Tuesday, June 8, 2021   
 
Campus officials urging college students to get vaccinated before the fall
University officials in Mississippi are urging college students to get the COVID-19 vaccine before returning to campus. While campuses statewide have been central sites for testing and vaccinations, getting the shot is not mandatory. Regina Hyatt is Vice President of Student Affairs at Mississippi State University. During a virtual forum yesterday about vaccination efforts, she says students aren't necessarily expressing vaccine hesitancy. Instead, what she's calling vaccine indifference. "Students are expressing to us that they are not necessarily opposed to getting vaccinated but are in fact just not certain or are not necessarily in a hurry to get vaccinated," said Hyatt. Hyatt says they're urging students to get the vaccine in enough time to be fully vaccinated before the Fall semester. Incentives university officials are discussing for those who get the shot range from t-shirts to free tuition. While some private colleges and universities across the nation are requiring students to get the COVID-19 vaccine upon entry, State Health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs warns that sort of mandate could cause some issues. "But in college, where you do have an opportunity to get vaccinated and the outcomes are relatively mild for the majority of college folks, it's hard to really raise the level of necessity to that level," said Dobbs. "Right now it doesn't seem to be justified."
 
Health and Human Services forum participants discuss vaccine hesitancy
The Health and Human Services Region 4 held a forum to provide information on the COVID-19 vaccine. One of the objectives of the forum was to provide resources to improve vaccines access. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs offered many solutions to this. According to Dobbs, the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) has partnerships with clinics in the state. If organizations or people want to sign up or host community events, they will bring the vaccines to you. During the forum, leaders also discussed the challenges surrounding vaccine hesitancy. Dr. Regina Hyatt, Vice President for Student Affairs at Mississippi State University, spoke on the hesitancy with students on campus. "Students are expressing that they aren't necessarily opposed to getting vaccinated but are just not certain or in a hurry to get vaccinated," she said. Leaders also talked about how to identify the best practices to improve confidence in the vaccines.
 
Electric Bird scooters raise concerns throughout Starkville
You've probably seen them at some time or another in Starkville. Electric scooters are the talk of the town. The Bird Company is giving citizens a different way to reach their destination in the downtown area, but it seems one problem is safety. The ride-share service is one way people are getting out and about this summer. There are nearly 75 scooters are scattered around Starkville; however, there have been complaints of people using them on the highway and parking lots. "We've noticed that those things aren't managed very well by the company itself and so we've made the decision that until all of those issues are managed better from the company themselves we don't want scooters on campus," said Mississippi State's executive director for parking and transportation Jeremiah Dumas. "We're investing in bike and pedestrian infrastructure. One thing I think is kind of a misnomer with scooters is that people believe that they are a mobility option where they connect people to destinations but most often they're just a joy ride type scenario," said Dumas.
 
Little bug turning crape myrtles into ugly lawn blemish
Crape myrtles are a common sight to Mississippians. From its colorful flower clusters to spectacular trunk colors, crape myrtles are a favorite in many landscapes. Crape myrtles are susceptible to an insect pest that can, in extreme conditions, severely stunt its growth. Crape myrtle bark scale can make once easy-to-care for trees into high-maintenance plants that make landscapes look unsightly. According to the Mississippi State University Extension Service, severe CMBS infestations are easy to spot because of heavy accumulations of black, sooty mold on the leaves, limbs and trunk. Lighter infestations may be more difficult to spot because aphids, a different insect pest, can produce the same kind of black, sooty mold. "If a homeowner suspects they have a tree with CMBS, they should look for white, felt-covered scales on the branches and trunk," said Mississippi Forestry Commission state forester Russell Bozeman "These scales are the insect pest. Puncturing these scales will produce a pinkish ooze." CMBS was first discovered in Mississippi in 2015. With few natural enemies in Mississippi, CMBS has built to unusually large numbers on infested plants.
 
Mississippi has returned or rejected nearly 872,000 COVID-19 vaccines due to low demand
Due to the low demand for COVID-19 vaccines in Mississippi, the state has returned 871,950 of the doses it was allocated to the federal vaccine pool, sent them to other states or rejected the federal allotment. This startling figure underscores the problem facing health officials and vaccine advocates across the state: getting people to take the shots that are now widely available for anyone 12 and older. Mississippi continues to rank last in the nation in the share of its population that has been vaccinated. Less than 30% of Mississippians have been fully vaccinated despite significant gains made in recent months in vaccinating the most vulnerable and making vaccine access more equitable. The issues of vaccine access that existed during the early stages of the vaccine rollout have largely been eliminated over the past few months. The Mississippi State Department of Health will now come directly to the homes of people who want to get vaccinated but don't have reliable transportation. They're also offering this option to businesses or other local organizations that want to host vaccination drives. People are simply declining to take the shots and that's keeping the state's vaccination rate low.
 
Young adults shun COVID-19 vaccine as White House warns of risks
Young adults in Generation Z are refusing the COVID-19 shot at a higher rate than other age groups, a development that many public health experts and White House officials worry could prolong the virus's spread and lead to dangerous new mutations. Some public health experts warn that young adults' decisions to shun the shot could have big consequences. "I think our best bet to get closer to herd immunity, if not get there, is to pick up young people," said Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center. "They can make a real dent when the remaining adults are still sort of hardcore vaccine-hesitant." The more people who refuse the vaccine, the more chances the virus has to mutate. American Public Health Association Executive Director Georges Benjamin said he is concerned the virus will mutate rapidly within unvaccinated, young and healthy people and create a new strain that is resistant to the COVID-19 vaccines on the market. When Gen Z adults who are 18 to 24 became eligible to get vaccinated, many didn't see a need to rush. COVID-19 case numbers are falling, mask restrictions are disappearing and life has, in many ways, started returning to normal. Despite the concerns, Amesh Adalja, a John Hopkins Center for Health Security senior scholar, is not overly worried about the low vaccination uptake among young adults in Gen Z. He hopes this age group will reach population-level immunity via a combination of vaccinations and natural infection, and virus spread in this relatively low-risk age group will become endemic and seasonal.
 
