| Monday, April 26, 2021 |
| Monday Profile: Nathan Griffey welcomes more 'normal' spring commencement at MSU | |
 | This week, Nathan Griffey will spend most of his time in Humphrey Coliseum. Over the course of four ceremonies Thursday and Friday, close to 3,000 Mississippi State graduates will walk across the stage, hear their name called and officially complete their degrees. Between now and then, Griffey said, that stage must be set up, chairs set out, floral arrangements placed, and the television and technical aspects situated. "We're doing everything that goes into physically setting up the coliseum," Griffey said. "It's definitely stressful this time of year, but once you get to the finish line and finally see the ceremonies, it's a great feeling." Campus is buzzing with other telltale signs of a "normal" spring commencement season. Graduate candidates are picking up regalia from Barnes and Noble. The Bully statue in front of the Colvard Student Union is making its usual scores of appearances a day with seniors on Instagram. Last spring's virtual ceremony went as well as could hope for under the circumstances, Griffey said. He admitted, though, it threw him and his team out of their comfort zone -- designing and creating a TV set, writing a script and an order of programming. In the broadcast, as MSU President Mark Keenum spoke, graduates' names and photos appeared on the screen. "It was a tough semester for everyone, but we did what we had to do," Griffey said. "It was very successful. We got a lot of positive feedback." |
| Catherine Pierce named new Mississippi poet laureate | |
 | Mississippi's new poet laureate is a professor and published author. Gov. Tate Reeves and his wife, Elee, named Catherine Pierce of Starkville to the literary post for the next four years. Pierce is a Delaware native who joined the Mississippi State University faculty in 2007. She is co-director of the university's creative writing program and has published four books of poetry. "I've long counted myself tremendously lucky to be a part of Mississippi's dynamic community of writers and artists and citizens, and I am so looking forward to continuing to connect with people across our state, to working with our excellent arts and literary organizations and our incredible educators, and to helping amplify the voices of Mississippians," Pierce said in the release. The commission said the poet laureate creates and reads poetry at state occasions, promotes literacy and represents the state's cultural heritage. "Catherine Pierce has crafted an amazing body of work and has earned the impressive accolades one might expect of a poet laureate, but what makes her so compelling as Mississippi's next poet laureate is her ideal that poetry should be accessible for everyone," commission director Sarah Story said. |
| Author & MSU professor named Mississippi's Poet Laureate | |
 | Governor Tate Reeves has appointed Catherine Pierce, a poet and English professor at Mississippi State University, as Mississippi's Poet Laureate. Serving a four-year term, the state's Poet Laureate creates and reads appropriate poetry at state occasions, promotes literacy and represents the rich cultural heritage of Mississippi. At MSU, Catherine Pierce co-directs the creative writing program and has published four books of poems and a chapbook. Originally from Delaware, Pierce made her home in Mississippi in 2007 when she joined the faculty at Mississippi State. The Mississippi Art Commission outlined her conviction that "poetry is for everyone" drives her to amplify poetic voices and develop opportunities for others to experience poetry. Pierce received a 2019 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and two Pushcart Prizes in 2019 and 2021. Each of her most recent three books won the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Prize; Famous Last Words won the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. Her work has also been recognized with two Literary Artist Fellowships from the Mississippi Arts Commission. |
| MSU's Catherine Pierce named as Mississippi Poet Laureate | |
| Gov. Tate Reeves has appointed accomplished poet and educator Catherine Pierce, of Starkville, as Mississippi's Poet Laureate. Serving as the official state poet for a term of four years, the state's Poet Laureate creates and reads appropriate poetry at state occasions, promotes literacy and represents the rich cultural heritage of Mississippi. An English professor at Mississippi State University, Pierce co-directs MSU's creative writing program and has published four books of poems and a chapbook. "It is with great pleasure that the First Lady and I announce Catherine Pierce of Starkville as Mississippi's Poet Laureate," said Governor Tate Reeves. "We are confident Dr. Pierce will continue to foster a love of poetry and literature throughout Mississippi in this role." MSU President Mark E. Keenum said, "I am so very proud of Dr. Catherine Pierce for earning this designation from Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves and the Mississippi Arts Commission. Dr. Pierce richly deserves this honor and her selection speaks volumes to the quality of our faculty and the opportunities our students have to interact with talented, accomplished educators in our classrooms." |
| MSU students begin painting 300-foot mural | |
