House GOP tug-of-war between institutionalists and insurgents, with two safely GOP open seats in Ohio and the special election in California to replace former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. And it's the latest Democratic skirmish over the Israel-Hamas war, with the most prominent pro-Israel group seeking to exert its influence on a Democratic primary in Chicago after floundering in a similar race in Southern California earlier this month. |
| Young conservatives have grown up in Trump's Republican Party. Now, it's time to vote | |
 | When former President Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, Rylen Bassett was in fourth grade. Living in Defiance County, Ohio, he convinced his mom to take him to a rally about 50 minutes away in Fort Wayne, Ind. And the rest is history. "After that, I fell in love with it," Bassett remembered. "I was the kid that wore the Trump shirt all throughout elementary [school]." That year, he stayed up late to watch the debates. On career day, there was an easy inspiration. "I dressed up as Trump," he said with a smile. "I wore a Trump hat, wore the suit, put the button on, I did everything." Now 18, Bassett is heading to Liberty University in the fall. He's become a political wonk, passionate about gun rights and education. Ohio's primary Tuesday marks the first time he gets to vote in a presidential matchup. And though he's grown up from the wide-eyed childhood fan and can acknowledge the former president has his flaws, Trump is still his guy. "He's transformed the political universe," Bassett said. "I still like the fact that he doesn't back down to anyone ... he is still a conservative at heart." Bassett isn't alone in feeling a pull toward the former president. Trump carried the Buckeye State twice, in 2016 and again in 2020. And nationally, Trump has been on the political stage for nearly a decade. So for many young conservatives casting their first ballot this year, Trump has been at the center of the Republican political world for much of their memory. "Donald Trump is their Republican experience," explained conservative pollster and strategist Sarah Longwell. "If you've come of political consciousness in the last decade, then the Republican Party, to you, really does look like Trump." |
| UM Voting Summit seeks to 'educate, inspire and inform' | |
 | The University of Mississippi Center for Community Engagement will host its second annual UM Voting Summit from March 19-23. The event seeks to honor and reflect on the history of Mississippi and promote civic engagement. The focus of this year's voting summit is the 60th anniversary of Mississippi's Freedom Summer. Freedom Summer was a campaign organized in 1964 to encourage college students to volunteer to fight for civil rights in the state of Mississippi. Many of those volunteers helped African Americans in Mississippi register to vote and gain access to education programs, civil liberties that had been denied to Black people during the Jim Crow era. The voting summit will culminate with a trip to Philadelphia, Miss., to remember three activists that were murdered in Neshoba County while conducting their work. "This year's voting summit seeks to educate, inspire and inform the LOU community about the 60th anniversary of Mississippi Freedom Summer and the lessons we can learn from it today," Marshall Pentes, a junior economics major and the student leader for the Voting Engagement Ambassadors, said. Pentes is hopeful that the voting summit will motivate members of the university community to show up at the polls on Election Day. |
| Lusco's in Greenwood moving locations to Taylor | |
| The story of food in the Mississippi Delta has many chapters to it. There's Doe's in Greenville, Lilo's in Leland, Crystal Grill in Greenwood, Abe's in Clarksdale, Crawdad's in Merigold and many more. There is also Lusco's in Greenwood. Throughout the end of 2021, media throughout the nation reported the end of an era as the historic venue, that opened in 1933 on the same day of the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was set to close. However, it never closed down completely. There were private parties and to-go plates and many other options. Then, in November last year, it started the process of re-opening on Friday and Saturday nights to serve its blend of Italian and Creole cuisine that has defined the restaurant. But there was a catch. Thomas Long, who is a sixth-generation member of the Lusco family, his father Rhyine Long and John Ramsey Miller, are in the process of moving the business from downtown Greenwood and building a near-exact replica in Taylor, Mississippi, just 6 miles or so south of Oxford. "Right now the plan is to stay open in Greenwood until May 31," Rhyine Long said. From there, they will start disassembling the pieces inside the restaurant and reassembling them as it was in a new building they are having built in Taylor about the time school starts. "We all love Greenwood," Rhyine Long said. "But it was a family decision. It just felt right when we moved our family up here and this feels right, too. I'm not going to say we have outlived the market, but the market in the Mississippi Delta has shrunk." |
| Tico's Steak House opens new location on Oxford Square | |
| Ridgeland steak house Tico's has opened a new restaurant in Oxford on the downtown Square. The restaurant is located at 1001 E. Jackson Avenue in the same building as the former Chops and YUGO. Built around 1930, the building once housed a telephone company and was also used as a law office for author John Grisham in the late 1980s. The original Tico's Steak House in Ridgeland was opened 30 years ago by Tico Hoffman. In February, the Tico's Steak House family expanded with the opening of a new location in Oxford, marking another chapter in the restaurant's journey. The high-end eatery with a full bar specializes in steaks but also serves seafood. The restaurant is open from 4:30 to 9 p.m., Monday–Saturday. |
| Biloxi denied Black Spring Break special event application, appeal hearing set for Tuesday | |
 | Less than a month before Black Spring Break comes to South Mississippi, the City of Biloxi denied the organization's special event request. A hearing to appeal the decision is set for March 19. In an email sent to Black Spring Break organizer Nicholas Brundidge, the city cites safety and parking concerns, but a major dispute is over the event's proposed location. Black Spring Break listed its event location at 2450 Beach Boulevard in Biloxi. That address is a vacant lot owned by Shuller Holdings. In previous years, the property has been rented to food vendors and utilized as additional parking. Even though Black Spring Break said it intends to host its actual events on the beach south of the address, the City of Biloxi cited a lack of permission from Shuller Holdings in its special event application. "Their application they submitted shows that 2450 Beach Boulevard is part of the event, even though in their language they're saying they aren't specifically having an event on the Shuller property, there's no way you can separate the two," Biloxi's Planning Commission Director Jerry Creel explained. "If the events are being held on the beach, on the south side of Highway 90, but the booths and vendors and parking is on the other side, you've got that constant back and forth across Highway 90 that disrupts traffic, creates safety issues not only for the people there but also for the police department to have to maintain." Other issues point to safety concerns. Following the mass shooting at last year's event which injured a reserve police officer, Biloxi is worried its police department will not have enough police officers to maintain an event that draws 20,000-30,000 attendees to South Mississippi. |
| William Carey scores a touchdown with scholarship dinner speakers Drew Brees, Sarah Thomas | |
