| Thursday, January 24, 2019 |
| Mothers of deceased hazing victims tell sons' stories to members of MSU fraternities, sororities | |
 | Rae Ann Gruver can remember dropping off her son, Max, for the last time at Louisiana State University. It was Aug. 15, 2017. It was, she said, a moment she'll never forget. Her last photo with Max is from that day as they hugged while he moved in at LSU. Rae Ann was one of two mothers who spoke at a "Stand to Stop Hazing" event at Mississippi State University Wednesday evening. The event, hosted by the Alpha Delta Pi and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternities in the Humphrey Coliseum, focused on encouraging students to not engage in hazing behavior and to report any instances they see. Both Rae Ann and speaker Evelyn Piazza told their sons' stories. Rae Ann said hazing is viewed as something harmless, or as a bonding experience. That perception, she said, is false. Hazing has a range of consequences, from physical and psychological trauma to death. "Hazing is often about power and control," she said. |
| State's public universities play pivotal role in economic development | |
 | Successfully attracting business and industry to Mississippi requires the dedicated efforts of economic developers, community leaders and elected officials on both state and local levels. University officials also play a key role on the team by providing information on how Mississippi Public Universities can support workforce needs and fulfill research needs to help businesses grow and thrive. The Mississippi Development Authority regularly asks Mississippi State University to host companies that are considering locating in the state. These visits typically include meetings with the MSU Career Center to discuss recruiting their graduates, visits to various research centers, and meetings with deans from colleges such as Business or the Bagley College of Engineering. This approach has helped convince companies like PACCAR, Yokohama, Nissan, and General Electric to locate manufacturing facilities in Mississippi. |
| 2 Arkansans accused of vandalizing Mississippi State statue | |
 | Two former University of Arkansas students were charged with felonies after painting a Mississippi State University mascot statue red and writing "Woo Pig" beneath it last fall, the college's police chief said Wednesday. Mathes Tillinghast, 24, of Russellville and Timothy Yeldell, 25, of Fayetteville were charged with felony malicious mischief, Mississippi State University Police Chief Vance Rice said. Photos of the statue posted to social media showed the bronze bulldog covered in red spray paint with the words "Woo Pig" -- an Arkansas chant -- painted on the marble base. The date "11/17" also was painted on it, signifying the date of the Arkansas football team's blowout loss to the Bulldogs that year. Initial news of the vandalism drew nearly 1 million views on social media, Rice said, and prompted some Arkansans to offer to pay for the cleanup. With fierce rivalries between colleges that can spill over into vandalism and property damage, the police chief said he hopes the charges prevent repeated acts. |
| Subscription-based ride service coming to Starkville | |
| When Kyle Staude sat in a police station with a DUI on his record, he knew it could have easily been avoided. That was more than five years ago, when Staude was a college student. Now CEO of EZ-RYDR -- a ride sharing company similar to Uber or Lyft -- Staude said he could have used a transportation network in college to avoid some of his poor decisions. Hopefully by February, Staude will have that answer in place for Mississippi State University students. EZ-RYDR, a subscription-based transportation service, launched in Oxford in October 2018. Staude is hoping to expand the phone app transportation service to rural college towns throughout the nation. Riders will pay for a subscription, for a week or a month, and have unlimited rides in the greater Starkville area. Staude said the company is beta testing and working with students at MSU to gauge how much the subscriptions will cost. |
| MDOT funds 7 bridge repairs in Oktibbeha, 1 in Lowndes | |
| Lowndes County, Oktibbeha County and Starkville have landed more than $4.6 million combined in state funding for eight bridge repair projects through the Mississippi Department of Transportation's Emergency Road and Bridge repair program. The counties and city requested funding from the competitive grant program, for which the Legislature designated $250 million, late last year. On Tuesday, the Legislature authorized MDOT to disperse the money to local governments. MDOT allocated $440,197 for a bridge on Old West Point Road; $1.07 million for two bridges on Sun Creek Road; $551,447 for a bridge on Longview-Adaton Road; and $448,807 for a bridge on Silver Ridge Road. Starkville received $1.34 million for a bridge on Old West Point Road near the intersection with Garrard Road and $514,998 for a bridge that crosses Hollis Creek on the east side of Starkville High School's campus. |
| Bill calling for feeding ban could affect deer hunting | |