U.S. Report Found It Plausible Covid-19 Leaked From Wuhan Lab
A report on the origins of Covid-19 by a U.S. government national laboratory concluded that the hypothesis claiming the virus leaked from a Chinese lab in Wuhan is plausible and deserves further investigation, according to people familiar with the classified document. The study was prepared in May 2020 by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and was drawn on by the State Department when it conducted an inquiry into the pandemic's origins during the final months of the Trump administration. It is attracting fresh interest in Congress now that President Biden has ordered that U.S. intelligence agencies report to him within weeks on how the virus emerged. Mr. Biden said that U.S. intelligence has focused on two scenarios -- whether the coronavirus came from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident. People familiar with the study said that it was prepared by Lawrence Livermore's "Z Division," which is its intelligence arm. Lawrence Livermore has considerable expertise on biological issues. Its assessment drew on genomic analysis of the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, they said.
 
Gov. Tate Reeves supports 'will of voters' on issue of medical marijuana
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves says he wants legislators to put a medical marijuana program into state law after the state Supreme Court recently overturned one that voters approved. "I support the will of the voters. ... I think we will have a medical marijuana program in Mississippi," the Republican governor said during an interview that aired during the weekend on WLOX-TV. A majority of justices ruled May 14 that a medical marijuana proposal, Initiative 65, was not properly on the November ballot because Mississippi's initiative process is outdated and unworkable. The ruling overturned voters' approval of Initiative 65 and took away citizens' process to put issues on the statewide ballot. Mississippi remains in the minority of states without a medical marijuana program. Reeves has not said whether he will call legislators into special session, but he told WLOX about passing a law: "It is imperative that we get it done, and get it done quickly." The Senate Public Health Committee met last week to start discussing what could go into a medical marijuana law.
 
Special election to address ballot initiative can happen this year, but it will cost
If the Mississippi Legislature does set the date for a special election this year to reinstate the ballot initiative process that was invalidated last month by the Supreme Court, it would cost the state or local governments and perhaps both. In a statement to Mississippi Today, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Michael Watson, whose office oversees elections on a statewide basis, said she could not provide an estimate of the cost because it is normally borne by local governments. But in an interview last month on SuperTalk Radio, Watson estimated the cost statewide between $1 million and $1.5 million. After contacting multiple local circuit clerks, Mississippi Today estimated an average cost of $20,000 each for the state's 82 counties to conduct a special election for the sole purpose of voting to fix the ballot initiative process. That would be an estimated total of $1.64 million or, if one million people voted in the special election, about $1.65 per voter. The Mississippi Constitution and precedent confirm that a vote to reinstate the initiative would not have to be delayed until the next statewide general election in November 2022 as some have maintained. But it would be less expensive to delay the vote until the next regularly scheduled general election.
 
Mississippi getting first Black female chief federal judge
A Black woman, for the first time, will become a chief federal judge in Mississippi. Court officials said in a news release Monday that U.S. District Judge Debra M. Brown will become the chief judge of the state's northern judicial district during a ceremony Friday in Greenville. She will receive the gavel from U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock, who remains on the federal bench but is ending a seven-year term in the top spot in the district. Brown was nominated to the federal bench in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama. She will be the first Black woman to serve as a chief judge in either of the state's two federal court districts.
 
Senate report details sweeping failures around Jan. 6 attack
A Senate investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has uncovered broad government, military and law enforcement missteps surrounding the violent attack, including a breakdown within multiple intelligence agencies and a lack of training and preparation for Capitol Police officers who were quickly overwhelmed by the rioters. The Senate report released Tuesday is the first -- and could be the last -- bipartisan review of how hundreds of former President Donald Trump's supporters were able to violently push past security lines and break into the Capitol that day, interrupting the certification of President Joe Biden's victory. It includes new details about the police officers on the front lines who suffered chemical burns, brain injuries and broken bones and who told senators that they were left with no direction when command systems broke down. It recommends immediate changes to give the Capitol Police chief more authority, to provide better planning and equipment for law enforcement and to streamline intelligence gathering among federal agencies.
 
How A New Team Of Feds Hacked The Hackers And Got Colonial Pipeline's Ransom Back
The Department of Justice on Monday touted the recovery of $2.3 million -- about half -- of the ransom that was collected by hackers in the Colonial Pipeline attack last month. Experts say it was a surprising outcome to an increasingly frequent and severe crime. "Ransomware is very seldom recovered," said April Falcon Doss, executive director of the Institute for Technology Law and Policy at Georgetown Law, who described it as "a really big win" for the government. "What we don't know is whether or not this is going to pave the way for future similar successes." That's because there are several unexplained factors that contributed to the operation's success. During a press conference Monday, top federal law enforcement officials explained that the money was recovered by a recently launched Ransomware and Digital Extortion Task Force, which had been created as part of the government's response to a surge of cyberattacks. Court documents released in the Colonial Pipeline case say the FBI got in by using the encryption key linked to the Bitcoin account to which the ransom money was delivered. However, officials have not disclosed how they got that key. One of the reasons criminals like to use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is the anonymity of the entire system, as well as the idea that funds in any given cryptocurrency wallet can be accessed only with a complex digital key.
 