| William Carey University's football savvy just got kicked up a notch with speakers Drew Brees and Sarah Thomas headlining its annual Tradition campus scholarship dinner. The event will be May 13 at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center in Biloxi. Brees, an NFL MVP and former New Orleans Saints quarterback, led the Saints to a Super Bowl victory over the Indianapolis Colts in 2010. He played in the NFL for 20 years, including 15 years with the Saints, before retiring in 2021. Brees and his wife Brittany established the Brees Dream Foundation "to help improve the quality of life for cancer patients and provide care, education and opportunities for children and families in need," according to the foundation's website. He also has numerous business ventures with investments in Everbowl craft superfood franchises, Walk-On's Sports Bistreaux; Dunkin' restaurants; Jimmy John's sandwiches; and more. Thomas, a Pascagoula native who now lives in Brandon, is the NFL's first full-time female official and the first woman to officiate at a Super Bowl. She also has personal ties to William Carey University. Her son Bridley Thomas plays baseball for the university. Thomas will officiate at the dinner as she interviews Brees, who will share stories about his NFL career, leadership principles and philanthropic endeavors, WCU officials said. |
| Can the Legislature force UA and Auburn to end DEI programs? It's not clear | |
| A bill limiting the ability of Alabama colleges and universities to operate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs is almost on Gov. Kay Ivey's desk. But if the legislation becomes law, some campuses may be more affected than others. While most public colleges and universities in Alabama operate under state law, the two flagship systems in the state -- the University of Alabama and Auburn University -- are in the state constitution. That means that the powers that the Legislature has over the universities is much less clear. The bill, SB 129, sponsored by Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, would limit state funding for DEI measures. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have approved the legislation, though the Senate must concur in House changes or form a conference committee to work out differences in the bill. The legislation itself appears to anticipate the issue. "It is the intent of the Legislature that all constitutionally created boards of trustees comply with the requirements of this act," the bill says. Barfoot told reporters after it passed the Senate on Feb. 22 that the extent to which the Legislature could compel compliance from Alabama or Auburn was a "great question." "I think that certainly, the Legislature has the ability to add that language in, you saw that happen today, it is the intent," he said. "So, the courts can interpret that as they will, if it's challenged, certainly the court will interpret that, but I think that was the intent. I know that it was the intent of those who voted in favor of it today." |
| Auburn University hosts International Women's Day celebration | |
| On March 16, Auburn University hosted a lunch seminar to celebrate International Women's Day in the Melton Student Center ballroom from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The event, hosted by the International Cultural Center and the Women and Gender Studies program, highlighted women's achievements, struggles and issues worldwide. Each year, ICC highlights a country or region to educate the campus about its culture and history. This year, the program explored Indonesia's culture, experiences and history. The program also helps promote global awareness through classes, events and study abroad programs. Before the panel began, the host Chippewa Thomas urged the audience to celebrate female empowerment outside of International Women's Day. Thomas is the director of faculty engagement at Auburn, and she introduced Dr. Andrew Gillespie to give his welcoming speech. Gillespie, assistant provost for international programs, explained that it is essential for societies worldwide to listen to women's thoughts and experiences in their societies and abroad. He told the audience nothing could ever be accomplished on campus without the support and action of Auburn women. |
| Small Businesses Look to College Students to Help Guard Against Hackers | |
| It isn't easy to be a David against Goliath hackers. Small organizations -- nonprofits, local public services, mom-and-pop businesses -- don't have the cybersecurity resources to put up much of a defense. But thanks to a new initiative, help for such groups is increasingly available -- from college students. Similar to clinics in which law and medical students perform pro bono services, university-based clinics around the country staffed by students now give cybersecurity assessments, training and other help to groups with little in the way of such resources. "Without that technical background, you don't know what you don't know," says Lauren Bristol, a computer-science student at Louisiana State University who works at the clinic there. Many small businesses in Louisiana have yet to safeguard their most valuable data, like payment information and personal customer details, Bristol says. The LSU clinic helps shore up their defenses by offering free counseling and training sessions. The LSU clinic was created after a $1.5 million grant last year from the NSA and focuses on small businesses. Like most such clinics, its services are free. "A lot of small-business owners are scared, but they don't know what they can do to feel secure," says Tate Broussard, a computer-science student at the clinic. Broussard says his team helps advise clients on red flags to look for, such as signs of phishing scams and password safekeeping. LSU students, including graduate students in business, agree to work at the clinic as a course for a semester and can choose among three specializations: threat and vulnerability assessment, cyber-risk assessment or cyber defense. Starting in the fall semester, 14 students have been spread roughly evenly across those three areas. Students in each area help three clients a semester, says Aisha Ali-Gombe, director of the clinic. |
| U. of Arkansas employees protest potential outsourcing of groundskeeping, custodial work | |
| About two dozen demonstrators protested Saturday against the possibility that the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville will outsource grounds and custodial work to a private company. "This is the most important thing we can do on this day," said Mike Pierce, a member of the University of Arkansas Education Association, an affiliate of the Arkansas Education Association. "Anyone who tells you outsourcing employees won't hurt employees is either dumb or thinks you're dumb." Pierce, an associate professor of history at the UA, added that "outsourcing custodial and grounds staff is just the beginning." "When the university needed custodians [during the pandemic], custodians came through. ... Paying people living wages is good for the university," he said. He said more students are applying to the university than ever before, "and that was made possible by the work of custodians" over the past several years. "Outsourcing and being an 'employer of choice' cannot exist together," Pierce said, noting that being an employer of choice is a pillar of the university's strategic plan. "Right now, we can't fill all the positions to provide [these] services," Provost Terry Martin explained during a faculty senate meeting last month. "We get lots of complaints about quality of service, and I understand why -- it's because positions aren't filled. [This is] not necessarily about saving money, but about the quality of work for the campus." It's "very common" for universities to outsource grounds and custodial departments, and the UA has already been outsourcing a significant portion of the grounds crew because it can't fill those positions, he said. "We've done this before," as Chartwells and Barnes & Noble handle food services and the bookstore, respectively. |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory's new director talks AI, nuclear and China | |
