| Friday, April 16, 2021 |
| Starkville and Mississippi State expecting large crowds for Super Bulldog Weekend | |
 | Starkville and Mississippi State are rolling out the maroon carpet this weekend. After being canceled because of COVID last year, Super Bulldog Weekend will kick off Friday. It's the first big event in Starkville since the beginning of the pandemic. From the spring game to baseball, the university has several athletic events lined up for the weekend. And businesses are preparing for crowd sizes they haven't seen in more than a year. "Definitely pre-COVID and since this is the biggest weekend Starkville has seen in a while, we've got a lot of our restaurants are doing fun things like live music on the patios to increase outdoor dining opportunities. So it looks like it will be a beautiful weekend," said Paige Watson, Starkville Partnership. The first big game of the weekend kicks off at Dudy Noble when the Bulldogs host Ole Miss. The Maroon and White Spring Football Game is Saturday morning at 11 o'clock. |
| Mississippi State University opens new State Street corridor | |
 | Mississippi State University's Division of Finance and Administration is opening the new State Street corridor on Friday [April 16]. After a year of construction on the new road, which is part of the university's South Campus Gateway, MSU students, faculty, staff and alumni who frequent the southern campus roadways will welcome the new route which stretches from Hardy Road (engineering row) to the newly named road Catalpa Street. Catalpa runs adjacent to Stone and is behind the Pace Seed Technology Laboratory, Ballew Hall and other agriculture facilities. Along with the State Street opening, 400 new parking spaces are becoming available at this same time in a lot at the intersection of Stone and State. And, Morgan Street on the south end of campus, known by many as the faculty housing circle, now has been extended to include traffic that flows around the south and east sides of the student housing building Magnolia Hall. |
| Mississippi State's Reese Dunne selected for Goldwater Scholarship | |
 | A Mississippi State Presidential Scholar and senior mechanical engineering major from Starkville has been selected to receive the Barry Goldwater Scholarship. Reese A. Dunne is the 19th Mississippi State student to be recognized with the Goldwater Scholarship since the Goldwater Foundation's inception. David Hoffman, interim director of the Shackouls Honors College Office of Prestigious External Scholarships, said the Goldwater is one of the nation's premier undergraduate scholarships for STEM students with significant research experience and a passion for making important research contributions in graduate school and beyond. He said Dunne is "clearly one of the best amongst an extremely competitive pool of student researchers from across the country." A member of MSU's cross country and track and field teams, Dunne has benefitted from the honors college's support since his freshman year when he enrolled as a recipient of the G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Presidential Endowed Scholarship. Also receiving the James Carl and Hazel Forbes Endowed Scholarship through the James Worth Bagley College of Engineering, Dunne was one of five nationwide Fulbright U.K. Summer Institute recipients selected in 2020. |
| Drivers warned about farm machinery on highways | |
 | The Mississippi State University Extension Service reminds drivers to pay attention on the roadways for farmers and their machinery. The U.S. Department of Transportation reports nearly 15-thousand accidents involving farm vehicles happen every year and more than half of all highway deaths take place on rural roadways. Remember to slow down when you see farm machinery on the highways. They usually travel around 15 to 25 miles per hour. Experts warn drivers against overtaking farm equipment at highway speeds and use extra caution when passing. Planting season typically starts in March and ramps up in April and May. |
| Stennis, Michoud eye aerospace technology parks | |
| The John C. Stennis Space Center and NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility have both played important roles in America's space program for decades. Michoud, located in New Orleans East, is the "rocket factory" where the Saturn V and SLS were built. Stennis, about 40 miles away in Hancock County, Miss. is the place where all of those rockets were tested before they blasted into space. Now, both facilities are developing business parks on their grounds to better serve the public and private agencies that are already there. The hope is to make both Michoud and Stennis even bigger economic drivers. They're modeling the parks after similar commercial operations at other NASA facilities such as Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. Stennis has been discussing Enterprise Park, a 1,100 acre technology corridor on the north side of the complex for nearly four years now. "We're hoping to see some traction on this in the next couple of months," said Tim Pierce, chief of the Planning and Development Office at Stennis. |
| International investors from India visit Natchez on economic development trip | |