Why are some states experiencing a tax revenue surplus?
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a state tax revenue plunge -- the biggest in at least 25 years. Now some states have a revenue surplus; 29 states took in as much or more in tax revenue between March 2020 and February 2021 than they did the year before, according to data from Pew. States were planning budgets for this fiscal year during the earliest and most uncertain days of the pandemic. Businesses were closed. Layoffs were mounting. "And so part of that led to just a tremendous amount of uncertainty for state revenue forecasters," said Justin Theal, an author of the Pew report. He said most states braced for the worst, and for some, the worst did happen. Tax revenue in oil-dependent Alaska was down by almost half. Revenue in tourism-heavy Hawaii was down 17%. But in Idaho, Utah and Colorado, tax revenue went up at least 8%. Theal said there were three reasons for the increases. First, there's the American Rescue Plan that bailed out state budgets. Then the unemployment benefits -- which are usually taxed -- and stimulus checks. People spent a lot of that money on goods, too, which are taxed more than services. Finally, many high earners, who pay more in tax, kept their jobs. But according to Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, no one is swimming in cash. "A lot of states were just barely trying to get back to where they were before the last recession," he said.
 
Recent Spate of Mass Shootings Is Among Worst in U.S. History
A string of mass shootings over the past three months as the U.S. re-opened from the pandemic was one of the worst on record, and law-enforcement officials are fearful of more to come. There were five attacks in which four or more people were killed in public places from March through May, matching the highest three-month total going back to 1966, according to the Violence Project, a mass-shooting database run by two criminology professors. For almost exactly a year, as Covid gripped the country, there were no shootings that killed four or more people in public places, according to the project. Then on March 16, a 21-year-old fatally shot eight people at spas in the Atlanta area. That attack was followed by mass shootings at a Colorado supermarket, a Southern California office building, an Indianapolis FedEx facility, and a San Jose, Calif., railyard. A total of 39 people were killed. Law-enforcement officials and threat-assessment professionals say possible factors behind the recent spate of mass shootings include the growth in public gatherings as the Covid-19 threat has eased, the stress of the pandemic on Americans' mental health and record sales of guns last year.
 
Khayat Lecture Series Announced
Inspirational ideas, fresh perspectives and unique insights will be shared with University of Mississippi students and the larger community as a result of the new Robert C. Khayat Lecture Series, which the Ole Miss Women's Council for Philanthropy launches this fall. By bringing renowned cross-cultural leaders, entrepreneurs and philanthropists to the Oxford campus, the Khayat Lecture Series creates opportunities for these speakers to share ideas and experiences and "cultivate a more expansive mindset" among students and other community members, said Karen Moore, of Nashville, Tennessee, a UM alumna and OMWC active member and former chair. The lecture series was first announced at a recent OMWC event featuring a conversation with Amy Grant, the Nashville-based singer, songwriter and musician. "Amy is an amazing speaker and she has experienced so many of life's opportunities as a singer, songwriter, artist, actor and author," Moore said. "She shared stories that exposed our students to a wide variety of ideas and personal experiences – some were awe-inspiring and others were humorous. But all her stories offered our scholars a glimpse into a world they had probably never seen but can now imagine."
 
Healthier Mississippi People addresses nursing shortage at UMMC, works to fill in gaps
A nationwide shortage of nurses has left many hospitals in a bind, even as hospitalizations for COVID-19 begin to decrease. Mississippi is no exception. Healthier Mississippi People helps manage staffing at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) in Jackson. Right now, their mission is to fill in any gaps in each nursing department. The shortage started long before COVID-19 hit our state in March 2020, but the pandemic exacerbated it. Executive director Stephen Brown said it's looking to hire a special kind of person to fill the void. "What you'll see here at the medical center are things you won't see at other places," Brown said. "This is the place if you want to be exposed to things you won't see anywhere else. That certainly helps you with your experience, with your knowledge. It opens up so many avenues." Nurses said that one of the best part of working at UMMC is the comradery, the respect and the feeling of having a little family at work.
 
USM undergrads now able to rent textbooks for flat fee with Eagle Direct Textbooks
To reduce the financial burden to students that can be caused by the high prices of textbooks, the University of Southern Mississippi is partnering with Barnes & Noble College to launch a new program that is expected to lower costs and increase access to those materials. The program, called Eagle Direct Textbooks, will be available to undergraduates beginning in the Fall 2021 semester. Participants can select all required course materials for their undergraduate classes for a flat fee -- $20 per credit hour -- regardless of how much each individual book would cost separately. "I'm very excited about this opportunity for our students," said Allyson Easterwood, vice president for Finance and Administration at Southern Miss. "I know the costs of textbooks has increased over the years, and I'm just really thrilled that The University of Southern Mississippi has taken this opportunity to participate in this program with Barnes and Noble. Easterwood said the program will offer affordable options to university students, with three main aspects: access, affordability and convenience.
 
Auburn University board to vote on Quad overhaul, expansion at airport
Construction projects loom large on the agenda this week for Auburn University's Board of Trustees. The trustees will meet Thursday afternoon and Friday morning at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. It will be the second straight in-person board meeting since COVID-19 restrictions began to ease in late winter. The board will vote on a final approval to proceed with the $13.5 million refit of the Quad's Harper and Broun halls. The work would include the renovation of 51,510 square feet of existing interior and exterior space and replacing mechanical, electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems -- including improved availability of hot water -- and new furnishings and fixtures. All doors and windows would be replaced, too. Broun and Harper are the first two of the 10 Quad dorms due for renovations over the next decade. On top of that, new dorms will be built adjacent to the Quad in order to shutter the dorms on The Hill on the south end of campus. The university has leased the 160 Ross student apartment complex to house students displaced from The Hill while the new campus housing is under construction.
 
