University of Mississippi
Public university near Oxford, Mississippi, US / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and it is the second largest by enrollment.[3]
Motto | Pro scientia et sapientia (Latin) |
---|---|
Motto in English | "For knowledge and wisdom" |
Type | Public research university |
Established | February 24, 1844; 180 years ago (February 24, 1844)[note 1] |
Endowment | $840 million (2023) |
Budget | $670 million (2024)[1] |
Chancellor | Glenn Boyce |
Provost | Noel E. Wilkin |
Students | 24,710 (fall 2023) |
Location | , |
Campus | Remote town[2], 3,497 acres (14.15 km2) |
Nickname | Rebels |
Sporting affiliations | |
Website | olemiss.edu |
The Mississippi Legislature chartered the university on February 24, 1844, and four years later it admitted its first 80 students. During the Civil War, the university operated as a Confederate hospital and narrowly avoided destruction by Ulysses S. Grant's forces. In 1962, during the civil rights movement, a race riot occurred on campus when segregationists tried to prevent the enrollment of African American student James Meredith. The university has since taken measures to improve its image. The university is closely associated with writer William Faulkner and owns and manages his former Oxford home Rowan Oak, which with other on-campus sites Barnard Observatory and Lyceum–The Circle Historic District, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Ole Miss is classified as "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It is one of 33 institutions participating in the National Sea Grant Program and also participates in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. Its research efforts include the National Center for Physics Acoustics, the National Center for Natural Products Research, and the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research. The university operates the country's only federally contracted Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved cannabis facility. It also operates interdisciplinary institutes such as the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Its athletic teams compete as the Ole Miss Rebels in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)'s Division I Southeastern Conference.
The university's alumni, faculty, and affiliates include 27 Rhodes Scholars, 10 governors, 5 US senators, a head of government, and a Nobel Prize Laureate. Other alumni have received honors such as Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, and Pulitzer Prizes. Its medical center performed the first human lung transplant and animal-to-human heart transplant.
Founding and early history
The Mississippi Legislature chartered the University of Mississippi on February 24, 1844.[4] Planners selected an isolated, rural site in Oxford as a "sylvan exile" that would foster academic studies.[5] In 1845, residents of Lafayette County donated land west of Oxford for the campus, and the following year, architect William Nichols oversaw construction of an academic building called the Lyceum, two dormitories, and faculty residences.[4] On November 6, 1848, the university, offering a classical curriculum, opened to its first class of 80 students,[5][6] most of whom were children of elite slaveholders, all of whom were white, and all but one of whom were from Mississippi.[5][7] For 23 years, the university was Mississippi's only public institution of higher learning[8] and for 110 years, its only comprehensive university.[9] In 1854, the University of Mississippi School of Law was established, becoming the fourth state-supported law school in the United States.[10]
Early president Frederick A. P. Barnard sought to increase the university's stature, placing him in conflict with the more-conservative board of trustees.[11] The only result of Barnard's hundred-page 1858 report to the board was the university head's title being changed to "chancellor".[12] Barnard was a Massachusetts-born graduate of Yale University; his northern background and Union sympathies made his position contentious—a student assaulted his slave and the state legislature investigated him.[11] Following the election of US President Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Mississippi became the second state to secede; the university's mathematics professor Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar drafted the articles of secession.[13] Students organized into a military company called the "University Greys", which became Company A, 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment in the Confederate States Army.[14] Within a month of the Civil War's outbreak, only five students remained at the university, and by late 1861, it was closed. In its final action, the board of trustees awarded Barnard a doctorate of divinity.[14]
Within six months, the campus had been converted into a Confederate hospital; the Lyceum was used as the hospital and a building that had stood on the modern-day site of Farley Hall operated as its morgue.[15] In November 1862, the campus was evacuated as General Ulysses S. Grant's Union forces approached. Although Kansan troops destroyed much of the medical equipment, a lone remaining professor persuaded Grant against burning the campus.[16][note 2] Grant's forces left after three weeks and the campus returned to being a Confederate hospital. Over the war's course, more than 700 soldiers were buried on campus.[18]
