| Monday, August 18, 2025 |
| Perry Food Hall reopens at Mississippi State | |
 | After a year of careful renovations, Mississippi State University (MSU) unveiled the Perry Food Hall -- a new dining destination for students. "Perry is one of our most iconic buildings -- it's what many people think of when they picture Mississippi State University. This renovation preserves that history and builds on it to create a truly special space and unique experience," MSU President Mark E. Keenum said. "I appreciate the significant investments our dining partner Aramark has made in our university and its commitment to our students." As one of Mississippi's officially registered landmarks, its Late Gothic Revival architecture remains on display with its exposed timber beams and nostalgic charm anchored in the heart of campus. At the center of the transformation is 1921 Café where Southern comfort food meets Bulldog traditions like Fried Chicken Wednesdays and Catfish Fridays. Bark, a smokehouse-inspired venue, serves bold, slow-cooked barbecue classics. For a lighter bite, The Beet Drop offers build-your-own salads and plant-based meals for a vegan experience. With Starbucks relocated from the Colvard Student Union to Perry Food Hall, the space once again invites students to not just dine but stay. The newly refreshed north end brings the return of State Fountain Bakery to its original home, once again serving MSU ice cream, old-fashioned milkshakes and its iconic dog bone cookies. The space also will showcase a larger Moe's Southwest Grill. |
| Stats Tell the Story: MSU's Famous Maroon Band students have what it takes to succeed | |
 | Mississippi State University members of the Famous Maroon Band aren't just good musicians -- they tend to be students who make everything look easy, including maintaining a high GPA. With more than 425 band members this year, the group boasts a median ACT score of 27 and a median GPA of 3.6. In addition, 160 of these students have an ACT score of 30 or higher and many are listed on the university's honor roll lists, including nearly 40 band members with a 4.0 GPA. "There is often a strong parallel between the discipline required to succeed as a musician and the discipline needed for academic achievement," said longtime Director of Bands Elva Kaye Lance. Early season performances at this fall's MSU football games will feature the theme "FMB Brings the Heat," including songs like "Heat of the Moment" and "The Heat is On." The annual patriotic and homecoming shows are scheduled, along with the high school band day, when 300 high school students will join the FMB performance on Sept. 6. The SEC opener on Sept. 27 will showcase cartoon themes, and the Egg Bowl in November will include Latin Jazz such as Chick Corea's "Spain" and Stan Kenton's "La Suerte de los Tontos." |
| 'I love my boys': fraternity house chef, MSU administrators break ground on 17th Maroon Edition Habitat home | |
 | Danyell Latham watched as a crowd of Lambda Chi Alpha members celebrated the groundbreaking of her new home Thursday. Latham has worked for the university for nearly a decade and has served as a chef for the Lambda Chi fraternity house for about a year. By November, she and her sons, Robert and Kasen Kelly, will have the keys to a house built by volunteers from Mississippi State, Starkville Habitat for Humanity and the young men she sees every day at the university. "I love my boys. One of them said they were going to show up today and everybody else started coming," Latham said. "This is so wonderful. I'm more than ecstatic to have a safe place for my family." MSU President Mark E. Keenum joined Vice President for Student Affairs Regina Hyatt, Director of Student Leadership and Community Engagement Kathy Jones and Starkville Habitat President Austin Check in celebrating the groundbreaking with the Latham family. "I'm so proud and excited for you to have a home in a few months," Keenum said. "This is the 17th Maroon Edition home. It's hard to believe, but I've been a part of all 17 homes that have been built and are about to be built. ...Christ taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves and what a wonderful example this is to serve and help others. This is indeed an honor and a privilege to be here for this occasion to wish you and your family the very best. May God bless you. May God bless your family, and may God bless this home." |
| Mississippi State's TRiO Student Support Services awarded grant renewal from U.S. Department of Education | |
 | Mississippi State University's TRiO Student Support Services program has gained new funding from the U.S. Department of Education, reaffirming its vital role in supporting first-generation college students and those from low-income backgrounds or with documented disabilities. Housed in the Holmes Center for Student Success within the Division of Access, Opportunity and Success, TRiO plays a transformative role in student success at MSU. The program provides critical academic, professional, and personal development resources to ensure students not only persist but thrive in their journeys toward college degree completion. "We are incredibly honored that we are continuing to deepen our commitment to supporting students in achieving their educational goals. TRiO is more than just a program -- it's a support system that helps students visualize and achieve a future beyond the classroom. In short, TRiO works," said Timothy Hopkins, HCSS executive director. Throughout the academic year, TRiO offers personalized advising, skill-building workshops, and career readiness programming while also connecting students to other key resources and services across campus. One of its signature offerings includes experiential learning, or hands-on opportunities through graduate school tours and visits to industry partners, helping students prepare for life after graduation. |
| MSU Send-Off - MSU Alumni Association | |
| Photos: Mississippi State University Alumni Association, Central Mississippi Chapter, serving Hinds, Madison, and Rankin counties, recently hosted a Send-Off Party for all incoming freshman and transfer students who will be attending MSU this fall. The event was held at First Ridgeland. Send-Off Parties are hosted by alumni chapters to allow students to connect with other students from Hinds, Madison, and Rankin counties and provide an opportunity for alumni and friends to congratulate and welcome new Bulldogs to the Maroon and White family. |
| Starkville budget plan includes 7.3% tax increase | |
| With a $1.3 million shortfall in revenue projected for the city's Fiscal Year 2026 budget, aldermen are weighing how to close the gap without raising property taxes by nearly 10%. Board members left a Friday work session with a preliminary budget requiring a 2.36-mill increase instead to generate about $786,367. The increase, if approved, would raise the city's tax rate 7.3% to 34.36 mills. It would add $23.60 per $100,000 of value to homeowner tax bills. That budget includes about $396,000 in targeted employee raises, an increase to the minimum wage and a strategy for reallocating unscheduled overtime costs. Left on the cutting-room floor are increases in contributions made to outside organizations, like Boys and Girls Club and the Mississippi Horse Park. The preliminary budget also includes financing a bulldozer instead of purchasing it and reducing the allocation for a new civil defense siren. Ward 2 Alderwoman and budget chair Sandra Sistrunk said employee raises would target three areas: employees earning below 95% of the market mean, positions that are difficult to fill and retain and skilled labor roles that are difficult to fill. Mayor Lynn Spruill told The Dispatch that would primarily include police, fire and engineering roles, which she said are most vulnerable to being sought after by other employers. |
