| Monday, July 29, 2024 |
| MSU flying fox research, new technology combine to prevent viral transmission | |
 | From some 8,000 miles away, Mississippi State scientist Manuel Ruiz-Aravena in the university's Forest and Wildlife Research Center is studying flying foxes, or fruit bats, in Australia to determine the likely causes of viral spillover from animal to human. The assistant professor in wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture watches thousands of signatures streak across his computer screen as a cauldron of flying foxes leave their roost near Australia's east coast to forage. It's a novel experience made possible for the first time using emerging technology -- live radar -- alongside Ruiz-Aravena's international research. "It sounds cliché but imagine building the first telescope. No one before has seen Saturn this clearly, and now you're seeing it. This is the same -- no one has ever seen a flyout of bats at this resolution, in real time," Ruiz-Aravena said. Ruiz-Aravena is lead researcher on a project studying the ecology of Australian flying foxes, which host Hendra virus, a disease primarily found in Australia that can infect both humans and horses. His work aims to help prevent virus spillover from bats to humans. |
| MSU's Department of Mechanical Engineering prepares to open new lab space this fall | |
 | Starting in the fall, Patterson Engineering Laboratories will officially become the home of a new, innovative workspace dedicated to enabling hands-on learning for mechanical engineering students -- the IDEELab. Aidan Duncan and Alejandro Martinez are instructors in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Mississippi State University while Ross Smith is a professor of practice. Smith and Duncan also hold roles in the IDEELab as director and advanced manufacturing shop manager, respectively. On top of their teaching roles at the university, the three are managing the new IDEELab space in development for students. "Think of it like a makerspace for mechanical engineering students," Duncan explained. "And so it's a place for us to house classes and then teach students how to make things. That helps engineers know how to design things, when they know how things are made." Traditionally, few university engineering departments have these hands-on lab spaces for students to freely use. This new space will offer mechanical engineering students the opportunity to get their hands dirty and experiment with the machines they will be working with in their future careers. These experiences will better prepare MSU mechanical engineering students when they begin internships, co-ops or enter the work field after graduation. This new lab space is just phase one of a much larger project to completely renovate and revitalize several parts of Patterson Engineering Laboratories. Construction work has already begun on phase two -- another future workshop adjacent to the IDEELab. Phase three will take construction upstairs to create a student lounge and study area. |
| Students, Gulf Coast community come together to try and save our Mississippi Sound | |
 | On a peninsula in the Back Bay of Biloxi, waves lap onto a barren stretch of shoreline, rotten remains of trees rising from the sand. Here, erosion has eaten away at the marsh, and only a few oysters remain where they once thrived. Tuesday, Virginia Schweiss, a University of Southern Mississippi lecturer of marine conservation, laid a bag filled with oyster shells a few yards offshore. 18,000 pounds of shells later, Schweiss and her students have laid the foundation for a "living shoreline," a piece of a wider effort to restore the health of the Mississippi Sound. The project is part of USM's Gulf Coast Research Summer Field Program. Eric Sparks, director of coastal and marine extension at Mississippi State University, helped Schweiss learn to design an effective living shoreline and has contributed to many living shoreline projects on the Gulf Coast. He said that living shorelines are an aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly alternative to bulkheads. In addition to providing wildlife habitat, living shorelines pull carbon dioxide from our atmosphere and sequester it in vegetation. Sparks said the Living Shoreline Technical Assistance Program, a joint effort by MSU and the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, received 10 requests for free technical assistance from landowners in 2019. This year, they've received more than one hundred requests for assistance across Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. |
| Mississippi State's Rendon promoted to brigadier general surrounded by family, friends and servicemen | |
 | On Thursday afternoon, Mississippi State alumnus Andrew Rendon, the university's executive director for Veterans and Military Affairs, was promoted from colonel to brigadier general in the Mississippi National Guard. Less than one-half of 1% of officers in the Army achieve the rank of a general officer. The first action Gen. Rendon took after his promotion was to present his daughter, Sarah, and wife, Hilary, with flowers while thanking the three institutions he credited with his success -- MSU, the Mississippi National Guard and his family. "Not once have those institutions left me alone. Not once have they let me down. Not once have those institutions not cared for me," he said. "In every instance, as I asked for help support or assistance, they have been there for me." MSU President Mark E. Keenum commended Rendon with his leadership supporting the armed forces, military students and his country. Rendon's service and commitment to others -- along with Bulldogs, cowbells and Edam cheese -- is what the university is known for, Keenum added. "We're also known for our values. Our core values that define who we are at MSU: integrity, strong work ethic and respect for others," Keenum said. "Gen. Rendon embodies all of these values, and he lives them every single day. So, it's an honor to recognize him and his achievements this afternoon as he begins this new chapter of service to our state and our nation." |
| Photos wanted for 'BugFest' competition | |
| Wildlife photographers of all ages and skill levels have a venue to showcase their camera eye in an insect photo competition. The Crosby Arboretum BugFest Photo Competition is accepting entries until Sept. 14 for photos of arthropods. These include centipedes, millipedes, insects, spiders and scorpions on land and barnacles, crabs, crayfish, lobsters and shrimp in water. The contest also includes a "Best of Show" dragonfly photo award. To register, visit msuext.ms/24bugfest. No entry fee is required to participate. The contest includes three categories for participants: ages 17 and under, a beginner's group for ages 18 and over, and an advanced category for ages 18 and over. Each category rewards first, second and third place prizes. Each photographer may enter up to three photographs. The entrant must be the photographer, but younger participants can receive help from an adult with submitting their entries. The date and place of the photo are required for information purposes, plus a brief statement with information about the arthropod and what made the subject appeal to the photographer. The Crosby Arboretum is operated by the Mississippi State University Extension Service and is a unit of the Coastal Research & Extension Center in Biloxi. The 64-acre public garden is in Picayune adjacent to Interstate 59 and is dedicated to environmental education. This project is supported by the MEMBERS of Coast Electric through Operation Round Up and their Community Trust, in partnership with the Gulf Coast Community Foundation. |