| Standing in the afternoon sunlight on North Jackson Street Wednesday, Mississippi State University junior Marcus Williams rolled his paint roller in a pan of sky-blue paint and added some of the first brushstrokes to what he hopes will become one of many murals celebrating Starkville. "We're just starting out painting the background sky, and then we'll be merging together buildings from around Starkville with buildings on campus," he said as he painted the top of the 300-foot mural on the wall next to Cadence Bank. Williams and several other students from MSU's Department of Art began work on the painting last week as part of a partnership with the city and the Starkville Area Arts Council. When it's complete --- hopefully around mid-July -- the mural will depict the iconic buildings of the city and MSU's campus, such as the Greensboro Center and Humphrey Coliseum. "We were actually going to do it last year, but COVID interrupted everything," SAAC Executive Director John Bateman said. "(The mural) reflects this growing relationship that the arts council, the city and the art department have." The mural is based on the theme "From City Hall to Lee Hall: We're in this Together." Funding for the project came from MSU's art department and private donors around town, Bateman said. |
| Master gardeners host a plant sale for the community | |
 | Garden management can be a difficult, and time-consuming task. Some plant as a hobby, while others do it to grow seasonal foods. The Oktibbeha Master Gardeners and the Mississippi State Extension Office hosted a plant sale. "We're doing a plant sale to raise funds to sponsor a scholarship at Mississippi State University for a student in the horticulture department. All these funds that we get today will go to a good cause," said the president of Master Gardeners Hampton Fowler. Fowler said that despite the rain, the community was eager to pick up a few gardening tips. "Even with the weather, it's been a great turn out, and we're seeing a lot of people picking up their vegetable plants and filling in all those plants they lost in the freezer, so it's a great time to get out there and take care of that in quite a variety," said Fowler. The goal wasn't to sell items but to share gardening tips with the community. "We like to support the community with public efforts to improve the knowledge and skills and horticulture. We'd like to promote the profession of horticulture as well, which we can do through the scholarship program," said organization member Ed Williams. |
| Volunteers pitch in to clean up Harrison County beaches | |
 | Volunteers took advantage of the picture perfect weather on Sunday to make the beach a little cleaner. The Institute of Marine Mammal Studies, along with the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine and the Mississippi Coastal Cleanup Program organized an Earth Day beach cleanup this weekend that drew out 42 volunteers, like Andrew Medhurst. "I was anxious to get out here and help clean up the beach that I frequently use. It's a nice day and I can't think of anything better than help clean up this area," said Medhurst. IMMS said this cleanup is important not only for the beauty of the beaches but also for the marine life. "There's a lot of times that we find these animals that are washing up that ingested plastic or may have fishing pollutants wrapped around them so it's really important that we get out here and we clean up after ourselves," said Morgan Deaton. Volunteers were hopeful that the work they did will make a difference. |
| What did Gov. Tate Reeves veto this year? | |
| Gov. Tate Reeves was frugal with his veto stamp this year, axing one bill and line-item vetoing four projects across the state the Legislature had funded. Reeves gave no explanation for why he vetoed the specific projects, but one is in an area represented by a top lawmaker who challenged his veto authority in court last year. Last year, by contrast, Reeves vetoed the bulk of the state's public education budget, major criminal justice reforms and some of the Legislature's spending of COVID-19 federal relief money. His line-item vetoes of COVID-19 spending last year prompted House Speaker Philip Gunn and Speaker Pro-tem Jason White to sue their fellow Republican Reeves saying he overstepped his line-item veto authority. The state Supreme Court sided with Reeves in the case, a ruling that appeared to weaken legislative authority and strengthen gubernatorial authority. Reeves, before his Thursday, midnight deadline to do so, line-item vetoed a $4.5 million project to four-lane Mississippi 12 from Durant to Kosciusko. The measure was included in the Mississippi Department of Transportation budget, House Bill 1413. Reeves also line-item vetoed three smaller projects included in the Capital Expense Fund in Senate Bill 2948. |
| Analysis: Watchdog gives bleak report on Mississippi prisons | |
| Bloody clashes that brought Mississippi's prison system under federal scrutiny last year were part of a dramatic increase in reported cases of violence behind bars. The Mississippi Department of Corrections logged 853 incidents of inmate-on-inmate assaults during the 2020 state budget year, which ended June 30. That was a 29% increase from the previous year. The statistics are in a new report published Friday by PEER, the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review. The report was released the day after Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill that will become law July 1 and make more inmates eligible for parole in a state with one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation. More than 50% of the money spent on prison-based intervention in Mississippi was for programs "with no known high-quality research supporting their effectiveness in reducing recidivism," PEER said. The watchdog group recommended moving money into programs backed by research. |
| Supreme Court to Hear Case on Right to Carry Concealed Guns for Self-Defense | |