 | A group of international investors from India visited Natchez Thursday to tour the area for a multi-faceted economic development prospect. Specifics on the project were not provided due to non-disclosure agreements between the parties involved. However, Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson said the project being considered for the Adams County area involves exports of products to India. Atlanta Consulate General of India Dr. Swati Vijay Kulkarni, Indian American International Chamber of Commerce President KV Kumar, and a company of other investors arrived in Natchez Thursday to stay at the Stanton Guest House and receive a tour of the city with Gibson, Natchez Inc. Executive Director Chandler Russ and other officials. "We have a heavy agenda for today and they will be leaving here tomorrow morning to meet with Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith," Russ said. "This is the opening of a door to have them explore opportunities here and hopefully establish a good partnership. ... As investment opportunities become available, hopefully they will consider our region." Kumar described the undisclosed economic development prospect as "a big project" that involves solar energy among multiple other things. |
| Secretary of State Michael Watson defends own comment about 'woke' voters | |
 | Mississippi's top elections official says he thinks people are doing a "hatchet job" on him over comments he made in a television interview about "woke" and "uninformed" voters on college campuses. Secretary of State Michael Watson, a Republican, said March 26 on WLOX-TV that he opposes any move by the federal government to set new rules about voter registration or mail-in voting. Watson attended a state Supreme Court hearing Wednesday about the state's initiative process. Afterward, he answered reporters' questions about his televised remarks. "I think that those comments were probably taken out of context in a hatchet job in the sense that our job is to make sure that every Mississippian who is a United States citizen, who is a legal resident of our state, has the ability to vote," said Watson, a former state senator who became secretary of state in January 2020. Watson said Mississippi registered 113,000 new voters last year, including some on college campuses. He said he has concerns about proposals from President Joe Biden and other Democrats to expand access to ballots. |
| Mississippi's Confederate Heritage Month questioned after flag change | |
 | Mississippi may have dropped the Confederate battle emblem from its flag, but while the symbol is gone, signs of the Old South remain, including Gov. Tate Reeves' recent declaration of April as Confederate Heritage Month and Mississippi law that declares the fourth Monday in April as Confederate Memorial Day. "For the last 30 years, five Mississippi governors -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- have signed a proclamation recognizing the statutory state holiday and identifying April as Confederate Heritage Month," Bailey Martin, Reeves' press secretary said in an email. "Governor Reeves also signed the proclamation because he believes we can all learn from our history." The history Reeves speaks of is a tribute to the Civil War, which began in April 1861 over whether states should have the right to continue to enslave Black people. The proclamation, however, was not announced publicly. Media outlets in Mississippi and Washington, D.C., learned of the proclamation after it was shared on Facebook. |
| Representatives Guest and Crawford Introduce Bill to Protect American Catfish Farmers from Burdensome Regulations | |
 | Reps. Michael Guest (MS-03) and Rick Crawford (AR-01) introduced H.R. 2548 – The Cormorant Relief Act, companion legislation to S. 1050, which would increase flexibility for controlling double-crested cormorants by catfish farmers and other aquaculture producers. By allowing further taking of these predatory birds, producers in Mississippi, Arkansas, and other states would not be punished for efficient aquaculture production, which has been shown to attract more cormorants. A study found that the negative economic impact of cormorant populations on the catfish industry in the Mississippi Delta Region was between $38,628,411 and $98,030,457. "Catfish farmers and aquaculture producers must fight a range of threatening conditions to ensure productive harvests and profitable margins. Congress should look for ways to encourage productivity and take additional burdens off the backs of farmers. Increasing the limits on addressing predatory double-crested cormorants is just one of the many ways we must continue to support our agriculture community," Guest said. H.R. 2548 is companion legislation to the Cormorant Relief Act (S.1050), introduced earlier this Congress by Senators Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.). |
| Senate Republicans at war over earmarks | |
 | The post-Trump Republican Party is on the verge of sweeping away the last vestiges of the tea party era. But not before a big internal fight. Republicans largely abandoned their mantle of fiscal conservatism under former President Donald Trump, increasing spending, the debt and eventually relenting to his unorthodox tariff regime. Through it all, their ban on earmarks remained. Now its days may be numbered. After the House GOP's defense of the earmark ban collapsed in a lopsided vote to restore the practice -- which became a dirty word after years of earmark-driven corruption scandals in the early 2000s -- the Senate GOP is agonizing over whether to follow suit. It's hard to find many GOP defenders of the earmark, but that doesn't mean Republican senators want to unilaterally disarm when their House counterparts and Democrats can bring home the bacon to their constituents. The battle is pitting a group of prominent earmark-hating Republicans, many of whom are weighing a presidential run, against supporters of a return to the past. GOP fans of such congressional directed spending count an influential supporter in the former president still trying to control their party. In the House, members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus are some of the only remaining Republican holdouts when it comes to earmark participation. |