 | Among the most imposing scientific leadership roles in the U.S. is director of a national laboratory. The most famous person ever to hold the job was J. Robert Oppenheimer, whose directorship of Los Alamos National Laboratory during the Manhattan Project got star treatment in Christopher Nolan's Oscar-winning film "Oppenheimer." Today, Oak Ridge National Laboratory is not quite as sprawling as its fellow World War II site Los Alamos, which continues work on national security. ORNL, however, is the Department of Energy's largest science and technology lab, with over 6,500 employees and a budget of about $2.5 billion. It calls itself "the world's premier research institution." Its director must wear many hats to coordinate science across fields and at the highest level. Stephen Streiffer, who took on the role late last year, leads the lab at a time when breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, clean energy and manufacturing are transforming daily life for many Americans. ORNL's mission is to produce cutting-edge research that secures the stature of the U.S. as a scientific leader. Streiffer was appointed in July by UT-Battelle, a partnership of the University of Tennessee and Battelle Memorial Institute, which operates the lab for the DOE's Office of Science. He became director on Oct. 16. Knox News spoke with Streiffer to hear about his first five months as ORNL director and where he sees the lab leading on pressing issues like AI and clean energy, as well as how he reckons with the lab's origins. |
| Kentucky's higher ed funding scheme is unconstitutional, state attorney general says | |
| Kentucky's performance-based funding regulations are unconstitutional because of their reliance on race, Russell Coleman, the state's attorney general, said in an opinion issued Thursday. Coleman, a Republican, said the state is using "race-exclusive terms" to set performance goals for public colleges that he believes run afoul of the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down race-conscious admissions policies. His opinion does not constitute an immediate order to end the formula, but college leaders in the state say they are reviewing it to see if it will affect their operations. Kentucky ties 35% of state higher education funding to how public institutions perform on a variety of outcomes, such as how many "underrepresented minority students" earn bachelor's degrees and credentials. The state's Council on Postsecondary Education defines those students using exclusively racial and ethnic categories, and negotiates targets with institutions for certain groups, so public colleges are effectively using race in their admissions processes, said Coleman. "The U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions makes clear that the CPE defining 'underrepresented minority' exclusively in terms of race, and accordingly requiring that Kentucky's state-funded postsecondary institutions set targets for how many students of a particular race they will enroll, retain, and graduate, violates the U.S. Constitution and the Civil Rights Act," Coleman wrote in his opinion. If the state wishes to promote diversity at public colleges, it can do so by looking at factors other than race, Coleman said. |
| Why Scholarships for Students of Color Are Under Attack | |
 | When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that colleges could no longer consider an applicant's race as a factor in admissions decisions, the justices didn't say anything about financial aid. But within hours, state and university officials in Missouri, Kentucky, and Wisconsin made the call themselves: If considering a student's race in awarding benefits was discriminatory, race-conscious scholarships would have to go, too. Months later, colleges are still struggling with where to draw the line as some institutions face pressure to change how they dole out financial aid. For many colleges, awarding scholarships designated for students from underrepresented racial backgrounds is one prong of a larger strategy to try to diversify their campuses. Such programs aim to ensure that cost is not a barrier for students of color, many of whom come from low-income families. Some experts told The Chronicle that critics of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in higher ed -- many of them Republican state leaders -- could be leveraging an overly broad interpretation of the admissions ruling to wield influence over colleges. Regardless of what's driving the trend, colleges are having to take a closer look at their scholarship programs. And some higher-ed experts fear that students will lose access to aid they were counting on. |
| Judge dismisses Wendell Berry's lawsuit against U. of Kentucky, but says controversial mural must stay | |
 | The controversial mural at the center of a lawsuit between the University of Kentucky and Wendell Berry must be maintained and cannot be removed, according to a court order filed Monday that also dismissed the lawsuit. The ruling comes after a years-long debate between students, administration and Berry over what should happen to the mural, which depicts Black workers -- possibly slaves -- planting tobacco and a Native American person wielding a tomahawk. Berry and his wife, Tanya, filed the lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court in 2020 to halt the removal of the mural. Tanya is the niece of the mural's artist, Ann Rice O'Hanlon. Judge Thomas Wingate granted UK's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the Berrys "lack standing to prosecute this action." But since removal of the mural would "result in its destruction as it is a fresco -- painted on the plaster itself --- the Court holds that (UK) shall continue to maintain the status quo of the O'Hanlon Mural." "The O'Hanlon Mural does not glorify the abhorrent practice of slavery or the taking of Native American territory. But rather is a concise depiction of what Ms. O'Hanlon was instructed to create -- a history of Kentucky from 1792 through the 1920s," Wingate wrote. "The removal of the O'Hanlon Mural would be an insult to the Commonwealth and particularly the Commonwealth's black and brown citizens." In 2022, UK President Eli Capilouto announced the university planned to remove and relocate the mural, and transform Memorial Hall into a student-centered space on campus. "We have stated that the university's intent is to maintain and move the mural. That continues to be our position. We are pleased that the Judge dismissed the case," UK spokesperson Jay Blanton said Monday. |
| U. of Missouri reports an increase in deposits for fall 2024 | |
 | Deposits from first-time students at the University of Missouri are up 9% over this time last year, according to MU officials, even though federal FAFSA delays have held up financial aid commitments. The Division of Enrollment Management and its Office of Student Financial Aid have increased efforts to reduce the uncertainty of students about the financial aid they will receive from Mizzou, officials said. In a Monday email, the department attributed the growth in deposits to increased communication from the university with incoming students. This includes weekly letters, e-mails, videos, social media and digital advertising. Kim Humphrey, Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, said, "Since January, FAFSA-specific messaging has been added to all ongoing marketing and communication efforts for incoming students and families -- updated regularly to reflect new deadlines and guidance." The FAFSA form traditionally was available in October, but the revision was delayed by several months. In the past, MU's priority deadline for FAFSA filing was Feb. 1. MU officials have moved this year's deadline to April 1. The university's Office of Student Financial Aid has also been hosting events to aid all students and their families in the state of Missouri in completing the FAFSA since December of 2023, when the deadline was extended. |
| U. of Memphis student robbed of French bulldog while walking on campus | |
