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Chancellor’s Blog
Dr. Vitter used his blog as a more informal mode of communication. Here you’ll find him sharing various activities, thoughts, musings, and even photos and videos with readers.
M Partner: Creating Substantial & Sustainable Results in Mississippi Communities –October 9, 2018
This past summer, I shared a series of blog posts highlighting the pillars in our Flagship Forward strategic plan. Now, I want to dig a little deeper into the plan and share more about our transformative initiatives that underpin the four pillars. Today, I’m starting with M Partner, a powerful and innovative partnership that will help us advance our goal of building healthy and vibrant communities.
As a new community engagement effort for the university, M Partner strives to improve quality of life in Mississippi communities. It’s a lofty goal to make a real difference in individual communities, but we have established a framework for community and university representatives to cultivate mutually beneficial and collaborative partnerships. This blog serves as a call to action. I’m excited to share how you can get involved in this transformative work through connecting academic courses to M Partner priority projects, volunteering at M Partner Community Day on October 13, and attending upcoming business forum events on October 16 and 17.
M Partner Priority Projects
The M Partner approach seeks to foreground the community voice, so I’d like to lead with the priority projects identified by our partner communities of Charleston, Lexington, and New Albany. Since we launched M Partner this past March, the McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement has taken a lead role in identifying community priorities for M Partner through a series of community conversations in each partner town. The goal of these dialogues was to align university courses, research, and programs with community-identified needs. A big thanks to Laura Martin, who serves as Associate Director of the McLean Institute and the M Partner Director. She is leading these efforts and seeking involvement from faculty, staff, and students from all disciplines to champion these community-driven projects.
Some key priority areas that have emerged in the community conversations include community and economic development, education and youth engagement, beautification, and health and well-being. I invite our faculty to view the full project list and consider how to incorporate these projects into existing courses. I’m truly excited about the potential of M Partner to provide sustainable and substantial results in our partner communities, enhance experiential learning for our students, and drive university research and community engagement.
We are also looking forward to a busy few weeks! M Partner Community Day, a day of service taking place in all three partner communities, is coming up on Saturday, October 13. We are thrilled to have three full busloads of students that will head to our partner cities! While we are currently adding names to a waitlist due to the overwhelming response from our students, please add your name by emailing M Partner and we will be sure to inform you of future opportunities and events. You are also invited to join us in Charleston on Tuesday, October 16 and in New Albany on Wednesday, October 17 for business development forums hosted in partnership with the Entrepreneur Center at the Mississippi Development Authority. Transportation and lunch will be provided at the business forums. To register, please email M Partner.
History of M Partner
For a little background information, we’ve got to go all the way back to 2016. During my investiture address, I challenged the university community to “imagine what we can do if we channel the talents of our university — our entire university — to partner with towns and cities — one at a time — to enhance every aspect of community life. Imagine!” At the time, we referred to this initiative as the Big Idea — setting the stage for the transformative opportunities that M Partner would offer!
As M Partner began to take shape, we looked to the Sustainable Cities Initiative at the University of Oregon as a model. And in order to adopt best practices in the field, we have affiliated with Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities, known as the EPIC Network — a coalition of institutions of higher learning engaged in partnership with communities to improve quality of life.
In March of this past year, we were excited to announce the pilot phase of M Partner with Charleston (Tallahatchie County), Lexington (Holmes County), and New Albany (Union County). We had a terrific time hosting Entrepreneurial Learning Center in Charleston, StartUp Camp for Young Entrepreneurs, and the third annual McLean Entrepreneurial Leadership Program. Each of these programs was led by students in the McLean Institute’s Catalyzing Entrepreneurship and Economic Development initiative, and engaged youth from each of the M Partner communities to discover how the entrepreneurial mindset can be used to address community challenges. These programs also engaged faculty members from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Department of Management, School of Law, and the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, as well as community partners including the strong>James C. Kennedy Wellness Center, Mississippi Development Authority – The Entrepreneur Center and the Mississippi Main Street Association.
As we look to maximize the collaborative aspects of M Partner, I’m pleased that the initiative has received support from the North Mississippi VISTA Project, an AmeriCorps program on campus in its 8th year of working to end poverty by promoting educational attainment. We placed summer associates with the Charleston Arts and Revitalization Effort, National Charleston Day Organization, Boys and Girls Club of Lexington, New Albany School District, and Union County School District.
To reiterate a core message from Flagship Forward, in order to truly fulfill the university’s responsibility in building healthy and vibrant communities, it must be a two-way street. We must apply our expertise collaboratively to have a measurable impact upon a community while, at the same time, look to how community perspectives and expertise can better inform our scholarship and curriculum. And M Partner is well on its way to fulfilling this responsibility.
As always, Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
Great Gathering of Leaders Exploring the Future of Tech –September 27, 2018
There’s no doubt about it: the beginning of the fall semester is one of our most vibrant times at Ole Miss. It’s not just our student body that’s fired up to be back on campus this time of year. Many of our institutional initiatives are also in full swing.
The third annual UM Tech Summit offered a perfect example of the dynamic environment that our leaders and faculty have cultivated at Ole Miss. The Summit, which drew a standing-room-only crowd to the Inn at Ole Miss, also underscored the university’s commitment to becoming a national leader in STEM education and to building upon our status as a Carnegie R-1 highest research activity university.
So what’s the UM Tech Summit? It’s a gathering of thought leaders from government, industry, and education that explored the future of technology in contemporary society: the challenges we must address, the opportunities before us, and how to work together most effectively. Like a great chemistry experiment, the Summit offers a platform to combine different elements and provide a catalyst for reaction. It was also a venue to showcase a really cool, really big drone, thanks to the folks at AT&T who generously let us borrow it!