| Fake rental and subleasing ads are circulating | |
| "I think that it is crazy that people are out here scamming all these college students for their apartments," said Alfonso Molina Jr., MSU student. Mississippi State University student Alfonso Molina is stunned after learning about a new apartment scam circulating right before classes start. Detective Sergeant Robert Eguires told WCBI, the Starkville Police Department has received multiple reports of people being scammed by fake rental and sublease ads. "It is mostly individuals who are actively seeking housing," said Eguires. "Through that, we have gotten reports that those individuals have been at a loss monetarily as a result of these fake ads being posted." Here is how the scam works. A scammer creates a Facebook profile and posts an advertisement for an available sublease and demands money up front. When someone shows interest, the scammer told them to visit a local business or deposit cash into an internet bank account, often scamming college students out of hundreds of dollars. Molina already has an apartment in Starkville, but he said this will make him think twice about his next move. |
| Writers, readers connect through Mississippi ties at Possumtown Book Fest | |
| When Wright Thompson set out to research the murder of Emmett Till, he thought he already knew most of the story. What he uncovered showed just how much he didn't. Thompson's book, "The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi," explores not only the 1955 killing of 14-year-old Emmett Till, but the layered history of the land and the people tied to it, many of whom, Thompson said, were written out of the record. "I thought I knew, and it turns out I didn't, which was a little terrifying," Thompson said. "When you don't know something this fundamental about the place you claim to know best, then that's a real problem." Thompson discussed his book in an Omnova Theatre packed with attendees Saturday at Possumtown Book Fest, hosted at the Columbus Arts Council's Rosenzweig Arts Center. The festival featured Thompson as the keynote speaker, alongside eight author panels discussing Choctaw Culture, nonfiction, horror, global stories, mystery and romance. Other panels throughout the day focused on Mississippi storytelling in different forms. |
| Natchez author Greg Iles succumbs to cancer at 65 | |
| Mississippi lost one of its most successful contemporary authors on Friday with the passing of Greg Iles at age 65. Iles, a Natchez native who wrote 17 novels, died around 5 a.m. after a decades' long battle with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. The newspaper in his hometown and one that he often referenced in his New York Times bestselling Penn Cage series, The Natchez Democrat, was the first to report the news. Iles informed readers in early 2024 that he had cancer and would soon be undergoing a stem cell transplant. In a public letter, he revealed his diagnosis first came in 1996, but he had been living as "one of the luckiest patients alive." Those across the literature world and the state of Mississippi are mourning Iles, with condolences being publicly issued by thousands of readers, bookstores, and even elected officials. "I am heartbroken of the passing of our beloved native son, Greg Iles," Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson stated. "Greg was a talented and brilliant author who never backed away from standing for justice and being an outspoken advocate for change." |
| Prairie Arts Festival to return downtown for 47th year | |
| Downtown West Point is once again gearing up for the Prairie Arts Festival, which is returning for its 47th year. West Point Clay County Growth Alliance Director Lisa Klutts has been coordinating the festival for 18 years. She said the festival always returns the Saturday before Labor Day, bringing with it almost 200 vendors and filling the streets with art, music and food. "You see things that you may not have ever seen before in the arts world, and then we've got our favorite vendors that come back every year," Klutts said. "We've got a good mix of new and returning vendors this year." A 5K race, which takes place before the festival every year, will begin at 8 a.m. After the race, the festival will take over downtown between Main and Westbrook streets from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 30, with vendors selling everything from wreaths and door hangers to high-end juried fine arts, Klutts said. The Black Prairie Blues Museum is also hosting celebrations in conjunction with the festival, Assistant Director Marion Sansing said. The museum's doors will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the museum's daytime activities, with tamales and cold beverages for sale and restrooms available for use. Visitors can also stop to see "Roots & Wings of the Black Prairie," an art show featuring the work of local artist and entomologist Joe MacGown and artist and museum board member Bob Brzuszek. |
| Meridian plans to axe more traffic lights | |
 | A traffic signal removed at 9th Street and 23rd Avenue may be just the start of the City of Meridian removing other lights it deems unnecessary. Public Works Director David Hodge says converting the intersection into a four-way stop was driven by Mississippi Power moving its power lines below ground. Before the red light was removed last month, the city had conducted a study that suggested traffic would flow at an even clip if the intersection was converted. Hodge says further removals won't happen immediately -- but it's a good possibility for the months to come. Hodge tells us the city will continue doing small-scale studies to decide which light to chop next. The city will also look to improve traffic flow with modern motion detecting traffic lights. |
| Mississippi Coast celebrates Amtrak's return 20 years after Hurricane Katrina | |
 | The new Amtrak Mardi Gras Service drew major crowds in four Coast cities during a preview run on Saturday as city and state officials, Amtrak leaders, Southern Rail Commission representatives and Mardi Gras Krewe executives rode the train from New Orleans to Mobile. The train service opens to the public on Tuesday, marking the return of Amtrak to the Coast for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. "This is one of the final pieces of the recovery puzzle," U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker said. "It's been 20 years since we've had a rail service. People are going to be able to count on the schedule and know that the train's coming in on time." The service will offer two daily departures with four stops along the Coast: Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula. The route takes about four hours from New Orleans to Mobile, with trains reaching speeds of up to 80 mph. Hundreds of revelers -- many adorned in Mardi Gras gear -- cheered and waved as the train arrived in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula. "It's been nine years of Senator Roger Wicker's passion to bring this back, and it's aligned with our goals and mission to bring people to Biloxi," Mayor Andrew "FoFo" Gilich said. |
| A Mississippi auto expert says the average price of a used car is now at least $25,000 | |