| A University of Memphis student was robbed of her dog in broad daylight. Campus police say it happened Friday at 2:30 p.m. The student was walking her French bulldog in the area of Patterson Street and Mynders Avenue when a man approached and threatened her, indicating that he had a weapon. The man then stole her dog and left in a blue Ford Mustang, going southbound on Patterson. The man is described as six feet tall with long dread locks and a blue hoodie. If you have seen or know anything about this crime, call University Police at 901-678-4357 or call the Memphis Police Department. |
| Can a Marketing Push Solve UW Madison's Political Woes? | |
 | The University of Wisconsin at Madison has a plan to fix its public image problem and claw back declining state funding at the same time: launch a new advertising campaign. In a Request for Proposal soliciting pitches from marketing partners, the university laid out its dual goals of combating negative public opinion and convincing lawmakers that it is a nonpartisan institution worthy of both state investment and public trust. "There is a general, national narrative around higher ed that characterizes universities as elitist and too difficult to get into, too expensive ... and too radical/leftist," the university wrote in its RFP, posted publicly on February 27. "We find these national sentiments are shared by many Wisconsinites about UW-Madison." The university's primary goal, according to the RFP, is to ensure a "positive state budget" next cycle; the secondary goal is "a change in some of the metrics we track in our market research," such as higher ed's politicization and the increasing doubt in the value of a college degree. The RFP explicitly states that enrollment is not a success metric for the campaign. While the cost of the effort won't be finalized until the university approves a contract with an ad agency, the campaign could cost up to $1 million, according to the RFP -- more than double the university's usual media budget. |
| Clemson University president's family suing city of Clemson | |
 | Clemson's city council has a decision to make about a proposed seven-story apartment building that would tower over Lake Hartwell, but there's more riding on the decision than just the aesthetics of a popular lakeside park. Property owners of the would-be student housing are suing the city for its repeated delays on projects proposed on their land along Keowee Trail. The lawsuit from the aptly named Keowee Trail LLC leaves a bad taste in residents' mouths not only because it adds pressure to the council's vote, but because the Clemson University president's family stands to profit from building student housing when the university has no immediate plans to do so itself. The Hub, a proposed planned development with apartments, townhomes and retail space, first appeared before Clemson City Council in March 2023 -- despite the lawsuit filed nearly three years earlier. So why is Keowee Trail LLC suing the city of Clemson and how is Clemson University President Jim Clements involved? |
| Ahead of an 'unprecedented' presidential election, Larry Sabato peers into his crystal ball | |
| As the matchup for the 2024 Presidential Election crystallizes -- with Democratic President Joe Biden facing former Republican President Donald Trump -- the University Center for Politics is gearing up for a rare rematch between two divisive candidates. With young voters voicing early pessimism about the choices, the Center's director, Larry J. Sabato, prepares for an election he calls "unprecedented." Sabato is an active member of the University of Virginia community, living on the Lawn in a pavilion and teaching classes at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. However, during an election year, his responsibilities ramp up. In addition to events at the Center, Sabato's Crystal Ball develops detailed, nonpartisan forecasts to predict the outcome of the November elections -- often with accurate results. Informed by his experience predicting and analyzing past elections, Sabato noted that this presidential election has a number of firsts. Biden will be the first major candidate for president over the age of 80 and Trump would be the first with over 90 criminal indictments. In reference to Trump's legal troubles, Sabato said this election is "unprecedented." Given these complications, Sabato said that 2024 will be a tough election to forecast. "Nobody knows when they're going to be held, or when a verdict could be reached or how long the appeals are going to take," Sabato said. "How do you predict an election when you don't even know if the trials will be finished?" At the end of the day, Sabato concludes that many voters will likely stick with their political party despite currently registering disapproval. According to 2020 exit polls, 94 percent of Democrats and Republicans voted for Biden and Trump, respectively. Instead the election was won at the margins, as Biden won independents by 13 points. |
| A Legal Fight Over 'Widespread' and 'Severe' Hazing at Maryland | |
| When the University of Maryland suspended 37 fraternities and sororities earlier this month, the outcry from the chapters---and their national affiliates -- was swift. Four fraternities went so far as to file a motion in federal court for a temporary restraining order that would end the blanket suspension. Though administrators initially declined to share details about what prompted the suspension, new legal filings revealed reports of intense physical and psychological abuse -- at least at some of the chapters. Following an investigation, the university reversed the suspension for all but five Greek organizations. As a result, the four fraternities have withdrawn their request for a temporary restraining order. But the legal tussle isn't over yet; the fraternities say they will not toss out their lawsuit against the university, which claims among other things that the suspension violated their rights to free speech and due process. The university initially suspended all 37 of the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association organizations on campus on March 1, prohibiting their members from hosting events with alcohol or from communicating with new members about Greek life. On March 13, UMD's chapters of Theta Chi, Kappa Alpha Order, Alpha Sigma Phi, and Alpha Tau Omega---as well as three unnamed fraternity brothers---filed the motion for a temporary restraining order, requesting the reversal of the blanket suspension. The motion, like the lawsuit, argued that the ban violated their First Amendment rights, and that they were denied due process when officials declined to tell them what Student Code of Conduct policies they had allegedly broken. |
| UC stirs furious debate over what high school math skills are needed to succeed in college | |
 | Briana Hampton, a San Gabriel High School junior, is determined to get into a four-year university to achieve her dream of becoming a social worker or psychiatrist. But she feared she would fail a third-year math course heavy on advanced algebra. To meet her math requirement, she opted instead for an introductory data science course, approved a few years ago by the University of California as an alternative to advanced algebra. But the data science option is gone, at least for now. Last month UC notified California high schools that three of the most popular data science courses no longer count toward the advanced math requirement because the classes fail to teach the upper level algebra content all incoming students must know. Faculty math experts concluded the course and two others were too weak on algebra and nixed them as an advanced math alternative. The turnabout has unleashed furious debate over what high school math skills are needed to succeed in college -- and how best to deliver them equitably to a diverse range of students. Supporters of the UC decision counter that all students should be equipped with advanced algebra skills and not tracked into set pathways at such young ages -- especially Black, Latino, female and others who are underrepresented in the high-demand, high-paying fields of science, technology, engineering and math. "Students from underrepresented groups are the most vulnerable to make misinformed pathway choices in high school that could lead them away from preparedness for quantitative majors," said Jelani Nelson, a UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences. |