We were honored to host a slew of national leaders. U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, who envisioned the original Summit, was our guest of honor and shared remarks. As chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet, Sen. Wicker is one of our nation’s foremost leaders in technology-related public policy. He’s also an Ole Miss Rebel! We’re extremely fortunate to have Sen. Wicker as an advocate in Washington, including his championing of our Tech Summit.
Rob Carter, chief information officer at FedEx, was the Summit’s keynote speaker. Rob has more than 35 years of systems development and implementation experience — an interview in Forbes Online described him as being “on the short list of the finest CIOs in history anywhere.” Rob shared stories about the long road of innovation at FedEx, explaining the ways FedEx developed groundbreaking tools that spurred America’s culture of continuous innovation. I especially loved his description about how the world becomes a better place when you connect people and possibilities. We really appreciated Rob joining us — FedEx has been a great partner to the university, and it is home to quite a few Ole Miss alums!
We were also pleased to hear from Michael Kratsios, deputy assistant to the President in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Michael advises the President on a broad range of technology policy issues and drives U.S. technology priorities and strategic initiatives. His remarks provided insight into current policy and offered an optimistic outlook for the future of American innovation.
The roster for the entire event was truly impressive, and I encourage you to check out the bios of all participants. We were especially honored to have distinguished moderators leading three very stimulating panel discussions. Former Gov. Haley Barbour led a thought-provoking discussion on how best to prepare students to succeed in tomorrow’s workforce — and how to excite them about pursuing careers in industry and government. Jim Barksdale — tech pioneer, Ole Miss alum, and noted philanthropist — used his sharp wit, intelligence, and knowledge to moderate our “Future Opportunities and Challenges in Tech” panel. Fun fact: Jim will soon be depicted by Bradley Whitford of The West Wing in a new television show, Valley of the Boom! And Allyson Best, director of UM’s Office of Technology Commercialization, facilitated the “Technology Applications in Government and Industry” panel, which covered recent technology applications and the process of moving discoveries into action effectively.
As a new feature at this year’s summit, we heard three-minute talks from seven stellar Ole Miss students representing various programs on our campus, including the McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement, the Arabic Flagship Program, the Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence, and more. These students spoke with insight and passion about the ways technology has benefited their studies and other pursuits. One of them, Elena Bauer, described using virtual reality tools to give Mississippi high school students opportunities to learn about other cultures — providing experiences they might not have otherwise. Watching our Ole Miss undergraduates speak gave me such pride as chancellor. Who wouldn’t feel optimistic about the future of tech after seeing such bright, enthusiastic, dedicated young people?
All of the Tech Summit attendees and participants not only brought a vast array of experiences, but also brought an amazing energy and a collaborative approach about how we can work in tandem to find solutions and discover smart ways to reach our goals. I am tremendously proud of the university’s role in preparing our students for a tech-driven future and the countless ways Ole Miss is maximizing our resources and talents to make a powerful impact in our state and beyond. Stay tuned as we continue building upon the great momentum from this outstanding event!
As always, Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
Athletics Excellence: Enhancing Our Growth & Visibility –July 5, 2018
Time for the fourth and final blog in my series on our new strategic plan Flagship Forward. This blog is all about our pillar of athletics excellence and the important role athletics plays at Ole Miss in growth and increased visibility. If you haven’t had a chance to read my blogs about the other three pillars — academic excellence, building healthy and vibrant communities, and people, places, and resources — I encourage you to add them to your summer reading list. Nothing is more riveting than the ways our extraordinary university is excelling!
Let’s jump right in with athletics excellence. Ross Bjork, our AD and vice chancellor for intercollegiate athletics, aptly describes athletics as the “front porch” of the university. Athletics captures the hearts and passion of people from around the world and draws them to campus, where they can experience firsthand the full richness of our great, comprehensive, flagship university. Athletics gets students excited about being at Ole Miss, creates lifelong connections, and inspires alumni and friends to support us. It truly heightens all aspects of our university.
First and foremost is the success of our student-athletes — on the courts and playing fields and in the classroom. Every day our Rebel student-athletes — across all 16 of our men’s and women’s sports — benefit from the discipline, leadership, teamwork, and camaraderie gained by competing in the SEC. They earn so much more than a trophy or a medal. Perhaps our recent NCAA women’s singles tennis national champ, Arianne Hartono, summed it up best when talking about going pro and how, as long as she loves to play, she’ll keep at it: “If not, then I’ll find something else to do. That’s why I have a college degree. At the end of the day, it’s not just about winning or losing. It’s not just about holding that trophy. I got to spend four years of my life doing what I love.”
Of all our successes in athletics, I’m particularly pleased how our Rebel student-athletes have achieved new heights academically:
- Highest APR score in program history for the NCAA annual scorecard of academic achievement with an average of 989 — six points above the current national average of 983. And of our 16 sports, 11 posted perfect single-season scores of 1,000, with men’s golf and women’s tennis owning perfect multiyear scores of 1,000, which earned them the NCAA Public Recognition Award.
- Highest Graduation Success Rate in school history at 84 percent.
- Student-athletes recording the highest average GPA in school history with a 3.01.
- A combined total of nearly 150 student-athletes named to the 2017 Fall, 2018 Winter, and 2018 Spring SEC Academic Honor Rolls.
The impact of athletics extends to our communities through service and leadership. Ole Miss teams regularly visit Batson’s Children’s Hospital at UMMC, as did the Rebel softball team to spend time with patients during a road trip in March. And for almost 30 years now, the Chucky Mullins Courage Award has been presented annually to an Ole Miss player who embodies Chucky’s undefeatable spirit, gritty determination, and positive outlook. This year, C.J. Moore will wear No. 38 and remind us how Chucky’s story truly transcends football. More great examples of our commitment to service and leadership are the eight Rebels who earned Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar honors for the 2018 season because they excelled in the classroom as well as on the athletic field and demonstrated a commitment to community service and student leadership.