| More Americans express enthusiasm for COVID-19 vaccine | |
 | The U.S. vaccination campaign is being challenged by the pause in use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine pending the investigation of rare but severe blood clots. In the two months prior to this setback, however, vaccination has accelerated dramatically across the country; Fewer people are now expressing hesitation or opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that the share of Americans who want a COVID-19 shot right away, or have already been vaccinated, has nearly doubled to over 60% since December. Different groups continue to feel differently about the vaccine, though, and Black Americans are reportedly less enthusiastic about vaccination than white and Latinx counterparts. Kaiser Family Foundation researcher Ashley Kirzinger said that reflects a lack of information and access. Kirzinger cited a recent survey of rural Americans that found Black adults were "less likely to say they have enough information about where to get vaccinated, when they're eligible, and reported having to travel further." |
| IHL approves tuition increase at 7 of 8 Mississippi universities | |
| A year after all but one of Mississippi's public universities declined to increase tuition due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's business as usual: Tuition is once again going up this fall for most students at public universities. The Board of Trustees for the State Institution of Higher Learning (IHL), which oversees the state's eight public universities, unanimously and without discussion approved tuition increases at its monthly meeting on Thursday. Every university requested a tuition increase except for Jackson State University, which will not increase tuition in the fall. At Thursday's meeting, IHL also approved tuition increases for professional schools, including UMMC, and raised tuition for out-of-state students to $12,273, up $358. Four universities -- Delta State University, Alcorn State University, Mississippi University for Women, and MVSU -- don't add a surcharge to tuition for out-of-state students. Most universities did not increase tuition last year, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. The sole school to increase tuition was Delta State. |
| New Miss clothing brand seeks to change university's perception | |
 | New Miss started as a gift: one hat given to an iconic figure in the University of Mississippi's history. It later turned into a clothing brand, then became a student's campaign platform and now, the two words represent a mission centered around love, compassion, equity and equality. The story of New Miss begins with James Meredith in 1962 and continues today with the help of one of Meredith's long-time friends and two UM students hoping to heal, grow and reform the University of Mississippi and the state as a whole. Meredith, the first Black man to attend the university and a civil rights icon, was given the original New Miss hat by Pastor Robert West about three years ago. He's worn it nearly every day since, according to Suzi Altman, a photojournalist and friend of Meredith for the past 20 years. Altman said West had the hat made for Meredith, telling him, "The day you stepped on the Ole Miss campus, it ceased to be Ole Miss. It became New Miss. October 1, 1962, it became New Miss." For years, the term 'Ole Miss' has caused controversy over its Mississippi plantation origins. |
| Ole Miss Students Look for Answers Regarding Graduation Tickets | |
| Graduation is near, and while some students are excited to walk across the stage, others are worried about whether or not their loved ones can actually attend. Sydnee Davidson, a senior at the University of Mississippi, said she does not even have enough tickets for her siblings to attend. "I have four siblings and then my parents and step-parents," Davidson said. "So I can only invite my parents and step-parents and not my siblings to my graduation." Up until a week ago, graduating students had no idea how many tickets they would receive. Now with graduation less than 30 days away, graduates from the class of 2020 still have a lot of questions that need answers. University officials said that the number of allocated tickets for each ceremony varies based on the number of graduates in each school. Assistant Dean of Student Services, Jennifer Simmons, said the School of Journalism students are getting eight tickets each, but many details, such as how and where to claim them, are still being worked out. "The process by which they will claim those tickets will be released from University and Public Events soon," Simmons said. |
| Mississippi Association of Broadcasters Day held at USM | |
 | Media professionals from across the state attended the Mississippi Association of Broadcasters Day at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg on Thursday to help mentor students enrolled in the School of Mass Communication. The event provided the students with an opportunity to engage in one-on-one sessions with the broadcast leaders and have their portfolios and demo reels critiqued. This in turn helps to prepare them as they find their way into their respective journalism careers. Associate professor Lindsey Maxwell said the MAB Day is a unique and very important day in the student's educational life. "This is one of our biggest days of the year in terms of getting our students prepared for the real world and connecting them with people that work in the industry," Maxwell said. "We have students regularly that get connected to jobs, we have somebody here today that got a job from this event two years ago that now is coming back to talk to our students. So it's a very important day for them." More than 50 students attended the day's event, which was held on campus in College Hall. |
