| Wednesday, March 24, 2021 |
| Mississippi State hosts emergency training drill on March 25 | |
 | Mississippi State will host the 47th Civil Support Team, a component of the Mississippi National Guard, for an emergency training exercise on campus March 25. MSU Emergency Manager Brent Crocker said the 47th CST will be in Starkville the week of March 22-25 for training purposes, with an exercise scheduled to take place on campus Thursday to drill first responders on a hypothetical emergency scenario. Students and other members of the campus community are advised that emergency vehicles and first responders wearing special gear, including hazmat suits, will be utilizing the southeast corner of Davis Wade Stadium and adjacent parking areas for this training throughout the morning of the 25th and into the afternoon hours. "MSU welcomes the opportunity for our university responders and other first responders like the CST and local fire and rescue departments to come together for training purposes anytime we have an opportunity because this type of drill does help prepare for optimized response in an actual emergency," Crocker said. |
| $360k federal grant will bring program that combines bingo, exercise to 24 state nursing homes | |
 | Hundreds of Mississippi State University kinesiology students will help implement a program at two dozen nursing homes in the state aimed at helping residents increase their activity and social engagement. The university on Monday announced plans to introduce the "Bingocize" project at 24 state-certified nursing facilities. The program, which was originally developed by Western Kentucky University researchers, will be funded through a $360,928 federal grant and will be led by 200 university students over three years. The project combines the game of bingo and physical exercise to improve overall life quality. Residents start each session sitting at a table with their bingo cards in a spacious area. They are then asked to complete a series of gentle exercises as the program leaders call the bingo combinations. The university explained that the pattern of movement and subsequent calls continue until a participant wins the game. "Our team is dedicated to improving physical activity levels and social engagement of older adults. We also aim to facilitate strong, long-term community partnerships between faculty and students at MSU and Mississippi nursing homes," said Zhujun Pan, project leader and assistant professor of kinesiology at the university. |
| Mississippi Inland Cleanup Program serving the Pine Belt | |
 | An organization has been working hard this past month to make local communities a little more beautiful. The Mississippi Inland Cleanup Project recently hosted trash pickup days in the Pine Belt and continues to plan more. "We've been able to remove over 500 pounds of trash out of the environment," said Jessi James, coordinator of the Mississippi Inland Cleanup Program. "Those past three events have been in Petal, Mississippi. We do have two events coming up in Hattiesburg and then we're expanding out of Forrest County, and we're headed to Mount Olive in April." The Mississippi Inland Cleanup Program is a trash-free education and cleanup initiative sponsored by Mississippi State University. It began on the coast as the Coastal Cleanup Program and has launched the inland effort this year. "These past couple events in particular we've partnered with USM and a Zoology class that needs service hours," James said. "Quite a bit of our turnout were those students but we did actually have a lot of community outreach as well that came." The organization is working toward a cleaner Mississippi through prevention first. |
| Penguin hemoglobin evolved to meet oxygen demands of diving | |
| Call it the evolutionary march of the penguins. More than 50 million years ago, the lovable tuxedoed birds began leaving their avian relatives at the shoreline by waddling to the water's edge and taking a dive in the pursuit of seafood. Webbed feet, flipper-like wings and unique feathers all helped penguins adapt to their underwater excursions. But new research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has shown that the evolution of diving is also in their blood, which optimized its capture and release of oxygen to ensure that penguins wouldn't waste their breath while holding it. The findings indicate that as penguins took to the seas, their hemoglobin evolved to maximize both the pick-up and drop-off of available oxygen -- especially when it was last inhaled five, or 10, or even 20 minutes earlier. They also illustrate the value of resurrecting proteins that last existed 20, or 40, or even 60 million years ago. The team detailed its findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Storz and Signore authored the study with Nebraska's Hideaki Moriyama, associate professor of biological sciences; Michael Tift of the University of North Carolina Wilmington; Federico Hoffmann of Mississippi State University; and Todd Schmitt of SeaWorld San Diego. |
| Iconic Oscar Mayer Wienermobile visits downtown Starkville | |
 | "Oh I wish I was an Oscar Mayer Wiener!" That was the tune ringing throughout downtown Starkville Tuesday afternoon as more than 100 people lined up to see the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. The bus is an American icon that dates back to 1936. The founder of Oscar Mayer created the Wienermobile during the Great Depression to bring a smile to people's faces across the country as part of the "Miles of Smiles" campaign. However, there's a familiar smile behind the wheel this time. Maggie Thomas AKA "Mustard Mags" is a 2019 Mississippi State University broadcast graduate. Now, she drives the Wienermobile across the country. She said she's "frankful" for the opportunity. "There are six Wienermobile vehicles. We all travel around the country, and we want to bring the magic of the Wienermobile to people. This is really an American icon and a bucket list item for a lot of people, so it's a really special memory," said Thomas. |
| Tupelo native Maggie Thomas brings Oscar Mayer Wienermobile to town | |
 | Tupelo native Maggie Thomas has spent most of the past year seeing the country through the windshield of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. Now she's driving the iconic vehicle to her hometown for a weekend of delicious fun. Thomas, 24, graduated from Tupelo High School in 2014 and worked for a year with the New York City nonprofit City Year. After returning to Mississippi, she graduated from Mississippi State University in 2019 with a degree in communication with an emphasis in broadcasting. When her mother sent an article about driving the Wienermobile as a "Hotdogger," which is what the company calls the 12 brand ambassadors who drive its six Wienermobile vehicles, Thomas said it looked like her dream job. "When I saw it I thought, 'This is what I've been hoping for,' because it combined all of my passions: traveling, getting to work with people and interacting with them, making their day, and I also get to use my degree in communication," Thomas said. "Just every aspect of it is something I'd hoped to find in a job, and this combines it all perfectly." |