And of course, we have a record of excellence on the field. Our recent history includes numerous NCAA berths across a broad range of men’s and women’s sports and seven national championships, including shotput, two in pole vault, and the first ever for individuals in men’s golf and women’s tennis. Just in the last year:
- Our Diamond Rebs captured the program’s third SEC Tournament championship in addition to winning the SEC Western Division regular-season title.
- Both the men’s and women’s tennis teams advanced to the Sweet 16 — one of only four schools in the nation this year to accomplish that feat.
- Rising senior Randi Loudin took bronze in the National Women’s Prone Championship at the USA Shooting National Championships for air rifle, pistol, and smallbore.
- Ole Miss Golf’s Braden Thornberry is the No. 2 amateur in the world.
- And the Egg Bowl trophy returned to its rightful home in Oxford!
Our stellar coaching staffs play a key role in achieving athletics excellence. We’re delighted to welcome our two recent additions, Kermit Davis and Yolett McPhee-McCuin, into the Ole Miss family as we begin a new era for our men’s and women’s basketball programs.
And we are building for the future in athletics — literally! Our basketball teams now compete in the best facility in the SEC, the Pavilion at Ole Miss; we have expanded and improved Vaught-Hemingway Stadium; our new indoor tennis facility is complete; and construction is underway on a baseball performance center. Last September, we dedicated the new Jake Gibbs Letterwinner Walk, which features over 5,000 names of every student-athlete who earned a varsity letter at Ole Miss dating back to 1893. And in December, we christened the state-of-the-art Gillom Athletics Performance Center, home to our volleyball team, which had a record-setting year in attendance and wins, including the National Invitational Volleyball Championship.
Another way our athletics excellence is evident is through the remarkable support from Rebel Nation. We’ve seen record attendance numbers across the board and especially in football, baseball, and softball. We’ve also seen increased support and record private donations, with our athletics budget rising from $57 million to $113 million in just five years. And in a couple of weeks, we’ll be wrapping up the sixth annual BancorpSouth Rebel Road Trip, with a total of 13 stops spanning seven states.
Let me close by saying how proud I am to be an Ole Miss Rebel and that I’m committed to building upon our outstanding momentum. While there have been challenges, athletics will continue to be a foundational pillar in advancing our visibility and educational mission. I’m confident that as we continue to focus upon our student-athletes and their exceptional achievements, we will be stronger than ever before. I look forward to seeing you throughout the year,cheering our teams on to victory. We Are Ole Miss!
As always, Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
People, Places, and Resources: Enabling Our Success –May 31, 2018
Welcome back to my blog series on our strategic plan Flagship Forward! My previous blogs focused upon two of the plan’s pillars: academic excellence and building healthy and vibrant communities. Today I am writing about a pillar that makes all our success possible: What we achieve, we achieve through our people, places, and resources.
With the recent celebration of Staff Appreciation Week at UM Oxford, the timing of this blog couldn’t be better, so let’s jump right in with recognizing the 2018 Outstanding Staff winners:
- Nettie Tyson, Facilities Management, 2018 Overall Outstanding Category winner;
- Laura D. Brown, Financial Aid, EEO1;
- Joseph Baumbaugh, Alumni Affairs, EEO 3;
- Kathy McCluskey, Human Resources, EEO 4;
- Lynn Reece, Distance Learning UM Desoto, EEO 5;
- Hunter Snow, Utilities, EEO 6;
- Michael Lewis, Facilities Management, EEO 7.
I’d also like to give a big shout-out to the 60-plus staff members who have 20 or more years of service! As my chief of staff Sue Keiser says, our staff are at the center — setting this university in motion, keeping it spinning, precisely balanced and always moving. Our staff play a vital role in shaping Ole Miss into the extraordinary university where people want to be.
At UMMC’s Excellence in Nursing Awards, recognitions went to these 10 top healthcare performers:
- Michelle Goreth, Advanced Practice Nurse of the Year;
- Sarah Gilbert, Inpatient Clinical Practice Nurse of the Year;
- Martha Cooley, Lifetime Achievement Award for Nursing;
- Brittany Ransom, Nurse Educator of the Year;
- Cissy Lee Nurse, Manager of the Year;
- Jasmine Moore, Nurse Mentor of the Year;
- Teresa Fink, Nurse in Non-Traditional Setting of the Year;
- Lillie McCoy, Nurse Rookie of the Year;
- Neal Loving, Nurse of Distinction;
- Mother-Baby, Unit Nurse Team of the Year.
And we can’t forget the annual hotly contested UMMC Gurney Races. This year’s Golden Stethoscope award was won by the commanding performance of Team Smooth Operators from the Batson Children’s Hospital operating room. Team members included Kyle Dickerson (captain), Haley Welch, Jonathan Nichols, Chandry Brown, and Barry Berch.
The last several weeks have formed a sort of “awards season” in which we have honored some spectacular people with some of our most notable awards:
- Thomas Frist Student Service Awards, presented to faculty and staff for going the extra mile in dedication and service to students — Congrats Leslie Banahan, Kerri Scott, and Ryan Upshaw!
- Elsie M. Hood Outstanding Teacher of the Year, the highest teaching honor a UM faculty member can receive — Congrats Ann Monroe!
- Distinguished Research and Creative Achievement Award, which recognizes a faculty member who has shown outstanding accomplishment in research, scholarship, and creative activity — Congrats Marc Slattery!
- Mississippi Humanitarian Award, which is presented to exceptional figures who have played a major role in shaping the state, previously awarded only three times since its inception in 2001 — Congrats former U.S. Senator and UM alumnus Thad Cochran!