| JSU Food Giveaway and Project HEALTH, Hinds Summer Courses and USM Waking Joy Project | |
| Jackson State University's Center for Community Engagement is partnering with local organizations to provide 1,500 free food boxes containing non-perishable goods to needy families in the community. The drive-up giveaway is on a first-come, first-served basis on Saturday, April 17, beginning at 9 a.m. Families can pick up their boxes at the Blackburn Middle School parking lot. Jackson State University's Project Health recently received a grant from the Centers for Disease Control in conjunction with the Association of State Public Health Nutritionists to support cardiovascular disease-prevention programs at historically black colleges and universities. The HBCU Cardiovascular Disease Prevention program is part of an effort to improve the quality of life and health outcomes of students, a release from JSU says. Students in the University of Southern Mississippi School of Social Work created the Waking Joy Project to safely assist local nursing home residents in light of the inability for students to visit directly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Master of Social Work graduate students Samantha Brown, Karla Danner, Angela Mata and Christina Powell launched the project out of concern for nursing home residents who have experienced isolation and loneliness during the pandemic due to long-term care facilities going into lockdown, a release from USM says. |
| COVID-19 won't change how Auburn University does business, president tells Jimmy Rane | |
 | Auburn University will continue with some online offerings into the future, but students aren't going anywhere. "There is no interest in Auburn becoming solely an online supplier," President Jay Gogue told the university's trustees at Thursday's board work session. That assurance came in response to questions by Trustee Jimmy Rane after presentations by Provost Bill Hardgrave and Senior Vice President of Student Affairs Bobby Woodard. Hardgrave reported that students' grades held up well in Fall 2020, despite the increased reliance on online instruction due to COVID-19. He also noted that about half of the 8,200 students enrolled this summer will be able to access their courses online, at least in part. Woodard updated the board on the ongoing plans to retire the Hill and build a new dorm next to the Quad in the center of campus. He said the university would rely on leasing private student beds off campus -- with advantageous terms including lease flexibility for students -- over the next few years as the Hill is gradually decommissioned and the new Quad dorm opens in 2024. |
| Tim Vines confirmed as AU trustee to replace Lloyd Austin | |
| Tim Vines, the president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, has been confirmed to serve on the Auburn University Board of Trustees as an at-large senator. The Alabama Senate unanimously confirmed Vines to the position on Thursday to replace the seat of Lloyd Austin, who was confirmed as the 28th U.S. Secretary of Defense on Jan. 22 after a nomination from President Joe Biden in December. Vines was born in LaFayette, Alabama, and is a 1988 Auburn graduate in finance. He played on Auburn's baseball team throughout his studies. He began working for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama in 1994 and was named chief operating officer of the company in November 2017. He was then elected as its president and CEO in March 2018, the first Black executive in the position. Vines is a lifetime member of the Auburn Alumni Association, a member of the 1856 Society and a member of the James E. Foy Loyalty Society. He was the University's 2018 summer commencement speaker. In 2019, the Birmingham Auburn Club awarded him its Distinguished Auburn Alumnus Award. |
| Documentary featuring UGA faculty paints Jimmy Carter as 'millennial president' | |
 | Though the upcoming documentary "Carterland" won't be the first to focus on the legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, it's the first one made by Georgians: Peachtree City natives Will and Jim Pattiz. The Pattiz brothers' debut feature is scheduled to premiere at the 2021 Atlanta Film Festival on April 24 in partnership with the Carter Center, which will hold an outdoor screening of the film with its 96-year-old subject in attendance. Aimed at re-framing the Carter presidency, which lasted from 1977 to 1981, "Carterland" reveals how Carter's leadership and moral integrity, which confronted issues like climate change and championed social justice, ultimately cost him the presidency. "When we interviewed Jason Carter, he said that his grandfather was really the first millennial president," Jim told the Banner-Herald. "Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House in 1979. He was out front on so many things that we're addressing today." Though Will attended the University of Georgia and Jim went to Georgia Southern University, neither studied film or any technical aspect of production. Instead, they grew up in a household where movie quotes were part of the language, and were inspired and empowered by high school teacher Jeff Stewart to become filmmakers. |