Post-war
The University of Mississippi reopened in October 1865.[18] To avoid rejecting veterans, the university lowered admission standards and decreased costs by eliminating tuition and allowing students to live off-campus.[6] The student body remained entirely white: in 1870 the Chancellor declared that he and the entire faculty would resign rather than admit "negro" students.[19] In 1882, the university began admitting women[20] but they were not permitted to live on campus or attend law school.[6] In 1885, the University of Mississippi hired Sarah McGehee Isom, becoming the first southeastern US college to hire a female faculty member.[6][21] Nearly 100 years later, the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies was established in her honor.[6][21]
The university's byname "Ole Miss" was first used in 1897, when it won a contest of suggestions for a yearbook title.[22] The term originated as a title domestic slaves used to distinguish the mistress of a plantation from "young misses".[23] Fringe origin theories include it coming from a diminutive of "Old Mississippi",[24][25][26] or from the name of the "Ole Miss" train that ran from Memphis to New Orleans.[22][27] Within two years, students and alumni were using "Ole Miss" to refer to the university.[28]
Between 1900 and 1930, the Mississippi Legislature introduced bills aiming to relocate, close, or merge the university with Mississippi State University. All such legislation failed.[29] During the 1930s, the Governor of Mississippi Theodore G. Bilbo was politically hostile toward the University of Mississippi, firing administrators and faculty, and replacing them with his friends[30] in the "Bilbo purge".[31] Bilbo's actions severely damaged the university's reputation, leading to the temporary loss of its accreditation. Consequently, in 1944, the Constitution of Mississippi was amended to protect the university's Board of Trustees from political pressure.[30] During World War II, the University of Mississippi was one of 131 colleges and universities that participated in the national V-12 Navy College Training Program, which offered students a path to a Navy commission.[32]
Integration
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.[33] Eight years after the Brown decision, all attempts by African American applicants to enroll had failed.[34][35] Shortly after the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, James Meredith—an African American Air Force veteran and former student at Jackson State University—applied to the University of Mississippi.[36] After months of obstruction by Mississippi officials, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Meredith's enrollment, and the Department of Justice under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy entered the case on Meredith's behalf.[34][37] On three occasions, either governor Ross R. Barnett or lieutenant governor Paul B. Johnson Jr. physically blocked Meredith's entry to the campus.[38][39]
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held both Barnett and Johnson Jr. in contempt, and issued fines exceeding $10,000 for each day they refused to enroll Meredith.[40] On September 30, 1962, President Kennedy dispatched 127 U.S. Marshals, 316 deputized U.S. Border Patrol agents, and 97 federalized Federal Bureau of Prisons personnel to escort Meredith.[41] After nightfall, far-right former Major General Edwin Walker and outside agitators arrived, and a gathering of segregationist students before the Lyceum became a violent mob.[42][43][44] Segregationist rioters threw Molotov cocktails and bottles of acid, and fired guns at federal marshals and reporters.[45][46] Two civilians—French journalist Paul Guihard and Oxford repairman Ray Gunter—were killed by gunfire.[47][48] Eventually, 13,000 soldiers arrived in Oxford and quashed the riot.[49] One-third of the federal officers—166 men—were injured, as were 40 federal soldiers and National Guardsmen.[48] More than 30,000 personnel were deployed, alerted, and committed in Oxford—the most in American history for a single disturbance.[50]
Meredith enrolled and attended a class on October 1.[51] By 1968, Ole Miss had around 100 African American students,[52] and by the 2019–2020 academic year, African Americans constituted 12.5 percent of the student body.[53]
Recent history
In 1972, Ole Miss purchased Rowan Oak, the former home of Nobel Prize–winning writer William Faulkner.[55][56] The building has been preserved as it was at Faulkner's death in 1962. Faulkner was the university's postmaster in the early 1920s and wrote As I Lay Dying (1930) at the university powerhouse. His Nobel Prize medallion is displayed in the university library.[57] The university hosted the inaugural Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in 1974. In 1980, Willie Morris became the university's first writer in residence.[6]