And this year we began a regular process of awarding Distinguished Professor designations to recognize outstanding faculty with sustained excellence at UM. Congratulations to our inaugural honorees:
- John Daigle, director of the Center for Wireless Communications and Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering,
- Donald Dyer, associate dean for faculty and academic affairs in the College of Liberal Arts and Distinguished Professor of Russian and Linguistics, and
- Ikhlas A. Khan, director of the National Center for Natural Products Research and Distinguished Professor of Pharmacognosy.
Our people also provide leadership at the national level. Among our many examples, let me share that LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of medicine, serves as chair of the Liaison Committee for Medical Education, the accrediting body for medical school in the U.S. and Canada. And David Allen, dean of pharmacy, professor of pharmacology, and executive director and research professor of the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, is the president-elect of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the national organization representing pharmacy education in the U.S.
Another example is Karen Raber, professor of English, who was named executive director of the Shakespeare Association of America, which will now be headquartered at UM. And Brandi Hephner LaBanc, vice chancellor for student affairs, serves as secretary for the Council on Student Affairs of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities as well as a member of the LeBron James Family Foundation Board. All that national leadership looks like a slam dunk to me!
Many dozen other UM faculty, staff, and students serve or have served as elected officers of professional societies or as selected advisors to public and private entities. Through their focus on service, these members of our community help shape their disciplines as well as enhance the visibility and stature of UM.
It’s no wonder that the Chronicle of Higher Education has named UM a “Great College to Work For” nine years in a row and has included us as one of only 10 universities on the Great Colleges Honor Roll for the last two years!
So, what are some other ways we excel in people, places, and resources? For starters, how about the strides we have made in growing our veteran and military services? UM is regularly recognized as one of America’s top military-friendly colleges and universities, and we see why through such programs and achievements as the creation of Purple Heart Parking, the opening of the Veterans Resource Center, the Yellow Ribbon program with the law school, and, of course, the touching story about Colton and the My Ole Miss Wish. Our veteran and military students are integral members of the Ole Miss family, and we’re committed to providing the resources, advocacy, and guidance for their achievement and success.
Another huge measure of success we can point to is the tremendous generosity of our passionate alumni and friends, who have given more than $100 million annually for the last six years. And our current year, which ends June 30, will make the seventh year in a row! And our endowment now stands at $700 million. This private support is crucially important for our flagship university. It allows us to offer the exceptional programs that draw people to the university — such as the Sally M. Barksdale Honors College (which I’m convinced is the best in the nation), the Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence, the Trent Lott Leadership Institute, the Croft Institute for International Studies, the Chinese Language Flagship Program, the McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement, and the Gertrude C. Ford MIND Research Center.
And through philanthropy, we are building for the future — literally! With more than $1 billion in construction (planned or underway), the results are all around us: new classrooms, new laboratories and research facilities, new residence halls, and renovated spaces across our university. At UMMC, our beautiful, new $76 million state-of-the-art medical education building and a $180 million expansion of our renowned Children’s Hospital will dramatically propel us forward to achieve #AHealthierMS. Our basketball teams now compete in the world-class, $90 million Pavilion at Ole Miss. A $32 million project on the south end of the Oxford campus will provide a new recreation center and transportation hub. And our $150 million Science Innovation Institute — our biggest project ever on the Oxford campus — will be a real game changer for our students.
As I wrap up, I want to reiterate that there’s no way I can cover everything in a 1,000-word blog, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our listing on the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Roll as a transfer-friendly campus, how we’ve hosted this week’s Boys State for the last three years, that we’re one of nation’s safest college campuses, and that we’re consistently ranked among the nation’s best and most beautiful!
As you can see, it’s our people, places, and resources that make us who we are and enable what we accomplish. As this year’s exceptional commencement speaker Walter Isaacson recently shared, “What really matters is being imaginative, being creative, being innovative, and most important of all, just being good.” What better way to heed those words than to continue moving ever forward and realize our mission as a flagship university to transform lives, communities, and the world.
As always, Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
Building Healthy & Vibrant Communities: From Across the Street to Around the Globe –May 10, 2018
Welcome to the second blog in the series about the four pillars that form the foundation of our new strategic plan Flagship Forward, namely,
- Academic excellence,
- Healthy and vibrant communities,
- People, places, and resources, and
- Athletics excellence.
The first blog focused upon academic excellence and highlighted a multitude of ways we witness it every day across all of our campuses. Today’s blog calls attention to the vital role that we play in building healthy and vibrant communities.
When we talk about improving health outcomes in Mississippi, it’s natural to start that conversation around our University of Mississippi Medical Center — the state’s only academic health center. It includes the only children’s hospital in Mississippi, the only Level 1 trauma center, the only Level 4 neonatal intensive care nursery, and the only organ transplant program in the state. It’s truly a jewel for the citizens of Mississippi and the region.
And one of the best things about UMMC is the ongoing focus to do more: We’re always looking forward at the next big improvement — like the brand new 151,000-square-foot, $76 million state-of-the-art medical education building, so that we can train more doctors for our state, which currently has the fewest per capita in the nation … or our national role as a leader in telemedicine, which allows us to reach out into rural communities … or the $180 million expansion of our renowned Batson Children’s Hospital, which will include private neonatal intensive care rooms, a pediatric intensive care unit, operating rooms, and imaging devices designed just for children. Wow! It’s no wonder why UMMC is so important to creating #AHealthierMS!
How about some of the other ways that Ole Miss matters in our communities? Just this past spring semester alone, we were bursting with activity: In February, we hosted our first-ever Diversity Summit. The following month, we dedicated six contextualization plaques, which signal our commitment to recognize our university’s troubled history, learn from it, and move forward as a bright beacon of opportunity in a welcoming, inclusive environment.