| UGA to get up to $92 million for federally funded center to fight flu | |
| The University of Georgia will be home to a federally funded center to increase understanding of influenza virus emergence and infection in humans and animals while also making preparations to combat future outbreaks or pandemics. The National Institutes of Health has approved a contract to establish the Center for Influenza Disease and Emergence Research (CIDER) at UGA, university officials announced late Wednesday. The contract will provide $1 million in first-year funding and is expected to be supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of NIH, for seven years and up to approximately $92 million. CIDER will include external partners such as Boston Children's Hospital, St. Jude Children's Hospital, the University of Rochester and the University of Melbourne. It will be directed by S. Mark Tompkins, professor of infectious diseases in UGA's College of Veterinary Medicine. The center is the second major federal project in recent years involving influenza research that will be led by UGA. Federal officials in September 2019 approved a research effort led by UGA, with partners including Emory University and Georgia Tech, to develop a new, more advanced flu vaccine to protect against multiple strains of the virus in a single dose. |
| U. of Florida set to build new honors residential complex | |
| Next year, the University of Florida will tear down a recreational complex students use for its size and proximity to campus to make room for more honors housing. The Gator Residential Complex, an undergraduate dormitory for honors students, will replace the Broward Outdoor Recreational Complex in 2022, UF spokesperson Cynthia Roldan wrote in an email. UF officials don't know when demolition will start, Roldan wrote. The complex behind Broward Hall contains tennis courts, basketball courts, sand volleyball courts, a skate park, a roller hockey rink and a pool. The future housing complex will consist of four residential buildings -- each five stories tall -- and a two-story common area building. The $250 million project will include 1,400 beds reserved for honors students. It will be 420,000 square feet, according to the UF Board of Trustees' Committee on Finance. The Broward Outdoor Recreational Complex will move to a new location, but it is unknown where or when, Sara Tanner, director of marketing and communications at UF's Division of Student Affairs, wrote in an email. The building is expected to be complete by August 2024, but the Board of Trustees is pushing for an earlier completion by Summer 2023, Chris Cowen, UF's CFO, said at the Board of Trustees meeting March 19. |
| Florida poised to pass bill allowing students to record classes | |
 | A bill allowing students to record class sessions for the purpose of lodging free speech and other complaints is likely to become law in Florida. The bill, which sailed through Florida's House of Representatives and Senate, says that a student may record video or audio of class lectures not only for their own personal educational use but also "in connection with a complaint to the public institution of higher education where the recording was made, or as evidence in, or in preparation for, a criminal or civil proceeding." A recorded lecture may not be published without the consent of the lecturer, and these recordings must follow federal student privacy laws, the bill says. The possible penalty for publishing a recording without consent is $200,000. Cynically, the bill can be read as encouraging students to snitch on professors they disagree with politically. Numerous professors have faced public scrutiny over snippets of surreptitiously recorded classroom talks that have found their way online. Often, these clips are subsequently shown to be lacking context. But faculty members in Florida say they're more concerned about the bill being an invitation to violate the sanctity of the learning space, given how easy it is to upload videos to the internet anonymously. |
| U. of South Carolina professor was a consultant on $27M George Floyd civil settlement | |
 | University of South Carolina law professors have played integral roles in both phases of the George Floyd case -- one as a witness for the prosecution in the criminal case and another consulting on what became the largest pretrial wrongful death settlement in U.S. history. Geoff Alpert's involvement in the $27 million civil settlement in March was followed April 12 by two hours' worth of testimony on use-of-force by Seth Stoughton during the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Alpert has taught criminology and criminal justice at USC since 1988. He said had he taken the stand in a civil trial, his conclusions would have found that Chauvin, who used a prone restraint hold and leaned on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes, acted unreasonably. "No one ever said not to use the ground to get control of someone, but once you have this person under control, you turn them into a safe position," Alpert said. "The ground has always been taught to be your friend to get someone under control, and then your enemy." Alpert was brought onto the Floyd case because of a longstanding relationship with Antonio Romanucci, a Chicago-based civil rights attorney who represented Floyd's family in their suit against the city of Minneapolis and four officers involved in his death. |