 | A bill introduced in the Mississippi House of Representatives would ban supplemental feeding of deer statewide, require tagging of harvested deer and make other changes for deer hunters in response to the discovery of chronic wasting disease in Mississippi. "Right now we need to be very aggressive about this," said Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, who wrote House Bill 768. "Mississippi is all about deer hunting. If we don't get real proactive we could lose hunting in Mississippi." Steve Demarais, professor of wildlife ecology and management at Mississippi State University, said CWD cases is alarming but it doesn't mean the end of deer hunting in the state. "We have a high recruitment rate, so we may never see a decline in Mississippi," Demarais said told the Clarion Ledger in 2018. "Chronic wasting disease may not cause a significant decline in the population because we may produce enough fawns to compensate for that. It's not the Zombie Apocalypse, but it's something we need to research, manage and keep our hunters informed so they can continue to enjoy their sport and protect their families in terms of the meat they eat." |
| Bill passes allowing electric cooperatives to offer internet | |
 | Northeast Mississippi resident John Henson is among the people who are hoping that a measure allowing the state's electric cooperatives to offer high-speed internet service will bring improvements. The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday for House Bill 366, which had earlier passed the House, and Gov. Phil Bryant said in a statement that "I look forward to signing it at my earliest opportunity." The measure would allow Mississippi's 25 electric cooperatives to form subsidiaries to offer broadband internet service, removing a ban on the member-owned utilities getting into other businesses. Henson, who lives in a rural area near Guntown, said he's been trying to get faster internet service on his rural road for nearly 20 years. |
| Legislature passes rural high-speed internet bill | |
| Rural Mississippians soon could have faster internet after legislation allowing electric cooperatives to provide it unanimously passed the state Senate on Wednesday. House Bill 366 allows electricity associations to deliver broadband internet through a subsidiary. The member-owned organizations -- which serve about half the state's population -- have been restricted from offering anything but electricity due to a 1942 law. "So many of our communities are desperate for internet service," Senate Energy Chairwoman Sally Doty, R-Brookhaven, said Wednesday. The legislation "may not provide it to everyone, but it is a start," she said, adding states surrounding Mississippi have taken similar steps to gradually expand broadband access. Still, rural Mississippians shouldn't get their hopes up yet. The bill doesn't require cooperatives to enter the internet business, it only gives them the option. And several cooperatives have indicated it would be financially difficult for them to pull off. |
| Mississippi leaders explore ways to boost state's workforce | |
| Governor Phil Bryant hosted the Governor's Workforce Summit at the Jackson Marriott Wednesday. The unemployment rate is what you'll most frequently hear Governor Bryant reference. "When I came in office it was 9.4 percent," said Bryant. "Today, it's 4.7 percent." But what about the labor participation rate? The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Mississippi's is next to last among states, with just 55.8 percent. That's the the percentage of Mississippi's available workforce that has a job or is looking for one. So we asked the governor, how do you engage those who aren't even looking? "I think you have to start looking at non-traditional ways of doing that," Bryant said. "We talked today about childcare and how we can make sure that we have women who are looking for a job but can't find a place to put their children. Number one reason that women aren't working now is childcare." |
| Mississippi Medicaid won't seek midyear infusion of money | |
| Mississippi's Medicaid director said Wednesday that the program will not seek additional money for the final half of the state budget year. This is the first time that has happened in the past five years. Director Drew Snyder told lawmakers that enrollment has decreased, accounting for some savings. The current budget year ends June 30. Snyder said the Division of Medicaid is requesting a modest funding increase of about 2 percent for the year that begins July 1 --- less than the cost of health care is rising nationwide. Mississippi is among the 14 states that have not expanded Medicaid to the working poor, as allowed under the 2010 health care overhaul signed by then-President Barack Obama. "Expansion is not in any way part of our agenda," Snyder told the House Medicaid Committee. "Questions of expansion are left to legislators to decide. ... We have long maintained that the decision to expand Medicaid does not lie with the Division of Medicaid, and take no formal position on that issue." |
| House passes bill to prevent children under 18 from being charged with prostitution | |