| National Ag Day highlights importance of Mississippi farmers | |
| It's 'National Ag Day,' and in Mississippi, its importance can't be overstated. Agriculture is far and away Mississippi's number one industry valued at $7.35 billion a year, according to the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, and the industry employs approximately 17.4% of the state's workforce either directly or indirectly. With 34,700 farms in the state covering 10.4 million acres, Ag Commissioner Andy Gipson explained that one farmer feeds 125 people on average. "Everything we need, our farmers are out there providing, and we've never stopped," he said. "We couldn't stop. It's an annual thing and the next crop is going in the ground right now." The 48th annual Ag Day carries the theme "Food Brings Everyone to the Table." The American Agri-Women detailed how the theme perfectly represents the importance of farming in America and its prominence in everyday life. In Mississippi, poultry/eggs are the top commodity with an estimated value of $2.16 billion followed by soybeans ($1.21 billion) and forestry ($1.13 billion). |
| Storm outbreak could spawn tornadoes in the South Thursday | |
 | Another outbreak of severe storms will invade several southern states, bringing the potential for strong tornadoes that stay on the ground for several miles, forecasters warn. The greatest threat Thursday into Thursday evening will be focused on parts of Mississippi, Alabama and west Tennessee, The national Storm Prediction Center said. East Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana will also be at risk. Storms are also possible in Georgia and Kentucky. The Storm Prediction Center expects the worst weather to be in a region that includes Jackson, Mississippi; and the Alabama cities of Birmingham, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa. |
| Mississippi governor nominates new banking commissioner | |
| Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Tuesday that he is nominating a regulator with almost 20 years of experience to be the state commissioner of banking and consumer finance. Rhoshunda Kelly of Madison will need to be confirmed by the state Senate. She has been interim commissioner at the state Department of Banking and Consumer Finance since July. "Her experience and dedication to the department will be an asset to the industry as well as the citizens who utilize the services of state-chartered banks and credit unions across Mississippi," Reeves said in a news release. Kelly earned a business degree with a concentration in banking and finance from Mississippi State University. "Mississippi has a vibrant financial ecosystem of banks, credit unions, mortgage companies, and consumer finance industries. ... Our bankers and consumer finance industries are committed to serving their customers and promoting economic growth in their communities," Kelly said. "I look forward to building on the growth and success of Mississippi's financial sector and enhancing the regulatory partnership with the industry." |
| SWIB names first executive director for Office of Workforce Development | |
| Ryan Miller has been selected as the agency's first executive director by the State Workforce Investment Board (SWIB) Executive Committee. In the role, Miller will lead the workforce development strategy and implementation for the state. "We are excited Ryan has agreed to take on this critical task and are looking forward to the significant work ahead," Patrick Sullivan, Chairman of the SWIB, said. For the past 13 years, Miller has worked with the Center for Manufacturing Excellence at Ole Miss to prepare students for successful careers in Mississippi's advanced industries. "I am pleased to welcome Ryan to the Office of Workforce Development and to the enormous responsibility of overseeing Mississippi's workforce growth strategy," Governor Tate Reeves said. "Our collective goal is to direct more Mississippians into higher-paying opportunities and train more people to meet the demands of businesses in the 21st century. For the first time, Mississippi will have an Office to oversee the many facets of workforce and a highly capable executive in Ryan to lead it." |
| Mississippi Senate: Take time to study state tax structure | |
| The Mississippi Senate is again resisting House efforts to make big, quick changes to the state tax structure. Senators have adopted a resolution to create a 14-member tax study committee that would meet later this year. But, the House could kill this effort by the Senate. Republicans control both chambers, so this is not a partisan fight. Senate leaders say they are leery of making significant changes without public hearings. The three-month legislative session is scheduled to end in early April. House and Senate negotiators face a Saturday deadline to work out details of a state budget that tops $6 billion. The new state fiscal year begins July 1. Republican Sen. Chris McDaniel of Ellisville said Monday that he wants to phase out the state income tax but delete parts of the House bill that would increase other taxes. Republican Sen. Chad McMahan of Guntown said he had asked accountants to evaluate the House bill, and they told him it would result in an overall tax increase for most people. The only senators voting Monday against the resolution to create a study committee were McDaniel and fellow Republicans Kathy Chism of Myrtle and Melanie Sojourner of Natchez. |
| Governor signs law giving troopers statewide jurisdiction | |
| Larger cities like Jackson will soon see another law enforcement presence on the roadways. A new law gives Mississippi Highway Patrol the authority to patrol interstates and highways in cities that were previously out of their jurisdiction. Governor Tate Reeves signed Senate Bill 2788 into law which now allows state troopers to use radar and patrol in places like Jackson, Biloxi and Meridian -- something MHP hasn't been permitted to do. "I was shocked," said Brian Gates. "I mean it's the interstate. Seems like MHP should be able to cover the interstate." The Madison resident was surprised to learn, like many motorists, that the Mississippi Highway Patrol was not allowed to patrol interstates and highways in cities with populations over 15,000. "Jackson seems to have a problem with their police department getting to crime and situations like that so MHP being able to do that that should be a big help," added Gates. Senator David Blount (D) of District 29 in Hinds County introduced the bill at the beginning of the session with support from the Jackson delegation. “In Jackson specifically we have a problem with speeding, reckless driving, and we need help,” said Blount. “The highway patrol can help us with this. This doesn’t take anything away from the Jackson Police Department. They can still do their jobs, but the in the past the highway patrol could not run radar or enforce speeding laws within Jackson. Now they can.” |
| Former U. S. Attorney blasts Jackson for inadequate police force | |