| South Carolina privates sue over provision denying them public funds | |
| A lawsuit filed in federal district court argues that a provision of the South Carolina state constitution that bars public funds from being used for the "direct benefit" of religious or other private educational institutions should be struck down because it was born out of racist and anti-Catholic animus. The lawsuit, filed earlier this week, argues that the amendment, which dates to 1895 and was revised in 1972, was "born in bigotry." It argues the amendment "reflected the ugly marriage of two prejudices: religious bigotry against immigrant Catholics then coming to America's shores and racial prejudice against newly freed slaves whose lives, living conditions, and educational opportunities were being improved by religious missionary organizations." South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, an association that represents 20 private colleges and universities, joined with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston, which operates 33 K-12 schools, in challenging what's known as the Blaine Amendment. The colleges contend that the amendment has caused them to lose out on millions of dollars in federal coronavirus relief funds that were funneled through the state government for distribution. |
| The Damage Campaign | |
 | Cassia Roth remembers March 9, 2020, very clearly. It was her birthday. It was a week before a nationwide Covid-19 lockdown led her university to move its classes online. It was also the day she found herself facing some of the most serious accusations imaginable in the academy. An email sent to nearly a dozen people at the University of Georgia, where Roth is an assistant professor, alleged that she had plagiarized parts of her master's thesis and doctoral dissertation, stealing the work of the sender, another young female scholar. Then the accuser went further: Roth, she wrote, had stolen the sender's syllabi, and was posting her photo on pornographic websites. "She is an imposter, a serial plagiarizer," the sender wrote of Roth, "and she needs to be held accountable for her actions." Roth recognized the name of the sender. It was a former graduate-school classmate of hers, someone she'd considered a friend when they studied history together at the University of California at Los Angeles. The accusations shocked her. They didn't even make sense, she says. Roth studies Latin American and Brazilian history, but the work she'd supposedly copied was about the Indian diaspora. The claims about pornographic websites were even stranger. But the email triggered a campus investigation. And, Roth later learned, she wasn't the only target. |
| Being Mentored Helps Black Medical Students Face Isolation, Racial Microaggressions | |
 | Jamel Hill, 30, describes his first few months in medical school in 2016 as a "rude awakening." With few people looking like him in the lecture hall, he felt isolated. But it was some conversations being had in the classroom and the hospital that left him the most uncomfortable. "I've had patients tell nurses that they don't want Black physicians," Hill says. "You know, we're in the 2020s, and you would think that doesn't happen, but it very much so does." Like many Black students, even getting into medical school was not easy, especially with few role models around. African Americans make up only 5% of doctors and around 8% of those accepted into medical school last year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges data. Systemic barriers and racism do not just affect the economic capital of many African American families but their social capital too. Some young medical students and residents are first generation doctors with no one to turn to for advice. Finding mentors in academia is one way to help them overcome this and increase their odds at success. |
| Hearing on under secretary nominee James Kvaal focuses on debt and tuition | |
| President Biden's nominee for under secretary of education, James Kvaal, appears likely to be headed to the full Senate for a vote on his confirmation after a relatively drama-free committee hearing on his nomination. Kvaal appeared before the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Thursday, where Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, ranking Republican on the committee, said Kvaal would probably be confirmed, adding that he would probably support that confirmation. Senator Patty Murray of Washington, chair of the committee, urged a speedy confirmation for Kvaal. If confirmed, Kvaal, who previously served as deputy under secretary of education during the Obama administration and was most recently president of the Institute for College Access and Success, would have a significant hand in carrying out and forming higher education policy for the federal government. Senators focused much of their questioning of Kvaal on student loan debt, public college tuition and equity, areas where he has backed progressive proposals from the White House. Republicans generally voiced critiques of the president's proposals in some of those areas. |
| First round of hearings by Congress back a more muscular NSF | |