| Ask The Dispatch: All your questions answered about the Main Street redesign project | |
| Main Street is still in for a pedestrian-friendly redesign, and citizens should begin to see construction rolling out on the project by early next year. "I think it will long-term be incredibly positive for all the merchants and folks who are in downtown, and I think it will bring people to downtown in a way that will mesh with what the university does and is planning on doing," Mayor Lynn Spruill told The Dispatch Friday. "It's one of those things I think is worth the wait and worth the funding and worth the disruption." The Main Street Master Plan -- approved by the city's board of aldermen in 2022 – includes expanding sidewalks in front of Main Street businesses, eliminating the right turn lane on Montgomery Street and adding trees to the edge of Main Street and string lights above the road. It also includes reorienting parking spaces, as some of the slanted parking would be changed to parallel parking to allow for the larger sidewalks. Spruill said the project has been divided into two phases. Phase one will extend from City Hall to Jackson Street, though it will also incorporate the Montgomery Street intersection. Construction on that phase should roll out by January, she said. Phase two includes the area from Jackson Street to Montgomery Street, though whether or not that phase rolls out is still dependent on financing, Spruill said. |
| Forks and Corks to bring art lovers back to the '90s | |
| The '90s are coming back to the city this weekend, and art lovers can get a taste at the Starkville Area Arts Council's annual Forks and Corks fundraiser. The '90s "Back 2 School" fundraiser will be in State Theatre from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday. SAAC Program Coordinator Juliette Reid said Forks and Corks is getting a "refresh" this year, with its new location and new theme. "Forks and Corks worked in the past as a nice fun dress up event," Reid said. "But people change and things change, and people want more casual things. ... People want to have fun. And we think this '90s theme will really throw people back." Reid said the new venue is also a "throwback," as the SAAC has not held Forks and Corks at State Theatre since before the building was renovated. Executive Director Mary Switzer said the fundraiser is changing from a formal dress-up event to a more informal come-and-go style event downtown, but the fundraiser's focus is still on celebrating culinary arts in the city and raising money for art education programming. Reid said the goal is for SAAC to raise $20,000 for its art education programs through the event, including ticket sales, the silent auction and other donations. This year's Forks and Corks will feature six local restaurants, including Walk-On's, Harveys, Central Station Grill, the Coffee Depot, Proof Bakery and Big E's Dinner Club. Switzer said the goal is to provide a diverse picture of the food available in Starkville. |
| Possumtown Book Fest welcomes eight bestselling authors to Columbus | |
| Headliners Michael Farris Smith and Ace Atkins will cap off a day of panel discussions, book signings, and activities celebrating southern literature at the first ever Possumtown Book Fest on Aug. 24. The festival will feature eight literary panels every hour on the hour throughout the day, starting at 9 a.m., as well as a children's program and local author showcase running concurrently during the morning. Smith and Atkins will be featured on the final panel of the day at 4 p.m. The two writers are popular among Mississippi readers for their suspenseful southern noir novels. Mystery writer Maya Corrigan, poet Kendall Dunkelberg, cookbook author Dale Gray, documentarian Anthony Thaxton, and novelist Deborah Johnson are also confirmed to appear at the Possumtown Book Fest. In all, approximately two dozen nationally published authors are expected to participate at the Possumtown Book Fest. More authors will be announced in the coming weeks, and the panel schedule will be released no later than Aug. 17. All panels and activities are free and open to the public. The Possumtown Book Fest will be held at the Columbus Arts Council's Rosenzweig Arts Center at 501 Main Street and is being organized by Friendly City Books and the Friendly City Books Community Connection, a special project of the CREATE Foundation. |
| Scam call impersonates Mississippi Public Service Commission | |
| On Thursday, a Poplarville woman got a call she believed was from the Mississippi Public Service Commission, asking for her bank account information. The scammer on the other end -- going by the alias of Sean White -- told her she had been overcharged by Entergy power, and she was due for a $50 a month refund for the next four to five months. The woman gave the scammer her bank account information, as the call appeared legitimate. Thankfully, she called the public service commission later that day, Northern District Commissioner for Mississippi Chris Brown told The Dispatch on Friday. "They even provided a name and a badge number," Brown said. "And of course, we don't do anything like that. We don't have badge numbers, and we don't take or receive funds from anybody, as far as ratepayers." When the Mississippi Public Service Commission received the call, Brown said, it immediately advised the woman to contact her bank, notifying them of the incident. PCS also recommended she contact the attorney general. On Friday, PCS put out a public service announcement, warning citizens of the danger of the scam. "We just wanted everybody to know, you're never going to get a call from the Public Service Commission asking for money or getting refunds, because that's the power company's (responsibility)," Brown said. |
| Neshoba County Fair again full of state leaders, political candidates stumping | |
 | With the Neshoba County Fair upon us, political candidates from all over the state will be converging on the fairgrounds to give stump speeches next week in an open tent with church pews and sawdust covered floors. The fair has already begun, but elected officials and candidates running for office will be giving political speeches in the Founder's Square Wednesday from 9:30 to about 11 a.m., and Thursday from 9:20 to about 11 a.m. There will be 16 speakers. "Neshoba County Fair was founded in 1889 as a stock and agricultural exhibition, but it soon expanded to include horse racing, carnival rides, political speeches and musical entertainment," according to the Mississippi Country Music Trail website. Over the years, the political speeches that began at the fair grew in popularity and became a staple of state political theatre. This year will not include speeches from any of the candidates running for president or anyone from their campaign. However, that isn't to say this year won't be just as interesting as years past. As far as government leadership goes, this year won't be lacking for legislative or statewide office holders. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann will be speaking Wednesday at 10:40 a.m., and Mississippi House Speaker Jason White, R-West, and Republican Gov. Tate Reeves will speak Thursday at 10:30 a.m. and 10:40 a.m., respectively. |
| Legislature weighing tax reforms, including a change to Mississippi's tax on food | |