| Speaking at a fundraiser for Jackson city councilman Ashby Foote, former Mississippi U. S. Attorney Mike Hurst blasted Jackson mayor Chokwe Lumumba for not actively pursuing federal funds to help increase police staffing. Hurst said the Jackson police force should be 600. Instead, it's around 300 with only half of them patrolling. Foote confirmed Hurst's critique and vowed to lobby the city council to pursue the federal grants. Hurst said Jackson's murder rate per capita is the second highest in the nation. Other violent crimes are at record highs. Hurst said there have been over 100 Jackson carjackings, a federal crime, but the city has stopped referring these carjackings to the U. S. Attorney's Office for prosecution. Foote spoke after Hurst and updated the audience on a variety of other issues facing the city. Foote answered questions from the audience of 50 gathered at the Ag Museum on Lakeland Drive. |
| 'A profound betrayal of trust': Why Jackson's water system is broken | |
| Janna Avalon, a 72-year-old retired newspaper editor, lived out the mid-February ice storm and weeks-long water outage just feet from South Jackson's empty water tower. The one million-gallon tank, one of several across the city, is meant to store water at a high elevation, utilizing gravity to pressurize the delivery system, especially during service interruptions. But contingency plans are a myth in a system as chronically broken as Jackson's. So for the better part of the last month, Avalon and her husband Billy heaved buckets of water they retrieved from government tankers, kind neighbors or rainfall into their home to flush their toilet or wash dishes. Despite ongoing utility hiccups, she's intent on staying. She asks why she should have to move -- and contribute to the city's population decline of 20% since 1980 -- to access basic human services. Why city and state government officials can't or won't improve conditions where she already lives. Why her water bills are unreliable, why nobody reads her water meter, and why there is a "huge city water tower in our backyard and there's no water in it." The questions seem simple, but the answers are complex, and the dysfunction is causing a rift between Jacksonians and their leaders. |
| Mississippi AG: State to share in surgical mesh settlement | |
| Mississippi is sharing in a $188.6 million multistate settlement with Boston Scientific Corporation to resolve allegations of deceptive marketing of its surgical mesh products for women. Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced Tuesday that Mississippi will get $2.19 million, multiple news agencies reported. "Women and their doctors deserve to have all the information needed to make informed decisions for their health," Fitch said. "By failing to disclose critical safety warnings about their devices, Boston Scientific subjected thousands of women to serious and often irreversible complications. This settlement makes clear that we will not allow the health and safety of Mississippi women to be placed in jeopardy by those who put profit over patient." Surgical mesh is a synthetic woven fabric that is implanted in the pelvic floor to treat common health conditions in women, such as stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. |
| Fed Chair: Rise in inflation not 'particularly large' from $1.9 trillion rescue package | |
| Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers Tuesday that the Fed expects inflation to rise this year, but it will not be "particularly large nor persistent." The comments came during a House committee hearing about the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. While the hearing was meant to be about last year's legislation, the focus was on the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan President Joe Biden signed into law this month. Republican lawmakers were particularly concerned the plan would lead to undesired inflation. Powell said there could be some upward pressure on prices as the pandemic is controlled, vaccine distribution continues and the economy continues to open up. "Our best view is that the effect on inflation will be neither particularly large nor persistent," he said. "And part of that just is that we've been living in a world of strong disinflationary pressures -- around the world really -- for a quarter of a century. We don't think that a one time surge in spending leading to temporary price increases would disrupt that." "However, we have the tools to deal with that," Powell said. |
| President Biden Seeks Assault Weapons Ban and Background Checks | |
 | Faced with the second mass shooting in a week, President Biden and Democrats on Capitol Hill called on Tuesday for fast action to enact stricter gun laws, a plea that was immediately met with a blockade of opposition by Republicans. In brief, somber remarks from the White House, Mr. Biden called on the Senate to pass a ban on assault weapons and to close background check loopholes, saying that doing so would be "common sense steps that will save lives in the future." His demand for action was the latest in what has become a doleful ritual in Washington: making a renewed call for gun safety legislation after a deadly shooting, this one at a Colorado grocery store where 10 people, including a police officer, were killed on Monday. "This is not and should not be a partisan issue -- it is an American issue," Mr. Biden said. "We have to act." But while polling regularly shows broad support for tighter gun laws and specific policies like a ban on assault weapons, Republicans in Congress remained all but immovable on the issue, repeating longstanding arguments on Tuesday that gun violence should be addressed through steps like more policing rather than limiting gun rights. |
| Boulder grocery store rampage follows spike in mass shootings during 2020 | |
 | The mass killings that left eight dead in Georgia last week and 10 dead at a Colorado grocery store on Monday have drawn greater scrutiny to a problem that has been boiling over throughout the past year. Mass shootings -- incidents that injure or kill more than four people, not including the perpetrator -- rose nearly 50% in 2020 amid the pandemic that left millions unemployed and millions more teenagers idle. USA TODAY analysis of Gun Violence Archive statistics show mass shootings rose from 417 in 2019 to 611 in 2020, including 95 incidents in June 2020 alone. While incidents are down from the height of the COVID-19 shutdowns, the 103 incidents in 2021, as of March 22, are 53% higher than the 1st-quarter average of the past four years. Mass shootings claimed 513 lives in 2020 -- 96 more than 2019 -- but the average number killed fell to below a person per incident, and the last mass shooting that claimed 10 or more lives occurred in August 2019 at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart. Colorado incidents have figured prominently in the history of U.S. mass shootings from the two students who killed 13 and injured 24 at Columbine High School in 1999 to the 12 killed and 70 injured during a 2012 midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" at an Aurora theater. |
| USAID nominee promises to prioritize anti-corruption work | |