 | The Supreme Court agreed Monday to review a New York state law that limits carrying concealed firearms outside the home, the first major Second Amendment case it has heard since 2010 and one that could lead to a loosening of gun laws nationwide. The court first recognized a right to keep handguns in the home in a 2008 case and extended that ruling nationwide in 2010. Since then the court has declined to consider how far Second Amendment rights extend outside the home, even as most state and local gun regulations were upheld by lower courts.bThe case accepted Monday will put the spotlight on the three justices appointed by former President Donald Trump, all of whom received vigorous backing from gun organizations such as the National Rifle Association. As appeals-court judges, Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett adopted Second Amendment approaches that generally point to looser constitutional limits on weapons possession. Last year, Justice Neil Gorsuch joined two long-serving justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, in dissenting from dismissal of a different gun case after New York City and state officials repealed challenged regulations that restricted gun owners from taking their weapons outside city limits. |
| Black Democrats, Conflicted on a Voting Rights Push, Fear It's Too Late | |
 | The right to vote is what Frank Figgers fought for in the 1960s as a student at a racially segregated high school in Jackson, Miss. It is what Medgar Evers died for when he was shot to death outside his home in the city in 1963, after his work with the state N.A.A.C.P. Mr. Figgers, 71, remembers learning about the assassination of Mr. Evers the day it occurred. He remembers the rage it inspired. "When people say we're fighting the same stuff, we really are," he said, sitting in a local Masonic Lodge where Mr. Evers once held an office. "We were fighting in 1865 and 1965. We were fighting it in 2015 and we're fighting it in 2021." Now, as Republican state lawmakers across the country push new restrictions on voting, Democrats are hitting back. In Congress, the party is pushing a colossal elections system overhaul that would take redistricting out of the hands of politicians, introduce automatic voter registration and restore voting rights for the formerly incarcerated. For some Black Democrats in the South, the fact that this fight is happening at all -- in 2021 -- is a profound failure of the Democratic Party's politics and policies. In interviews, more than 20 Southern Democrats and civil rights activists described a party that has been slow to combat Republican gerrymandering and voting limits, overconfident about the speed of progress, and too willing to accept that voter suppression was a thing of the Jim Crow past. |
| Vaccine Hesitancy Poses Risk to Herd Immunity, U.S. Health Officials Say | |
| Top health officials warned that vaccine hesitancy posed a risk to getting enough Americans inoculated to stop the spread of Covid-19, and they encouraged individuals to get vaccinated. "If we're going to be able to put Covid-19 behind us, we need to have all Americans take part in getting us to that point," Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." President Biden's chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said separately that the U.S. has made good progress on vaccinations overall but that the level of infections remains precarious at an average of nearly 60,000 daily cases in the past week as of Friday. "We don't want that to go up," Dr. Fauci said on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos." Dr. Collins highlighted pockets of the country that are falling behind on vaccinations. Estimates have differed on how much of the population would need to be vaccinated to stop the virus from circulating, but many health experts are using 70% to 80% as a goal. As of Thursday, 52% of adults in the U.S. had gotten at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That proportion ranged from 72% in New Hampshire to 39% in Mississippi. |
| UM student leaders plan to address 'representation issue' in ASB | |
 | Since its creation in 1917, the Associated Student Body has viewed itself as the voice of University of Mississippi students. In recent years, though, students have noticed a disconnect between the makeup of campus and the student groups that are represented in ASB. About 36% of students enrolled at the University of Mississippi are in Greek life, and about 9% of enrolled students are in the honors college. These are the groups that have disproportionate representation in student government. The 2020-2021 senate consisted of 49 senators, and at least 71% of them were members of either Greek life or the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Only 14 senators were not affiliated with either organization. According to the new 2021-2022 ASB president Morgan Atkins, ASB has recognized this issue for years. She is now working with her cabinet to finally address it. "We've always known. At least, as long as I've been a part of this organization, it's been very obvious to us that there's a representation issue," Atkins said. "Myself, as well as my vice president Richard Springer and our attorney general Grace Dragna are going to spend the majority of the summer working on that and making sure not only are there more senate seats, but there are more diverse senate seats to ensure equitable representation." |
| USM receives $100K grant from Mississippi Board of Contractors | |
 | The Mississippi State Board of Contractors has provided another example of a private organization supporting higher education at a public institution. The MSBOC awarded a $100,000 grant to the University of Southern Mississippi's School of Construction and Design. Grants like the MSBOC's have helped USM's construction program climb into the top 15 percent of more than 150 programs within the Associated Schools of Construction. "It is a professional program of education," said Erich Connell, said Erich Connell, director of USM's School of Construction and Design. "We make a difference in Mississippi, providing students of the state an extraordinary opportunity to have productive careers for life, and the MSBOC has helped us in doing this." Connell said the MSBOC grant is unique to the state of Mississippi because the board that oversees construction standards supports educational programs through specified funding. |
| Kids are finally returning to school. But most of them are white. | |