| Some HBCUs are seeing enrollment surge. Here's why. | |
| Interest in attending Morgan State University, a historically Black college in Baltimore, has reached historic highs over the past few years. Since 2018, the public university saw its enrollment surge 27%, with 9,808 students attending the institution this past fall. The university has set its sights on reaching 10,000 students by 2030, said Khala Granville, Morgan State's director of undergraduate admission and recruitment. Granville credited the university's growth to its recent move to the Common Application, which houses a single online form used to apply to over 1,000 member institutions. She also pointed to the university's aggressive student retention policies and being a midsized institution near Washington, D.C. Many of Morgan State's new students hail from out of state, she noted. But other HBCUs are seeing similar growth, bucking the enrollment decreases experienced at colleges and universities throughout the country in recent years. HBCUs nationwide saw enrollment growth in fall 2021 and fall 2022 --- even as student headcounts sank across the country, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Overall, enrollment dipped at HBCUs in fall 2023, though the research center's executive director noted that fewer of them provided data in time to be reflected in the final count. HBCU leaders seeing these headcount increases credit several reasons for them. |
| After the pandemic, young Chinese again want to study abroad, just not so much in the US | |
| In the Chinese city of Shanghai, two young women seeking an education abroad have both decided against going to the United States, a destination of choice for decades that may be losing its shine. For Helen Dong, a 22-year-old senior studying advertising, it was the cost. "It doesn't work for me when you have to spend 2 million (yuan) ($278,000) but find no job upon returning," she said. Dong is headed to Hong Kong this fall instead. Costs were not a concern for Yvonne Wong, 24, now studying comparative literature and cultures in a master's program at the University of Bristol in Britain. For her, the issue was safety. "Families in Shanghai usually don't want to send their daughters to a place where guns are not banned -- that was the primary reason," Wong said. "Between the U.S. and the U.K., the U.K. is safer, and that's the biggest consideration for my parents." With an interest in studying abroad rebounding after the pandemic, there are signs that the decades-long run that has sent an estimated 3 million Chinese students to the U.S., including many of the country's brightest, could be trending down, as geopolitical shifts redefine U.S.-China relations. Cutting people-to-people exchanges could have a lasting impact on relations between the two countries. "International education is a bridge," said Fanta Aw, executive director of the NAFSA Association of International Educators, based in Washington. "A long-term bridge, because the students who come today are the engineers of the future. They are the politicians of the future, they are the business entrepreneurs of the future." "Not seeing that pipeline as strong means that we in the U.S. have to pay attention, because China-U.S. relations are very important." |
| Chinese students, academics say they're facing extra scrutiny entering U.S. | |
 | Stay calm. Answer their questions but don't volunteer more than asked. Have a lawyer's number ready. Pack clothing from Western brands, and don't carry any emblems of the Chinese Communist Party. These kinds of tips on how to make it through U.S. border control have filled online discussion forums as frustrated Chinese students describe being questioned, sometimes for hours, and having their belongings searched at U.S. airports while on their way to American universities. Others recount the heartbreak and confusion of being turned away at the border, their visas canceled without a clear explanation. Chinese scholars, officials and students say they are being unfairly targeted by U.S. border officials, adding to growing doubt and disillusionment among Chinese students -- a key source of tuition fees and talent for American universities -- about whether coming to the United States is even worth it. "It used to be that it was an honor to study in the United States. For some parents, it had to be the U.S. or nothing, but that sentiment has weakened," said Leon Mei, a civil servant in Wuhan, China, whose 17-year-old son is applying to universities in the United States, but also in Britain and Australia. The frictions are driving a deeper wedge between China and the United States at a time when they're trying to stabilize relations and tamp down tensions. During a November meeting in California, President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to welcome more students into their countries. Given the long list of intractable issues, from Taiwan to trade sanctions, boosting student numbers should have been among the easiest to progress on. |
| Department of Energy's science chief announces her unexpected departure | |
| After 22 months on the job, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, director of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Science, is stepping down. Yesterday Berhe sent a letter to the office's 815 employees saying her last day would be 28 March. With a budget of $8.2 billion, the office is the United States's single largest funder of the physical sciences. Berhe, who was born in Eritrea and is the first person of color to direct the office, says in her letter that the job has been "the honor of my lifetime" and that she's leaving with "pride in what we have accomplished, and a heavy heart filled with profound sadness and gratitude." Berhe might be leaving out of frustration with the department's senior leaders, say multiple former DOE employees who requested anonymity to protect professional ties. Berhe's leadership of the Office of Science was greeted with enthusiasm and dismay by different research communities. When President Joe Biden nominated her in April 2021, she was a soil scientist at the University of California, Merced who had no experience leading big scientific collaborations or projects, which are the Office of Science's bread and butter. Many of her colleagues in biogeochemistry and associated fields hailed her appointment as a signal that DOE science might turn away from legacy fields such as particle physics and nuclear physics and toward fields directly related to the looming climate crisis. But some physicists argued she was not qualified for the post. The Senate confirmed her in the position a year later -- by a vote of 54 to 45, with only four Republicans voting for her. |
| Title IX rules are still behind. When will they be finalized? | |
| The U.S. Department of Education continues to lag on finalizing two key Title IX proposals anxiously awaited by district leaders for over three years -- and now policy experts say it's likely the department will finalize both this spring, after the department's latest self-imposed deadline of March. The broader Title IX proposal released in June 2022 would protect LGBTQ+ students under the federal anti-discrimination law for the first time. It would also change Title IX implementation in a way that public education experts say make it more practical for schools, including shortening investigation and resolution timelines. The second proposal, released nearly a year later in April 2023, would create a framework for transgender students' participation on sports teams aligning with their gender identities. Both controversial proposals were initially expected to be finalized last May. But a high volume of public feedback on each, which the department is required to review, pushed that deadline twice -- first to October, and then again to this month. However, it's likely the Education Department will miss its latest deadline as well, since the agency has still not cleared a key regulatory hurdle for either rule: getting the White House's green light for release. The athletics rule remains held up at the department, which has yet to pass it to the Office of Management and Budget, the White House office that reviews regulations prior to their release. The broader Title IX rule, which the department sent to the White House in February, is still sitting with OMB a month later. |