Auburn University holds summer culinary classes
This summer, chef Ana Plana is bringing a whole new twist on date night to The Plains. Auburn University's College of Human Sciences will host recreational cooking classes throughout June and July. One of these classes is "Date Night." Though Auburn has embarked on summer cooking classes before, such as Camp Chew for children, "Date Night" explores a new avenue of cooking. The night offers a unique experience for couples to enjoy a meal with each other that they prepared. The culinary science program started the classes to create awareness of and community within their program over the summer. Their hope is for the Auburn Family to be able to engage with their program before they move into the Rane Culinary Science Center in fall 2022. "Our program had its first culinary science classes in spring 2020 when the pandemic hit; now that things are slowly returning, our hope is our students will have more opportunities to participate in more events," Plana said. "Our students also started a culinary club with many activities planned, and hopefully, those will also begin moving along."
 
New LSU President William F. Tate IV close to signing contract; see contract details
LSU and William F. Tate IV have come to terms on a contract for the South Carolina scholar to take the reins as president of the LSU system and chancellor of the Baton Rouge flagship campus. The terms have been agreed to, LSU executives said Monday, and ink will be placed on paper sometime this week. Tate said Sunday that he'd sign the contract. Tate's pay package will be about $775,000 per year, when auto and housing allowances are added. That's more than the $670,000 annual pay that his predecessors F. King Alexander and Tom Galligan received, but in line with what other Southeastern Conference leaders make. He will start on July 5. Tate said he and his wife will move into the school-owned University House on East Lakeshore Drive across University Lake from the Baton Rouge campus. The traditional president's home has sat empty for nearly a decade. The second floor living areas haven't been used since Michael Martin left his chancellor's post in 2012. The downstairs was used occasionally for cocktail parties. The governor stayed there for a short time during repairs in 2016 when the Governor's Mansion was flooded. But the governor's office brought a lot equipment and necessaries when they stayed and took it all back when they returned. LSU is repainting and replacing carpets but the Jetson's-like design and furnishing will remain. "It's real '60s vibe," Tate said. But, Tate said, he wants to be part of the LSU community.
 
In what could be a first, U. of Kentucky board of trustees will vote on firing tenured faculty member
For what is thought to be the first time, the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees will vote next week on whether to end the appointment of a tenured UK faculty member. Tenure is a job status that generally protects an employee from dismissal. However, UK Deputy General Counsel Shannan Stamper said Monday the board can end the appointment of a tenured faculty member for incompetency, neglect of or refusal to perform duties, or for immoral conduct. UK spokesman Jay Blanton said the faculty member at the center of a June 16 hearing was Xianglin Shi. Shi was a professor who UK alleges is responsible for significant research misconduct in a number of scholarly papers. UK officials said in 2019 they were seeking retraction of the publications in question and, absent their agreement to resign, would begin a process to terminate the employment of Shi and others involved. "To our knowledge the board has not held a hearing" to end the appointment of a tenured university faculty member, Stamper said. Stamper said based on her review, the board has not even conducted a similar hearing in almost 40 years. A prior hearing involved a community college faculty member when the state's community college system was formally connected to UK. Stamper said all requirements had been followed and notification given to the faculty member for the upcoming hearing.
 
U. of South Carolina will now let students, employees choose preferred pronouns in internal system
Just in time for LGBTQ Pride Month, the University of South Carolina will allow students and employees to change their preferred personal pronouns in their official, personal data. The policy change, effective Tuesday, June 1, applies to all campuses and also allows students to change their preferred first or last names once every 365 days, according to a release from USC. "The Preferred Personal Data option will benefit our entire campus community because many students, faculty and staff get married, divorced, or simply go by a different name other than their legal name," USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said in an email. "Until now those individuals haven't had the ability to self-select a preferred first/last name. The initiative also helps us better serve members of our LGBTQ+ community." Students will be able to choose the pronouns he/him/his, she/her/hers, they/them/theirs and ze/zir/zirs, and others, according to the release. Sasha Sawyer, a transgender USC senior studying chemistry who uses they/them pronouns, said this is a step forward for USC. "Our ability to express our preferred pronouns in any context is a good thing," Sawyer said.
 
Gov. Ron DeSantis signs laws to combat Chinese influence at Florida universities
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed two bills into law Monday designed to combat foreign influence in Florida's universities from countries deemed hostile to the U.S., especially China, and crack down on theft of trade secrets and intellectual property. "If you look right now, there is no single entity that exercises a more pervasive nefarious influence across a wide range of American industries and institutions than the Communist Party of China," DeSantis said at a bill signing ceremony at a Florida National Guard facility in Miami. "Academia is permeated with its influence." DeSantis bashed China for its handling of the COVID-19 virus, asserting it leaked from a lab, and decried the country's influence among U.S. entertainment companies, two issues that have made headlines recently. But the bills he signed, HB 7017 and HB 1523, were spurred by incidents over the past decade of Chinese nationals working at Florida colleges stealing sensitive materials and designs of military equipment. DeSantis said the bills were more timely because of the wide influence China has in U.S. cultural institutions, particularly in "corporate media" and entertainment companies.
 
Trial of former U. of Tennessee professor centers on whether he concealed ties to Chinese university
Is a former University of Tennessee professor a fraudster who hid ties to a Chinese university or an innocent man targeted in a bid by federal agents to satisfy former President Donald Trump's vow to hunt down Chinese spies? It will be up to a federal jury in U.S. District Court in Knoxville to decide Anming Hu's fate as he stands trial this week on charges of wire fraud and making false statements to secure NASA research funding. His trial is the first legal test of a 2011 law designed to keep U.S. government agencies from unwittingly funding China's drive for global preeminence in scientific development. The law bars agencies such as NASA from doling out research funding for projects that involve "participation, collaboration or coordination" with "Chinese-owned companies," including Chinese universities. There is no allegation that Hu was spying for China or used any information he gleaned through his work at UT to aid or benefit the Chinese government. The trial comes amid a rash of violence in the U.S. against Asians, and the Tennessee Chinese American Alliance, along with local leaders from the Asian American community, say they are alarmed about racial profiling that creates a "environment of fear" on campuses.
 