 | President Joe Biden is on the verge of meeting his 100-day pledge to press the majority of American schools into reopening for five days of weekly in-person instruction. But there's a problem. Most of the kids returning to classes are white. Minority students are most likely to be missing out on in-person learning, despite assurances of classroom safety under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance and outreach by local and state school districts. It's a key challenge facing Biden as he moves beyond his first months in office, and one the administration insists it is prepared to tackle. Dramatic demographic and geographic divides over in-person learning have emerged in the U.S. since the beginning of the year, according to estimates from the Education Department's research arm and data from independent trackers. Eighty percent of public schools were open for at least some in-person learning by the end of February, according to a government survey, but an estimated 78 percent of Asian eighth-graders were learning in a fully remote environment. Nearly 60 percent of Black and Hispanic eighth-graders also learned at home full time. That's despite a White House-led push to inoculate millions of educators against Covid-19; the Biden administration's close relationships with national teachers' unions; a growing number of reopening schools and signs of public optimism about a return to normal classes this fall. A central concern is that families of color are choosing to opt out. |
| Student's Snapchat profanity leads to high court speech case | |
| Fourteen-year-old Brandi Levy was having that kind of day where she just wanted to scream. So she did, in a profanity-laced posting on Snapchat that has, improbably, ended up before the Supreme Court in the most significant case on student speech in more than 50 years. At issue is whether public schools can discipline students over something they say off-campus. The topic is especially meaningful in a time of remote learning because of the coronavirus pandemic and a rising awareness of the pernicious effects of online bullying. Arguments are on Wednesday, via telephone because of the pandemic, before a court on which several justices have school-age children or recently did. The case has its roots in the Vietnam-era case of a high school in Des Moines, Iowa, that suspended students who wore armbands to protest the war. In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court sided with the students, declaring students don't "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Ever since, courts have wrestled with the contours of the decision in Tinker v. Des Moines in 1969. Levy's case has none of the lofty motives of Tinker and more than its share of teenage angst. |
| Interviews for LSU president job start Monday | |
 | University of Louisiana System President Jim Henderson and Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne are being interviewed Monday for the top job at LSU. The LSU Presidential Search Committee is interviewing on Monday and Tuesday the eight semi-finalists to become president of the LSU System President/Chancellor of the Baton Rouge campus. Unlike the previous search, which led to the hiring of F. King Alexander in 2013, the LSU Presidential Search Committee has publicly named the candidates that interest them the most and are conducting the interviews in public, instead of keeping the whole process secret until the final choice, as was done last time. At least most of the interviews will be public, said Winston DeCuir, LSU executive counsel. A short part will be done behind closed doors to ensure privacy on some of the candidates' personal matters. The interviews are being held remotely via Zoom to ensure that candidates from Baton Rouge are questioned under the same conditions as candidates from other parts of the state and nation. Public comment is allowed. The Search Committee will meet Friday to vote on candidates to recommend to the LSU Board of Supervisors, who will decide what to do next and ultimately make the final decision. |
| LSU fires law firm, plans to ban Derrius Guice, scrub record books after harassment scandal | |
| In its strongest actions to date in the ongoing sexual harassment scandal at LSU, the university terminated Taylor Porter, its law firm for the past 80 years, and is preparing a "vote of disapproval" resolution saying the Board of Supervisors disapproves of three former members not telling the rest of the board about the allegation of misconduct made in 2013 against then-football coach Les Miles. LSU administrators and board members have been pilloried for only suspending two employees and transferring two others after a scathing report by the Husch Blackwell law firm last month that documented years of officials covering up sexual misconduct complaints made by students. "These are difficult decisions, and the board has tried to work to get it right," LSU board Chair Robert Dampf told The Advocate | The Times-Picayune on Friday night. "We regret some of the actions we've had to take. But these are very complicated, fact-specific issues. They take time." The university also is in the process of banning Derrius Guice from all future LSU activities and will remove his statistics from LSU record books. |
| Will Tennessee colleges require the COVID-19 vaccine this fall? | |
 | Several universities in Tennessee strongly recommend -- but do not require -- the COVID-19 vaccine for students. As many schools plan an in-person return to campus in the fall, rules for COVID-19 safety precautions, on-campus living and activities and class capacities are being announced. The University of Memphis does not currently require the COVID-19 vaccine for students. The school is planning a return to in-person classes for the fall. Mandatory safety precautions like mask-wearing and social distancing are currently in place. The University of Tennessee recently announced it will not require students at any campus to get a COVID-19 vaccine. It is planning for an in-person return to all its campuses for the fall. Mandatory safety precautions like mask-wearing and social distancing are currently in place across all campuses. Vanderbilt University, a private university, does not currently require the COVID-19 vaccine for students, but is still deciding about protocols for the fall semester, spokesperson Julia Jordan said. The school plans an in-person return to classes for the fall. Protocols for on-campus activities and other programs have not yet been announced, according to the university's website. |