 | A recent study by SmileHub named Mississippi the least supportive state for people living in poverty. It's the poorest state but charges the most tax on food. Mississippi taxes food at 7 percent, the highest rate in the nation. A $200 grocery bill will cost $14 extra. It's an issue that's come up at the State Capitol for years. Several bills have been filed but haven't made it across the finish line. But there seems to be some new traction on the possibility of reducing the tax. Rep. Scott Bounds is co-chairing the House Select Committee on tax reform. "That's tax relief for the citizens, but we've got to be sure that we're not cutting off our nose to spite our face," said Bounds. He says it will require a look at the tax structure because it's a financial balancing act. "Obviously, it would impact state revenues depending on what mechanism or what structure we use if we did a grocery tax reduction,' added Bounds. Speaker Jason White spoke in detail about his desire to see tax reform in 2025 shortly after the end of this year's session. "We're gonna look at the way we divert to cities because the grocery tax is the number one sales tax generator for most medium and small towns," said White. "And so you start eliminating the grocery tax, that is a large portion of the sales tax that happens inside the city limits and lots of our smaller towns and cities." That's among the issues being weighed by the select committee. |
| National Republicans embrace universal school choice. Will Mississippi's GOP leaders follow the lead? | |
| Universal school choice was made a part of the Republican Party's platform during the recent GOP Convention. "We support Universal School Choice in every State in America," the 2024 Republican Platform reads. Republican-led states across the nation have embraced the idea of empowering families to choose the best possible education for their children. Yet, Mississippi -- arguably one of the most conservative states -- has lagged behind. If Speaker of the House Jason White (R) has his way, that could soon change. Magnolia Tribune recently spoke with White on efforts to increase school choice in the Magnolia State. He said he's long been on record as a supporter of increasing educational opportunities for Mississippi students by allowing parents to make decisions that are best for their children. "As I review our Mississippi Republican Party platform, I affirm my position as reflected in our party principles," Speaker White said. During the 2024 Legislative Session, Speaker White said the House of Representatives led the charge to fund students, not systems. "With the passage of the Mississippi Student Funding Formula, the state took a major step forward in our effort to emphasize outcomes, rather than inputs while putting the emphasis of funding on the individual student (and not the system or district)," White said. |
| C Spire pulls advertisements after 'Last Supper' tableau during Olympics: 'Shocked by the mockery' | |
| A major Mississippi company is removing its advertisements from the 2024 Paris Olympics, following an unprecedented tableau reminiscent of "The Last Supper" during Friday's opening ceremony. C Spire, the state's largest telecommunications company and the sixth largest wireless provider in the U.S., announced on social media that it would no longer be airing commercials during this year's summer games. "We were shocked by the mockery of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. C Spire will be pulling our advertising from the Olympics," the post reads. C Spire's decision to pull ads from the Olympics comes after fans around the globe were surprised, with some disgusted, by a portion of the opening ceremony, which staged drag queens in what many speculated to be a rendition of Leonardo da Vinci's mural painting of Jesus Christ breaking bread with the Twelve Disciples. Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the ceremony, has since defended the show amid backlash. He said during a Saturday press conference that his intention had not been "to be subversive, mock, or shock." Instead, Jolly vouched that he was trying to capture France's diversity. |
| Biden is pivoting to his legacy. He speaks Monday at the LBJ Presidential Library | |
 | President Joe Biden, who belatedly opted against seeking reelection, will pay a visit on Monday to the library of the last president to make the same difficult choice, more than a half-century ago. Biden's speech Monday at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, is designed to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, enacted under President Lyndon Johnson. While there, he'll call for changes to the Supreme Court that include term limits and an enforceable ethics code for justices, as well as a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity. But the visit has taken on very different symbolism in the two weeks it took to reschedule it after Biden had to cancel because he got COVID-19. The speech, originally set for July 15, was once seen by the White House as an opportunity for Biden to try to make a case for salvaging his sinking presidential campaign --- delivered in the home district of Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the 15-term congressman who was the first Democratic lawmaker to publicly call for Biden to step aside. Two weeks later, the political landscape has been reshaped. Biden is out of the race. Vice President Kamala Harris is the likely Democratic nominee. And the president is focused not on his next four years, but on the legacy of his single term and the future of democracy. No American incumbent president has dropped out of the race as late in the process as did Biden. Johnson announced he would not seek reelection in March of 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. |
| Biden to call for Supreme Court term limits, new ethics code | |
 | President Joe Biden will announce Monday that he wants term limits for Supreme Court justices and to overturn the court's recent ruling on presidential immunity that benefited former President Donald Trump. "I have overseen more Supreme Court nominations as senator, vice president and president than anyone living today. I have great respect for our institutions and separation of powers. What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public's confidence in the court's decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms," Biden wrote in part of an opinion piece shared in advance of publication. "We now stand in a breach." Specifically, Biden will use scheduled remarks at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, on Monday to call for overhauling the Supreme Court, including 18-year terms for justices (meaning that the president would appoint a new justice once every two years). He also wants a new binding code of ethics for the justices. Biden's trip to Austin was originally scheduled while he was still an active candidate for president, but it was postponed after the attempted assassination of Trump. In addition to the Supreme Court changes, Biden is backing a "No One Is Above the Law" constitutional amendment that, according to a White House fact sheet, "will state that the Constitution does not confer any immunity from federal criminal indictment, trial, conviction, or sentencing by virtue of previously serving as President." That would effectively overturn the recent presidential immunity ruling in Trump v. United States, in which the 6-3 majority found that "Congress may not criminalize the President's conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the Executive Branch under the Constitution." |
| Behind hoopla, Democrats anxious about Harris | |