| Children under the age of 18 could no longer be charged with the crime of prostitution under the terms of a bill that unanimously passed the House on Tuesday. House Bill 571, which aims to strengthen and clarify Mississippi's human trafficking laws, would also give Child Protection Services more authority to investigate cases and to take custody of children who have been sexually exploited. "This problem exists all around us," said Speaker of the House Philip Gunn, who sponsored the bill, in an email. "I'm proud of House members today for recognizing the severity of this issue in Mississippi. We are working together to strengthen our laws to help some of our most vulnerable citizens." Rep. Angela Cockerham, who chairs the House Judiciary B Committee and defended the legislation Tuesday, said the trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors is a growing problem around the country and in Mississippi. |
| Anti-cancer group: Ban tanning beds for younger than 18 | |
| Health advocates gathered in the Mississippi Capitol on Wednesday, asking lawmakers to ban people younger than 18 from using tanning beds. They say teenagers put themselves at risk of cancer while tanning for proms or other events. The District of Columbia and 17 states, including Louisiana and Texas, have already enacted such a ban, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. This will be the fourth year for the American Cancer Society's lobbying group, Cancer Action Network, to push for one in Mississippi. Several high school and college students pulled lawmakers aside in the marble hallways of the Capitol to lobby for a new minimum age of 18. Among them was Macken'z Smith, who wore the tiara she won when she was named Miss University of Southern Mississippi. |
| Former Mississippi state Rep. Bobby Shows dies at 80 | |
| Bobby Shows, a former member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, has died. Funeral services were held Wednesday in his hometown of Ellisville. Shows was 80 when he died Sunday at his home, according to Ellisville Funeral Home. Shows was a cattle farmer and business owner. He served in the Mississippi House from 1992 to 2016 in a district inside Jones County. He was originally elected as a Democrat and became a Republican in 2010. |
| Rep. Michael Guest to serve on Homeland Security, Foreign Affairs committees | |
| Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS-03) will serve on the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, his office announced Wednesday. The Committee on Homeland Security reviews legislation and conducts oversight on issues related to national security, while the House Committee on Foreign Affairs provides these same functions on matters associated with the international relations, according to a news release. "As a prosecutor, I worked with law enforcement to stop the flow of drugs into Mississippi," Guest said in a statement. "As a member of the Committee on Homeland Security, I will be able to use my background and experience to promote policies that ensure our nation is secure." |
| They Design Spacecraft and Fight Epidemics for America. The Shutdown May Scare Them Away. | |
 | The Civil Service relies to a large degree on good will. No matter how vital high-skilled federal workers are to the functioning of government, there are usually companies willing to offer them much higher salaries -- double or even triple in some cases -- on top of the free lunches and stock options. As student debt soars and private sector opportunities multiply, the sheer allure of public service -- "the mission," as NASA researchers often put it -- is what keeps a lot of talent in the government. The longest shutdown in the country's history is eroding that good will, already wearing thin after years of pay freezes, unpredictable budgets, and disdain from even the White House for government workers as swamp creatures or worse. Long after the government reopens, this is the damage that could last. If public service loses its allure, it will make it harder to recruit and hold onto the experienced and talented, those who can design spacecraft but also the people who battle epidemics, predict hurricanes and keep the food supply safe. |
| President Trump to delay State of the Union until after shutdown | |
 | President Trump said late Wednesday that he would deliver his State of the Union address after the ongoing partial government shutdown is over. "As the Shutdown was going on, [Speaker] Nancy Pelosi asked me to give the State of the Union Address," Trump wrote in a tweet. "I agreed. She then changed her mind because of the Shutdown, suggesting a later date. This is her prerogative -- I will do the Address when the Shutdown is over." Trump, in a subsequent tweet, expanded on earlier statements suggesting he may do an "alternative" State of the Union, writing that he was not seeking another venue because "there is no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber." "I look forward to giving a "great" State of the Union Address in the near future!" he added. Trump's move to delay delivering the annual address capped off a day of terse tit-for-tat feuding between the president and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over the speech and the partial government shutdown, which entered its 33rd day on Wednesday. |
| Provoked By Donald Trump, The Religious Left Is Finding Its Voice | |