| Tennessee State fights chronic underfunding | |
 | Learotha Williams Jr., a professor at Tennessee State University, witnessed how badly his institution needed funding when the campus was struck by lightning two years ago. The lightning damaged underground wires when it hit a central circuit in the campus's aged electrical system. Disruptive power outages followed for weeks at the historically Black land-grant university. "Our infrastructure shouldn't have been to a point where a lightning strike can shut down the school, not in the 21st century," said Williams, an associate professor of African American and public history. But that's almost what happened. Residence halls had to be hooked up to generators, and students soon began complaining about the accommodations. More than 9,000 students signed a petition calling for tuition refunds and citing "inconsistent" hot water and electricity and "basic needs" not being met. By law, land-grant institutions receive an annual state match to their federal land grants for food and agriculture research. But between the fiscal years of 1957 and 2007, Tennessee budget records show no funds were directed to Tennessee State University, the state's only public HBCU. According to a report by the Tennessee Office of Legislative Budget Analysis, the state owes the university anywhere between $150 million and $544 million in unpaid land-grant funds. The University of Tennessee, a predominantly white institution and the state's other land-grant university, did in fact get its full state funding each year. Some years it got even more than the required funding level. |
| Texas A&M looks to unleash secrets of dog aging | |
 | A research team that includes a professor at Texas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences has been working since November 2019 to better understand how canines age. The Dog Aging Project is a 10-year study being funded by the National Institute on Aging, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. Owners that enter their dogs into the study submit a yearly health survey of their dogs that takes 2 to 3 hours to complete, as well as two others that take 10 to 30 minutes. Kate Creevy, the project's chief veterinary officer and an associate professor of veterinary internal medicine at Texas A&M, said there are more than 30,000 dogs of all breeds and regions across the country in the study. "We're all dog lovers," she said. "We recognize that as dogs are aging and living longer, we want to be able to provide them with excellent health care and support in their aging years and we need to better understand dog aging in order to do that. But also, because dogs are a diverse type of species, they have a diverse genetic background, they live in our homes, they do different kinds of activities, and they eat different kinds of things." |
| U. of Missouri plans fall tuition increase | |
 | University of Missouri System students will see an increase in tuition this fall if the measure is approved by the Board of Curators next month. Ryan Rapp, system vice president for finance and chief financial officer, discussed the planned increases Thursday during the curators meeting. The increases will be moderate to fund investments in academic excellence, Rapp said. University budgets will be presented at the June curators meeting, but the tuition increases will be voted on by curators in May. Budgets are starting to stabilize for the 2022 fiscal year following the pandemic year, Rapp said. In-state undergraduate students will see a tuition increase between 2-5%, depending on which university they attend. The University of Missouri-Columbia will have the greatest increase at 5%, while University of Missouri-St. Louis will see the lowest at around 2%. Under current tuition costs, MU charges $306 per credit hour. Even with the 5% increase, it remains below the per-hour costs when compared to the University of Tennessee at $378 or the University of Kentucky at $464 per hour. The increased rate would be $321 per credit hour, Rapp said. Per-hour costs for system universities are roughly the median when compared to Southeastern Conference schools or other comparable universities. |
| Survey shows how provosts faced the pandemic | |
| Provosts are confident in the academic quality of their institutions, despite negative changes brought about by the pandemic, according to the 2021 Survey of College and University Chief Academic Officers, published today by Inside Higher Ed and Hanover Research. While expressing confidence, the provosts were not blind to the costs of the pandemic and academic leaders' choices about how institutions should respond. About one in four provosts said that their institution had cut faculty positions during the pandemic. They said most of the positions were adjuncts (67 percent), but also cut were nontenured, tenure-track faculty (19 percent). More provosts from private institutions than public ones said that the humanities disciplines were disproportionately cut (33 percent versus 4 percent). Most provosts (84 percent) agree that a high-quality undergraduate education requires healthy departments in fields like English. But they also note that politicians and board members are prioritizing STEM and professional programs over general education (72 percent). Furthermore, only 28 percent believe that there will be major allocations of funds to arts and science programs in their institution's next budget. |