| Economic, cultural strength driven by offering students variety of higher education options | |
 | Delta State University President Daniel J. Ennis writes for The Clarion-Ledger: It has been said, "A prophet is honored except in his own country." The same is true of American public higher education. Prior to my appointment as President of Delta State University, I had the privilege of traveling overseas to recruit international students to come to America for their college educations. The range and variety of public universities in our country is the envy of the world, so much so that talented students from thousands of miles away are eager to come here. But sometimes, in the USA, we forget that our economic and cultural strength is driven by offering American students a variety of higher education options. It is odd that an educational model that is sought after and emulated in other countries is undervalued at home. The United States, having been advised by our Founding Fathers that education is the key to a free republic, invested for generations in a range of public technical schools, liberal arts colleges, and research universities. James Madison said it best in 1822 when he urged state governments to create colleges that were available to a wide range of citizens: "At cheaper and nearer seats of learning, parents with slender incomes may place their sons in a course of education putting them on a level with the sons of the richest ... diffusing through the entire society the education needed for the common purposes of life." |
SPORTS
| Five Things To Know: Mississippi State-Michigan State | |
| The Mississippi State men's basketball team returns to college basketball's biggest stage for the second consecutive season under the direction of head coach Chris Jans when the Bulldogs square off with Michigan State in an 8-9 NCAA March Madness matchup. The Bulldogs (21-13, 8-10 SEC) and Spartans (19-14, 10-10 Big Ten) open up Thursday's action of 16 NCAA Tournament games at 11:15 a.m. CT from Spectrum Center, home of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats. The winner advances to the NCAA Round of 32 and will take on either top-seed and No. 5 North Carolina and the winner between No. 16 seed Howard and Wagner. Thursday's game is televised by CBS in addition to being streamed online courtesy of the NCAA March Madness Live (all games), Paramount Plus (CBS) and MAX (TBS, TNT, truTV) apps. The two programs will meet for the only the second time on the hardwood. Michigan State won the lone meeting between the two schools, 90-82, on 01/02/1973 at Senior Bowl Tournament in Mobile, Alabama. Jerry Jenkins held the game-high honors for the Bulldogs with 22 points. State has won all three of its previous meetings over Big Ten opponents under Coach Jans. The Bulldogs earned a 66-57 victory against Northwestern followed by a 70-60 triumph over Rutgers earlier this season and picked up a 69-51 road win over Minnesota last season. Michigan State is led by a veteran trio of All-Big Ten performers in Tyson Walker, Malik Hall and A.J. Hoggard. Walker was named to the All-Big Ten Second Team while Hall and Hoggard were both honorable mention selections by both the coaches and media. |
| March Madness hits different for Tom Izzo at Michigan State, where 26th bid in a row wasn't a layup | |
| March Madness kept Tom Izzo sleepless for more than 24 hours before he heard and saw Michigan State made it into a 26th consecutive NCAA Tournament. The Hall of Fame coach said he had one of the most anxious days of his career on Sunday, sensing his record-breaking streak might get snapped after the Spartans started No. 4 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll and finished an uneven season with five losses in seven games. Izzo was able to exhale -- and get some much-needed sleep -- because Michigan State (19-14) was placed in the West Region as a No. 9 seed and matched up with No. 8 seed Mississippi State (21-13) on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina. Even though the Spartans haven't played up to their potential consistently, Izzo insisted he still has faith they will when it matters most. "I still believe we can," he said Monday. If Michigan State plays the way it did during a six-week stretch midway through the season, with 13 wins in 14 games, including a 24-point victory over Baylor, it will have a shot to advance at least once. "If we don't play at that level, we'll be coming home Thursday night," Izzo said. The Spartans have had only one opening-round exit over the past seven years, a stretch that includes Izzo's eighth run to a Final Four in 2019. |
| Diamond Dawgs Host Memphis in Midweek Action | |
| The Mississippi State baseball team returns to Dudy Noble Field to host Memphis in midweek action on Tuesday. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. The first pitch for the game against Memphis has been moved to 4 p.m. because of forecasted weather in Starkville. Tuesday's game will be broadcasted on SECN+ and will also be carried on the Bulldog Sports Network powered by LEARFIELD along with live audio stream via HailState.com/OnDemand. Memphis heads to The Dude to take on Diamond Dawgs on Tuesday in midweek action. The Tigers come in with a record of 11-11 and are coming off a series victory over New Orleans this past weekend. As a team, the Tigers are hitting .272 with 36 home runs. They have five players hitting over .300 on the season, led by Pierre Seals' .350 average. Cade Davis draws the start for Memphis on Tuesday, and it will be his fifth start of the season. He has an ERA of 9.37 on the season and is 1-3. The Tigers' pitching staff holds a 6.44 ERA with 189 punchouts as a team. Mississippi State leads the series 56-27. MSU has won the last two meetings between these two programs. Last season, the contest between the Tigers and Dawgs was canceled because of weather. The first meeting between these two programs came during the 1950 season. |
| Bulldogs show flashes of the team they want to be in series win over No. 2 Tigers | |
| "It feels good, I can tell you that." Chris Lemonis was a happy man after Mississippi State's 15-5 demolition of the defending national champions and second-ranked LSU in game three of the teams' weekend series on Sunday. It was the first time since 2003 that the Bulldogs (15-6) took a home series over the Tigers (17-4), and it couldn't have been more deserved given the quality of their play throughout the weekend. "Just a tremendous effort in all three games," Lemonis continued. "The competitive spirit was really high. I challenged them on Thursday, you know, you're going to be exhausted on Sunday afternoon just because every pitch matters so much. I think I'm exhausted right now. What a fun weekend." Game three was blown wide open in the middle innings, starting with back-to-back home runs from Dakota Jordan and Hunter Hines. The three-run shot with two away was Jordan's 10th homer of the year and kickstarted what would eventually be 12 runs scored over four innings to down the Tigers via run-rule. Jordan and Hines' prolific performances at the plate were not unique to them over the weekend. Amani Larry, Bryce Chance, Logan Kohler, and Connor Hujsak were among those with several big at-bats from a Bulldog order glowing with confidence. |
| Mississippi State baseball: Bulldogs ranked after series win vs. LSU | |