 | Religious conservatives have rarely faced much competition in the political realm from faith-based groups on the left. The provocations of Donald Trump may finally be changing that. Nearly 40 years after some prominent evangelical Christians organized a Moral Majority movement to promote a conservative political agenda, a comparable effort by liberal religious leaders is coalescing in support of immigrant rights, universal health care, LGBTQ rights, and racial justice. "We believe that faith has a critical role to play in shaping public policies and influencing decision makers," says the Rev. Jennifer Butler, an ordained Presbyterian minister and founder of the group Faith in Public Life. "Our moral values speak to the kinds of just laws that we ought to have." Comparisons to the origins of religious right are inevitable. The Rev. Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority movement in 1979 to oppose abortion and gay rights and promote private Christian schools, largely in the South, during a time of cultural change. |
| Shutdown, health care, budget: How moderate House Democrats will influence the party | |
 | Progressive Democrats have grabbed the media spotlight in the House as the Democrats' new power-brokers -- but there's a quieter, equally influential party group emerging: Moderates. The Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 24 centrist House Democrats, is poised to be important players as the drama to end the partial government shutdown unfolds. The White House recognized the group's potential clout when it invited individual members to meet with President Donald Trump last week to discuss the shutdown. The Blue Dogs didn't bite. "'As soon as we open up the government, I'd be happy to come over,'" coalition Co-Chair J. Luis Correa, D-California, said. "'I'll buy you lunch. But, please, first let's open up the government.'" The White House keeps watching, knowing that the Blue Dogs are arguably the most vulnerable bloc of House Democrats, often representing largely purple districts. Democrats currently control 235 House seats, meaning the party can only afford to lose 18 party votes since 218 is a majority. That means the Blue Dogs hold the power to sink legislation, similar to how the conservative House Freedom Caucus vexed former Speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner when Republicans controlled the chamber over the past eight years. |
| Robots Will Take Jobs From Men, the Young, and Minorities | |
 | There's no doubt technology is shaking up the American workplace. Amazon employs more than 100,000 robots in its US warehouses, alongside more than 125,000 human workers. Sears and Brookstone, icons of brick and mortar retailing, are both bankrupt. But as machines and software get ever smarter, how many more workers will they displace, and which ones? Economists who study employment have pushed back against recent predictions by Silicon Valley soothsayers like Elon Musk of an imminent tidal wave of algorithmic unemployment. The evidence indicates US workers will instead be lapped by the gentler swells of a gradual revolution, in which jobs are transformed piecemeal as machines grow more capable. Now a new study predicts that young, Hispanic, and black workers will be most affected by that creeping disruption. Men will suffer more changes to their work than women. The analysis, from the Brookings Institution, suggests that just as the dividends of recent economic growth have been distributed unevenly, so too will the disruptive effects of automation. |
| Thacker Mountain Radio kicks off its spring season | |
| When Jim Dees reflects on the longevity of Thacker Mountain Radio, it surprises him. The popular Oxford radio show is entering its 22nd year and will start its spring season on Thursday. Since being founded in October 1997 by former Oxford musicians Caroline Herring and Bryan Ledford, along with former Oxford mayor and Square Books owner Richard Howorth, Thacker Mountain has become an Oxford institution. "When you start something like this you don't think 'hey, we'll go 20 or 30 years.' You just don't think that way," Dees said. Howorth named the show after the observation tower atop Thacker Mountain, located five miles south of Oxford. Since its inception, the show's sole purpose is to spotlight authors, musicians and artists of different mediums on a weekly one-hour show that is live and takes place inside Off Square Books on the Oxford Square. The first show aired on Oct. 15, 1997 at Off Square Books.With two seasons each year taking place in the spring and the fall, there are around 30 shows a year, including a handful of shows that will air on location in other parts of the state. This spring they will do a show at Delta State University on March 2. |
| MUW students, faculty take fitness challenge | |
| For Sharia Moore, making it to her pre-nursing classes at Mississippi University for Women last semester was more difficult than it should have been. The 19-year-old sophomore felt fatigued, out-of breath. Her diagnosis: she was out of shape, and it was time to do something about it. Since that fall revelation, Moore has gone from hardly exercising to taking as many as four fitness classes each week. Her weight loss, so far, is marginal, she said, but she's noticed muscle gain. "I knew I needed to do more cardio," Moore said. "I've been doing indoor cycling, pilates and zumba. Now, I can finally walk around campus without losing my breath." Last week, Moore enrolled in MUW's annual "Whatcha Gonna Do?" fitness challenge, which is spearheaded through the campus recreation center and Passport to Wellness -- a year-long program at MUW geared toward healthier lifestyle choices. The program is funded through a grant by Blue Cross and Blue Shield. |