| A Tipping Point? Dozens of Public Colleges Announce Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates | |
 | The list of colleges that will require students or employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19 this fall has been dominated by private institutions. That may be about to change. Rutgers University, a public institution, was the first in the nation to announce a vaccine mandate, on March 25. Until Thursday, just two of its public peers had followed suit. But now a wave of public colleges, led by a pair of heavyweight university systems -- the University of California and California State University -- said they, too, would require vaccines. The California systems are hedging their bets by waiting until vaccines are formally approved by the Food and Drug Administration to make their mandates official, avoiding questions about the legality of requiring vaccines that remain under emergency-use authorization, or EUA. But on Friday the University System of Maryland and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor announced requirements without such contingencies. Those announcements may mark a watershed moment for public colleges that have hesitated to take similar action. Whether to require vaccination is a thorny question for any college leader to navigate, but it's especially so for those at the helm of public institutions, which are bound by state policy -- and state funding. |
| College administrators receive near-zero pay increase during pandemic | |
| In a year punctuated by layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts at many colleges and universities, administrator pay remained nearly flat across higher education, according to a new report from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. The median salary increase for administrators between 2019-20 and 2020-21 was 0.36 percent, the report states. The minor pay bump is the lowest increase for administrators since 2010 -- during the Great Recession. This year's dip also pulls down the three-year average increase for administrators to 1.92 percent. CUPA-HR's Administrators in Higher Education Annual Report, released today, draws from a survey of more than 1,000 higher education institutions, which reported information about 47,985 administrators. Administrators include top executive officers; senior institutional and chief functional officers; institutional administrators; heads of divisions, departments and centers; academic deans; and academic associate or assistant deans. Other employees who work in administration are not included. By comparison, faculty members saw an average 1 percent increase in compensation, not adjusting for inflation -- the smallest year-over-year increase in faculty salaries since 1972, according to a survey from the American Association of University Professors. The AAUP survey used mean, a slightly different measure of the average than the CUPA-HR report's median. |
| Washington pumped $35 billion into emergency grants for college students. Here's how it's going. | |
 | It had been almost five months since Virginia Commonwealth University sophomore Brittany Ofori lost her part-time job at a substance abuse center when she received an unexpected offer of help. A campus organization for first-generation college students like Ofori, 20, emailed her in February about coronavirus pandemic relief grants from the public university in Richmond. At the time, Ofori was using her savings to pay bills. Living at home alleviated one expense, but not all of them. And none of her job interviews were leading to work. "When I got the email, I was like, 'This money could go towards so many things: food, bills or taking a summer class,' " said Ofori, a psychology major who applied for and received $2,000. "The last year has been hard, and it's still going." Colleges and universities are flush with money to help students like Ofori. Congress has earmarked $35 billion in emergency aid since last spring for students facing housing, employment and food insecurities. It is the largest federal investment in grants to rescue students in crisis and an undertaking rife with bureaucratic hurdles. Still, the proliferation of emergency aid programs is one of the few trends to emerge from the pandemic that higher education experts hope will remain after the health crisis. |
| Apple will spend $1 billion to open 3,000-employee campus in North Carolina | |
| Apple announced plans Monday to open a new campus in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area. Apple will spend over $1 billion on the campus, and it will employ 3,000 people working on technology including software engineering and machine learning. The campus is a sign of Apple's continued expansion beyond its headquarters in Cupertino, California, where most of its engineering has been based. Apple's $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, is expected to open next year. Apple's expansion will be located in North Carolina's Research Triangle area, which gets its name from nearby North Carolina State University, Duke University and the University of North Carolina. Apple CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams have MBAs from Duke. Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue, who is in charge of the company's online services, graduated from Duke. Apple joins other Silicon Valley technology companies that are expanding outside the Bay Area to gain access to a wider pool of engineering talent and in response to high housing prices and other costs of living in the region. |
| President Biden fills out science team with NOAA, DOE, and diplomacy picks | |