 | The average price of a used car in Mississippi is now around $25,000. One Mississippi leader says while tariffs have not directly caused the price of used cars to rise dramatically, other factors are still causing the market to remain volatile. Marty Milstead is the president of the Mississippi Automobile Dealers Association. "What we're seeing is there's a lot of pressure on the used car market because of high prices of new cars," he said. "The average price of a new car is getting around $50,000 or so, low 40s. Of course, it can go up." He says these high prices create pressure on certain price points for used cars - with trucks and SUV's being especially in demand. "I don't see prices significantly coming down," he said. "Our best hope is that interest rates come down so folks can afford more vehicle. The financing is a huge part." Milstead says Mississippi auto dealers in Mississippi are still trying to meet the needs of consumers in the face of tariffs. "All you can really do on the tariff side is to hopefully have the vehicles," he said. "Have enough inventory that you're not immediately hit with that. That's what dealers are trying to balance." Milstead says cars remain an essential part of life for a state like Mississippi. |
| Ezell ready for budget battle when congressional recess ends | |
 | Congress is on an August recess, but when it returns, it will have to work on spending bills for the upcoming budget year, which starts Oct. 1. United States Representative Mike Ezell, who visited Petal Friday, said he's ready for all the budget battles that likely are ahead in Washington. "I'm ready to go," said Ezell (R-Fourth District). "We've got to get our appropriations done. We cannot keep doing what we've been doing over the years. We've got to get to some sort of agreements. We're not always going to get everything that we want, never going to happen. If you get everything you want, you're a spoiled brat. So, you can't get everything you want, so let's be big men and women about this and get this job done." Ezell spoke at the annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the Petal Civic Center. |
| Republicans Promote the Big Beautiful Bill, With Care | |
 | Rep. Lisa McClain (R., Mich.) stood outside an aluminum-powder manufacturer in rural Pennsylvania earlier this month, touting the "great policy wins" in President Trump's "one big, beautiful bill," part of a two-state effort to sell voters on the new law. "It is a pro-growth, pro-working family, pro-America, pro-defense, Make-America-First so to speak bill. It incentivizes manufacturing and growth right here in the U.S.," McClain told the small audience of reporters and employees gathered at the company, called AMPAL. Just a mile down the road at the Carbon County Fair, many attendees said they didn't know the bill existed. Those who were aware of it offered poor reviews, including Kelly Serfass, a self-identified Trump supporter who says she works in the mental-health field. Serfass said the bill's "no tax on overtime" provision doesn't go far enough. It caps deductions on income from overtime at $12,000 for a single filer. "It doesn't do enough for the lower income," she said. "Our income is only what, $38,000 a year, so the overtime puts us up there," noting she had already reached the limit on deductions for this year. As Republicans try to tout Trump's biggest legislative accomplishment of his second term, they are treading carefully, aware that the law is unpopular in some corners. |
| The unusual GOP alliance pushing earmarks in this fall's funding fight | |
 | Vulnerable incumbents and deficit hard-liners are joining forces in an unlikely partnership, pushing House GOP leaders to put earmarks on the table to head off a government funding fight this fall. The federal coffers are due to dry up Sept. 30. And, as part of any agreement to avert a shutdown Oct. 1, a significant segment of the House Republican Conference is now demanding the inclusion of so-called community project funding. That's the name Democrats gave their earmark rebrand in 2021 after Republicans banned a more permissive version of the practice for a decade. Among those now agitating for earmarks --- once shunned by most fiscal hawks --- are members of the Main Street Caucus, a contingent of 83 business-friendly Republicans heavily stacked with frontliners. "We've been very clear with the speaker: An overwhelming majority of our members want community project funding in this budget," said Main Street Caucus Chair Mike Flood (R-Neb.) in a recent interview. But even more remarkable is that many fiscal conservatives -- seeing a strategic advantage -- are actually promoting the idea, too. |
| Republican civil war erupts over earmarks in funding bills | |
 | The return of earmarks to the annual appropriations bills has sparked a battle among Republicans on Capitol Hill, pitting fiscal hawks against members of the Appropriations Committees and their allies. It's a serious battle and one that could scuttle the chances of passing appropriations bills ahead of the Sept. 30 government funding deadline. Republican responsibility for the huge federal deficit has become a hot political issue after President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is projected to add $3.4 trillion to the debt over the next decade, into law. Conservatives are deeply disappointed that Trump's bill did not make deeper cuts to federal spending, and they want to make a statement with significant reductions in the annual appropriations bills for fiscal 2026. Adding to the frustrations of fiscal hawks, those bills are already loaded with earmarks directing the Trump administration how to spend funds. Conservatives view the return of earmarks as a return to the days of pork-barrel spending and a bad look for Republicans when the party is taking fire from Democrats for exploding future deficits. The conservatives' backlash against earmarks in the package came after Punchbowl News reported that Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) loaded more than $810 million in earmarks and directed spending for Maine in the fiscal 2026 spending bills crafted by her committee. |
| Trump Officials Hint at Possible Concessions by Putin | |
 | President Trump and two advisers spent Sunday trying to recast the lack of a cease-fire in the war in Ukraine as one step in a possibly slow march toward peace. It was a significant departure from the peace agreement that the president said he had wanted out of a meeting in Alaska with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia just 48 hours earlier. Steve Witkoff, an envoy for Mr. Trump who had attended the meeting in Anchorage, said in a CNN interview on Sunday that Mr. Putin had edged toward making some concessions in talks to end the war, including by agreeing to strong security protections, though not under NATO, that Mr. Trump had floated earlier. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is scheduled to meet with Mr. Trump on Monday, and is expected to be flanked by at least half a dozen European leaders. In a tandem appearance on ABC's "This Week," Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was also at Mr. Trump's side in Anchorage, took a more cautious approach. He warned that both Russia and Ukraine would need to make concessions to end the war and that a peace agreement might be elusive in the short term. "We made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement, but there remain some big areas of disagreement," Mr. Rubio said. "So we're still a long ways off. We are not at the precipice of a peace agreement. We are not at the edge of one. But I do think progress was made." |
| Zelenskyy brings Europe's top leaders with him to meet Trump on ending Russia's war | |