| The U.S. Congress this week got its first chance to weigh in on proposals to expand the mission and massively boost the budget of the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the initial response was positive. During three committee hearings, most legislators seemed to like the idea, although some expressed reservations about its size and scope -- up to $100 billion over 5 years, with half going to a new technology directorate. And everybody wanted more details. Supporters said a budget boost at the $8.5 billion agency would reverse years of underfunding and help the country develop the emerging technologies needed to outinnovate China and other economic competitors. Opponents questioned whether NSF could handle such rapid growth and whether an agency that mostly funds academic research is also the best home for efforts to commercialize those discoveries. Some legislators worried that too much of that research could wind up in the hands of China because of lax safeguards against espionage. Speaking to spending panels in the Senate and the House of Representatives on Tuesday and Wednesday, NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan made the case for President Joe Biden's request for a 20% boost in NSF's 2022 budget as a first step in that buildup. |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State, Ole Miss baseball neck and neck headed into Super Bulldog Weekend matchup in Starkville | |
 | Chris Lemonis knows what everyone is talking about this weekend. After all, what else could it be? When Mississippi State and Ole Miss face off in pretty much any sport, tensions are high across the Magnolia State. Throw in two top-10 baseball teams, a canceled matchup in 2020 and Super Bulldog Weekend taking place in Starkville, and this weekend's series at Dudy Noble Field will be played with the highest of stakes. And Lemonis knows exactly what kind of pressure that will put on his team. "It's fun and exciting to be part of it," the Mississippi State coach told reporters Thursday, "but we've got to come out here and play good ball." The Bulldogs (25-7, 8-4) are ranked No. 4 in the country and are riding an eight-game winning streak. But the sixth-ranked Rebels (25-8, 8-4) have all but matched their pace so far in a highly competitive Southeastern Conference. The two schools are tied for second place in the SEC West, trailing No. 1 Arkansas by one game in conference play. "We knew the level of play in our league was so much higher than normal," Lemonis said. "You're seeing some weird weekends. Especially in our division, you knew there would be a couple of us stuck there at the top." |
| Mississippi State looks to grind down Rebels' starting pitching | |
| Mississippi State's offensive production has greatly increased over the last five games, and coach Chris Lemonis really needs his baseball squad to keep improving this weekend. Five games ago, Mississippi State was batting only .267 as a team, 11th best in the Southeastern Conference. But the Bulldogs (25-7, 8-4 SEC) have scored 65 runs and scattered around 67 hits in the last 10 days. Now Mississippi State is hitting .281 as a team, 5th best in the SEC. Against conference opponents only, MSU saw its batting average rise from .234 to .259 following its weekend sweep of Auburn. MSU scored 32 runs in the series. No. 4 Mississippi State will need its offense to continue its recent surge as No. 6 Ole Miss visits Dudy Noble Field for a weekend series beginning at 6 p.m. tonight. The series continues at 2 p.m. on Saturday and concludes on Sunday at 1 p.m. "We're excited about how our offense has been going the last couple of weeks," Lemonis said. "We feel like we are getting healthy there and they're going to have to control us too. They've got two of the better starters in the country and some other really good arms." The first test for Mississippi State will be Ole Miss ace Gunnar Hoglund. |
| Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss baseball tickets are going for how much? Seats as much as $475 each | |
| No. 4 Mississippi State is getting a two-for-one deal this weekend: it's Super Bulldog Weekend and there's a rivalry baseball game against No. 6 ranked Ole Miss. You might have to stretch your wallet a bit to get into Dudy Noble Field this weekend, though. Standing room only tickets range from $13-98 through the weekend, but reserved seating can cost you as much as $475 per ticket on StubHub. As of Thursday morning, Friday's reserved tickets range from $119-$380. On Saturday, tickets can cost you anywhere from $143-$428 and on Sunday, it's $119-$475. That's a $251 ticket on average over the course of the three-day weekend series, with. Saturday having the most expensive average ticket cost at $295 a piece. According to TicketSmarter.com, the average price of a Mississippi State baseball ticket is about $46. Ahead of this weekend's baseball series against Ole Miss, the Bulldogs do not have any expected figures for attendance, a Mississippi State spokesperson told the Clarion Ledger. |
| Biggest Ole Miss-State series in history? There's a lot of history. | |
| Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: Ole Miss and Mississippi State have played baseball for 128 years. That's a lot of history. And yet, there probably has never been a more anticipated Rebel-Bulldog baseball series than the one scheduled for this weekend in Starkville. That's why seats are selling for $400 on Stubhub. There's no official word, but I am told that nobody will be turned away from the Friday, Saturday and Sunday games. Crowds of more than 12,000 are entirely possible, depending on the weather. Standing room only seats are available for $80 on Stubhub, but here's a veteran tip: You can just go on hailstate.com and buy an SRO ticket for 10 bucks. ... Since we began today talking about history, let's continue. State leads the all-time series 258-207-5. At State, the Bulldogs lead 123-81-1. At Ole Miss, State leads 100-99-3. Neutral sites, including the SEC Tournament? State leads 42-29-1. The first game ever between the arch-rivals was in October 1892. State won 6-3 at Starkville. The two teams tied 5-5 the next spring at Oxford when rain ended the game after three innings. The rivalry was intense, even then in the 19th century. |