| President Joe Biden is rounding out his science team. The White House yesterday announced nominees to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Science, and the Department of State's Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Science Affairs. The trio includes two veterans of government service and one newcomer. NOAA, one of the country's premier climate-focused agencies, held a dubious distinction under former President Donald Trump: It went his entire term without an administrator who had been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Yesterday, Biden moved to end its string of acting leaders, nominating Rick Spinrad, an oceanographer at Oregon State University (OSU), Corvallis, and a longtime NOAA hand, as the agency's next head. At DOE, the Biden administration has turned to an outsider to lead its $7 billion research office, which is the single largest funder of the physical sciences in the Unites States and runs most of the nation's x-ray synchrotrons and other big accelerator-based user facilities. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, a soil scientist at the University of California (UC), Merced, has studied how soil processes can capture carbon, a process potentially key in fighting the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. She has won accolades for her work to promote diversity in science. Born in Eritrea, Berhe would become the first Black woman to lead the science office if confirmed by the Senate. |
| Phenomenal network combats actual hunger in Mississippi | |
 | Syndicated columnist Bill Crawford of Meridian writes: "Who is actually hungry and starved to death in Mississippi?" That was part of a gnarly response to my column about the shame of Mississippi having the "hungriest county in the U.S." Hmmm. So, the measure of hunger we should be concerned about is death by starvation? Somewhere in Mississippi children and seniors citizen are hungry. The statistics are overwhelming. Over 160,000 children, about one in four, struggle with hunger, the highest percentage in America. More than half of Mississippi seniors experience regular food shortfalls and almost half of those who are eligible for food stamps (SNAP) do not enroll. ... Mississippi's network of organizations feeding the hungry is truly phenomenal. Hundreds of churches, charities, and social service organizations do heroic work to feed hundreds of thousands of children, senior citizens, the homeless, and others in need every month. They depend on over 40 food banks to supply them food. ... Despite this extraordinary effort, Mississippians still go hungry. But because of it, no-one starves to death. |
| The new era of cooperation in Legislature continued in 2021 | |
| Bobby Harrison writes for Mississippi Today: On the final day of the 2021 legislative session in early April, Speaker Philip Gunn spoke of the "good spirit of cooperation" that had permeated the House. "This (cooperation) is something I am very proud of..," said the Republican who is in his third term as speaker. "That did not mean we agreed on everything. But working with my House colleagues there was a great spirit of trying to do the business of the people." On the other side of the Capitol, Delbert Hosemann, who is in his first term as lieutenant governor presiding over the Senate, made similar claims. Those claims by the presiding officers could be viewed as self-serving. After all, being able to bring people together is one of the characteristics of a successful presiding officer. But by most objective measures, it can be argued the 2021 session had less conflict and more cooperation than most recent sessions. ... It should be clear, though, that 2021 was not controversy free. |
SPORTS
| Ben Howland excited about Bulldogs' future | |
| Mississippi State's men's basketball team will look a lot different next season, but head coach Ben Howland is excited for the upcoming changes. Following the news of freshman Deivon Smith and sophomore Quinten Post entering the transfer portal in the last few weeks, Howland announced that Abdul Ado will not be returning for a second senior season. The 6-foot-11 forward could've chosen to return for one more season due to the NCAA's COVID eligibility rule, but Howland said Ado will pursue a professional career. Ado started 130 of the 131 career games in which he appeared. He averaged 6.1 points and 6.2 rebounds per game and recorded 248 blocks. "Abdul is not going to be back with us," Howland said in his end-of-the-year press conference. "Abdul is, I believe, going to keep all of his options open but I think he is looking to try to play professionally. I'm so appreciative for all he gave to this program and all he did to help us have success in his time. I love Abdul and will always be thankful for him." The Bulldogs could also see sophomore D.J. Stewart, the team's second-leading scorer, leave the program. But with the players leaving and Stewart possibly going to the NBA, Howland and Mississippi State have also welcomed two players from the transfer portal. |
| After stellar run to SEC championship match, Hannah Levi and Mississippi State women's golf aren't done yet | |
| Hannah Levi had seen this putt before. On Nov. 8 at the Liz Murphey Fall Collegiate in Athens, Georgia, the Mississippi State redshirt sophomore lined up the shot with a chance to win the tournament outright: a 5-foot putt for par on a slight downhill slope with break from right to left. She hit it too hard. Levi's miss left her two and a half feet past the hole. Her return putt, too, lipped out hard around the cup. She cleaned up for a double bogey, settling for a tie for first place rather than having the individual title all to herself. Stunned, Levi felt her mind swirl with questions. "Why didn't I make that putt?" she asked herself "What was going on? Why was I so shaky over that putt?" Not long after, Levi heard a message she'd never forget. "Somebody told me that I was going to learn a lot from that putt, and that's exactly what happened," she said. Facing nearly the same putt for birdie in the semifinal round of the Southeastern Conference championships April 17 against LSU, Levi sank it to send the Bulldogs on to the finals, capping a stellar run for the No. 12 seed in the tournament. It was a signature moment for Levi after a turbulent college career as she has stepped up to lead Mississippi State to success. And with the NCAA tournament in a few weeks, the Bulldogs' season isn't over yet. |