U. of Arkansas land sale continues, despite law
The University of Arkansas System is continuing with plans to sell about half of the acreage at its Pine Tree Research Station in St. Francis County to a private entity even though the General Assembly this spring passed a law prohibiting the sale. The UA Division of Agriculture has asked the state Game and Fish Commission to sign a cooperative agreement to manage hunting and fishing activities on the 6,300 acres that have been under a sales contract since last year. The commission's management would continue through the end of the year, according to the proposal. "The [UA System] is still trying to salvage the sale," Sen. Ron Caldwell, R-Wynne, whose district includes the Pine Tree station, said. "If they continue, they will make a lot of legislators mad. There will be major blowback." The sale will be on the agenda of a joint meeting of the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs at 10 a.m. today. Caldwell was a leader in legislative efforts to stop the sale to a private entity, Lobo Farms LLC, which is registered with the secretary of state's office as being based in the Poinsett County community of Fisher. Its principal agent is based in Memphis. Caldwell also has asked the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee "to conduct a full audit" of the agriculture division and the process it followed in its efforts to sell the Pine Tree acreage. Caldwell said he believes the acreage should remain open for public use and not sold to a private entity.
 
'A new chapter for the chapter': Alpha Phi sorority's house at U. of Missouri comes down
Amy Jordan spent Monday morning livestreaming the demolition of the Alpha Phi sorority house at 906 Providence Road. From her vantage point across Providence Road, Jordan watched as the 1924 house became rubble and dust. "We've been working on this for five years," said Jordan, a 1989 University of Missouri alumna and member of the house corporation board. She and four current sorority sisters were there in the late morning when the last of the house came down. "We are excited," said Jaclyn Paul, a rising sophomore at MU who joined the sorority in August 2020. "It's a new chapter for the chapter." The new house will go up in the same space between the Delta Gamma sorority house and Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house on the east side of Providence Road and just south of Burnam Road. The old house was torn down to update electrical, plumbing and the overall appearance of the house. The new house will provide more housing and more seating for chapterwide events. The house director, Christy Garnett, will have an apartment within the house. Two annexes were pulled down last week and will serve as parking lots for Alpha Phi.
 
Western Michigan University receives record $550 million alumni donation
Western Michigan University, usually overshadowed by certain other state schools in Ann Arbor and East Lansing, announced Tuesday that it has landed the largest private gift ever to a public university: $550 million. The blockbuster donation to the university in Kalamazoo, from anonymous Western Michigan alumni, eclipses the previous record of $500 million on a list kept by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The funding, to be delivered to the university's foundation over 10 years, will flow in three main streams: $300 million for Western Michigan's Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine; $200 million for need-based financial aid, faculty hiring and other university initiatives; and $50 million for the school's Bronco athletic programs. Often, major donations help the richest colleges and universities get richer. That is not the case in this instance. Western Michigan's endowment, before the gift, stood at $480 million, school officials say. That is a substantial sum but far lower than the holdings of the state's two most prominent universities. "We do a good job in promoting social mobility," university president Edward Montgomery said in a telephone interview. "Our donors believe in that vision. ... I'm immensely pleased to have this gift. Its size allows it to be transformative."
 
Department of Education begins Title IX public hearings
The Department of Education began five days of public hearings Monday, during which it expects to hear from 600 individuals about how it can improve Title IX enforcement, following a directive from President Biden to re-examine the controversial regulations put in place by the Trump administration. As of last Friday, over 700 people had registered to comment for 600 confirmed slots in virtual hearings, during which the department will not respond to what is said. The department had also received 15,000 written comments, which will continue to be accepted throughout the duration of the hearings. Commenters covered a range of issues related to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 -- from the need for Title IX to address sexual violence prevention to the debate over transgender athletes competing on sports teams -- on the first day, with both supporters and opposers of the regulations released last May under former secretary Betsy DeVos represented among the speakers. Those regulations made several notable changes to higher education Title IX practices, such as requiring institutions to allow live hearings and cross-examinations and limiting the scope of off-campus misconduct complaints colleges must act upon to those that occurred in locations used by officially recognized student organizations.
 
Can Biden administration solve higher ed's Title IX controversies?
A stronger focus on sexual assault prevention would be the most powerful change to Title IX, a commenter said during an Office for Civil Rights virtual hearing on updating the law. Title IX places too much emphasis on reporting sexual assault as the primary way to prevent rape and other violations, which places too much responsibility on victims, said Miranda Martone, founder of the Sexual Violence Prevention Association. Martone called for a system of prevention similar to the Department of Transportation's campaign against drunk driving in 1980s, which reduced the problem substantially, she said. "No matter how much support and healing I do I will never fully recover," Martone said of the sexual assaults she experienced as a child and in college. "I would much prefer my rape was prevented in the first place." The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, also known as OCR, is holding a five-day virtual hearing this week as it reviews Trump-era revisions to Title IX regulations and works to implement President Joe Biden's March 8 executive order on "Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, Including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity."
 
Online learning leaders want to prioritize flexibility post-pandemic
Chief online officers are already planning how to take advantage of the online learning expertise their institutions gained during the pandemic, according to a new report on the future of online learning post-pandemic. The sixth Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report, published today by Eduventures Research and Quality Matters, offers insight into how college and university administrators responded to the pandemic and what online learning leaders consider to be strategic priorities for online learning over the next three to five years. Contrary to the fears of some online learning advocates, the hurried shift to remote instruction in 2020 appears to have boosted support for online learning, said Ron Legon, executive director emeritus at Quality Matters and senior editor of the report. "In the early days of the pandemic, there was considerable concern that poorly done online courses might hurt the reputation of online learning," said Legon. That opinion has now shifted, and online learning has "grown in stature and acceptability," he said. The CHLOE report, which includes partial and complete survey responses from 422 chief online learning officers, indicates there is now greater concern for quality standards and increased commitment to faculty professional development and preparing face-to-face students to study online. The survey was sent to a total of 3,452 colleges and universities in February 2021.
 