 | Behind the public jubilation over Vice President Harris's swift rise to become their party's likely nominee for president, Democratic lawmakers are privately anxious about her prospects of defeating former President Trump, acknowledging that she is largely untested as a candidate and faces serious challenges. The anxiety, for the most part, has been set aside out of a deep sense of relief that President Biden decided to drop his reelection bid. After months of unease over the 81-year-old incumbent, Democratic lawmakers are glad to rally behind Harris in hopes she will rev up Democratic donors along with young and minority voters. But concerns are already bubbling up over Harris's ability to connect as well as Biden did in 2020 with white working-class and union voters in three states that were critical to defeating Trump: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. "She wasn't a great candidate," one Democratic senator said of Harris's performance as a presidential candidate in 2020, when she pulled out of Democratic primary before the Iowa caucuses. "And she may not be as a political campaigner as good as Biden was in his prime," the senator added. An Emerson College poll of registered voters in swing states conducted July 22-23 found Trump leading Harris 46 percent to 45 percent in Michigan, and 48 percent to 46 percent in Pennsylvania, and the two candidates tied in Wisconsin at 47 percent. |
| Harris mobilizes grassroots activists, sorority sisters. But not all Black women are on board | |
 | Black women have long been celebrated as the Democratic Party's most loyal and steadfast voting bloc. Even so, their votes can't be taken for granted, and if you want to understand the opportunities and challenges Kamala Harris faces in her run for the White House, consider two Black women: Robyn Donaldson and Shaquita Jones. Donaldson embodies the energy and hope many Black women felt when President Biden announced he would not seek reelection and endorsed Harris to lead the Democratic ticket. When she heard the news, she screamed and ran around her mom's house in Chicago. A stream of Black women -- including California Rep. Maxine Waters and Beyoncé's mom -- rushed to endorse Harris. "Ahahahaha lets gooooo," rapper Cardi B posted on X. But some, like Jones, are less certain. "I don't know much about her," said Jones, a 35-year-old manager of a Krispy Kreme in Atlanta's historically Black West End neighborhood. "I'll have to do research." Donaldson, a grassroots organizer who has spent two decades mobilizing volunteers to get out the vote for Democrats, has no such qualms. Though she had still planned to vote for Biden and had campaigned for him in 2020, the 40-something trauma-informed yoga teacher felt let down, she said, after he failed to deliver on voting rights. This year she decided she would vote early by mail and then not do "a darn thing." But when Biden endorsed Harris on July 21, she got to work, plotting with other Black women to mobilize a rush of new volunteers to donate, staff phone banks, knock on doors, serve as poll workers or precinct captains. |
| JD Vance's Catholic conversion is part of young conservative movement | |
 | JD Vance's beloved grandmother -- Mamaw, as he called her -- hated organized religion, didn't go to church and hung a drawing of Jesus in her house that presented him as a kind everyman. So when Vance became drawn to Catholicism, with its hierarchy, intellectual rigor and art showing an imperial Jesus, he said, he worried what his late grandmother would think. "I couldn't shake the feeling that if I converted I would no longer be my grandmother's grandson," Vance wrote in a 2020 essay for the Catholic magazine the Lamp, about the woman he credits with raising him. But Vance, the senator from Ohio who is now the GOP's vice-presidential nominee, overcame whatever reservations he had, drawn by what he has described in interviews as Catholicism's rich, detailed and nuanced philosophy and also its long history. Raised nominally evangelical, then dabbling with atheism, Vance was baptized Catholic in 2019, in his mid-30s. In his conversion, he is part of a cohort of rising young conservative figures who are bucking the general trend of young Americans to reject institutional religion --- and many, experts say, are choosing Catholicism. Catholicism, religion analysts say, exudes the confidence and staying power of a two-millennia-old hierarchical institution -- not to mention the world's biggest church -- at a time when so much seems unstable. |
| Bitcoin Bros Go Wild for Donald Trump | |
 | People line up to take their picture next to a cardboard cutout of former President Donald Trump; fist in the air, blood on his face post assassination attempt. Above them a second copy of the cutout rotates atop a tower of bitcoin mining equipment. Superimposed over his clenched hand is a big bitcoin. Trump is the headliner of the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, arguably the most high-profile speaker for the conference since El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele appeared via video in 2021 to announce that he'd make cryptocurrency legal tender in his country. If you're not a member of the bitcoin community, you'd be forgiven for thinking the conference is full of Trump supporters. The halls pop red with bright baseball caps, but look closer: Most of them say "Make Bitcoin Great Again," not "America." The MBGA hat, one wearer tells me, is "not a political statement ... it's just for fun." The presidential candidate claims to be the first "major party nominee to accept donations in bitcoin and crypto." As of July 25, he's received more than $4 million worth. Nearly two million came from Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, twin founders of crypto trading platform Gemini, who Trump calls out during his Bitcoin 2024 speech, saying they "look like male models...with a big, beautiful brain." Another big chunk came from CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, Jesse Powell, who wrote that he donated $1 million to Trump -- "mostly" in Ether. Trump is courting the industry, and they're courting him back. |
| America's New Political War Pits Young Men Against Young Women | |
 | Collin Mertz, a 23-year-old farmer in North Dakota, believes American men like himself have been targeted by liberals in the push for diversity. "It would seem the white male is the enemy of the left," said Mertz, who voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020 and plans to do so again in November. Lauren Starrett, a 28-year-old engineer in Cincinnati, feels a personal threat from conservatives seeking to scale back access to abortion and other rights. "It's kind of terrifying, really," said Starrett, who backs Vice President Kamala Harris. The forces of American culture and politics are pushing men and women under age 30 into opposing camps, creating a new fault line in the electorate and adding an unexpected wild card into the 2024 presidential election. Voters under 30 have been a pillar of the Democratic coalition since Ronald Reagan left office in 1989. That pillar is showing cracks, with young men defecting from the party. Young men now favor Republican control of Congress and Trump for president after backing Biden and Democratic lawmakers in 2020. Women under 30 remain strongly behind Democrats for Congress and the White House. They are also far more likely to call themselves liberal than two decades ago. |
| New grads join The W's 'Long Blue Line' | |