 | The expected next head of the government's largest foreign aid agency said Tuesday that if confirmed she would prioritize addressing human rights violations, fighting global corruption and supporting democracy around the world. Samantha Power, the Biden administration's nominee to be administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told her Senate Foreign Relations confirmation hearing that amid a steady drumbeat of negative news about the global state of democracy and human rights, she also saw heartening signs of resilience. "Prior to the pandemic, there were more political protests that occurred than at any point in modern recorded history," said Power, who served as U.N. ambassador during President Barack Obama's second term. "So on the one hand, you have states repressing their people and growing more sophisticated in shutting down the internet and stifling space for civil society. On the other hand, many, many people are not getting that memo and are insisting on taking the protests and their concerns to the streets and holding governments accountable." Power said it was critical to increase the resources and attention the U.S. government puts into fighting global corruption. |
| U.S. Postal Service Overhaul Calls for Higher Prices, Slower Mail and More Packages | |
 | More packages, higher prices and a longer window to deliver first-class mail underpin the U.S. Postal Service's plan over the next decade to overhaul the agency's operations and avoid more than $100 billion in projected losses. The proposals to be disclosed Tuesday are part of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's strategy to improve reliability, modernize operations and financially overhaul the cash-strapped agency. The plan hinges on legislative relief long sought by the Postal Service to ease its financial burdens for retiree benefits as well as spending to build out the network to capitalize on the growth of e-commerce. Mr. DeJoy projects the moves would help the agency break even over the next decade, through a combination of boosting its package business and reducing costs to account for the precipitous decline in mail volumes. The agency has lost money in each of the past 14 years, including a $9.2 billion net loss in its latest fiscal year. "The biggest change here is that we have a growth plan," Mr. DeJoy said in an interview. "Legacy thinking has kept the Postal Service where it is and not evolving," Mr. DeJoy said. "This plan is about evolving." |
| Daye Dearing tapped as director of new Alcorn Women's Business Center | |
 | Daye Dearing will serve as the director of the Women's Business Center (WBC) on Alcorn State University's campus. Dearing, a Natchez native, began her career at Alcorn in 2005. She became the coordinator of Internships and Grants for the School of Business, where she worked with students to secure internships. In September 2020, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced grant funding for new SBA Women's Business Centers. The WBCs will be hosted in rural and underserved markets and widen the footprint and partner with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Alcorn's Center will be funded for up to five years annually at $150,000. Helping future entrepreneurs find success is Dearing's priority. "I'm looking forward to working with the team at the Center and engaging and helping women and men entrepreneurs open, sustain, and expand their business." The Center will offer essential services that Dearing believes will prepare entrepreneurs in the southwest region to be the best in business. |
| 'It's depressing': More Mississippi students are in virtual classrooms without teachers during pandemic | |
| Even before the pandemic, Treasure Cosie was already on a path to not have a geometry teacher her junior year at Leland High School. Her school district isn't technically designated as a Critical Teacher Shortage area by the Mississippi Department of Education, but there aren't enough teachers to teach even core subjects like math. "You're expecting to have a teacher teach you something you didn't know before, but you don't get that because you don't have a teacher in the class," Cosie said about her geometry course. Instead of having an educator who can work with her in real time, her district uses an online program called Grade Results that essentially relies on students to self-teach. Students work through different sets of problems, get electronically graded on them, and if they get something wrong, they have no one to ask why. The stress of this was only made worse by the pandemic, explained Cosie, whose classes have been all virtual since the pandemic hit. In Mississippi, she's not alone in being enrolled in this type of program instead of having an actual teacher. The practice is increasingly common, even in school districts not chronically plagued with teacher shortages. |
| U.S. Education Department Releases Data On Remote Learning, School Reopening | |
 | The U.S. Education Department has released the first in a series of school surveys intended to provide a national view of learning during the pandemic. It reveals that the percentage of students who are still attending school virtually may be higher than previously understood. As of January and early February of this year, 44% of elementary students and 48% of middle school students in the survey remained fully remote. And the survey found large differences by race: 69% of Asian, 58% of Black and 57% of Hispanic fourth graders were learning entirely remotely, while just 27% of White students were. Conversely, nearly half of white fourth-graders were learning full-time in person, compared with just 15% of Asian, 28% of Black and 33% of Hispanic fourth-graders. The remainder had hybrid schedules. This disparity may be partly driven by where students live. City schools, the survey found, are less likely than rural schools to offer full-time, in-person classes. Full-time, in-person schooling dominated in the South and the Midwest, and was much less common in the West and Northeast. |
| Professors seek to sequence Toomer's Oaks genome | |
| Just over 10 years ago, the Southern live oaks at Toomer's Corner were poisoned and a decades-old Auburn icon that students, faculty, alumni and fans had known and loved was no more. Leslie Goertzen, associate professor in the department of biological sciences, said he was particularly stricken with grief because of his background in botany and plant evolutionary biology. "Everyone wanted to help somehow but [we] were struggling to respond in a positive way, really," Goertzen said. "Back then, I had the idea of the genome project because it would be a constructive approach. It would be a lasting and fitting tribute to these beloved trees and it would have a lot of spin-off benefits for the campus, too." Goertzen's goal was to sequence the genome of the over 130-year-old trees, as no species of live oak has been genetically decoded and his hope was this would "enshrine [the original Toomer's Oaks] in the annals of science," he said. The first genetic sequence of a species is known as a "reference sequence" and is used by geneticists when researching future specimens of an organism, so Goertzen wanted the Toomer's Oaks to be the baseline for other such oaks. In 2011, this process was much more cost-prohibitive to complete, Goertzen said, but technological advances since then have brought the idea within financial reach. |