| Will the SEC change intraconference transfer bylaw? Greg Sankey sets timeline for review | |
| SEC athletes should know by June whether they can transfer from one conference institution to another and have immediate eligibility without needing a waiver. The NCAA Division I Council voted on April 14 to allow first-time transferring athletes in all sports to have immediate eligibility at their new institution. Previously, undergraduate transfers in football, men's and women's basketball, baseball and hockey needed a waiver to avoid sitting out a season. But some conferences, including the SEC, have bylaws that require athletes who transfer within the conference to sit out a season unless they receive a waiver. Already this year, the ACC and Mid-American Conference nixed their bylaws that required intraconference transfers to sit out. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said during an interview with the USA TODAY Network that his conference's university leaders will review the bylaw in the coming weeks. "We have established the expectation for a review," Sankey said. "Right now, my personal feelings don't matter. It's up to our membership to make a determination. My personal view is, our membership needs to engage in this review and make a decision about how transfers within this conference will be managed moving forward." |
| Kim Mulkey is new LSU women's basketball coach, leaving Baylor in blockbuster hire | |
| Kim Mulkey, the south Louisiana native who rose from small-town high school star to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, is set to be LSU's next women's basketball coach, sources told The Advocate on Sunday. The school made the hire official later Sunday afternoon. The only woman to win national titles as a player, assistant and head coach, the 58-year-old Mulkey comes to LSU after 21 seasons at Baylor. She replaces Nikki Fargas, who resigned from LSU to take a front office position with the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces. It is a blockbuster hire for LSU and second-year athletic director Scott Woodward, especially after months of scrutiny amid the university's mishandling of multiple cases of sexual misconduct against women. Mulkey is the most accomplished coach ever persuaded to come to LSU in any sport. Mulkey's son, Kramer Robertson, played shortstop for LSU from 2014-17. Robertson is currently playing in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. Her daughter, Makenzie Robertson Fuller, played for Mulkey at Baylor and is now associate director of operations for women's basketball. |
| What has Jalen Hurts done with his new NFL money? | |
 | After the Philadelphia Eagles selected Jalen Hurts in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, the former Alabama quarterback signed a four-year, $6.025 million contract that included a $1.942 million signing bonus and a $610,000 salary for his rookie season. What did Hurts do with his sudden wealth? Saved most of it, as he shared in the GQ video feature "My First Million." Hurts figures he spent about $165,000 of his football money -- and $60,000 of that went to charity. He didn't buy a new car or a house, but he did hire a financial advisor. Not included in Hurts' expenditures was $70,000 that he's put aside in case his younger sister needs it for her college education. "There are a ton of ways you can save money and be smart about your money," Hurts said. "Instead of buying a brand new car, because it depreciates as soon as you get off the lot, you can buy a used car or lease a car. Instead of going out to eat all the time at these five-star restaurants, you can simply cook at home, or a person like me, I'm a take me a few to-go plates from the facility. The third way you can save money is on the phone plan like Straight Talk because it runs on the same major networks like other brands but that allows you to save a lot of money. Instead of hiring a landscaping company, you can hire a local kid from the community to come cut your grass like I used to do." |
| Looming NIL legislation opens doors for a crowded marketplace | |
| When UCF football players took the field for their spring game April 10 wearing jerseys adorned with their social media handles instead of last names, they made national headlines. It was a bold strategy meant to capitalize on the issues surrounding name, image and likeness (NIL), which has been at the forefront of a changing college landscape. One person who enjoyed the move was Brandon Wimbush, who played quarterback at Notre Dame from 2015-18 before playing for UCF in 2019 as a graduate transfer. "I thought it was awesome," Wimbush said. "That was a pure example of that school and that department being proactive and letting them take advantage of that space. It brought awareness to what is going on in Florida and how UCF is taking advantage of it and allowing their athletes to do so." For Wimbush, it was a particularly satisfying moment because he helped co-found a new online agency called MOGL, which helps pair athletes with marketing and business opportunities. Wimbush and his business partner Ayden Syal, a fellow Notre Dame graduate, worked together to create a company that empowers athletes to profit on their name, image and likeness. While the NCAA has long forbidden athletes from profiting off their name, image and likeness, the organization had to reevaluate its stance recently after states began introducing and passing NIL legislation. |
The Office of Public Affairs provides the Daily News Digest as a general information resource for Mississippi State University stakeholders.
Web links are subject to change. Submit news, questions or comments to Jim Laird.