 | Mississippi University for Women's "Long Blue Line" is a little longer. The university held its summer commencement ceremony. Graduates walked into Rent Auditorium for the event. Nursing, education, business, and professional studies, along with the College of Arts and Sciences had graduates receive their diplomas. Bill Vandergriff received an honorary doctorate. The College of Nursing and Health Sciences was renamed after Vandergriff and his wife, Jo-Ann. 369 students graduated this summer from "The W." |
| 'Heartbreaking to Be Collateral' in the Battle Over DEI | |
 | The University of Texas at Austin made headlines in April when it laid off approximately 60 staff members, most of them in diversity, equity and inclusion–related roles, in what the institution called an effort to comply with SB 17, the state's new anti-DEI law. Though it was far from the only university impacted by DEI bans nationwide, most other institutions retained their DEI office staff in new roles or eliminated only a small number of positions. UT Austin's decision was also noteworthy because it came months after the ban went into effect. Shawntal Z. Brown, a UT Austin employee of seven years as well as a graduate student pursuing her Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy at the university, was one of the individuals affected. In an interview with Inside Higher Ed, Brown shared her experiences leading up to the implementation of SB 17 and the subsequent layoffs. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. |
| How a Chancellor on the Ropes Regained Campus Confidence | |
 | Two years ago, Mun Y. Choi, chancellor of the University of Missouri at Columbia, was handed a blistering performance review by faculty members on his campus. Now, if the numbers from a fresh review are any indication, Choi has engineered a turnaround. In a spring 2022 review, just 26 percent of Mizzou faculty members surveyed by the campus's Faculty Council supported keeping Choi as the chancellor, a job he holds in addition to the presidency of the University of Missouri system. But by spring 2024, 64 percent of respondents said they favored retaining him. Choi's scores improved in every area measured on the survey, from fiscal management to interpersonal relationships. The results don't mean that Choi is universally beloved at Mizzou. But at a time when college leaders are often facing shorter tenures and constant crises, it's notable that he managed to go from someone most professors wanted to boot from the job to a chancellor with majority approval from the faculty. It's also worth asking what lessons there are for other administrators struggling to win over a dissatisfied campus. Many critiques of Choi from the 2022 survey centered on his communication and leadership style, with one faculty respondent writing that he had "irreparably damaged" morale and another saying he "fostered a general culture of helplessness and submission." The same year, Choi came under fire for his emphasis on faculty performance and productivity. |
| Nationwide DEI initiatives impact conversations at U. of Missouri | |
 | On Aug. 15, Maurice Gipson, MU's vice chancellor of the Division of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity, will leave MU for a position at Philander Smith University. Gipson's departure, as well as an overall movement away from DEI in red-state public schools, could minimize the visibility of existing programs at MU and across the nation. Ending DEI programming has become a political priority for conservatives. Since the Chronicle of Higher Education began tracking anti-DEI polices at public universities, it has found changes in policy at 185 universities across 25 states. Twelve states have enacted laws restricting DEI at public universities, according to the Chronicle. While no such law exists in Missouri, state lawmakers have repeatedly tried and failed to block state agencies from having DEI programs. A Missourian analysis found that only six state agencies have any DEI-related practices. The Division of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity provides resources to minorities, LGBTQ+ communities, women and other underserved populations. The IDE 2022-23 annual report shows that IDE programming exists in practically every department at MU. For example, the School of Law has a program where law students assist veterans with disability claims, and the School of Medicine hosts a youth summit every year. |
| Classroom Weddings, Riding Lessons: The New College Campus Moneymakers | |
| Colleges are on the hunt for side hustles. While higher education has long looked for small ways to supplement their revenue, schools are now doing more than ever before. With beautiful buildings that can be empty on weekends or in the summer, these schools figure it just makes sense to host wedding receptions, literary meetups and even horse-riding clinics. The supplement push is particularly important for smaller liberal-arts schools, where enrollment has flagged and the pandemic pushed some to the brink. Sweet Briar College in Virginia, which nearly closed in 2015 while facing "insurmountable financial challenges," is counting on its 55 horses and 26,000-square-foot greenhouse to draw visitors. Recently it began selling hydroponic lettuce and bottling wine from grapes in its vineyards. More colleges are renting out their spaces year-round now, said Chuck Salem, co-owner of Unique Venues, a site that connects event planners with spaces for corporate retreats and weddings. Salem estimates he sends out 35 to 40 requests for proposals each day to colleges and universities, which make up 25% of the venues listed on his site. "These campuses are now becoming more integrated into traditional hospitality -- the way they contract, the way they price, the way they serve, the options they have," said Salem. Interest in intern housing at colleges has also boomed over the past decade, particularly in cities where current and recent students flock for summer jobs. Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is hosting over 500 interns from Memorial Day through the first week of August. Demand for the program has increased in the past few years as housing prices in Nashville soar, said Suzanne Shaw, senior director of conferences and events. |
| Students and Professors Believe AI Will Aid Cheating | |
| While instructors and students see the potential of generative artificial intelligence---which can be used for everything from creating rubrics to getting study-guide help---they also see the potential for a rise in cheating aided by the technology. According to a report released today and shared first with Inside Higher Ed by publishing firm Wiley, most instructors (68 percent) believe generative AI will have a negative or "significantly" negative impact on academic integrity. While faculty concerns about the use of AI to cheat are nothing new, the study also polled more than 2,000 students -- who agreed that generative AI will boost cheating potential. Nearly half of them (47 percent) said it is easier to cheat than it was last year due to the increased use of generative AI, with 35 percent pointing toward ChatGPT specifically as a reason. The numbers were not particularly surprising to Lyssa Vanderbeek, vice president of courseware at Wiley. "Academic integrity and cheating have been around forever," she said. "It's not surprising that it's increased because of the fast evolution of these generative AI tools and their wide availability, but it's not a new challenge; it's been around for a long time." It's important to note that the survey -- which polled 850 instructors along with the 2,000-plus students -- did not specifically define "cheating," which some could view as fact-checking an assignment while others think it would only include writing an entire paper through ChatGPT. |