 | Ukraine's future could hinge on a hastily assembled meeting Monday at the White House as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy brings with him an extraordinary cadre of European leaders to show U.S. President Donald Trump a united front against Russia. The European political heavy-hitters were left out of Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday, and they're looking to safeguard Ukraine and the continent from any widening aggression from Moscow. By arriving as a group, they hope to avoid any debacles like Zelenskyy's February meeting in the Oval Office, where Trump chastised him for not showing enough gratitude for American military aid. The meeting also is a test of America's relationship with its closest allies after the European Union and the United Kingdom accepted Trump's tariff hikes partly because they wanted his support on Ukraine. Monday's showing is a sign of the progress and the possible distress coming out of the Alaska meeting as many of Europe's leaders descend on Washington with the explicit goal of protecting Ukraine's interests, a rare and sweeping show of diplomatic force. "It's important that America agrees to work with Europe to provide security guarantees for Ukraine, and therefore for all of Europe," Zelenskyy said on X. The night before the meeting, however, Trump seemed to put the onus on Zelenskyy to agree to concessions and suggested Ukraine couldn't regain Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, setting off an armed conflict that led to its broader 2022 invasion. |
| Republican-led states to send hundreds more National Guard troops to D.C. | |
 | Three Republican-led states, responding to a Trump administration request, said Saturday they will send up to 750 National Guard troops to join 800 already mobilized in D.C. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he would deploy 200 troops "to stand with President Trump as he works to restore law and order to our nation's capital." Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he was sending 150 military police from the state's National Guard. The Ohio Guard members are expected to arrive to D.C. in the coming days, DeWine said in a statement. They followed West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who said 300 to 400 National Guard troops would be called up. The new deployments, marking a major escalation of President Donald Trump's efforts to take over law enforcement in the nation's capital, came amid indications that the troops may soon be carrying weapons, a reversal of their initial orders. Protests over the deployment of National Guard troops in D.C. have been sporadic. On Saturday, a group confronted some service members on Constitution Avenue with signs and chants of "Free D.C." before police separated the crowd from the troops. |
| Arts groups look for new funding after Trump admin's sudden cuts | |
| It's been three months since the National Endowment for the Arts suddenly canceled previously-approved grants for hundreds of organizations across the country, amounting to what is estimated to be a $27 million funding gap. Nonprofit arts groups have employed a mix of strategies to respond. Some have relied heavily on their donor base to make up the difference or applied for funding from foundations, some of which have announced emergency funding initiatives in response to the NEA cuts. Others have pushed state and local governments to respond, with some success both in red and blue states. The funding scramble comes as arts organizations are also watching Congress debate whether to reduce NEA funding for the next fiscal year by as much as a third. Arts leaders say the uncertainty comes at a time when organizations are still struggling to recover from the disruptions of the COVID pandemic and foundation funding changes have already caused shortfalls. "The impact of the cuts is most felt by small and mid-sized cultural organizations," said Claire Rice, who heads the advocacy group Arts Alliance Illinois. The NEA cuts may have hastened or caused organizational closures, arts leaders say. In other cases, groups have had to trim their budgets by reducing their work. |
| Musicologist joins Ole Miss department of music | |
 | The University of Mississippi Department of Music has hired musicologist and researcher Sarah Koval as an assistant professor of music. Koval was a visiting assistant professor of musicology for the 2024-25 academic year, teaching courses in music literature, music history and music research. "The students and colleagues I have met during my first year on campus have shown the university to be a wonderful place to develop my research and learn from the students, who have already taught me so much about country music, drum corps and much more," she said. "I look forward to singing from medieval manuscripts, problem solving with primary sources and listening deeply to music with the students again soon." Her research explores the everyday musical practices of people in early modern Europe, examining music's impacts on bodies and societies through material traces of their lives, particularly personal handwritten music collections. This work has been supported by fellowships from Harvard University and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. |
| Bands coming to capital city for HBCU Labor Day Battle of the Bands | |
| Several HBCU bands will be in the capital city later this month for the HBCU Labor Day Classic Battle of the Bands. Organizers gathered at Visit Jackson this morning to give the media a sneak peek of the event. Those bands will be at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Aug. 31. The HBCU Labor Day Classic Battle of the Bands will include bands from Jackson State University, Alcorn State University, Mississippi Valley State University, University of Arkansas at Pine-Bluff, Langston University, Grambling State University, Alabama A&M University, Alabama State University, Southern University, and Talladega College. Organizers say the event is about showcasing bands and giving future students a glimpse into HBCU culture. "We are really all about making sure the bands have the opportunity to showcase their work, their talent. That students from across the world have a space to come and say "Hey, I want to be a part of this band," said Dr. Carla Moore, HBCU Labor Day Classic director of operations. Jackson leaders are also excited for the event because it will be a great economic boost for the capital city. |
| JSU's Sonic Boom of the South kicks off season with 'Thee Merge' | |
| Jackson State University's world-famous Sonic Boom of the South took center stage Saturday with the 2025 edition of Thee Merge. Fans packed the Lee E. Williams Athletics & Assembly Center for a high-energy preview of what the band has in store this football season. Known as one of the premier marching bands in the nation, the Boom didn't disappoint. Richard Myers, voice of the Sonic Boom of the South, said, "This is the initial event of the year. This gets everyone started. This gives the fans of Jackson State University and other HBCUs what's in store for this football season and this band season." Organizers say proceeds from this year's Merge will go directly to help pay down student balances. The event also included a moment of silence for Maleah Bess, who lost her life to domestic violence on July 31 at the Westwood Apartments. |
| Jackson State experiencing housing crunch | |