| Government shutdown left UM financial aid office 'in limbo' | |
 | The longest government shutdown in American history began on Dec. 22 and has presented looming questions about federal financial aid for many college students, including those at Ole Miss. Initially left without instruction from the U.S. Department of Education, the university's Office of Financial Aid was briefly unable to complete verifications for many students regarding their Free Applications for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and was unable to award financial aid packages. "We were in limbo wondering what was going to happen to some of these people," said Laura Diven-Brown, the university's Director of Financial Aid. "Luckily, this occurred in the middle of the academic year, when most of our students had already submitted their FAFSA, but we did experience trouble with transfer students and students who had not previously finished their verification." |
| MGCCC Perkinston Campus holds groundbreaking for new residence hall | |
 | Students at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College's Perkinston Campus will soon have a new place to stay. The heavy rainfall didn't stop the school from holding a groundbreaking ceremony for a new residence hall. The 57,000 square-foot hall will feature 103 rooms, study rooms and updated amenities. School president Dr. Mary Graham says the new facilities will boost student involvement and success. "Studies have shown that student who live in the dorm and participate in collegiate life are more likely to finish what they started, to complete and to graduate," said Dr. Graham. The Perkinston campus will also get a new student union, complete with a banquet hall, a covered porch and a dining hall with seating for 600. The new facilities are slated for completion in late 2019. |
| U. of Alabama event honors legacy of judge who helped desegregate South | |
 | The public is invited to attend a symposium honoring the legacy of an Alabama federal judge whose rulings helped desegregate the South. The Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. Centennial Symposium is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday in the Bedsole Moot Courtroom at the University of Alabama's law school, 101 Paul W. Bryant Drive. "From his Montgomery, Alabama, courtroom, Judge Johnson issued dozens of landmark rulings that desegregated virtually all state institutions in Alabama and secured voting rights for all of Alabama's citizens," said Ronald Krotoszynski Jr., the John S. Stone chairholder of law and director of faculty research at UA's law school. Johnson was a 1943 graduate of UA's law school and a native of Haleyville in Winston County. After his appointment by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Johnson served on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama from 1955 to 1979. President Jimmy Carter appointed Johnson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, where he served from 1979 to 1999. He died in 1999 at the age of 80. |
| U. of Tennessee experts: Government shutdown will have lasting economic, social impact | |
 | Impacts from the federal government shutdown, which entered its 34th day on Thursday, are likely to extend far beyond the hundreds of thousands of federal workers struggling to make ends meet without paychecks, according to professors of economics and social work at the University of Tennessee. The ongoing shutdown is affecting approximately 800,000 federal workers, close to half of whom are working without pay, while the rest remain on unpaid furlough. The situation has prompted some employees to turn to yard sales and pawn shops. Dr. Marianne Wanamaker, who served as senior economist over labor and education on the President's Council of Economic Advisers last year and is an assistant professor at UT's Haslam School of Business, said conventional wisdom about federal shutdowns is that short shutdowns usually have few, if any, effects, but longer shutdowns can have extended economic ripples. |
| UGA archaeology lab adds some elbow room for ancient artifacts | |
 | History doesn't live in a certain place. Nor does prehistory. But if they did, they might choose to reside in an unassuming but solid-looking building on Whitehall Road near the University of Georgia's Whitehall Forest. The building once housed UGA Central Research Stores, but now it's home to the University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology. Much of it's taken up with row upon row of tall shelves full of hundreds of boxes marked with legends such as "Ocmulgee," "Allatoona," or "Carter's Lake." Most of the laboratory's collections are now in the new building. No one really knows how many artifacts are in there. "It's way up in the millions," said retired lab director Mark Williams. The new building has given a lift to the lab and archaeology at UGA, said the current lab director and UGA anthropology professor Victor Thompson, who began his career in archaeology in the lab more than 20 years ago in one of the lab's former homes. |
| At U. of Florida, John Kasich doesn't rule out 2020 presidential run | |