| Ex-LSU President F. King Alexander resigns from Oregon State over handling of allegations | |
 | Less than a week after placing him on probation, Oregon State University leaders on Tuesday accepted former LSU President F. King Alexander's offer of resignation from his position of president of OSU amid scrutiny on how he handled allegations of sexual misconduct at LSU. Opening a meeting of the OSU Board of Trustees, Chair Rani Borkar said Tuesday that Alexander had offered his letter of resignation to the board on Sunday, effective April 1. The board then entered a nonpublic session to consider Alexander's offer and emerged more than an hour later to unanimously accept Alexander's resignation. "Dr. Alexander no longer has the trust of the OSU community," Borkar said during the public portion of the meeting. The board also placed Alexander on administrative leave until his effective resignation date. The resignation comes with a settlement agreement that will pay Alexander around $630,000 -- an additional year's salary -- from OSU's foundation rather than its general fund. |
| Oregon State President Resigns Amid Criticism of Past Handling of Sexual Misconduct | |
 | Oregon State University's Board of Trustees, under pressure to fire F. King Alexander as president for his handling of sexual-misconduct allegations in his previous position at Louisiana State University, on Tuesday accepted his resignation. "Simply stated, Dr. Alexander no longer has the confidence of the OSU community," Rani Borkar, chairwoman of Oregon State's board, said at a meeting called to discuss Alexander's offer to resign, which he made on Sunday. The board appointed the university's provost, Edward Feser, to serve as acting president. Accepting Alexander's resignation, several board members were visibly emotional on Tuesday, taking stock of an unforced error that caused unexpected reputational harm and cross-campus trauma. Lamar Hurd, a trustee and former Beavers basketball player, fought back tears in a halting statement of regret, apologizing for how the controversy had inflicted pain. He offered the assurance that, despite a national culture of cover-ups in athletics, Oregon State was different. "Somebody can dunk a basketball, or score a touchdown, or hit a home run, or they have power within a certain situation, or they get paid the most money -- a lot of times things are kind of swept under the rug," Hurd said. "And I just want to make sure you guys know that we don't do that here." |
| Oregon State University president resigns amid Les Miles fallout | |
 | F. King Alexander will no longer be president of Oregon State University after the university's Board of Trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to accept his resignation. The board also voted to place Alexander on administrative leave, effective immediately, until April 1, when his resignation will take effect. Alexander is one of three higher education officials to step down from his post following the release of a report by the law firm Husch Blackwell. The report detailed Louisiana State University's mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations and Title IX procedures while Alexander was president there. Les Miles, LSU's former head football coach, "mutually agreed" to part ways with the University of Kansas two weeks ago. Jeff Long, the University of Kansas athletic director who hired Miles to be head football coach there, has also stepped down. Even before Alexander was hired, the closed search process used to select him had been controversial. Several Oregon State employees criticized the search process during last week's board meeting. In her statement, the Oregon State board chair, Rani Borkar, promised the board would be more transparent moving forward. |
| UF offers students more financial aid for pandemic-related expenses | |
| University of Florida students may receive up to $1,000 in emergency financial aid to help with COVID-19 pandemic-related expenses. On Feb. 16, the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund II provided more than $15.5 million for UF to fund Federal Emergency Financial Aid Grants for students. Aid is distributed in two rounds. The first round of funding was distributed to students on Mar. 9, and the second round is currently being disbursed. Undergraduate, graduate and professional students at UF are split into two groups determining their eligibility for funding, and students are only eligible for one round. Students can fill out the application to receive aid for the second round of funding until April 2. Students must either be U.S. citizens, permanent residents or eligible non-citizens to receive funds. To qualify for the first round of funding, students' FAFSAs -- Free Application for Federal Student Aid -- needed to show an Expected Family Contribution of $7,500 or less. Expected Family Contribution is the calculated amount of money that financial aid offices use to determine students' financial aid, based on factors such as taxed and untaxed income, assets and family size. |
| US colleges tout hopes for return to new normal this fall | |
| Colleges throughout the U.S. are assuring students that the fall semester will bring a return to in-person classes, intramural sports and mostly full dormitories. But those promises come with asterisks. Administrators say how quickly campus life comes back will depend on the success of the nation's COVID-19 vaccination efforts and the ability to avoid widespread outbreaks. Universities saw their budgets hammered during the coronavirus pandemic, which emptied dorms and led to declines in enrollment, and are facing pressure to reopen fully. A flood of announcements from schools describing their plans has begun as high school seniors and returning students are making decisions about where they will be next fall. Some students are waiting to decide until they know what to expect on campus, and others are still worried about the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic. Ultimately, the course of the pandemic will determine what campuses look like in the fall, said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association of college and university presidents. "There are no guarantees, but we are more hopeful than we have been for a long, long time that colleges and universities will look like they usually do," Hartle said. |
| For many LGBTQ college students, a year at home has forced them 'back into the closet' | |