| Colleges are seeing more student enrollment, which has led to housing challenges. Jackson State University (JSU) administrators said they're taking a proactive approach to accommodate students. "University has ongoing renovations on some of our residence halls that are coming up very soon. And just recently, a year ago, we opened up One University, a place again where it was only half a space filled. But this semester, we're filling the whole building up. Another partnership that we started it was with the Holiday Inn Express, which is something we're pretty excited about. We were able to house some students at least about 200 can sort of fit in there. And so, that's sort of helping us to deal with some of the issues that all the colleges are dealing with and make it so we have space for students to learn," said Dr. Jonas Vanderbilt, vice president of JSU Student Affairs. Officials said electronic registration and early fee payments have helped cut down on delays. Students are asked to keep an eye on emails, because important information is consistently shared. |
| MCC welcomes students back for move-in day | |
| Today was move-in day for students at Meridian Community College. Starting at 9am, all students living on-campus were allowed to start moving into their dorms for the Fall 2025 semester. Both students and staff were excited to get back on the grounds of MCC and get ready for classes. "This is one of my favorite days of the year. We've got all of our students coming back that live on campus, so we get to see them a couple days early before classes start, which we're always excited about. We've got like a full gym full of people here to help MCC volunteers, but also community volunteers as well. So everybody's here to love on our students and welcome them back to campus and make this place feel like home for them," said Marion Whiting, director of housing and student life. "It's a little nerve wracking, I will say. It's a whole new experience. First time getting out of the house, away from my mother and everything, so I'm going to have to recuperate and understand how to live life on my own for the time being," said freshman Zelmarion Davis. MCC's fall 2025 classes start on Monday, August 18th. |
| U. of Alabama TikTok star steps back from RushTok | |
| Kylan Darnell became an overnight celebrity in the TikTok niche that documents the glitzy, ritualistic recruitment process for sororities. As a 21-year-old rising senior four years later, she's taking more of her sorority life offline. Darnell has until now been the embodiment of RushTok, a week-long marathon that has teens at schools around the country meticulously documenting their efforts to land a cherished spot in a sorority during the colorful, girly and enigmatic recruitment process known as rush week. Reactions to the content that once catapulted her to fame -- depicting her life as a Zeta Tau Alpha member at the University of Alabama -- had become so negative that it was affecting her mental health, she said. "This year it was just like a whole different level of hate," Darnell said. Citing a need to protect prospects from harassment, many sororities have made similar moves, issuing a de facto ban against talking to the press or posting on social media during rush week at Alabama, where almost 13,000 students participate in the nation's largest on-campus Greek life. |
| Bama Rush 2025: U. of Alabama sororities hold Bid Day | |
 | Another Bid Day is in the books and now the University of Alabama is set to begin the 2025 fall semester. On Aug. 17, thousands of UA freshmen students found out which sorority they would be joining during Bid Day, the culmination of sorority recruitment week, commonly known as Rush Week or #BamaRush on TikTok. Bids were issued at Bryant-Denny Stadium and the pledges then ran to their new houses on Sorority Row. After "running home," the pledges were then greeted by their "big" (their assigned "big sister"/mentor) and new sorority sisters while they were showered with T-shirts, hats and other items bearing the sorority's Greek letters. UA has one of the largest Greek systems in the country, with more than 12,000 members as of last spring, including 40 fraternities and 24 sororities. While Rush Week was taking place, thousands of students were also moving into UA's on-campus housing. Last fall, UA's Tuscaloosa campus had an enrollment of 40,846 students. The fall semester classes are scheduled to begin Aug. 20. |
| How Sorority Rush Videos Became the Ultimate Reality TV Show | |
| In another life, Rosie Chong likes to joke, she was a Southern girl who rushed a sorority at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. "I'm like, get me to a game day at Bryant-Denny Stadium," said Chong, a 30-year-old social content manager. "I shouldn't even know that it's called Bryant-Denny Stadium." After all, she lives thousands of miles away, in Melbourne, Australia. Distance aside, she's an avid viewer of RushTok, the side of TikTok where girls, mostly in the South, document their recruitment process to some of the most competitive sororities. Videos from the University of Alabama have become especially popular, creating a subgenre of the phenomenon called Bama Rush. For around a week, typically before the school year starts, perfectly coiffed blondes hover in front of cameras, presenting their outfits of the day. Swarms of sorority girls perform Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders-style dance routines in front of antebellum mansions. Potential new members scream as they tear open envelopes with bids to the sororities where they might form lifelong friendships. These videos, many of which garner hundreds of thousands of views, have become a kind of reality television for the TikTok masses. When Abbi Bennett rushed Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Oklahoma in 2018, there were no dance videos, no outfits of the day or decked-out dorm tours posted to TikTok. Even in 2021, when she was the one doing the recruiting, RushTok had not fully picked up steam. "No one cares what we're looking like, what we're doing," said Bennett, a former sports reporter in Colorado. "It was just one big fun bonding event." Not anymore. |
| Auburn Panhellenic welcomes record-breaking class on Bid Day 2025 | |
| On Aug. 16 following a week of formal recruitment, a record-breaking 2,153 new members ran home to one of Auburn University Panhellenic Council's 18 sorority chapters. Out of the 2,352 women who registered for recruitment, 92% of the potential new members (PNMs) received a bid. At the end of formal recruitment, PNMs open their bids in Neville Arena to discover which sorority they will run home to. Even with the record-breaking number of PNMs, this year was no exception. By 1:30 p.m., a long line of PNMs, buzzing with nerves and excitement, formed down Thach Concourse. Shortly after, the PNMs flocked into the Neville Arena to find their Pi Chi groups and receive their bids. Pi Chi's serve as recruitment counselors for Auburn Panhellenic and disaffiliate from their sorority for recruitment week until preference round, so they can neutrally guide PNMs during fall primary recruitment. "Being able to help a girl find their spot within this community is truly like something only a Pi Chi can experience, and it has been one of my favorite, favorite things at Auburn," said Annanelle Williams, senior in elementary education and second-year Pi Chi. |
| UGA classes begin: UGA admits more than 6,000 first-year students | |
 | The University of Georgia opened its first day of classes on Wednesday with more than 6,200 first-year students, according to a report from UGA Media Relations. The freshman students were selected from more than 47,860 students who applied for first-year admission to UGA. UGA Today touted the academic backgrounds of these students for the Class of 2029. The facts provided by UGA shows the average SAT score is 1,356, while 215 of the students are valedictorians and salutatorians from their high schools. There are 463 Georgia high schools represented in the class. The freshman students, an estimated 80% from Georgia, also come from 45 states and the District of Columbia. Classes end for the fall semester on Dec. 2, followed by exams ending on Dec. 10. |