Later in March, we launched a powerful initiative called M Partner, which is all about making a lasting difference in our Mississippi communities. Over the next two years, we will partner with three pilot communities — New Albany, Lexington, and Charleston — in a series of collaborative projects across the whole range of expertise of the university, including health & medicine, entrepreneurship & economic development, science & engineering, arts & culture, and media & law. Over the years, one community at a time, we will work together to enhance long-term vibrancy in our great state.
Kudos go to our students for their passion and commitment to our communities: This spring, our annual RebelTHON dance marathon raised over $265,000 for our Batson Children’s Hospital, shattering last year’s record-setting amount by more than $90,000! In addition, thousands of student volunteers played an active part in our 8th Annual Big Event, the single largest day of community service at the university.
And we were all moved by the recent efforts of our Student Veterans Association and their My Ole Miss Wish philanthropy, which brings families to Oxford to provide unforgettable gameday experiences through Ole Miss Athletics with coaches, teams, and student veterans. It was quite a special day for Colton, a patient at Batson Children’s Hospital, and his family!
Another important role our university plays is economic development. Take, for example, the McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement. Through programs like the CEED (Catalyzing Entrepreneurship and Economic Development), McLean works with communities across Mississippi to increase entrepreneurship and promote economic development in rural communities.
Just a few weeks ago, we hosted the 4th Annual Rural Entrepreneurship Forum at Insight Park and the Oxford Conference Center for over 100 business owners, economic development professionals, students, and university and community members. The event included Insight Park tenant and Ole Miss alumna, Janet McCarty, as a featured speaker. Janet — who was the 2014 Gillespie Business Plan winner — was recently named one of Mississippi’s Top Entrepreneurs in 2018 by the Mississippi Business Journal!
And speaking of alumni, we have an enviable legacy for affecting change that extends far beyond our campuses and our state. Our 135,000+ living alumni serve as passionate ambassadors for the Ole Miss spirit and make a positive difference in their communities the world over.
There are so many layers to building healthy and vibrant communities. I obviously can’t share them all in one blog. But I would like to close with just a few mentions: Oxford’s biggest-ever Double Decker Festival, our highly ranked UM Museum, the 20th anniversary of our Croft Institute for International Studies, our Flagship Constellation focused upon community wellbeing, how we engage global citizens, and life-changing experiences through study abroad. And of course, Sharon and I count our blessings every day that we live on the most beautiful campus in America!
As always, Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
P.S. With our Commencement celebrations coming up on Saturday at UM Oxford and on the 25th at UMMC, I want to extend hearty congrats to this year’s 6,300 degree candidates! For the Oxford festivities, we have set up 27,000 chairs around campus, including 15,000 in the Grove alone! Now, that’s what I call a vibrant academic community!
Academic Excellence: It’s All Around Us –May 2, 2018
I feel confident that by now most of the Ole Miss family has heard about our new strategic plan, Flagship Forward. I’m eager to share our excitement about the roadmap it lays out for our bold path to ever-increasing excellence.
Today’s blog is the first in a series to highlight the four pillars that form the foundation of Flagship Forward:
- Academic excellence,
- Healthy and vibrant communities,
- People, places, and resources, and
- Athletics excellence.
For our flagship university, academic excellence is — and always will be — first and foremost, so it’s a natural focus for this first blog of this series. Evidence of academic distinction at the University of Mississippi is everywhere: This year’s freshman class has the highest-ever entering GPA of 3.59. Our academic degrees are innovative and ranked among the very best in the country. We have 14 graduate programs ranked by US News & World Report in the top 100 nationwide. All three accountancy programs are among the nation’s top 10. Our new biomedical engineering program draws in some of the best students in Mississippi with an average ACT of 31. And the School of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery launched a new master’s program to prepare science and engineering students for work in the pharmaceutical industry. And now, with our state-of-the-art $74M Medical Education Building, we can train more doctors in a more effective way to build a healthier Mississippi.
Our Carnegie R1 highest research activity designation puts us into the top 2.5% of colleges and universities in the U.S. As one example of research excellence, our faculty and staff in physics played a major role in the astounding breakthroughs that confirmed a major prediction made by Albert Einstein over 100 years ago. Just last year the work done by that international consortium won the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physics!
In our strategic plan, one of the ways we are pushing the boundaries of knowledge is via a transformative initiative called Flagship Constellations. We launched the initiative in November with a $1 million seed gift from Tommy and Jim Duff in honor of their late father Ernest, a former ASB president. Flagship Constellations are multidisciplinary teams of faculty, staff, students, and external partners focused upon finding solutions to four of society’s grand challenges: Big Data, Brain Wellness, Community Wellbeing, and Disaster Resilience. Their research will boost innovation, increase grant funding, enhance our scholarly visibility, and make a real difference in our world.
And as we near commencement, we’ve had a whirlwind of scholarly activity. In one four-day period, we held our annual university-wide Research Day (hosted this year at our Medical Center campus), honored the new crop of Taylor Medalists (the university’s highest academic recognition, awarded to only one percent of students), inducted our newest members of the prestigious honor societies Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, and at Honors Convocation recognized Professor Ann Monroe as the 2018 recipient of the Elsie M. Hood Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award (the highest teaching honor a UM faculty member can receive). Whew! Even though I gave 13 speeches in that four-day period, I still made time to soak up every minute of the excellence we were celebrating! And here recently, we also learned that one of our students was named the 15th Harry S. Truman Scholar from Ole Miss, another student was one of only 16 students nationwide selected as a prestigious Mount Vernon Leadership Fellow, and we have a number of Fulbright awardees.