 | The forced homecoming of college students has been particularly painful for those whose families either do not know of or reject their LGBTQ identities, according to therapists, college staff and students themselves. Many students went from experiencing the immense relief of independence and belonging to once again feeling trapped in an environment that threatens to unravel their hard-won self-confidence. Despite major shifts in public attitude toward LGBTQ people over recent years, many parents still struggle to affirm their queer and transgender children. According to a nationwide survey of LGBTQ college students from the University of Maryland, 30% heard their families make negative comments about LGBTQ people more often during the pandemic, while 35% said they lied to their families about their identities more often. LGBTQ college students spending breaks with families who do not affirm their sexual or gender identity is nothing new. But the stresses of the pandemic -- the isolation and duration -- have been different, counselors said. |
| Student experiences during COVID and campus reopening concerns | |
| Trying to get a pulse on students' satisfaction this academic year to better support them has been like dreaming an impossible dream. As college and university leaders have reopened campuses, following meticulous plans with 100-page summaries, student feedback has been positive, negative and everything in between. While perusing social media posts, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania's provost concluded this: "We were doing everything right and nothing right simultaneously," says Diana Rogers-Adkinson. Findings of a new Student Voice survey, conducted by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse and presented by Kaplan, indicate that students, as a group, are deeply ambivalent about their college experiences right now. Envisioning life after COVID, nearly one-third "never want to take another class via Zoom"; half responded that while some things about remote learning worked for them, they are "anxious to get back to all or more in-person classes." And (pay attention, enrollment management professionals at tuition-dependent residential institutions), 9 percent of the 2,000 undergraduates from 120 colleges surveyed don't ever want to return to in-person classes. |
| Gov. Ron DeSantis erodes Florida's Covid rules -- and spring breakers go wild | |
 | Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a warm welcome to millions of spring breakers descending on the state, touting earlier this month that "there are no lockdowns in Florida." But the rule-averse Republican left local city leaders hamstrung in their efforts to control unruly crowds and the spread of the virus. DeSantis early this month abolished fines on people and businesses for violating local pandemic orders, launching his latest push to convince pandemic-weary tourists that Florida is safe. The governor had already rolled back restrictions on bars and restaurants -- even as new coronavirus variants were predicted to drive up the rate of new Covid infections through spring break. "DeSantis rolled out the red carpet for visitors, and he left us to deal with the aftermath," said Miami Beach City Commissioner David Richardson, a Democrat. "People call it spring break and I correct them -- this is a high impact period." A thriving economy is a huge selling point for Republicans, and DeSantis is already using his pandemic track record to stage for a grueling reelection campaign next year and possibly a 2024 presidential run. |
| The Pressure to Retrain Workers Could Be Intense for Colleges. Here's What They Can Start Doing Now. | |
| The promise of the vaccine may bring back many aspects of our life from The Before Time -- concerts, gyms, restaurants, and the movies. Many Americans are also hoping that herd immunity brings with it something else: the promise of work. Over the past year, the pandemic has decimated jobs across the country, especially low-wage occupations in industries like hospitality, travel, and oil and gas drilling. The job losses have hit women and nonwhite workers particularly hard. Many unemployed workers have said that they might not return to their fields after the pandemic is over, which means they will require retraining. Though many of them have yet to flock to retraining programs, some experts believe that dynamic could change this year. At the same time, the nation has seen a shortage of candidates in skilled labor like nursing and the trades. And in May, another class of undergraduates will walk across a real or virtual stage to collect a diploma and prepare to step out into the real world to look for a career. With an unemployment rate among recent graduates that's worse than what it was after the Great Recession, some may seek additional certifications or training just to be competitive in the job market. For all of these reasons, the public pressure on colleges to educate and retrain workers could be even more intense than it was during the crisis 12 years ago. And colleges have been eager to signal how they are preparing to meet that role. |
| APLU & USU Report Outlines Steps Universities Can Take to Address Food Insecurity | |
| Drawing on the experience of students, faculty, and public university administrators at five public urban universities during the pandemic, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU) today released a report examining the magnitude of the pandemic's impact on food insecurity on college students and outlining steps institutions can take to better address food insecurity. The Kresge Foundation funded the project. Far too many students spend each day wondering where they'll find their next meal. It's not hard to see that a student struggling with food insecurity is also a student who can't focus as well on their studies," said Christel Perkins, Deputy Executive Director of USU and Assistant Vice President at APLU. "Today's report underlines the magnitude of the challenge and the urgency of addressing it. Building on insights from leading campuses, the report also outlines concrete steps institutions can take to better serve students' basic needs." According to the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, 41 percent of college students (at two- and four-year institutions) experienced food insecurity within the preceding month. A separate survey found Black and Latinx households reported experiencing food insecurity at higher rates than white households (41 percent and 37 percent, respectively; compared to 23 percent) between April and June 2020. |
| Farmers watching California pro-union law before Supreme Court | |
| Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: Despite the fact that Mississippi has not been particularly fertile ground for labor unions seeking new members from new employment sectors, the attention of American farmers, growers, and other food producers will watch an upcoming case before the U.S. Supreme Court with rapt attention. The case before the high court is styled Cedar Point Nursery and Fowler Packing Company, Inc., versus Victoria Hassid, in her capacity as chair of the California Agricultural Relations Board. According to the high court, state law in California "forces agricultural businesses to allow labor organizers onto their property three times a day for 120 days each year. The regulation provides no mechanism for compensation (to those farmers and growers)." California argues in the lower courts that the law is decades old, grants union organizers temporary access to the farms during non-working hours to communicate with farm workers about their rights to unionize. But attorneys for the two petitioner growers argue that the rule is a "government-authorized physical invasion of private property." |