| U. of Tennessee breaks enrollment record with 40,000 | |
 | School is back in session Aug. 18 for the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and more students than ever are expected to be in attendance for another record-breaking semester for enrollment. UT announced Aug. 15 more than 40,000 students are enrolled for fall 2025, smashing last year's record of more than 36,000 students leading into the first day of class. The final fall 2025 will be shared after the 14th day of class. The popularity is due, in part, to the record-breaking 91.9% retention rate of first-year students, which the university "expects to meet or exceed," according to a UT news release. This semester's first year class is more than 7,100, selected from nearly 63,000 applications. "They come to us eager to experience our commitment to providing them with an unparalleled student experience, from the classroom to Neyland Stadium and everything in between," Provost John Zomchick said in the release. "Our new Volunteers start their collegiate journeys on a campus that has never looked better and has never been better prepared to help them become the next generation of innovators and leaders in service to their communities, states and country." The university isn't too worried about the looming "enrollment cliff," in which the total population of 18-year-olds begins to decline over the next few years. |
| Survey: Students Link Trust in College to Affordability | |
 | Public trust in higher education has been declining for years. Recent polling data indicated it could be improving, but colleges and universities still have a long way to go in regaining the kind of public support they need now, perhaps more than ever. And too often, conversations about trust -- which can help colleges and universities understand where they need to improve -- lack a critical perspective: that of students themselves. Findings from a new student survey on trust from Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab help amplify the student perspective -- and hold some good news for higher ed: Students tend to trust their colleges and universities. But there are concerning signals, as well, such as that a significant share of students who say their trust in higher education has actually declined since they started college. And throughout the survey, students cite affordability as a barrier to trust -- underscoring how the cost of attendance, and not just the longer-term value of college, is sowing doubt. |
| Some workers would be excluded from student loan forgiveness program for 'illegal' activity | |
| Teachers, social workers, nurses and other public workers would be cut off from a popular student loan cancellation program if the Trump administration finds their employer engaged in activities with a "substantial illegal purpose," under a new federal proposal released on Friday. The Education Department took aim at nonprofits or government bodies that work with immigrants and transgender youth, releasing plans to overhaul the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Opponents fear the new policy would turn the loan forgiveness benefit into a tool of political retribution. The proposal would give the education secretary the final say in deciding whether a group or government entity should be excluded from the program, which was created by Congress in 2007 to encourage more college graduates to enter lower-paying public service fields. The proposal says illegal activity includes the trafficking or "chemical castration" of children, illegal immigration and supporting foreign terrorist organizations. "Chemical castration" is defined as using hormone therapy or drugs that delay puberty -- gender-affirming care common for transgender children or teens. President Donald Trump ordered the changes in March, saying the loan forgiveness program was steering taxpayer money to "activist organizations" that pose a threat to national security and do not serve the public. |
| Inaccurate, impossible: Experts knock new Trump plan to collect college admissions data | |
| President Donald Trump wants to collect more admissions data from colleges and universities to make sure they're complying with a 2023 Supreme Court decision that ended race-conscious affirmative action. And he wants that data now. But data experts and higher education scholars warn that any new admissions data is likely to be inaccurate, impossible to interpret and ultimately misused by policymakers. That's because Trump's own policies have left the statistics agency inside the Education Department with a skeleton staff and not enough money, expertise or time to create this new dataset. The department already collects data on enrollment from every institution of higher education that participates in the federal student loan program. The results are reported through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). But in an Aug. 7 memorandum, Trump directed the Education Department, which he sought to close in March, to expand that task and provide "transparency" into how some 1,700 colleges that do not admit everyone are making their admissions decisions. And he gave Education Secretary Linda McMahon just 120 days to get it done. |
| Trump's Job Cuts Leave a Profession Looking for Its Next Act | |
| Betsy Wolf has a doctorate in education, a record of publishing research and a strong professional network. What she doesn't have is a full-time job. In March, Wolf was placed on leave at the research arm of the Education Department. She was officially let go from her position compiling evidence of what works in schools -- along with many of her colleagues -- at the beginning of this month. The dozens of applications she has submitted to find a new job have yielded just a handful of interviews and no offers. Wolf is among a highly specialized group of professionals trying to remake or salvage careers after federal cuts hit their tiny industry -- in this case, the niche and government-dependent field of education research. The Trump administration has argued that the federal research infrastructure was ineffective, outdated and politically biased. Some workers are fishing for consulting gigs or competing for a shrinking number of roles in education. Others are trying to pivot to different lines of work, such as insurance or technology. The turmoil shows a striking way that federal cutbacks are cascading across the economy, as the job market softens. The government has also frozen funds at universities -- another main source of employment for education researchers. |
| Colleges Rushed to Comply With Trump's Anti-DEI Guidance. A Judge Just Struck It Down. Now What? | |