In 2002, Ole Miss marked the 40th anniversary of integration with a yearlong series of events, including an oral history of the university, symposiums, a memorial, and a reunion of federal marshals who served at the campus.[58][59] In 2006, the 44th anniversary of integration, a statue of Meredith was dedicated on campus.[60] Two years later, the site of the 1962 riots was designated as a National Historic Landmark.[61] The university also held a yearlong program to mark the 50th anniversary of integration in 2012.[62] The university hosted the first presidential debate of 2008—the first presidential debate held in Mississippi—between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.[63][64]
Ole Miss retired its mascot Colonel Reb in 2003, citing its Confederate imagery.[65] Although a grass-roots movement to adopt Star Wars character Admiral Ackbar of the Rebel Alliance gained significant support,[66][67] Rebel Black Bear, a reference to Faulkner's short story The Bear, was selected in 2010.[68][69] The Bear was replaced with another mascot, Tony the Landshark, in 2017.[69][70] Beginning in 2022, football coach Lane Kiffin's dog Juice became the de facto mascot.[71][72] In 2015, the university removed the Mississippi State Flag, which included the Confederate battle emblem,[73] and in 2020, it relocated a prominent Confederate monument.[74]
Oxford campus
The University of Mississippi's Oxford campus is partially located in Oxford and partially in University, Mississippi, a census-designated place.[75] The main campus is situated at an altitude of around 500 feet (150 m), and has expanded from one square mile (260 ha) of land to around 1,200 acres (1.9 sq mi; 490 ha). The campus' buildings are largely designed in a Georgian architectural style; some of the newer buildings have a more contemporary architecture.[76]
At the campus' center is "The Circle", which consists of eight academic buildings organized around an ovaloid common. The buildings include the Lyceum (1848), the "Y" Building (1853), and six later buildings constructed in a Neoclassical Revival style.[61] The Lyceum was the first building on the campus and was expanded with two wings in 1903. According to the university, the Lyceum's bell is the oldest academic bell in the United States.[76] Near the Circle is The Grove, a 10-acre (4.0 ha) plot of land that was set aside by chancellor Robert Burwell Fulton c. 1893, and hosts up to 100,000 tailgaters during home games.[77][78] Barnard Observatory, which was constructed under Chancellor Barnard in 1859, was designed to house the world's largest telescope. Due to the Civil War's outbreak, however, the telescope was never delivered and was instead acquired by Northwestern University.[76][79] The observatory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.[80][81] The first major building built after the Civil War was Ventress Hall, which was constructed in a Victorian Romanesque style in 1889.[76]
From 1929 to 1930, architect Frank P. Gates designed 18 buildings on campus, mostly in Georgian Revival architectural style, including (Old) University High School, Barr Hall, Bondurant Hall, Farley Hall (also known as Lamar Hall), Faulkner Hall, and Wesley Knight Field House.[82][83] During the 1930s, the many building projects at the campus were largely funded by the Public Works Administration and other federal entities.[84] Among the notable buildings built in this period is the dual-domed Kennon Observatory (1939).[85] Two large modern buildings—the Ole Miss Union (1976) and Lamar Hall (1977)—caused controversy by diverging from the university's traditional architecture.[86] In 1998, the Gertrude C. Ford Foundation donated $20 million to establish the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts,[87] which was the first building on campus to be solely dedicated to the performing arts.[88] As of 2020, the university was constructing a 202,000-square-foot (18,800 m2) STEM facility, the largest single construction project in the campus' history.[89] The university owns and operates the University of Mississippi Museum, which comprises collections of American fine art, Classical antiquities, and Southern folk art, as well as historic properties in Oxford.[90] Ole Miss also owns University-Oxford Airport, which is located north of the main campus.[76]
North Mississippi Japanese Supplementary School, a Japanese weekend school, is operated in conjunction with Ole Miss, with classes held on campus.[91][92] It opened in 2008 and was jointly established by several Japanese companies and the university. Many children have parents who are employees at Toyota facilities in Blue Springs.[93]
- Ventress Hall (1889)
- Kennon Observatory (1939)
- Farley Hall (1929)
- Bryant Hall (1911)[76]
Satellite campuses