| Actually, There Are More Conservatives on the Faculty Than You Think, Study Finds | |
| If you ask professors about their politics, they'll say one thing. But if you use a complex algorithm to predict their politics based on their social-media interactions -- as a recent study did -- it'll say another. By scraping the accounts of more than 4,000 faculty members at over 500 institutions, a forthcoming paper based on the study says that the professoriate's political persuasions are more diverse than previous survey-based research would suggest. The paper, which will be published in The Review of Higher Education, a peer-reviewed journal, also points to polarization across the political spectrum, arguing that professors' true beliefs are more extreme and varied than widely thought. The findings come as many conservative policymakers have sought to rein in a perceived left-leaning bias in academe, often drumming up fear over suspected liberal indoctrination. The authors of the study argue that those claims are exaggerations, and hope the paper will give academics some "firepower" to push back on those characterizations. While conservative faculty members remain a minority, the study finds far more of them than previous research did, with over 13 percent categorized as strongly right-leaning. A major survey-based study in 2013 found that around 9 percent of professors identified as strongly conservative. Some of the new study's other findings, though, back up long-established trends. |
| Democratic senators warn of potential problems with student loan servicing changes | |
| A trio of Democratic senators sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Monday highlighting concerns they have on the upcoming changes to student loan services. The Department of Education is in the process of creating a centralized Federal Student Aid (FSA) servicing platform for all federal loans, calling it the Unified Servicing and Data Solution (USDS) system. "While we applaud the Biden Administration's efforts to modernize and improve student loan servicing, a preliminary review of publicly available information on this transition suggests that this new system lacks transparency," Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Chris Van Hollen (Md.) wrote in their letter. "As a result, it will be difficult for borrowers and the federal government to hold servicers and contractors accountable, including the Business Process Operations (BPO) vendors that support account servicers." The biggest concern the three have is work done on the loans being labeled under a "single FSA brand," referred to as "white labeling." |
| Overall redistricting results positive for Mississippi | |
 | Columnist Bill Crawford writes: The great untold story from the legislative redistricting lawsuit in federal court is how positive the outcome was for the State of Mississippi. In 2022, the Legislature redistricted itself based on the 2020 Census. In December 2022, the NAACP and a host of individuals filed suit in federal court claiming the new district maps illegally diluted Black votes and contained unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. The suit against the State Board of Election Commissioners (governor, attorney general, and secretary of state) directly challenged 12 House and Senate districts, alleging five districts violated the 14th Amendment (racial gerrymandering) and seven districts violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (voter dilution). A special three judge panel appointed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case and issued a captivating 119-page decision. Notably, the panel rejected the state's contention that a recent 8th Circuit decision prohibited private parties from enforcing Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act but agreed that protecting incumbent-constituent relationships and maintaining hard-earned legislative expertise are valid state interests. |
| Gov. Tate Reeves, other GOP leaders who oppose Medicaid expansion should thank Joe Biden for his help | |
| Mississippi Today's Bobby Harrison writes: Gov. Tate Reeves, Senate leaders and other Mississippi Republican officials who oppose expanding Medicaid to provide health insurance for the working poor can thank Democratic President Joe Biden for bolstering their argument. One of the primary arguments used by Reeves and others is that if Medicaid expansion is enacted, it will result in thousands of Mississippians losing private coverage from the health insurance marketplace exchange. They argue that working poor Mississippians already are being covered through private health insurance policies at little or no cost on the exchange. If Medicaid was expanded, those who had private health insurance at little or no cost on the exchange would be forced under federal law to relinquish those policies and receive health insurance through Medicaid. The reason that working poor Mississippians can receive those policies at such favorable rates is because of Joe Biden. Those favorable rates were part of two pieces of legislation Biden pushed through Congress -- first the American Rescue Plan Act and then the Inflation Reduction Act. Biden did not support the enhanced benefits as a way to prevent states from expanding Medicaid. He supports Medicaid expansion, but he viewed the enhanced benefits as just one way to provide help for those who had to turn to the exchange for health care coverage. |
SPORTS
| How to buy Mississippi State football tickets? See prices for games on 2024 schedule | |
 | A new era of Mississippi State football is beginning under first-year coach Jeff Lebby. The Bulldogs' season kicks off Aug. 31 with Eastern Kentucky visiting Davis Wade Stadium. Their first SEC home game is Sept. 21 against Florida. Mississippi State has a handful of intriguing road games, including Arizona State on Sept. 7, Texas on Sept. 28, Georgia on Oct. 12 and Tennessee on Nov. 9. Lebby's first Egg Bowl as Mississippi State's coach is at Ole Miss on Black Friday. Ticket prices for Mississippi State's home opener against Eastern Kentucky are starting at $5 on StubHub. The SEC opener against Florida has ticket prices starting at $18. The lowest price StubHub has for an Egg Bowl ticket is $66. |
| Borges' Olympic Journey Continues In Doubles | |
| Nuno Borges' journey as Mississippi State's first men's tennis Olympian will continue in doubles. Borges and his Portuguese partner Francisco Cabral battled back to beat the Greek brotherly duo of Petros and Stefanos Tsitipas 3-6, 6-3, 1-0[10] on Sunday at Roland-Garros. Borges, who lettered for the Bulldogs from 2016-19, and Cabral now move on to face the winner of Germany's Dominik Koepfer and Jan-Lennard and Croatia's Nikola Mektić and Mate Pavić. The Germany-Croatia match is scheduled for Monday at approximately 5 a.m. CT. Borges and Cabral's Round of 16 match time on Monday will be announced later. The doubles victory was the second match that Borges competed in on Sunday. The former five-time All-American, 2019 ITA National Player of the Year and current No. 42 competitor in the world was eliminated from singles competition in the first round by 36th-ranked Mariano Navone of Argentina 6-2, 6-2. Another former Bulldog found success on Sunday as well. Two-time All-SEC performer Florian Broska (2018-22) won his second ITF singles title of the year by dominating the M15 Metzingen in his home country of Germany. |