Why more college students, athletes are committing to HBCUs
It's the time when high school graduates make that consequential decision: What's next? Curtis Lawrence has made his choice. Behind those braces and that megawatt smile is a gifted 16-year-old who recently made a tough choice for his future. Curtis was offered a total of $1.6 million in scholarships and was accepted into 14 schools, including Harvard and Yale, but he decided on Florida A&M University, a historically Black university also known as FAMU. "They made sure to reach out to me," he said, adding that he felt welcomed at the university. "I know FAMU is the right choice for me." "Throughout my life, my parents made sure to make me interested in HBCUs," Curtis continued. "And that there was a place for me to be developed as a young Black man." Since the death of George Floyd, many students and athletes have taken it upon themselves to not only use their voices but also take action in a way they believe will make change. As colleges overall saw a nearly 3% dip in enrollment this spring compared to last year, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, HBCUs are exploding in popularity both in classrooms and on the court.
 
Economic literacy is important
Steve Turner, a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Mississippi State University and a board member of the Mississippi Council on Economic Education, writes: Literacy is commonly perceived as being able to read and write and that is an incredibly important skill for anyone's success. But there are many variations on literacy that enable individuals and societies to progress and grow. One area of utmost importance is economic literacy. Notice, I said "economic" and not business, financial, or other subdisciplines of economics. Literacy in business, finance, marketing, management, and a multitude of other areas is important, but a basic understanding of economics is foundational to understanding most decisions regarding the allocation of scarce resources (a common definition of economics). ... We know that literacy is best addressed when a person is young when they are usually eager to learn. This is why we have early reading programs and pre-school programs for children. Economics tells us that these programs are one of society's best investments and the return is high. The good news here in Mississippi is that economic literacy is not an afterthought and has been the primary focus of the Mississippi Counsel on Economic Education (MSCEE)) for over 17 years.


SPORTS
 
Super Schedule Set for Saturday Start
For the fifth straight season the Mississippi State baseball program will play in an NCAA Super Regional, with the second straight event hosted at Dudy Noble Field kicking off at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 12. It is the fourth time in program history that Mississippi State will host a Super Regional, also hosting in 2007 and 2019. The Diamond Dawgs have won four of the nine previous Super Regional appearances, including each of the years they hosted. After sweeping through the NCAA Starkville Regional, No. 7 national seed Mississippi State (43-15) will host No. 10 national seed Notre Dame (33-11) in the NCAA Starkville Super Regional beginning on Saturday, June 12. The complete schedule for the best two-of-three series is below: Saturday, June 12, 1 p.m. CT (ESPN); Sunday, June 13, 5 p.m. CT (ESPN2/ESPNU); and Monday, June 14, 6 p.m. CT (ESPN2/ESPNU; If Necessary). The Bulldogs are looking for a 12th all-time appearance at the College World Series, while Notre Dame is in search of its third trip to Omaha. General public ticket information and information on parking will be provided later in the week.
 
Super State: Bulldogs hold off Campbell, will host Notre Dame in Super Regionals
As Dudy Noble Field erupted around him, Lane Forsythe jogged toward second base. The Mississippi State shortstop met second baseman Scotty Dubrule a few steps to the third-base side of the bag, whooping it up in celebration. Seconds earlier, it was Forsythe who had made the final out of Monday's game against Campbell, scooping up a hard grounder from the Camels' Zach Neto and firing it to first base. The play, which wrapped up a 6-5 Mississippi State win to send the Bulldogs (43-15) to the Super Regional round, was a reminder of all that went into an undefeated weekend at the NCAA Starkville Regional. The junior-college transfer who came out of the bullpen to keep the Bulldogs afloat. The struggling freshman who put them ahead. The lockdown reliever who made sure they stayed there. And Forsythe -- the freshman, the No. 9 hitter, 0-for-3 on the night, 0-for-11 on the weekend -- sending the Bulldogs on to their fifth straight Super Regional and a matchup with No. 10 national seed Notre Dame this weekend in Starkville. "That's baseball, man," senior right fielder Tanner Allen said. "The ball always finds you."
 
Mississippi State advances to 5th straight super regional
Landon Sims struck out four in three innings of scoreless relief for his ninth save, and No. 7 overall seed Mississippi State clinched its fifth straight trip to the super regionals with a 6-5 victory over Campbell on Monday. Mississippi State (43-15), which has won 10 straight NCAA regional games, will host Notre Dame this weekend. Mississippi State starter Jackson Fristoe was pulled with one out in the first after allowing three runs. Houston Harding (7-2) struck out 10 in five innings and Sims got out of a jam in the ninth after allowing a leadoff double. Tanner Allen singled in the ninth for his 269th career hit, passing Rafael Palmeiro for 10th on the Mississippi State list. Allen went 2 for 3, with two walks, to extend his hitting streak to 21 games. Kamren James opened the scoring for Mississippi State in the first with an RBI double before stealing third and scoring on an error. He also had a go-ahead two-run homer in the third, and Logan Tanner added a home run in the fifth for a 6-3 lead.
 
Mississippi State baseball beats Campbell to win NCAA Starkville Regional
Mississippi State is headed to a fifth straight super regional. The Bulldogs beat Campbell 6-5 at Dudy Noble Field on Monday to win the NCAA Tournament Starkville Regional with an unblemished 3-0 record. No. 7 overall seed Mississippi State (43-15) will host No. 10 Notre Dame (33-11) in the Starkville Super Regional this weekend. Campbell (37-18) jumped out to a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Senior left fielder Spencer Packard drilled a three-run home run off MSU freshman starter Jackson Fristoe, who was pulled from the mound after recording just one out. Senior reliever Houston Harding replaced Fristoe and recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts in five innings. He allowed two runs, both of which crossed the plate when he had already been replaced at the end of his outing. Harding allowed Mississippi State to take the lead back and maintain it. Senior outfielders Rowdey Jordan and Tanner Allen, as well as sophomore third baseman Kamren James, had three hits apiece. James hit a two-run home run in the third that put MSU back on top 4-3. It was James' second homer in as many games. Sophomore catcher Logan Tanner added an insurance run with a solo shot in the fifth.
 