SPORTS
| Baseball Announces 5 p.m. Start Against North Alabama | |
| The No. 2 Mississippi State baseball program announced it will now throw first pitch at 5 p.m. versus North Alabama on Wednesday, March 24. Tickets for Tuesday's contest are valid for Wednesday's games versus the Lions. Following the midweek contest, Dudy Noble Field will prepare for a three-game series between the top two teams in college baseball, as No. 1 Arkansas comes to town. The series begins at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, March 26. |
| Ron Polk Ring of Honor to Induct Second Class Saturday | |
| The Ron Polk Ring of Honor will welcome three new members on Saturday, March 27, as Eric DuBose, Paul E. Gregory and Bobby Thigpen will be inducted at 11 a.m. on the Adkerson Plaza of Dudy Noble Field. The right field gates to Dudy Noble Field will open for the ceremony at 10:30 with a limited public capacity allowed on a first-come, first-served basis. No ticket is required for the Ring of Honor ceremony and fans attending will be asked clear the stadium and re-enter with a valid game ticket once gates open for the 2 p.m. contest with Arkansas. Face coverings over the nose and mouth are required while entering and exiting Dudy Noble Field, and during the Ring of Honor ceremony. Should Adkerson Plaza reach capacity for the event, limited space may be available for fans to view the ceremony from outside the plaza gates. The inaugural class of 2019 included Jeff Brantley, Will Clark, David "Boo" Ferriss, C.R. "Dudy" Noble and Rafael Palmeiro. |
| Mississippi college baseball continues to flourish this spring | |
| Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: Here's the latest round of positive proof that Mississippi is, above all else, a baseball state: Mississippi State is ranked No. 2 in the nation in the latest Baseball America poll. The Bulldogs, 16-4 and 2-1, are fresh from taking two of three games from LSU at Baton Rouge -- no easy feat. Here's what jumps out at me about Chris Lemonis' team: State has used a staggering 23 pitchers in the 20 games so far. Those arms have combined for a team earned run average of 2.36. They have struck out 259 batters and walked only 66 over 179 innings. Opponents hit only .176. That's crazy good. Fourteen State pitchers have ERAs of under 2. That's insane. ... If you follow college baseball, you know that the more you win, the more important it seems that the games become. That's certainly the case this week where the Mississippi teams are concerned. Start with this: No. 2 ranked State plays a three-game home weekend series with No. 1 ranked Arkansas. How's that for March baseball: No. 1 vs. No. 2, 14-3 vs. 16-4? |
| Mississippi State preparing to face Richmond in NIT quarterfinals | |
 | After opening the NIT with a surprising upset victory over Saint Louis last week, Mississippi State hopes to continue building momentum that coach Ben Howland says would be "a springboard into next season" by beating Richmond in the quarterfinals at 5 p.m. Thursday. "Let me tell you, Richmond is really good," Howland said. "They're very well coached." Although the NIT is usually played at campus host sites until the semifinals, MSU will play the Spiders at the UNT Coliseum in Denton after beating Saint Louis on Saturday in Frisco. "It's just part of the COVID protocol," Howland said of playing the tournament in one central location as opposed to host sites. "We totally understand it and get it. What was kind of nice for us is when we're down in Texas, we have the second-most amount of alums of any state outside of Mississippi in Texas. So, we had some fans there that supported our team which was really kind of nice. I really appreciated that." Richmond has five players averaging double figures, but their two leading scorers, Grant Golden (12.7 points per game) and Blake Francis (16.1 ppg), will be game-time decisions. Howland said Golden is dealing with a fractured finger and Francis has either a back or hip injury. |
| One year older, Mississippi State defense has tools for improvement in 2021 | |
| Mississippi State's defense is one year older. After cobbling together a unit that defied expectations and finished fifth in the Southeastern Conference in total defense a season ago, the Bulldogs under the direction of defensive coordinator Zach Arnett remain optimistic about improvement through the early stages of spring ball. Having endured a season under the new-ish regime, there's fewer questions and more purpose to each movement during practices these days. Spring sessions are now geared toward teaching and improvement rather than explaining where players ought to be on the field. "We know what to do now," third-year sophomore cornerback Martin Emerson said. "Just need to keep elevating, getting better and better." With 14 underclassmen on last season's two-deep, MSU is chock full of experienced pieces. Emerson, who anchored a leaky secondary a season ago, is now going through his first spring camp after COVID-19 canceled last year's. Alongside safeties Shawn Preston Jr., Fred Peters and Collin Duncan, he headlines a much deeper group on MSU's back end. |
| PREVIEW: Volleyball Hosts No. 24 Missouri in Midweek Set | |
| Eighteen days removed from its last competition, Mississippi State volleyball will host No. 24 Missouri in a two-match series Wednesday and Thursday (March 24-25) at the Newell-Grissom Building. MSU volleyball (4-12, 4-12 SEC) will take on its third ranked opponent of the 2020-21 season in the 24th-ranked Tigers (13-7, 13-7 SEC). First serve for both matches is set for 3 p.m. CT, and fans can watch each contest on the SEC Network+ digital platform. "It has been a long time since we have played and an even longer time since we have been at home, and we are looking forward to our midweek matches in The Griss," MSU volleyball head coach Julie Darty Dennis said. "Missouri is a top-25 program, and they are a very solid team. We are going to have to be focused and ready to go from the first point to compete with them. This year-round season has brought its challenges, but we have enjoyed being able to compete over two semesters. We have gained a valuable experience, and I think that these final competitions at The Griss are going to be really fun and exciting for our team, and we hope to see our awesome fans there." |
| USM coach Will Hall has decided the fate of one his staff members following a DUI arrest | |
 | Southern Miss special teams coordinator Greg Meyer was recently arrested for driving under the influence and has been suspended without pay for two weeks, head coach Will Hall announced on Tuesday. During a post-practice video conference with media, Hall said he consulted with administration and decided that terminating Meyer's contract wasn't necessary. "That's something that can be a fireable offense," Hall said Tuesday of Meyer's arrest. "I went to work with the administration and we did our homework looking at Greg and his past. I knew Greg pretty well, and there was not anything we found from his past. He's been an upstanding individual." Hall said that Meyer will lose his right to use university vehicles. "I try to hit things head-on. I didn't want to put out a statement and run from this," Hall said. "I've addressed this with the team and we'll use it as a teachable moment. It was a really bad decision by Greg, and he'll suffer some really bad consequences, lose a lot of money. He'll also have to deal with the shame and humiliation." |