 | In an address that was more anecdotal than political, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich spoke for more than an hour to University of Florida students and guests, a message that centered around self-empowerment and helping others. During a question-and-answer session with students, Kasich was asked whether he would run for the Republican nomination for president again in 2020. "I've never heard that before," Kasich joked. The questioner went on to ask if he would run in an effort to split votes from Republican incumbent president Donald Trump to ensure someone else wins office. Kasich challenged Trump deep into the 2016 Republican primary before Trump won the party nomination. "I'm only interested in running if I can win," Kasich said. "I'm not interested in running to damage someone else." But Kasich later said he wouldn't rule out running as a third-party candidate in the 2020 presidential election if approached. "All options are on the table," he said. |
| Should colleges have less say over student free speech? South Carolina lawmakers think so | |
 | South Carolina lawmakers are considering a bill that requires colleges to not interfere with students' freedom of speech and the speakers they invite. The Campus Free Expression Act would prevent any four-year, two-year or technical school from blocking student-invited speakers from visiting campus, allow for civil penalties for those who interfere with freedom of speech and and require colleges to create a formal free expression policy. "There's a trend around the country to create free-speech zones," said bill co-sponsor Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley. "This bill is an attempt to head that off." Colleges throughout the country have drawn criticism for limiting freedom of expression to "free-speech zones" and limiting protests or demonstrations outside those areas. Grooms cited the 2018 vandalism of a pro-life display at Clemson University, and the university's response to the reports, as an example of free speech being threatened on the state's college campuses. |
| U. of Missouri police investigate death in residence hall | |
 | The University of Missouri Police Department is investigating the death of a 19-year-old student who was found unresponsive Tuesday in his residence hall room, a news release stated. As of Wednesday morning, no cause of death had been determined for Boston Perry, a junior from Bethalto, Illinois who was studying information technology. Perry was found unresponsive in his room on Tuesday afternoon, the first day of classes for the spring semester. Medical personnel and MU police attempted unsuccessfully to revive Perry and he was pronounced dead at the scene. "As a father myself, I can only express my deepest condolences to Boston's parents and family," said Gary Ward, vice chancellor for operations. "Our thoughts are with them, his friends and classmates during this difficult time." |
| Phishing Scheme Targets Professors' Desire to Please Their Deans -- All for $500 in Gift Cards | |
 | Phishers have posed as deans and department chairs, asking professors to purchase and send photos of gift cards for iTunes or Amazon. The scam has been employed nearly identically at departments from Harvard University to Appalachian State University, from the University of Houston to the University of Iowa. Early in the exchange, the scammers often say they are "in a meeting" -- what dean or department chair doesn't have long meetings? -- but promise to reimburse the professor soon. The sender's email address doesn't raise red flags because, in many cases, the scammers have created a fake email account that includes the name of the person they impersonate. Laugh it off as an attempt to make a quick buck off university employees, but the scam hits many faculty members in an especially vulnerable spot: their desire to please their bosses. |
| George Mason students have a new dining option: Food delivered by robots | |
 | At most universities, meal plans allow college students to take advantage of on-campus cafeterias or chow down at local restaurants. Now, thousands of students at George Mason University will have another dining option at their disposal: on-demand food delivery via an autonomous robot on wheels. The school has received a fleet of 25 delivery robots that can haul up to 20 pounds each as they roll across campus at four miles per hour, according to Starship Technologies, the Estonia-based robotics company that created the delivery vehicles. The company -- which claims its robots can make deliveries in 15 minutes or less -- says the Fairfax, Va.-based school is the first campus in the country to incorporate robots into its student dining plan and has the largest fleet of delivery roots on any university campus. To launch the delivery program, Starship Technologies partnered with Sodexo, a company that manages dining on George Mason’s campus. |
| New release of 1923 titles a boon to artists, scholars | |
 | You've heard of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Are you ready for Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: The Musical? The renowned Robert Frost poem is now fair game for any artist or scholar who wants to adapt, mash up, personalize or otherwise republish or reconceive it. On Jan. 1, the poem, which first appeared in The New Republic in 1923, joined thousands of other American works of art, literature and music entering the public domain. A 1998 law that kept these works under strict copyright for an extra 20 years stipulated that they be made freely available in 2019. It is the first such group to enter the public domain in a generation, or in other words, since the advent of the present-day internet. A few quiet efforts to take advantage of the new status are already building steam. |