In 1903, the University of Mississippi School of Medicine was established on the Oxford campus. It offered only two years of medical courses; students had to attend an out-of-state medical school to complete their degrees.[95] This form of medical education continued until 1955, when the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) was established on a 164-acre (66 ha) site in Jackson, Mississippi, and the School of Medicine was relocated there.[96] A nursing school was established in 1956 and since then, other health-related schools have been added. As of 2021[update], UMMC offers medical and graduate degrees.[95] In addition to the medical center, the university has satellite campuses in Booneville,[97] DeSoto,[98] Grenada,[99] Rankin,[100] and Tupelo.[101]
School | Founded | Ref. |
---|---|---|
College of Liberal Arts | 1848 |
[102] |
School of Law | 1854 |
[10] |
School of Engineering | 1900 |
[103] |
School of Education | 1903 |
[104] |
School of Medicine | 1903 |
[95] |
School of Pharmacy | 1908 |
[105] |
School of Business Administration | 1917 |
[106] |
School of Journalism and New Media | 1947 |
[107] |
School of Nursing | 1948 |
[108] |
School of Health Related Professions | 1971 |
[109] |
School of Dentistry | 1975 |
[110] |
Patterson School of Accountancy | 1979 |
[111] |
School of Applied Sciences | 2001 |
[112] |
School of Graduate Studies in the Health Sciences | 2001 |
[113] |
Divisions of the university
The University of Mississippi consists of 15 schools.[114] The largest undergraduate school is the College of Liberal Arts.[102] Graduate schools include a law school, a school of business administration, an engineering school, and a medical school.[115]
Administration
The University of Mississippi's chief administrative officer is the chancellor,[116] a position Glenn Boyce has held since 2019.[117] The chancellor is supported by vice-chancellors who administer areas such as research and intercollegiate athletics. The provost oversees the university's academic affairs,[118] and a dean oversees each school, as well as general studies and the honors college.[119] A faculty senate advises the administration.[120]
The Board of Trustees of the Mississippi State Institutions of Higher Learning is the constitutional governing body that is responsible for policy and financial oversight of the University of Mississippi and the state's other seven public secondary institutions. the board consists of 12 members, who serve staggered nine-year terms and represent the state's three Supreme Court Districts. The Board appoints the Commissioner of Higher Education, who administers its policies.[121]
Finances
As of April 2021[update], the University of Mississippi's endowment was $775 million.[122] The university's budget for fiscal year 2019 was over $540 million.[123] Less than 13% of operating revenues are funded by the state of Mississippi,[122] and the university relies heavily on private donations. The Ford Foundation has donated nearly $65 million to the Oxford campus and UMMC.[124]
The University of Mississippi is the state's largest university by enrollment and is considered the state's flagship university.[125][126][127][128] In 2015, the student-faculty ratio was 19:1. Of its classes, 47.4 percent have fewer than 20 students. The most popular subjects include marketing, education and teaching, accountancy, finance, pharmaceutical sciences, and administration.[129] To receive a bachelor's degree, students must have at least 120 semester hours with passing grades and a cumulative 2.0 GPA.[130]
The university also offers graduate degrees such as PhDs and masters of art, science, and fine arts.[131] The university maintains the Mississippi Teacher Corps, a free graduate program that educates teachers for critical-needs public schools.[132]
Taylor Medals, which were first awarded in 1905, are presented to exceptional students nominated by the faculty. The medals are named in honor of Marcus Elvis Taylor, who graduated in 1871 and are given to less than one percent of each class.[26]
Research
Ole Miss is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".[133][134] According to the National Science Foundation, the university spent $137 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 142nd in the nation.[135] It is one of the 33 colleges and universities participating in the National Sea Grant Program and participates in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program.[136] Since 1948, the university has been a member of the Oak Ridge Associated Universities.[137]
In 1963, University of Mississippi Medical Center surgeons, led by James Hardy, performed the world's first human lung transplant, and in 1964 the world's first animal-to-human heart transplant. Because Hardy researched transplantation, consisting of primate studies during the previous nine years, the heart of a chimpanzee was used for the transplant.[138][139]
In 1965, the university established its Medicinal Plant Garden, which the School of Pharmacy uses for drug research.[140] Since 1968, the school has operated the only legal marijuana farm and production facility in the United States. The National Institute on Drug Abuse contracts to the university production of cannabis for use in approved research studies and for distribution to the seven surviving medical marijuana patients grandfathered into the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program.[141] The facility is the only source of marijuana medical researchers can use to conduct Food and Drug Administration-approved tests.[142][143]