| Mississippi State baseball is back in the national polls. The Bulldogs were No. 21 in the D1Baseball ranking and No. 16 in the Baseball America top 25 when the polls were released Monday. MSU was the top unranked team receiving votes in the USA TODAY Sports baseball coaches poll. It's the first time Baseball America has MSU ranked since Week 2 of the 2022 season when the Bulldogs were No. 11. For D1Baseball, MSU hadn't been ranked since Week 4 that season. Mississippi State is coming off a series victory against then-No. 2 LSU, which was capped by a 15-5 run-rule win at Dudy Noble Field on Sunday. The Bulldogs (15-6, 2-1 SEC) were led by the bats of Dakota Jordan, Hunter Hines and Aaron Downs, who combined for 14 hits and four home runs in the series. MSU has endured a rough patch since the program won its first national title in 2021. The Bulldogs failed to make the postseason the past two seasons, and they dropped nonconference games against Air Force, Austin Peay (twice), Georgia Southern and South Alabama this year. However, behind improved pitching, Mississippi State has worked its way back into the top 60 of the RPI -- a metric used to help mold the NCAA Tournament field. |
| Bulldogs still have something to play for in WBIT | |
| Sam Purcell and his Mississippi State team were, of course, disappointed to not hear their names called during Sunday night's NCAA women's basketball championship selection show. But the Bulldogs' head coach remains excited for the chance to compete again, and to do so at Humphrey Coliseum. "It's all about competition. I don't care if it's rock-paper-scissors, cornhole, the NCAA Tournament or the WBIT," Purcell said. "That's the kind of program that I want, that when given the opportunity, we're excited about it where we can compete." A few of MSU's key players are still chasing some major milestones. Center Jessika Carter will set the program record for career games played if she plays in two more games in the inaugural Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament, and grad transfer point guard Lauren Park-Lane is six assists shy of the Bulldogs' single-season record in that category. The transfer portal officially opened Monday, and redshirt junior post player Nyayongah Gony, who started out at Miami, has already opted to transfer again for her final year of eligibility and will not be available for the WBIT. The WBIT will also give MSU's three freshmen -- guards Mjracle Sheppard and Jasmine Brown-Hagger and post player Quanirah Montague -- a chance to play in more postseason-type games. The Bulldogs (21-11, 8-8 Southeastern Conference) fell to Texas A&M in their first SEC Tournament game, so the freshmen have only played "win or go home" basketball once in their collegiate careers. |
| New Texas A&M AD Trev Alberts prepared for vast change in college athletics reality | |
 | Six weeks into his first athletic director position, the ever-competitive Trev Alberts approached then Nebraska-Omaha Chancellor John Christensen with a question. What would define victory for Alberts in his new position? He knew what wins looked like in his previous careers, as an NFL linebacker and a sports media personality. But, beyond raising money and hiring and firing coaches, what does winning look like for an athletic director? His charge became building a financially stable, 25-year plan for the UNO athletic department, with which he ultimately accomplished in his 12-year tenure with little prior knowledge in the realm of business. Nearly 15 years later, Alberts was announced as the newest athletic director at Texas A&M University and carries an immediate task of bringing the Aggie athletic department into the rapidly approaching new business landscape of college athletics. Now, thanks to relationships developed and past experiences, he approaches the future with a mind for business. "Now, more than ever before, we run a business and I know that's really uncomfortable in our space, because that's not why a lot of us got into this, right?" Alberts said during his introductory event in the Kyle Field Hall of Champions on Monday. "But we're going to run a business and we're going to run as clean and disciplined of a business as we possibly can. But rest assured, we will never compromise our values in support of student-athletes, because you can do both." |
| Clemson sues the ACC, challenging 'unenforceable' exit penalty | |
 | After years of speculation, Clemson University has followed the strategy of Atlantic Coast Conference member Florida State and formally filed a lawsuit against the ACC to challenge its steep "grant of rights" and exit penalties in a first step toward exiting the conference in a move primarily aimed to improve athletics and football funding. According to online court filings in Pickens County, South Carolina, where Clemson is located, the university filed a lawsuit against the ACC early Tuesday morning in Common Pleas Court. The lawsuit calls the ACC's total withdrawal fee, which has been ballparked at $572 million, as "unconscionable and unenforceable," and most notably says the ACC has made "erroneous assertions" in publicly claiming that it "irrevocably owns the media rights of member institutions" to home games played through 2036, even if a school ceases to be a member of the ACC, and that member schools "must pay an exorbitant $140 million penalty to leave the Conference." "College athletics is at a crossroads," the lawsuit reads, and the ACC's "erroneous assertions" all "separately (hinder) Clemson's ability to meaningfully explore its options regarding conference membership, to negotiate alternative revenue-sharing proposals among ACC members, and to obtain full value for its future media rights." It's a monumental step for Clemson, which is a charter member of the ACC dating back to 1953, and athletic director Graham Neff, who has long said publicly that Clemson will remain a good faith member of the conference but will always prioritize what's best for the school in the long run. |
| Top college tennis player sues NCAA to challenge tournament prize restrictions | |
| In the hall of mirrors that is the National Collegiate Athletic Association rulebook on how college athletes can and cannot earn money, there is one rule that may be the most hard-to-fathom of all. A quarterback, or any other sort of athlete, can collect a seven-figure payment for having their picture appear on a billboard, or for signing autographs at a local car dealership, under the NCAA's name, image and likeness (NIL) rules. But a college tennis player who earns a spot at a prestigious tournament and wins money for participating in, or even winning, the event, can't keep that money, with only the most minor of exceptions. Same goes for runners and swimmers, wrestlers and gymnasts, skiers and fencers, bowlers and triathletes, and athletes in equestrian sports and riflery. It's a rule that has cost Reese Brantmeier, a student at the University of North Carolina who is currently ranked No 2 in singles and No 1 in doubles (with partner Elizabeth Scotty) by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, tens of thousands of dollars over the past five years. Brantmeier, a 19-year-old from Wisconsin, started playing small professional tournaments at 14, forgoing the small payments she could have received so she could maintain her college eligibility. Then, in 2021, Brantmeier finished second in the U.S. junior national tournament. That earned her a spot in the qualifying competition for the U.S. Open. She won two matches there before losing one round shy of the main draw --- good for $49,000 in prize money. She did not accept it, other than the portion that covered her expenses, so that she could maintain her college eligibility. But sometime between the NCAA sidelining her for the season while they challenged the accounting of her expenses during that U.S. Open run, and a meniscus tear in her knee last month that required surgery and caused her to miss the rest of this season, Brantmeier decided to add her name to the growing list of athletes challenging an NCAA rulebook they view as unfair and illegal. |
| Dartmouth Refuses to Bargain With New Men's Basketball Union | |