| The Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting Into Class | |
| Lured by the prospect of high-salary, high-status jobs, college students are rushing in record numbers to study computer science. Now, if only they could get a seat in class. On campuses across the country, from major state universities to small private colleges, the surge in student demand for computer science courses is far outstripping the supply of professors, as the tech industry snaps up talent. At some schools, the shortage is creating an undergraduate divide of computing haves and have-nots -- potentially narrowing a path for some minority and female students to an industry that has struggled with diversity. The number of undergraduates majoring in the subject more than doubled from 2013 to 2017, to over 106,000, while tenure-track faculty ranks rose about 17 percent, according to the Computing Research Association, a nonprofit that gathers data from about 200 universities. |
| Gates Seeks Partners to Help Transform Campuses | |
| The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation this week announced a major new grant program in postsecondary education. To advance its goal of improved student success -- particularly for low-income and first-generation students, students of color, and working adults -- the foundation said it is seeking up to 10 "intermediaries for scale" that can work intensively with colleges and universities over a multiyear period. The selected organizations, or groups of organizations, will provide connections and guidance to colleges and universities to support them "through the process of comprehensive change" related to student success and completion. A growing number of colleges recognize the need to transform themselves to be more student centered, the foundation said. But they will need partners to help get there. The foundation also said this grant will increase substantially the number of colleges it works with directly. |
| Another Blackface Incident Sends U. of Oklahoma Students Reeling | |
| One day after gathering to denounce a video in which a student in blackface uses a racial slur, students at the University of Oklahoma were stunned on Wednesday to learn that another person in blackface was taunting them in plain view. The university police were searching for an unknown person who was seen walking on and near the campus, his face painted black and his identity partly obscured by a red hat and a scarf. A student videotaped the person, and the clip quickly shot out on social media. The news broke as students were still reeling from an emotional rally on Tuesday at which students and other protesters confronted the university's president, James L. Gallogly, and demanded tougher action against racism. Two students involved in the earlier video have withdrawn from the university. The president called the incident a "shameful moment" in the university's history and vowed to continue working on a series of steps he had outlined to make the campus more welcoming to diverse students. |
| Who Wants to Be a College President? | |
| Carol Folt had to make a decision, and none of the options were great. The UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor was caught between a conservative board of governors that seemed to favor returning a monument to a confederate soldier, known as Silent Sam, back to the pedestal from which it had been yanked last fall, and a student body which heavily favored its permanent removal. The stakes -- her job, but also the security of UNC's campus -- were high. In a letter to the campus community on January 14, she announced that she'd made up her mind. She'd be stepping down at the end of the semester; and she'd be taking down what was left of Silent Sam, immediately. Folt's choice highlights the tightrope that university leaders walk between ideologically-driven boards and their campus constituencies. hat difficult position may be one that fewer qualified candidates for college leadership are choosing to take. One survey noted that in the past decade, more current college presidents have been sidestepping the traditional pathways to leadership and, anecdotally, even some of those non-traditional candidates have turned down potentially tumultuous positions. But if leaders with higher ed experience won't do the job, who will? |
SPORTS
| No. 7 Bulldogs battle Florida tonight | |
 | After a week away from the court, No. 7 Mississippi State returns to action tonight at Florida. The game will be televised only online, by SEC Network Plus. The Bulldogs will by vying for their sixth straight win against the Gators when the game tips off at 6. MSU beat Florida 90-53 in Starkville and 98-50 in Gainesville last season. Senior center Teaira McCowan, who was named the Naismith National Player of the Week, leads the Bulldogs with 17.3 points, 13.9 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game. Florida is just 5-13 overall on the year and 1-4 in SEC play. The Gators lost 76-66 at Ole Miss on Sunday and their lone conference win came at home against Missouri 58-56 on Jan. 13. |