All this leads up to what will no doubt be an exciting commencement weekend, capped by remarks from Walter Isaacson — an acclaimed biographer and historian and a former CEO of CNN and Time Magazine. And of course, I can’t wait to continue the tradition of taking my annual panoramic photo of the graduates!
The takeaway message here is simple: Our flagship university is in the top tier of major public universities nationwide! And we share one essential trait with all other great institutions: a common drive and will to get ever better — to go from great to greater. I invite you to delve into our strategic plan Flagship Forward and join us as we navigate its road map to enhanced excellence.
As always, Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
Spring 2018 Semester Kick-off –January 22, 2018
Greetings students, faculty, and staff,
Happy New Year! And welcome back to campus for the start of another semester of accomplishment at Ole Miss. Even after 37-plus years in higher education, my favorite time is always the day the full student body returns to campus. For me, the first day of class brings with it undeniable energy and buzz. And the rest of the semester seems to fly by. But before we get down to the business of finishing out this academic year, I want to take a moment to reflect upon our recent achievements, because those achievements are the foundation for so much of what we will accomplish going forward.
Last semester was packed from start to finish. From our exceptional freshman class with the highest-ever entering GPA of 3.59 to our 2nd Annual Tech Summit with world-renowned panelists to the opening of our new $74 million School of Medicine building at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, we have continued to reach new heights and implement game-changing strategies for our university. An item of particular significance was the October 11 unveiling of our new strategic plan, Flagship Forward. Although the plan is specifically focused upon the Oxford and regional campuses, it also contains university-wide elements, including for the first time ever a mission and vision for entire university, including the Medical Center.
And if that wasn’t enough, at the Ford Center on November 17, we launched Flagship Constellations, an innovative university-wide research initiative that brings together faculty, staff, students, and partners across all our disciplines and all our campuses to find solutions to grand challenge problems in the areas of big data, brain wellness, community wellbeing, and disaster resilience. We were also pleased on that occasion to announce a gift of $1 million from Tommy and Jim Duff to create the Ernest R. Duff Flagship Constellation Fund in honor of their father, a former ASB president. We have several faculty searches underway, including endowed professorships. Stay tuned for many more exciting developments from this tremendous initiative.
In addition to great moments and amazing achievements, the fall semester also brought some challenges. As you know, on December 1, the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions issued its report regarding the NCAA investigation of our football program. On December 15, we sent written notice to the NCAA of our intent to file an appeal, which we will submit later this month. The additional postseason ban and penalties imposed by the NCAA are excessive and unwarranted, and we are vigorously fighting them. As always, we will continue to keep you updated at UMNCAAcase.com.
Another area we’ve addressed recently is government affairs. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — a highly debated piece of legislation — raised serious concerns for students, staff, faculty, and administrators at colleges and universities across the country. Early versions of the bill proposed eliminations that would have seriously undermined students and their access to higher education. Fortunately, in a wide bipartisan effort, we were able to mitigate some serious concerns. College graduates will still be able to deduct student loan interest, and graduate student tuition waivers will continue to be excluded from taxable income. However, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act does include some language that will affect our university, such as changes to athletic charitable giving. We encourage those who make charitable contributions to the university to assess the impact of the law with a tax specialist.
The university will continue to monitor and address federal and state legislative activity by maintaining frequent communication with our Congressional delegation and state legislature through the Office of University Relations. We continue to partner with other universities and national organizations, such as the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, to ensure our concerns are voiced in national policy debates.
Now that I have just completed my second year as UM chancellor, what strikes me most is how the Ole Miss community always comes together — whether in times of celebration or in the face of adversity. And as we look forward together, we have great things to anticipate: Next month we will begin celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Black Student Union as well as host our own campus TEDx Talks featuring engaging speakers — including two Ole Miss undergrads — who will share their #IdeasWorthSpreading, perspectives, experiences, and insights on a wide array of topics and professions.
We also look forward to more great shows at the Ford Center, the annual RebelTHON to dance the night away while raising money FOR THE KIDS of our Medical Center’s Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital, and a unique opportunity to hear from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb when he delivers the Cotton Lecture. And don’t forget that Ole Miss Athletics has declared 2018 to be the Year of the Fan! Check it out so you can get in on the great prizes and maybe even be recognized as the Ole Miss Fan of the Week! I encourage all of you to stay engaged in campus life and make plans to attend one — or all! — of the many, wonderful events happening on our campuses!
Of special note is our Contextualization Plaque Ceremony that will be held on March 2 when we will unveil six contextualization plaques. This event is aimed at providing the broad university community and the public the opportunity to honor the excellent and widely recognized work of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on History and Context. Their work represents our continued commitment as an institution of higher learning to learn from our history. By recognizing the deep problems of our past, we can use them as teaching moments to move our entire community ever forward as an inclusive and welcoming campus.
Since Sharon and I arrived just over two years ago, we are reminded each and every day that this university is a special place — with extraordinary people and tremendous offerings and opportunities. From our long tradition of academic excellence to our supportive family atmosphere, from our dedicated staff to our award-winning faculty, from our beautiful campuses to our exciting athletic venues, and from our passionate alumni to our dynamic, active student body, we truly are a flagship university! Here’s to another great semester!
As always, Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
P.S. See below for some of our more recent stellar “Flagship Facts.” Also, I encourage you to reach out to me at chancellor@OleMiss.edu. Please stay connected by following me on Twitter @UMchancellor, and you can subscribe to all my communications at http://chancellor.OleMiss.edu/chancellors-communications/.