| Troy Aikman 'couldn't be prouder' to see friend, former Cowboys teammate Deion Sanders coach Jackson State | |
 | Let Troy Aikman serve up an assessment of Coach Prime. "He's kind of an old soul that is so relatable to today's athlete," the Hall of Fame quarterback said of Deion Sanders, the rookie Jackson State coach. "It's a wonderful combination. I'm trying to think who else might be like that, to have been away from the game for as long as he has been, but is still very relevant as a player with this generation. Can you think of anybody? If I'm relevant, it's because they see me as a broadcaster. They know I played, but they don't relate to me as a player as much. When it comes to Deion, you've still got kids doing the 'Prime Time' dance when they get to the end zone." Count Aikman, the top pick in the same 1989 NFL draft class with Sanders who won a Super Bowl with him on the Cowboys, among a legion of figures in NFL circles taking a keen interest in Jackson State football. Aikman even hopped on his private jet, with former Cowboys guard Nate Newton in tow, to witness Sanders' debut in late February, and plans a return visit. Aikman said Sanders' commitment to the HBCU school validates all that the Hall of Fame cornerback has done in Texas in recent years to develop kids, as a coach on the high school level and in establishing an elite athletic program. It's much deeper, Aikman said, than Sanders making the jump for the opportunity to coach his two sons, Shilo and Shedeur. |
| NCAA Division I Council panel formally approves new transfer rules | |
| As spring practice winds down, Arkansas coach Sam Pittman sees some potential holes in his roster. Arkansas didn't use the maximum 25 scholarships this year on its incoming recruits, so it has a few left over to hit the transfer market, where there is no longer any question about whether athletes who switch schools will be immediately eligible to compete. "We might take a tight end," Pittman said. "The bottom line is whomever we took would have to be a D-lineman or someone with the ball in his hands. I don't think we'd take an offensive lineman in the portal right now." The NCAA made it official Thursday, announcing the Division I Council had voted to approve a plan that will allow all college athletes to transfer one time as an undergraduate without having to sit out a season. The so-called one-time exception that has been available to athletes in most college sports for years will now also be available to football, men's and women's basketball, men's ice hockey and baseball players who transfer from one Division I school to another. It's a big change, a long time coming and it has some in college sports, especially football, worried about the potential for unintended consequences: Fewer scholarships available to high school recruits. Power programs poaching players from small schools. Rosters turning over quicker than coaches can keep up. |
| UGA extends baseball coach Scott Stricklin's contract through 2026 | |
| As Georgia nears the midway point of its SEC baseball schedule, the school and coach Scott Stricklin have agreed he'll remain in the dugout for several more years. UGA announced Thursday afternoon that Stricklin's contract is being extended through the end of the 2026 season. Stricklin's deal was winding down. It ran through the end of the 2023 season. "Coach Stricklin has built a strong program the right way," athletic director Josh Brooks said in a statement. "His teams play with skill and toughness, which is a direct reflection of his leadership. This year, we've continued to improve under difficult circumstances, and I believe in their potential and the future of this program with Coach Stricklin at the helm." Stricklin, in his eighth season, was paid $650,000 in annual total compensation and the school said his existing salary structure remains the same. Georgia is 21-11 and ranked as high as No. 20 this season with a 5-7 SEC record after winning an SEC series at top-ranked Vanderbilt last weekend. |
| Republicans And Democrats Largely Oppose Transgender Sports Legislation, Poll Shows | |
| In at least 30 states nationwide, lawmakers have introduced bills aiming to keep transgender girls and women from participating on girls' and women's sports teams. These type of restrictions have become a major culture war battle, with Republican lawmakers being the loudest proponents of such bills, while Democrats often oppose them. But a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds that Republican voters aren't that enthusiastic about those proposed laws, even while they do have reservations about transgender sports participation. Just 29% of Republicans said they "support a bill that prohibits transgender student athletes from joining sports teams that match their gender identity." Moreover, there was no significant party divide: Similar shares of Republicans, Democrats and independents also said they oppose the bills. Altogether, 28% of adults said they support bills restricting transgender athletes' participation, compared with 67% who oppose such bills. However, there's an important nuance to these figures. While there is no apparent partisan divide on legislating the issue, there is a pronounced partisan divide on transgender sports participation itself. |
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