| Mississippi State women's basketball gears up for the Florida Gators | |
| Mississippi State head coach Vic Schaefer said Tuesday there are multiple "vastly underrated" teams in the Southeastern Conference. Odds are, he wasn't thinking of Florida when he said that. The Gators are 5-13 and 1-4 in SEC play. Mississippi State (17-1, 5-1 SEC) travels to Gainesville to play them Thursday night at 6 p.m. CT. Florida started the season on a six-game losing streak and lost its first three conference games too. The Gators' only SEC win of the year, though, was a surprising one. They stormed back from a 14-point deficit to shock Missouri, a team that is 15-5 and currently ranked No. 25 in the AP Poll. Schaefer's team never suffered such a letdown last season as it went undefeated in conference play. He's keen on keeping that the case in 2019. |
| James Armstrong introduced as Mississippi State head soccer coach | |
 | Mississippi State soccer was only weeks out from its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance when the Bulldogs learned they needed a new head coach earlier this month. Former head man Tom Anagnost resigned on January 4 citing personal reasons. On Wednesday though, MSU Director of Athletics John Cohen handed the reins of the program over to a man he's confident can keep State's momentum rolling as MSU introduced James Armstrong as the school's sixth-ever head soccer coach. "We were looking for somebody who understood the nature of a winning culture," Cohen said. "You hear that over and over again and it's really hard to identify it and point at it. It's one of those things you know it when you see it and we certainly saw it in coach Armstrong." Armstrong comes to the Bulldogs fresh off of a six-year stint as an assistant at Auburn. In the last two years, Armstrong served as the associate head coach of the Tigers. |
| John Calipari explains why he's helping federal workers during shutdown | |
 | After eighth-ranked Kentucky shut down No. 22 Mississippi State 76-55 on Tuesday night at Rupp Arena, UK head coach John Calipari was asked about a different kind of shutdown. Calipari said on his radio show this week that his foundation is helping federal workers who are not being paid during the government shutdown. The John and Ellen Calipari Foundation is working with local non-profit Reach to provide financial assistance to those workers. The coach was asked for an update on Tuesday. "I wasn't going to do anything, but I'm afraid this thing is going to keep going, and this is the shutdown. We have about 500 federal workers not being paid in our city. They work at the jail, TSA, agriculture, sheriffs. There's about 500 people," Calipari said. "And what we did, the initial thing was, let's get them some --- where they could go get gas. Folks, it's literally a grant. They don't have to pay it back. You know what I asked them to do? Pay it forward when you get paid. Give it to somebody else, and my hope is that they will. |
| Luke Bryan, Nick Chubb helped land new UGA nutritionist | |
| There are more than just the noticeable high-profile changes on Georgia's football staff heading into the 2019 offseason. Like at other major programs, behind the scenes comings and goings from those in less prominent positions go on without much fanfare. Except in the case of Georgia's new director of football performance nutrition. Collier Perno, a 28-year old Athens Academy graduate, started in that new job on Tuesday. She headed Florida's football nutrition program and was wooed on Twitter by coach Kirby Smart and other assistants for the job. Smart and members of his staff tweeted out #comehomeCollier. She even got video messages sent to her from country star and UGA fan Luke Bryan and former Bulldog running back Nick Chubb lobbying for her to join the Bulldogs. "She flies under the radar," said her father Lou Perno, a certified financial planner in Athens and a student trainer on the 1980 team. "Kirby did the press and tweeted out. That started it all. All of a sudden she started getting these videos. She said 'I'm only a nutritionist.' She was flattered." |
| Hugh Freeze discusses wanting to coach at Auburn, and why it didn't happen | |
 | Former embattled Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze "dreamed" of coaching at Auburn, according to an interview he gave to 3HL on 104.5 FM in Nashville on Wednesday. The new Liberty head coach, who resigned from Ole Miss in 2016 due to recruiting violations and illicit correspondences with an escort service, was a candidate for Auburn's offensive coordinator opening this fall. "I'd be lying if I was saying there wasn't one that I really, really have always kind of thought about and dreamed about and all those things," Freeze said. "But for whatever reason, at this time, some things don't work out on other people's ends." To be clear, as the Knoxville News Sentinel points out, the school he was most interested was Auburn, because of his relationship with head coach Gus Malzahn. His comments here about things not working out "on other people's ends" feeds into a rumor that Malzahn might not have been given a go-ahead to hire Freeze. |
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