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Town Hall Inspires UM Community to Imagine a Bold Future –November 10, 2018
If you recall, fall 2016 was the first time the University of Mississippi had ever hosted a university-wide Town Hall. Going in, we didn’t really know what to expect, so we were ecstatic about the resounding success of the event. As we began planning this year’s Town Hall for October 11, the bar had been set pretty high, so there was a little uncertainty that we could repeat it. But once again, our campus community did not disappoint, turning out with tremendous energy, ideas, and inspiration!
Perhaps the most rewarding part of this year’s Town Hall was unveiling the university’s new strategic plan, Flagship Forward. Talk about seeing your ideas put into action! This new plan is a direct result of the more than 550 ideas shared at the inaugural Town Hall around our four pillars:
- academic excellence,
- healthy and vibrant communities,
- people, places, and resources, and
- athletics excellence.
While the new plan is specifically for the main campus in Oxford and regional campuses, it includes for the first time a mission and vision for the entire university, including the University of Mississippi Medical Center. I am particularly energized that the plan leverages university-wide transformative initiatives — such as Flagship Constellations, M Partner, and the coming launch of a comprehensive capital campaign — that build upon synergies connecting UM Oxford and UMMC. Let me give an enthusiastic shout out to Provost Noel Wilkin and the entire Strategic Planning Council for an amazing job over the past year of bringing your ideas to fruition and creating the roadmap for our bold path to ever-increasing excellence!
A new feature of this year’s Town Hall was our leadership panel representing the four pillars. While I know y’all love hearing from me, the panel was a great way to hear directly from some members of our stellar senior leadership team:
Academic Excellence
- Noel Wilkin, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Healthy & Vibrant Communities
- Katrina Caldwell, Vice Chancellor for Diversity & Community Engagement
- Bettina Beech, Dean of the School of Population Health, UMMC campus
People, Places & Resources
- Brandi Hephner LaBanc, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
- Larry Sparks, Vice Chancellor for Administration & Finance
Athletics Excellence
- Ross Bjork, Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics
And to Jordan Richardson, who asked Ross the question about implementation of the Landshark mascot, I want you to know that we appreciate your tangible enthusiasm as a former Rebel the Black Bear mascot, but might we suggest a “Fins Up, Rebels!” tattoo for the other arm?
One of my favorite Town Hall features is interaction with our campus stakeholders. Taking a page from my investiture, we encouraged everyone to “imagine what we can do and how far we can go” by brainstorming future news headlines that we should strive to achieve in the coming five years. And let me say that we have some mighty creative people in the Ole Miss family who aren’t afraid to think bold and dream big! While this blog isn’t long enough to list the hundreds of headlines we collected, here are a few that really resonated with me:
- UM Experiences Unprecedented Graduation Rates, Leading the Nation
- UM Increases Number of Research Faculty to Highest in SEC
- UM Distinguished Faculty Named to National Academy of Science
- Students Get Opportunity of a Lifetime to Solve Some of the World’s Toughest Problems by Joining Faculty in Constellations
- UM Endowment Surpasses $1B
- Ole Miss leads SEC in Students Studying Abroad
- Ole Miss Launches Arts Institute to Nurture Future Artists
- UM Achieves Carnegie Community Engagement Classification Recognition
- Ole Miss Named Best Place to Work for 15th Consecutive Year
- Increased Number of Ole Miss Grads Staying in Mississippi for high-paying jobs
- Alumni Giving Exceeds 20%
- Grad Students and Young Faculty Rank Prospect Schools: UM No. 1
- Landshark Voted #1 Mascot in America
- Graduation & GPA Rates Continue to Rise Among Rebel Athletes
- Student Athletes Excel Working Along M Partners
- Ole Miss Wins NCAA Title
Stay tuned as we embark upon new and synergistic ways to make these headlines — and a multitude of others — a reality. If we want to reach it, we have to imagine it! And if you didn’t get a chance to convey the future headlines you want us to achieve, be sure to share your thoughts on the Town Hall website.
I want to thank the hundreds of faculty, staff, and students who took time from their busy day to participate in this year’s Town Hall. I would also like to extend a special thanks to David Magee, Ole Miss alumnus, longtime Oxford resident, and publisher of The Oxford Eagle, for a fantastic job as moderator. I truly appreciate how invested everyone is in the future of our extraordinary university.
Finally, let me encourage you to read my “State of the U” address — or better yet, watch — and get up to speed on all the great things happening across our campuses. And if I can share just one thing from my speech, it would be the importance of our role as a flagship university and embracing our responsibilities as Ole Miss Rebels:
As always, Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
P.S. I encourage everyone to attend the Flagship Constellations event next Friday, November 17 from 4–5 p.m. at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts.
Accelerating Connections & Conversations in the Tech Arena –September 26, 2017
As chancellor, I am committed to the University of Mississippi becoming a national leader in STEM education and building upon our status as the state’s Carnegie R-1 highest research activity university. We are well along the path of this ambitious journey by collaborating with government and industry leaders around our strengths, by educating and developing students into exceptional employees and leaders for the tech sector, and by stimulating world-class research that drives innovation. We are doing all of these things and so much more.
So, time for a pop quiz! What do a U.S. Senator, a billionaire business innovator, and a university chancellor with a passion for computers and technology have in common?
- All provided valuable insight into advancements and trends in the technology industry;
- All shared ideas about how to transform educational paradigms to address the needs of today’s global workplace;
- All participated in the 2nd Annual Technology Summit at Ole Miss on August 30, 2017; or
- All of the above.
Hopefully, you not only guessed the correct answer “D,” but also attended some or all of our exciting Tech Summit a few weeks ago. We were particularly honored to have U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, Silicon Valley icon Jim Clark, technology pioneer and noted Ole Miss alum Jim Barksdale, senior counsel for the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission Nick Degani, and numerous industry leaders (see the full list at techsummit.olemiss.edu).