Houston Harding, Landon Sims pitch Mississippi State into super regionals
Houston Harding and Landon Sims pitched Mississippi State to its fifth-straight super regional appearance on Monday afternoon. No. 1-seed MSU beat No. 3 Campbell, 6-5, in the Starkville regional championship at Dudy Noble Field. The Bulldogs (43-15) swept the regional series and beat all three visiting teams. Mississippi State, the No. 7 national seed, now advances to a super regional series against No. 10 Notre Dame this weekend in Starkville. "I feel we are in a really good spot," head coach Chris Lemonis said. We played really good baseball most of these games. We pitched and defended at a high level and had lot of big swings. I like where we are at. We have a tough weekend coming up." Third baseman Kamren James was named the regional MVP after his 2-5 day at the plate. He hit a RBI-double and two-run home run that gave Mississippi State a 4-3 lead in the third inning. James, Rowdey Jordan and Tanner Allen each had two hits in the game after each having three hits on Saturday night. Jordan finished the weekend with eight total hits and four doubles while Tanner Allen had multiple hits in all three games as well.
 
What to know about Notre Dame, Mississippi State baseball's Super Regional opponent
The stage is set. No. 7 overall seed Mississippi State (43-15) will take on No. 10 Notre Dame (33-11) at Dudy Noble Field in the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament starting Saturday at 1 p.m. CT (ESPN). The Bulldogs and Irish will battle in a best-of-three series with a spot in the College World Series on the line. Mississippi State has appeared in the past two CWS. Notre Dame has not made a trip to Omaha since 2002. No regional winner scored more runs than Notre Dame last weekend. The Irish outscored opponents in the South Bend Regional by a combined score of 50-5. Notre Dame hit 15 home runs in two wins over Central Michigan and an eye-popping 26-3 rout of UConn. The Irish only trailed once in the three games, and the deficit lasted half an inning. The Irish thought this series could have been played in South Bend. National outlets had Notre Dame projected as a top eight national seed going into last week's selection show. The Irish slipped to No. 10, so a trip to Starkville is on the docket. Notre Dame players use that as a chip on their shoulder.
 
Analysis: Bulldogs secure fifth straight Super Regional appearance with well-balanced weekend
Three wins, one weather-induced postponement, one 18-minute rain delay and lots of Mississippi State runs later, those lousy two days at the Southeastern Conference tournament last month already seem to be ancient history. The Bulldogs, the No. 7 seed nationally, won their Regional by beating all three teams in the regional once. In the process, MSU secured its fifth straight Super Regional appearance (we aren't counting an interrupted 2020 season, obviously) and 10th all-time, with a 6-5 victory over Campbell in the Regional final Monday. "The message all week to our guys was 'This is where you belong," MSU coach Chris Lemonis said. "This is where Mississippi State is supposed to be'. It's all about the players." Of course, timely hitting played a key part too. Kamren James slugged his way to a Regional MVP, Rowdey Jordan was impossible to get out and Tanner Allen was Tanner Allen en route to scoring 30 runs in three games. After being outscored 25-3 in two days in Hoover, the Bulldogs are back to playing like an elite program. But their next opponent certainly is also playing like a top team nationally, considering Notre Dame just cakewalked its way through its own regional this weekend. "We feel like we have one of the hottest teams in the country coming in here," Lemonis said.
 
4 more SEC teams win NCAA regionals; USF's run keeps going
Four more Southeastern Conference teams earned spots in the NCAA baseball tournament super regionals Monday night, while Stanford, Dallas Baptist and the upstart South Florida Bulls also continued their seasons. No. 1 overall seed Arkansas broke open its game against Nebraska late, got another superb pitching performance from Kevin Kopps and won 6-2 in Fayetteville for its third straight regional title. The SEC champion Razorbacks, who haven't lost a three-game series since May 2019, won two of three against the Big Ten champion Cornhuskers in the regional. No. 7 Mississippi State finished a 3-0 run through its regional in Starkville with a 6-5 win over Campbell, and No. 12 Ole Miss bounced back from a Sunday loss to Southern Mississippi to beat the Golden Eagles 12-9 in Oxford. LSU, a No. 3 regional seed, pushed back coach Paul Mainieri's retirement by at least another week, staving off elimination a fourth time with a 9-8 victory over No. 14 Oregon in Eugene. Arkansas, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and LSU joined Vanderbilt and Tennessee in the super regionals.
 
Alabama football coach Nick Saban receives contract extension through 2028 season
Alabama football coach Nick Saban's contract has been extended through 2029, the school announced Monday. The new agreement adds three seasons to his existing contract and will run through the 2028 season, expiring at the end of February 2029. Saban's annual base salary of $275,000 and talent fee (currently at $8.425 million) will increase annually in unspecified amounts, with a contract completion bonus of $800,000 payable at the end of the 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 contract years. At some point in the term of the new contract provisions, Saban will become the first college coach to break the $10 million mark in annual, recurring compensation. He received $11.1 million in 2017 in large part because of a one-time $4 million signing bonus, and Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski topped $10 million one year due to a similar one-time bonus, but no college coach has reached that milestone in regular annual compensation. "As I've said since the day I got to town, we're going to do everything we can to make sure we continue to re-invest in our success as a program and keep Coach Saban knowing that we're continuing to move forward so he continues to coach for as long as he physically wants to do it," UA athletics director Greg Byrne told The Tuscaloosa News on Sunday while in Oklahoma City to watch the Alabama softball team in the Women's College World Series. "I'm still very optimistic that he has a lot of years left in him."
 