 | The Trump administration's crusade against what it calls illegal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in higher education was just dealt a significant legal blow. U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee, ruled on Thursday that the U.S. Education Department acted unlawfully when it issued two guidance documents telling institutions to dismantle DEI programs or risk losing federal funding. The federal government, Gallagher wrote in her decision, sought to "substantially alter the legal obligations of schools and educators" without providing enough notice or seeking public comment. "The government did not merely remind educators that discrimination is illegal; it initiated a sea change in how the Department of Education regulates educational practices and classroom conduct," the judge said. The department's missives caused "millions of educators to reasonably fear that their lawful, and even beneficial, speech might cause them or their schools to be punished," she added. In a statement to The Chronicle, an Education Department spokesperson said the ruling won't impede the agency's ability to "enforce Title VI protections for students at an unprecedented level." A Department of Justice memo from late July, targeting similar provisions as the Education Department's guidance, still stands and hasn't been legally challenged. |
| State Leaders Discuss a Way Forward at SHEEO Conference | |
| Concerns about the Trump administration's crackdown on higher education have loomed over a number of conferences this year. But as a group of just over 600 state officials, policy analysts and nonprofit leaders gathered last week in Minneapolis in an old train depot–turned–Marriott hotel for the annual State Higher Education Executive Officers Association conference, a different feeling was in the air. This time, leaders still acknowledged the president's view of colleges and universities as "the enemy," but they expressed confidence in the mission and power of academia in democracy. They voiced cautious optimism in the future of America's colleges and were hopeful that with concrete responses, universities could prevail despite what some have described as a full-on attack. Bryce McKibben, a longtime higher ed policy expert and senior director at the Hope Center at Temple University, closed the event Thursday morning with a call to action. When asked what gives him hope, McKibben said it's state higher education officials. "If this current environment shifts, if there's a break in the fever, the state examples that have been made, the state leadership that has been shown ... will set the example for a new way of doing things," he said. |
| Duff drawing eyes away from usual politicians | |
| Columnist Bill Crawford writes: By all accounts Tommy Duff's talk at the Rankin County Republican Executive Committee's Lincoln-Reagan-Trump dinner was a political home run. I say talk because the potential 2027 candidate for governor had no script and conversationally discussed his business successes along with Mississippi's opportunities and challenges. The home run description derives from the size and composition of the crowd, the intense media coverage, and comments by several seasoned politicos who attended. Several hundred Republican big leaguers, epitomized by former Gov. Haley Barbour and former House Speaker Philip Gunn, filled up The Refuge Convention Center at the Flowood Sheraton to hear Duff talk. That was quite a turnout for a not-yet-full-fledged politician. In extensive articles, Jackson Jambalaya described the crowd as "Republican royalty," Super Talk as a "who's who" of "the state's movers and shakers," The Magnolia Tribune as a "packed crowd," and Mississippi Today as "a room full of Republican insiders." |
| While redistricting battles could wage across country, there's no fight left in Mississippi | |
| Mississippi Today's Bobby Harrison writes: Don't look for Mississippi to get involved in what appears to be an escalating redistricting war where states redraw their U.S. House districts to aid Republicans or Democrats ahead of a hotly contested 2026 national election. Mississippi most likely will not engage in the redistricting battle because Republicans already have been helped about as much as possible in the Magnolia State. Here, there are three safe Republican U.S. House districts and one safe Democratic district. In theory, the Mississippi Legislature could draw the congressional districts in such a manner as to make all four districts favor Republicans. But to do so, Black voters, who generally are more prone to vote Democratic, would have to be diluted to such an extent that the redraw would conflict with long-held federal court rulings. From a legal standpoint and even from an ethical and moral standpoint, it would be difficult to justify no Black-majority districts in Mississippi, where the non-white population is nearing 40%. Unsurprisingly, Texas fired the first shot in what is shaping up as a nationwide redistricting battle. |
SPORTS
| 'No better way to impact people': Q&A with Zac Selmon | |
| Dispatch MSU beat reporter Colin Damms sat down with MSU athletic director Zac Selmon for a wide-ranging conversation about the new landscape of college sports after the House v. NCAA settlement that allows athletic departments to directly compensate student-athletes with up to $20.5 million of its annual revenue. What follows is a transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, of their conversation. Q: It's been a busy summer in college football and college sports at large; from where you sit as an athletic director, how has that gone for you? Selmon: It's been good. A lot of times, things run together, but I got in this business not because I felt like it was a way to make an impact on young people, just because of what college athletics did for my family and (me). My dad was the first in his family to go to school. One of his parents, my grandfather, was a sharecropper, so he would have never been able to afford to go to college unless it was for a football scholarship. And my three older sisters all went to school on scholarship, or two of them did; my third one got an academic scholarship as a Division III athlete. My parents would have never been able to afford to send me to Wake Forest. In my opinion, there's no better way to impact people in communities than college sports. |
| 'We're going to listen to our fans': Mississippi State football unveils new uniforms ahead of 2025 season | |
| As calendars continue to be marked in anticipation of college football's return, Mississippi State is generating additional enthusiasm from its fan base with the announcement of two uniforms that will be worn this coming season. Bulldog faithful have flooded social media endorsing the idea of replacing the "State" script logo that the program has embraced in recent years with an interlocking "MSU" logo that the program had frequently donned in the past. Well, it appears that athletics director Zac Selmon heard the cries of his customers because, on Thursday, Mississippi State announced that the football team will wear its all-white 2025 core uniform paired with a white helmet featuring the interlocking "MSU" logo and maroon face-mask during the Sept. 27 SEC home opener against Tennessee. "We're going to listen to our fans," Selmon said on SportsTalk Mississippi. "We had an outside group that started two focus groups for us with fans that started in May, and we got some meaningful dialogue and ideas, not just on the marks and the logos, but a lot of other things that we can do from a fan experience side ... We're going to constantly look at ways we can meet the needs [of fans]." |
| Selmon and Votteler help MSU navigate new era for college football | |