The National Center for Physics Acoustics (NCPA), which Congress established in 1986, is located on campus.[76][115][144] In addition to conducting research, the NCPA houses the Acoustical Society of America's archives.[144] The university also operates the University of Mississippi Field Station, which includes 223 research ponds and supports long-term ecological research,[145] and hosts the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research and the Mississippi Law Research Institute.[115][146][147][148] In 2012, the university completed Insight Park, a research park that "welcomes companies commercializing University of Mississippi research".[149][150]
Special programs
Honors education at the University of Mississippi, consisting of lectures by distinguished academics, began in 1953. In 1974, this program became the University Scholars Program, and in 1983, the University Honors Program was created and honors-core courses were offered.[151] In 1997, Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale and wife Sally donated $5.4 million to establish the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College (SMBHC),[152] which provides a capstone project—a senior thesis—and endowed scholarships.[151]
In 1977, the university established its Center for the Study of Southern Culture with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which is housed in the College of Liberal Arts. The center provides for interdisciplinary studies of Southern history and culture.[153] In 2000, the university established the Trent Lott Leadership Institute, which is named after alumnus and then-US Senate majority leader Trent Lott. The institute was funded with large corporate donations from MCI Inc., Lockheed Martin, and other companies.[154] In addition to leadership initiatives, the institute offers a BA degree in Public Policy Leadership.[155]
The Center for Intelligence and Security Studies (CISS) delivers academic programming on intelligence analysis and engages in applied research and consortium building with government, private, and academic partners.[156] In 2012, the United States Director of National Intelligence designated CISS as an Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence (CAE), becoming one of 29 such college programs in the United States.[157] Other special programs include the Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence—established jointly by the university and Toyota in 2008—and the Chinese Language Flagship Program (simplified Chinese: 中文旗舰项目; traditional Chinese: 中文旗艦項目; pinyin: Zhōngwén Qíjiàn Xiàngmù).[158][159] The Croft Institute for International Studies, which was founded in 1998, provides the only international studies undergraduate program in Mississippi.[160]
The University of Mississippi is a member of the SEC Academic Consortium, which has since been renamed SECU. The collaborative initiative was designed to promote research, scholarship, and achievement among the member universities in the Southeastern Conference.[161][162] In 2013, the university participated in the SEC Symposium on renewable energy in Atlanta, Georgia, which was organized and led by the University of Georgia and the UGA Bioenergy Systems Research Institute.[163]
In 2021, actor Morgan Freeman and Professor Linda Keena donated $1 million to the University of Mississippi to create the Center for Evidence-Based Policing and Reform, which will provide law-enforcement training and seek to improve engagement between law enforcement and communities.[164][165]
Rankings and accolades
Academic rankings | |
---|---|
National | |
Forbes[166] | 231 |
U.S. News & World Report[167] | 163 |
Washington Monthly[168] | 304 |
WSJ / College Pulse[169] | 278 |
In U.S. News & World Report's 2023 rankings, the University of Mississippi was tied for 163rd place among national universities and 88th among public universities.[170] In 2023, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the professional MBA program at the School of Business Administration #72 nationally,[171] and the online MBA program in the top 25.[172] As of 2018[update], all three degree programs at the Patterson School of Accountancy were among the top 10 accounting programs according to the Public Accounting Report.[173]
Since 2012, the Chronicle of Higher Education has named the University of Mississippi as one of the "Great Colleges to Work For". In the 2018 results, released in the Chronicle's annual report on "The Academic Workplace", the university was among 84 institutions honored from the 253 colleges and universities surveyed.[174] In 2018, the university's campus was ranked the second-safest in the SEC and one of the safest in the U.S.[175]
As of 2019, the university has had 27 Rhodes Scholars.[176] Since 1998, it has 10 Goldwater Scholars, seven Truman Scholars, 18 Fulbright Scholars, one Marshall Scholar, three Udall Scholars, two Gates Cambridge Scholars, one Mitchell Scholar, 19 Boren Scholars, one Boren fellow, and one German Chancellor Fellowship.[177]