| Two new Mississippi wildlife commissioners appointed: Who are these guys? | |
| In its July meeting, the Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks had a different look. District 2 Commissioner Scott Coopwood rotated into the role of chairman and two new commissioners were in place. Gov. Tate Reeves recently appointed Todd Hairston as commissioner representing District 5. Hairston filled a vacancy left by former commissioner Leonard Bentz when he was not confirmed by the Senate following a scandal involving baiting turkeys with crickets. Colin Maloney was appointed commissioner representing District 1. He replaced commissioner Bill Cossar whose term ended after two terms and 10 years of service. Maloney is a life-long resident of Tupelo. The 61-year-old attended Mississippi College and earned a degree in business. He is the founder and CEO of Century Construction Group with offices in Jackson, Nashville, Austin and Tupelo. He's also served on the board of directors of the Mississippi Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund, an agency that helps fund outdoor and conservation projects. Hairston graduated from Delta State University where he earned a degree in environmental science. He works at Covington Civil and Environmental, a civil engineering and environmental consulting company. His current role is government relations and business development. |
| NCAA, college leaders file landmark agreement in antitrust cases; here's what was settled and what's next | |
| For decades, the NCAA and college sports leaders went to great lengths to both avoid court and congressional intervention. Now, in the wake of a landmark settlement agreement, the courts hold significant oversight over the industry's new model and only Congress can prevent what some college leaders see as an inevitable end --- athlete employment. The NCAA and power conferences on Friday filed their 100-plus page long-form agreement in the settlement of three antitrust lawsuits (House, Hubbard and Carter), ushering in a future of athlete revenue sharing, expanding scholarships to full rosters and creating a historic enforcement system of arbitration overseen by the courts. The new concepts take effect at the start of the 2025-26 academic year next summer or fall. The plaintiff attorneys, representing thousands of athletes who brought the class-action suits over athlete compensation or lack thereof, separately filed documents Friday detailing how they plan to distribute nearly $2.8 billion in back damages to former players over a 10-year period. One of the biggest looming uncertainties as part of the settlement agreement is its impact on third-party, booster-backed collectives. Collectives provide millions to athletes in, what many believe to be, cash incentives disguised as endorsement deals for the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL). Language in the settlement seeks to eliminate or greatly reduce what many college leaders describe as "phony" NIL payments from booster organizations to athletes. The settlement does this through an assortment of rules and an enforcement mechanism that is protected through the court. |
| NCAA House Settlement Handed to Judge as Reviews, Challenges Loom | |
| Attorneys for the NCAA, power conferences and athletes represented by the House, Carter and Hubbard antitrust litigations filed a motion Friday for preliminary approval of a settlement agreement that would morph the upper echelon of college sports into pro sports. The motion follows the parties agreeing to a term sheet in May that intends to resolve the three antitrust lawsuits and comes on the heels of a recent delay in finalizing the terms. If it withstands judicial scrutiny, the agreement will obligate the NCAA and member schools to pay athletes about $2.8 billion over the next 10 years (on average about $280 million a year) reflecting compensation they would have earned in endorsements and video games in NIL prior to the NCAA permitting NIL in 2021, plus a share of TV money. This money will not be equally distributed. Football players are expected to obtain in the ballpark of 75%, with 20% going to men's and women's basketball players and 5% for other athletes. Even though non-power conferences and their member schools were not named as defendants, they are expected to be on the hook to absorb about $990 million in costs. Members of the former Power Five conferences, in contrast, will pay around $664 million, with the NCAA paying the remainder. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, who presided over Ed O'Bannon and Shawne Alston's cases against the NCAA as well as the three at issue in the settlement, will decide whether to grant preliminary approval consistent with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. |
| House v. NCAA settlement takes next step toward schools paying athletes | |
 | New documents were filed in the historic House v. NCAA case on Friday, the next step in formalizing the settlement agreement that will reshape college sports. They provide additional details on the previously announced $2.8 billion in back-pay damages to be paid out over 10 years to former Division-I athletes dating back to 2016, as well as a 10-year revenue-sharing model that could distribute money directly from athletic departments to college athletes starting in 2025. The documents also detail other aspects of the settlement agreement, including the institution of roster limits and potential establishment of an oversight program for future NIL deals. Judge Claudia Wilken still needs to approve the settlement. The terms were agreed to in principle in May. Filed in the Northern District Court of California, the settlement is an effort to resolve multiple class-action antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and Power 5 conferences: House v. NCAA, Hubbard v. NCAA and Carter v. NCAA. "This is another important step in the ongoing effort to provide increased benefits to student athletes while creating a stable and sustainable model for the future of college sports," NCAA president Charlie Baker and the P5 commissioners said in a joint statement. "While there is still much work to be done in the settlement approval process, this is a significant step toward establishing clarity for the future of all of Division I athletics while maintaining a lasting education-based model for college sports." |
| Court filing reveals terms of NCAA antitrust lawsuits settlement | |
| The NCAA, its five power conferences and lawyers representing a class of Division I athletes filed the detailed terms of an antitrust lawsuit Friday that has the potential to reshape the business of college sports. The parties agreed in late May to settle a trio of lawsuits (House v. NCAA, Hubbard v. NCAA and Carter v. NCAA) about the various ways schools compensate their athletes. Friday's filing is the first of several important steps toward formalizing the agreement. The new details outline how past athletes will share the $2.78 billion in damages that the NCAA has agreed to pay, sets up a new system for revenue sharing and outlines new roster limits for a long list of college sports, among other items. The settlement allows for the court to appoint a "special master" to rule on any disputes about new rules related to player compensation. This marks a notable change from the NCAA's history of using its own enforcement arm to determine if any athletes or schools are violating its compensation rules. The settlement would also establish an arbitration process for players and schools to object to any punishment under the new rules. The two sides have not yet determined who will serve as the new enforcement entity or who will oversee the arbitration process of any future disputes. |