| Mississippi State football is looking to rebound in an era of uncertainty over the future of college athletics. A team that typically doesn't recruit at the level of many Southeastern Conference peers is now tackling the newest foils in recruiting, particularly name, image and likeness compensation and revenue sharing. Beyond the external challenges now facing all athletic departments, MSU's transition was even more complicated due to seismic changes in team and administrative personnel, complicating an already precarious period for MSU football. From 2022-2024, the Bulldogs had three head football coaches, all with different philosophies. Athletic Director Zac Selmon arrived in 2023 to replace Auburn-bound John Cohen – amid those changes – after Zach Arnett had been elevated in the wake of Mike Leach's passing. Arnett was fired during his first season as head coach, and Selmon brought in Jeff Lebby to lead the program. Lebby had his own struggles in 2024, overseeing rapid roster changeover, availability issues and injuries in a lackluster debut season. Selmon acknowledged the difficulty of navigating that time and the position it put the program in. "To build programs takes consistency over time," he said. A major change in the sport has been the introduction of general managers who can handle recruiting duties as well as administrative coordination of the team. Enter Marc Votteler, an associate athletic director and football general manager. |
| Football: What Jeff Lebby Took Away From State's Second Scrimmage | |
| Highway 12 is jam-packed. The Cotton District is busy. Campus is hopping. As Mississippi State students have returned to town this week for the fall semester, it's apparent the buzz is back in the best small town in the South. Business has also picked up for Bulldog football. Just two weeks from State's season opener at Southern Miss, MSU hit the field at Davis Wade Stadium on Saturday looking to take another step forward. Head coach Jeff Lebby said afterwards that his team did exactly that. "You do [see progression] with a bunch of the guys," Lebby said. "Sitting in the chair I am sitting in, you want more. You constantly want more. That is never going to change. We're going to stress [progressing] regardless of who is out there, whether it's the ones, the twos, the threes or whoever it is. "So there's been this great amount of growth for a bunch of guys and there's a bunch of guys that have to get a heck of a lot better. That's where the strain is. I think that is part of coaching, part of leading and trying to find ways to get the most out of them every single day and get these guys where they need to be." |
| Soccer: State Routs Union In Final Preseason Tune-Up | |
| It would have been a record-setting night as No. 20/22 Mississippi State defeated Union, 9-0, in exhibition play on Sunday. In regular-season play, MSU has only scored more goals one time -- when State defeated Alabama A&M by a 10-0 score in 2000. The Bulldogs scored six first-half goals on 12 shots. Ally Perry scored twice and added an assist in the period. Kyra Taylor also netted a pair. An own goal and a tally from Laila Murillo rounded out the first-half scoring. Freshmen Adia Symmonds, Sofía Aguayo and Tatum Borman all tallied assists. Ten of State's shots were on target in the opening 45 minutes. Meanwhile, Union took five shots, putting only one on frame, which was saved by Sarah Wommack. "We were obviously disappointed as a group and as a staff to not play on Thursday night," head coach Nick Zimmerman said. "We felt we needed something to get a game in. Credit to Union, we reached out and they were like, 'Yeah, we'd love to come.' We're super appreciative for them coming up on a Sunday to have this opportunity. For us, it was an opportunity to get better, and that's what we all used it as." Mississippi State's first official match of 2025 is set for Thursday, Aug. 21 against Jacksonville State. Kickoff in Starkville is again set for 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network+. |
| USM fans get into the game spirit at Fan Fest 2025 | |
| Hundreds of University of Southern Mississippi fans were able to meet the athletes they will be cheering on this fall season at Saturday's Fan Fest 2025. Fan Fest is an event hosted by the university where athletes from different sports like football, volleyball, soccer, track and field, and more meet the fans who support them at every game. "As much as they're excited to go out and perform, they're also excited to get involved with the fans in this community," said USM head football coach Charles Huff. "It's a big part of it. There is no excitement without the community, and there is no community without the excitement." After meeting the athletes, fans were also able to get some USM merchandise, enjoy food and games, and hang out with the cheer team, the Southern Misses, and Seymour. |
| College football's new era: Big money, same old powerhouses line up as the favorites | |
| Headline after headline during the offseason spoke to the same reality for college football: Millions of dollars are headed directly into the pockets of players and only programs that can nimbly recalibrate and replenish their resources will succeed. Now, with preseason camps winding down and opening kickoffs approaching, a different reality hits: The more things change, the more they stay the same. The preseason AP Top 25 for 2025 could have just as easily come from 1975. The first official season of revenue sharing between schools and their players in the new name, image and likeness era of college sports is sorting programs into familiar categories. The first includes college football's biggest brands, which are dominating the list of favorites once again: No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Penn State, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 4 Clemson. Second are teams we've talked about over the past few decades that are using money and celebrity coaches to elbow their way into the conversation: Colorado, North Carolina and No. 23 Texas Tech. And then there are those who see the second year of the 12-team playoff and a different playing field created by revenue sharing and think they might be able to fashion a turnaround not unlike No. 20 Indiana's worst to (almost) first resurgence last year. Jeffrey Kessler, the attorney who helped broker the massive legal settlement that compelled virtually all schools eligible for the playoff to share millions with their athletes, says these times remind him of the early 1990s, when the NFL introduced unrestricted free agency and the salary cap. |
| Big Ten working on super-sized CFP plans with 28 or 24 teams to replace championship games | |
| The Big Ten has been working on a super-sized potential College Football Playoff format that could at least double the current 12-team field and convert conference championship weekend into an expansive first round, according to multiple people who have been briefed on the concept. The idea for a tournament with as many as 28 teams is just that at this point: an idea. It was presented to Big Ten athletic directors for the first time last week, one source said. Sources spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity on Saturday because the plan was in such an early stage of development. The Power 4 conference commissioners have not had anything more than cursory discussions about the possibility of a massive postseason expansion. And nothing has been presented to any of the other FBS conferences or Notre Dame. The Big Ten was expected to send a slide deck with some details of the plan to the SEC this week. One source called the plan a "thought-starter." Another expressed frustration with the plan leaking before it could be distributed among decision makers. "No one knew anything about this," the second source said. The next meeting of the full CFP management committee, which includes all 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame's athletic director, is scheduled for Sept. 24 at the Big Ten offices outside Chicago. |
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