Georgia athletics promotes from within on top fundraising post
The Georgia Bulldogs have tabbed Ford Williams as their top fundraising executive. Williams succeeds Matt Borman, who served as the athletic association's executive associate athletic director for development since 2017. Borman left UGA in April to assume a similar position at LSU. Borman and Williams have worked closely together since Williams came to UGA from Clemson to head up UGA's major gifts program in the summer of 2017. Over that span, the Bulldogs have seen the Magill Society donor club grow to more than 1,400 members and have completed $184 million worth of facilities projects. Williams helped Georgia collect pledges for the construction of the $31 million indoor football practice facility, the $63 million West End improvements at Sanford Stadium and the ongoing $80 million football operations addition to the Butts-Mehre Complex. Before coming to Georgia, Williams was assistant director of major gifts for Clemson's "IPTAY" fundraising program from 2012 to 2017. Williams previously worked in fundraising at Georgia State, where he earned a master's degree in sport management in 2009. Williams received his bachelor's degree in exercise science from North Carolina, where he was a four-year starter for the men's soccer team.
 
'Reverse Sponsorship' Sees Baylor University Buy Naming Rights At Topgolf Waco
Usually, stories about naming rights deals with universities as one of the parties involve a brand paying to put its name on a university stadium, arena, field or court. Today, however, Topgolf Entertainment Group began activating its new three-year partnership with Baylor University that will see Baylor paying for naming rights at Topgolf Waco. The first-of-its-kind deal for Topgolf for digital field naming rights will see "Baylor Field at Topgolf Waco" integrated into the digital replays of guest shots traced through the Toptracer technology. Static displays for four permanent Baylor-branded VIP bays, digital advertising, commercial spots on the in-venue Topgolf TV and to-be-determined discount offers for both current and prospective student athletes will also be part of the partnership. "I am calling this a 'reverse sponsorship' for Baylor, as companies typically pay us to use our brand," says Jason Cook, Baylor University's CMO and vice president for marketing and communications. "This is the complete opposite approach. ... We are hoping for tap into Topgolf's brand halo, positioning Waco as a vibrant community with lots of things for students to do while at Baylor. The partnership demonstrates Baylor's further commitment to the success of Waco outside of our traditional campus footprint."
 
Amid uncertainty, schools prepare for paid athlete endorsers
There is Arizona Edge and Buffs with a Brand. Oklahoma State rolled out OSU Elite and Texas Tech launched Beyond Verified. Florida State unveiled Apex in April with a social media video that included clips of former Seminoles sports stars from Deion Sanders to Burt Reynolds. The program Alabama created to help its athletes monetize their names, images and likenesses is simply called The Advantage. Behind the catchy names is a sense of urgency from the schools: College sports is entering a new era, one where athletes will be permitted to be paid endorsers and social media influencers without fear of running afoul of NCAA rules. On July 1, laws in five states will go into effect that will usurp current NCAA regulatons prohibiting NIL compensation for athletes. As of now, the NCAA is lagging behind on its pledge to "modernize" its rules on the subject, but schools from coast to coast are not waiting. Some are tapping into on-campus resources. Others are partnering with outside companies such as INFLCR, Opendorse and Altius. All are simply hoping their compliance officers can keep up as they brace for a world in which NCAA athletes can earn money off their fame and celebrity. The goal for each school is to portray itself as a place where athletes can build their brands, with help and expertise, and to then sell that on the recruiting trail -- even if some of the details are still taking shape.
 
'Everybody Is Floundering': Colleges Scramble to Adapt to a World Where Their Athletes Can Cash In
In less than a month, new laws in seven states will effectively pierce the National Collegiate Athletic Association's ban on paying student-athletes -- one of the starkest shifts in big-time college sports in a century. Starting in July, colleges in those states will be barred from prohibiting their athletes from earning money based on their affiliation with sports. The new laws, which fly in the face of the NCAA's longtime ban on compensation for athletes outside scholarships, is meant to allow the players to profit in a system where colleges, coaches, and corporations have been cashing in for decades. "Everybody is floundering trying to figure out what is going on," said Welch Suggs, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Georgia, who is an expert in college athletics and a former reporter for The Chronicle. "Normally, the NCAA provides guidance, but colleges aren't getting jack," he said. Suggs said his biggest concern is the proliferation of small companies popping up to earn their own profits by helping young and sometimes impressionable students. "This is a level of chaos that college sports is not ready to deal with," he said. B. David Ridpath, an associate professor of sports business at Ohio University, said the NCAA's big worry is that they will lose their leverage over the students who bring in all the revenue for the colleges and the association.
 
Name, image and likeness bill roars through Louisiana House of Representatives, 88-7
Senate Bill 60 that will allow college athletes throughout Louisiana to profit from their name, image and likeness while maintaining amateur status was passed by the House of Representatives, 88-7, on Monday at the State Capitol. The Senate passed the bill in similar convincing fashion, 32-0, on May 17. The bill will return to the Senate for a vote on amendments concerning universities' roles in athletic sponsorships and the implementation of the bill -- should it become law. If the Senate passes the bill again over the next three days with the legislative session ending Thursday, it proceeds to the desk of Gov. John Bel Edwards, who can sign it into law. "This is going to highly impact our student-athletes ability to use their personal name, their personal likeness in a very positive way," former LSU gymnastics coach D-D Breaux said after watching the bill pass. Breaux retired in August after 43 years, but remains an LSU athletic department ambassador and has been working closely with athletic director Scott Woodward and other staff members on the bill and its potential impact.



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