| NCAA, Power Five conferences file documents seeking approval of $2.8 billion revenue-sharing settlement | |
 | The NCAA, the Power Five conferences and lawyers for the plaintiffs in three antitrust cases concerning the compensation of college athletes on Friday filed documents asking a federal judge in California to provide preliminary approval of a proposed settlement that would include a nearly $2.8 billion damages pool for current and former athletes and dramatically alter other fundamental aspects of how the association's top level of competition is governed. Division I schools would be able to start paying athletes directly for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL), subject to a per-school cap that would increase over time. NCAA leaders would seek to engineer rules changes eliminating longstanding, sport-by-sport scholarship limits and replacing them with a new set of roster-size limits. In the first academic year after final approval of the settlement the roster limit in football, for example, would be 105. Some Power Five schools recently have had rosters of more than 125 players, according to data compiled by USA TODAY Sports through open-records requests. The settlement does not address an array of other legal issues the NCAA is facing, including the prospect of athletes being deemed employees of their schools. If U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken accepts the arrangements as presented, this new model of college sports could take effect as early as the 2025-26 school year. |
| House settlement hammers home need for collective bargaining agreement | |
| In the wake of the long-form House v. NCAA settlement agreement -- submitted to federal court Friday – the need for a fully negotiated collective bargaining agreement for the top-tier of college sports has never been more apparent. Even with a landscape-shifting revenue-sharing model poised to enter college sports in fall 2025, sources said, the extent to which the NCAA remains hellbent on trying to limit some forms of athlete compensation – and without athletes present at the negotiating table -- smacks of the same antiquated thinking that put the NCAA on the wrong side of antitrust law in the first place. "I really hope this big first step of the settlement that [enables] schools to now share money with athletes has a next phase before next year, when the money starts getting shared, that includes the athletes negotiating for themselves," Jim Cavale, founder of Athletes.org, told On3. To be clear, if athletes wish to agree to only so-called "true NIL" deals, secured through third-party collectives, in a negotiation process, they have every right to do so. It should be a bargaining chip, one athletes can play at their discretion through collective bargaining. But for the House case to implement such compensation restrictions -- especially without the voice of future college athletes -- sources said, serves as an open invitation for more lawsuits and potential athlete opt-outs from the agreement. |
| NCAA sports deal set to transform college athletics | |
 | College sports authorities and antitrust attorneys unveiled a sweeping deal Friday that would pay players billions of dollars in damages, create an unprecedented athlete compensation model -- and renew pressure on Congress to protect one of higher education's biggest industries. NCAA officials, the country's biggest college sports programs and attorneys representing former athletes offered a federal judge their proposals to settle three antitrust lawsuits that target restrictions on pay and benefits players can receive for their work and publicity rights. The deal, which followed weeks of backroom negotiations, would allow schools to pay players a share of the revenue generated by major college sports programs. It would also pay nearly $2.8 billion in back damages to athletes over a 10-year period. It would eliminate limits on the number of scholarships college programs can offer players and establish caps on team roster sizes. But college officials still insist federal lawmakers must protect the pending agreement by passing laws that block athletes from employment rights and override a patchwork of state laws that govern how players can make money off their so-called name, image and likeness rights. Friday's proposed settlement does not depend on federal legislation getting signed into law, though colleges and universities have long pressured Congress to shield them from efforts to turn student athletes into school employees who can demand salaries and union protections. |
| Is paying college athletes charity? Even in the confusing NIL era, it looks increasingly unlikely | |
| Three years into the new age of college sports, where athletes are allowed to profit from their successes through name, image and likeness deals, everyone is still trying to find out what the new normal will be. Greg Sankey, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, called it "uncharted waters of change" in July at SEC Media Days in Dallas, as college football season approaches. "Anytime you go through a reset, it is difficult," said Sankey, whose conference not only includes perennial powerhouses Georgia and Alabama, but, as of this year, Texas and Oklahoma, as well. Those uncharted waters aren't limited to football. The complicated, often murky, world of NIL has touched not just every corner of college sports, but also had an unanticipated effect on the charitable organizations that popped up to help players secure these sponsorship deals. The basic question NIL raises for nonprofits is: What is charitable about paying college players? To unravel how NIL deals in college sports have anything to do with the nature of tax-exempt organizations, we have to go back to 2021. |
| 75% of US Olympians played in college. Future of Games hinges on fallout from NCAA athlete payouts | |
| Three-quarters of the nearly 600 American athletes lining up for action at the Paris Olympics honed their skills playing college sports in the United States. It's an eye-opening figure that places the future of the Olympics themselves into the equation as the NCAA and its biggest schools set priorities when they start paying college athletes who for decades played only for scholarships. "I think everybody's going to have to make choices," NCAA President Charlie Baker told The Associated Press in an interview a few hours before the opening ceremony. He planned to go to field hockey, volleyball, swimming and gymnastics while in Paris. Baker's mere presence in Paris on the same day litigators filed details of a multibillion-dollar settlement that will alter the course of the NCAA speaks volumes about the important but seldom-discussed link between the biggest moneymakers in college -- football and basketball -- and the sports they underwrite. Many of those sports are being played over 17 days at the Summer Olympics. If the U.S. approaches numbers from the last Summer Games, more than 80% of the medals it captures will be won by athletes with college experience. None of this comes cheap. One estimate is that NCAA schools spend more than $5 billion a year on so-called nonrevenue, or Olympic, sports. |
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