| On Monday, Dartmouth announced it would not engage in collective bargaining negotiations with men's basketball players, who voted to unionize two weeks ago. The historic union vote, allowing all 15 players to become members of the Service Employees International Union Local 560 chapter, was certified by the National Labor Relations Board just last week. The news was expected, and it is yet another step in a lengthy, two-pronged appeals process through which Dartmouth will fight varsity player unionization. That process could take several years and go all the way up to the Supreme Court. (It is one of several labor and antitrust cases challenging amateurism, all of which could come to a head over the next few years.) The Dartmouth unionization effort, which also recognizes players as employees, would unravel the NCAA's business model of amateurism if it succeeds. Players would be entitled to everything from wages and augmented health-care benefits to employee protections like workers' compensation. That's probably why the school has never fought a unionization effort as hard as administrators are fighting the players union. The school called the refusal to bargain an "unprecedented" step in its history with SEIU. "While we continue to negotiate in good faith with multiple unions representing Dartmouth employees, our responsibility to future generations of students means we must explore all our legal options for challenging the regional director's legal error," the school said in a statement. |
| As NCAA tourney opens, LSU's Angel Reese draws attention to racial, gender wealth gaps | |
 | LSU women's basketball senior forward Angel Reese will be seen repeatedly over March Madness in a different kind of commercial: One that pushes Congress to pay greater attention to Black women and the wealth gap between the races. "The racial wealth gap impacts Black women's ability to leave a legacy behind," Reese said in the spot. "Let's use our voices and close the opportunity gap." The ad will run on ESPN and Connected TV during the Elite Eight and Final Four games at the end of March Madness. The commercial package featuring the 21-year-old Baltimore native and her mother also began running Monday in the Washington area. In the ad, Reese pays homage to the traits she inherited from her mother, Angel Webb Reese, who also played basketball in college and professionally. The commercial points out that only 17% of Black women believe their interests are being well-represented by Washington policymakers. Reese, selected Most Outstanding Player in last year's Final Four, joined with Goldman Sachs, the financial institution, in a "name, image, likeness" deal to promote One Million Black Women, an investment initiative. The ad campaign is part of One Million Black Women's efforts to use data to highlight the roadblocks that impact the economic futures of Black women and their families, but also hinders broader economic growth. |
| Epsilon, Opendorse launch NIL campaign for every women's NCAA Tournament participant | |
| Ahead of the NCAA Tournament opening play this week, a new brand is entering the NIL space with plans to spend nearly half a million on women's basketball. The global advertising and marketing company Epsilon has partnered with the NIL marketplace Opendorse to launch the "Work Together to Win Together" campaign. The marketing initiative will be a first in college sports, offering an NIL deal to every female athlete participating in March Madness. According to the release, athletes who opt-in will be compensated $500 to promote the brand on Instagram. Along with compensation, athletes can participate in free career planning resources and mentorship through Epsilon. The campaign is scheduled to run from March 19 through April 30. "We are proud to be the only company extending an NIL offer to every female athlete participating in the Division 1 basketball championship over the next few weeks," Epsilon chief revenue officer Susan Rothwell said. "'Work Together to Win Together" is one of Epsilon's core values and exemplifies our belief that collaboration is the catalyst that unlocks our full potential." While the men's tournament has had the longstanding star power, women's basketball has emerged as one of the most popular college sports this year led by stars like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and JuJu Watkins. John Kosner, who led digital media at ESPN from 2003-2017 and is president of media consulting firm Kosner Media, told On3 earlier this week that the women's tournament's rise in appeal has "broken through to a new level because of the phenomenon" of Clark. |
| March Madness as we know it could be on the way out amid seismic changes in college sports | |
| Tracking the changes upending college sports can be as frenetic as flipping between all the games going down over the first week of March Madness. Ultimately, those changes could impact what America's favorite basketball tournament looks like in the future -- or whether it exists at all. News about "pay for play" in college sports gushes from a veritable firehose these days. Whether it's the Dartmouth basketball team looking to unionize, a judge undercutting the NCAA's ability to regulate payments to athletes or yet another bout of conference realignment, the stakes are clear: Everything in college sports is open for discussion, interpretation and adjustment. That includes the industry's most hallowed tradition, the NCAA basketball tournaments, which begin this week and will stretch from coast to coast. The bottom line behind it all is money. "There's no pretense anymore," said Rick Pitino, the St. John's coach who recently made news by proposing a salary cap and a two-year contract for players who negotiate name, image and likeness sponsorships. "Now we're dealing with professional athletes in the guise of NIL. I've tried to think of solutions and ways around it. But any solutions, the courts will just obliterate it." The coach also recognizes the irony of basketball being inextricably linked to the future of football, where revenue from media, ticket sales and other areas dwarf those in basketball, even with its March Madness TV deal worth around $900 million a year. Virtually all the biggest decisions in college sports stem from the biggest conferences in football trying to squeeze more money out of TV rights, whether through an expanded playoff or realignment or maybe even an expanded basketball tournament. |
| College Athletes Sue NCAA Over Trans Eligibility Policies | |
| More than a dozen former and current college athletes recently sued the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The lawsuit accused the NCAA of violating their Title IX rights by allowing University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, to participate in the 2022 national championships, the Associated Press reported. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta last week, argues that the NCAA's transgender eligibility policies, revised in 2022 to align with national sports governing bodies, "adversely impact female athletes in violation of Title IX." It seeks to prevent the NCAA from applying these policies at upcoming events in Georgia. A third phase of the revised policies is expected to be implemented in the 2024–25 academic year and adds national and international governing body standards to the NCAA rules. The suit also names the University System of Georgia as a defendant because the 2022 championships took place at Georgia Tech. Thomas was the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title in any sport. She won the 500-yard freestyle in 2022 and reached the finals in two other events, the 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle. She previously competed for the Penn men's team before her transition. One plaintiff, former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, tied with Thomas for fifth place in the 100-yard freestyle, but Thomas got the fifth place trophy, Fox 5 reported. The plaintiffs also include volleyball players and track athletes. |
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