| Student athlete measure gains Arkansas House panel's support | |
| A bill that would allow student athletes at colleges and universities in Arkansas to profit from their names, images and likenesses was recommended to the Arkansas House by its education committee Tuesday. House Bill 1671 by House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, comes amid a national movement about college athletes' rights to contract with advertisers and be compensated for uses of their names, images and likenesses. Six states have already enacted laws allowing them to do so, Shepherd said. Shepherd said proponents of athletes' rights to do so had been waiting for a federal solution, but one hasn't emerged. So states have taken up the matter themselves, leading to a changing recruiting landscape, he said. "States are moving very quickly in this area, and quite honestly it becomes a matter of competitiveness for our institutions of higher education," Shepherd said. Students might choose to go to schools where they can monetize their images rather than to institutions in Arkansas, hurting the Natural State's recruiting prospects, proponents of the bill said. Top athletic officials at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; Arkansas State University; and the University of Central Arkansas are supportive. |
| Unredacted LSU billing records confirm several settlement talks between Les Miles, student | |
| Attorneys for former LSU head football coach Les Miles held several discussions in 2013 about a settlement agreement with a student who accused him of sexual harassment, according to unredacted legal billing records that The Advocate | The Times-Picayune obtained. LSU released redacted versions of the billing records on Tuesday, which revealed new levels of detail about the sexual harassment investigation into Miles, including that it spanned eight months and cost around $80,000. But LSU redacted several mentions of settlement discussions with the student in the records that they released. However, unredacted versions obtained by The Advocate | The Times-Picayune show a series of meetings in 2013 over the settlement discussions that included attorneys for LSU. The newspaper first reported a month ago that Miles had reached a settlement with a student who accused him of "hitting on her," citing three sources with knowledge of the settlement agreement. Miles has denied any wrongdoing, while his attorney, Peter Ginsberg, has said that Miles has been unfairly maligned with "baseless allegations." Neither Miles nor his attorney have denied the existence of the settlement. |
| NCAA faces pivotal moment in 2021 | |
| This year could be a turning point in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's 115-year history, as it confronts upcoming state and federal legislative challenges and a growing social and political movement advocating for an overhaul of the college sports business, all of which threaten the association's long-held principles and policies about amateurism and athlete pay. First up on the NCAA's spring agenda are hearings next week in the U.S. Supreme Court for a consequential case about association limits on the amount of financial aid athletes can receive from their college or university. The Supreme Court justices could decide as early as this summer whether the association's rationale -- that the financial limitations create a "level playing field" for college athletes -- violates federal antitrust law. Another legal battle is anticipated in early July, when a Florida law prohibiting colleges and universities from restricting athletes' ability to profit from their name, image and likeness goes into effect. These legal and governmental threats also come at a time of increased demands for the NCAA to allow athletes, particularly Black athletes, who are a majority in the most lucrative sports, to profit from their personal celebrity. This is occurring as the country is also undergoing a national reckoning with systemic racism and a heated debate about whether athletes are exploited by colleges for their talent. |
| NCAA president Mark Emmert will meet with college basketball players behind #NotNCAAProperty -- after men's tournament | |
| NCAA president Mark Emmert said he will meet with the college basketball players behind the hashtag #NotNCAAProperty but not until after the end of the men's tournament. The athletes responsible for first posting and sharing the hashtag on social media requested a meeting with Emmert this week to discuss issues related to the online protest, including the inequitable facilities for use at the men's and women's tournaments and the NCAA's stance on name, image and likeness. The request for a Zoom meeting Tuesday at 8 a.m. ET came in a letter sent to Emmert by the National College Players Association, an independent organization, which was shared with USA TODAY Sports. "They want to discuss the NCAA's prohibition on college athlete compensation for use of their name, image, and likeness as well as the unacceptable discriminatory treatment of female athletes in the NCAA March Madness Tournament and throughout NCAA member institutions," wrote Ramogi Huma, the executive director of the NCPA. On Tuesday, Huma released a letter saying the NCPA was "disappointed" in Emmert's decision to table any meetings until after the men's and women's tournaments. |
| As complaints of gender inequity mount, NCAA President Mark Emmert agrees to a review | |
 | Amid mounting pressure from players, coaches and administrators over differences between the men's and women's basketball tournaments, NCAA President Mark Emmert on Tuesday wrote that he would be calling for "an independent review" of the processes that led to the disparities. Emmert's letter, which was obtained by The Washington Post, arrived in the wake of sharpening criticism that started late last week when players took to social media to note the differences between what men's and women's participants were being provided in terms of meals, fitness facilities and even coronavirus testing. NCAA officials acknowledged those differences as an "operational miss" and sought to remedy some of them, but that did little to stem a steady tide of outrage. South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley pointed to other inconsistencies in a message via social media Friday, including the NCAA's exclusion of the women's tournament in the description of its official March Madness Twitter account. "There is no answer that the NCAA executive leadership led by Mark Emmert can give to explain the disparities. Mark Emmert and his team point blank chose to create them!" |
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