We are truly fulfilling what Senator Wicker envisioned last year when he first stimulated ideas about how to drive the conversations forward related to preparing the next generation of technology innovators. He also initiated a venue to explore common connections and challenges among businesses, government, and educational institutions.
In his first-ever trip to Mississippi, Jim Clark — who has been described as the man who single-handedly rewrote the rules of American business — shared his path to building two of the most successful and influential technology companies of the 1980s and 1990s, Silicon Graphics and Netscape. He also discussed how his three decades of leadership and innovative thinking have shaped an entire industry. I was excited to discover that Jim and I have a few crossed paths in our lives: Jim received a Ph.D. from the University of Utah in my own field of computer science. Jim was an associate professor on the faculty at Stanford University while I was a PhD student there. And Jim received his bachelor’s and Master degrees in physics in my hometown of New Orleans! It was also fascinating to learn how Jim still writes computer code every morning to keep his mind fresh and sharp. What a treat for us to host someone of Jim’s caliber on campus and to have on full display the spirit of entrepreneurship and spark of creativity that drive people!
It was also significant that the Tech Summit featured Nick Degani, who conveyed his insightful perspective about the FCC’s commitment to keep the U.S. a world leader in digital innovation and to ensure that every American can participate in the digital economy. His message on the importance of innovation, investment, and inclusion resonated with the audience.
Delving deeper into critical topics, this year’s Tech Summit also offered breakout panels on strong defense and protecting the homeland, expanding access and opportunities to rural communities, and unleashing economic innovation. Allyson Best, our director of technology management, facilitated the “Unleashing Economic Innovation” panel and shared that a key takeaway was in workforce development and its importance to all aspects of economic growth. The panelists emphasized the need for everyone — from startups to public corporations — to adapt and educate both their employees and their customers in order to grow. Like Allyson, I am excited about UM’s opportunity to participate in that growth.
We unveiled some very exciting news for the university at #UMTechSummit: We entered into a strategic partnership with Globalstar (one of our Tech Summit participants) on a new satellite gateway at Ole Miss, which will establish a second-generation ground station on the university’s Oxford campus, providing many great learning and research opportunities. I couldn’t agree more with Jay Monroe of Globalstar about what better way to “hook students in” than via satellites!
What a dynamic day August 30th was for our university! Thanks to all our fantastic guests and panelists, it was full of ideas and synergy! It is truly remarkable how the Tech Summit has grown in just two short years. The event certainly complements many of our recent efforts in this area, including the new STEM building planned for our campus and our Flagship Constellation initiative to establish a leading, multidisciplinary research and education program in big data and data science. As we remain committed to accelerating our connections and conversations in the technology arena, I can’t wait to see what’s in store for future Tech Summits!
We also have some more exciting events just around the corner: Tomorrow (9/27), we are hosting U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in Jackson for a moot court competition. He will also be the featured guest at the Mississippi Bicentennial’s Judiciary and Legal Profession Banquet.
And be sure to mark your calendars for our 2nd Annual Town Hall on Wednesday, October 11, at 3 p.m. at the Inn at Ole Miss. You won’t want to miss this interactive discussion of our new strategic plan for UM Oxford with some transformative initiatives that are universitywide. I look forward to seeing you there!
As always, Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
Academic Year Wrap-up & Summer Send-off –May 31, 2017
Whew! This time of year always feels like a race to the finish: We shot out of the starting gate last August and just crossed the chequered flag in May with our commencement ceremonies. But, we did it — we’ve completed another awesome academic year!
What an exciting time as we celebrated 5,022 graduates on the University of Mississippi Oxford campus and 971 graduates at the UM Medical Center. For the second year, I couldn’t resist capturing the commencement moment and the incredible view of the Grove before me via a panoramic photo:
During commencement, we also celebrated the winners of three of our biggest annual awards:
- 2017 Elise M. Hood Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award: John Rimoldi, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry;
- Frist Student Service Awards: Robert Brown, Professor of Political Science; Donald Dyer, Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Co-Director of the Chinese Language Flagship Program; and Whitman Smith, Director of Admissions;
- 10th Distinguished Research and Creative Achievement Award: Alice M. Clark, Vice Chancellor for University Relations and A.P. Barnard Distinguished Professor of Pharmacognosy.
And ICYMI, we made our commencement speaker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential historian Jon Meacham, an honorary Ole Miss Rebel and bestowed upon him all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities appertaining thereto, which include:
- Saturdays in the Grove;
- Sundays on the Square;
- evening strolls around Rowan Oak;
- the best college greeting/cheer there is: Hotty Toddy!
- the option to throw a fins up during any athletic event;
- the duty to name a future child, grandchild, or pet after a Manning;
- unlimited visits to Oxford: the culinary and cultural mecca of the south; and
- the opportunity to browse the best bookstore in the country!
The completion of the academic year also provides us with the perfect opportunity to honor our staff because we all know they are the true backbone of this university. We appreciate all they do! A special congrats to all the 2017 Outstanding Staff winners:
- Tony Ammeter (Office of the Provost);
- Deetra A. Wiley (Office of Information Technology);
- Susan Foust (Office of the Provost);
- Amanda Blair (Outreach & Continuing Education — UM Desoto Center, Southaven campus)
- Terrance Brown (Physical Plant, Carpentry Shop);
- Sandra K. Buford (Physical Plant, Custodial Services);
- Anne McCauley (Office of Sustainability) 2017 Overall Outstanding Staff Member Winner;
- 2017 Team Service Award Winners:
- Campus Recreation and
- University Communications.
Given that I am currently writing from the annual SEC meetings in Destin, now is an especially good time for a quick shout-out to our Ole Miss softball team and coaches for their SEC championship and historic postseason performance in their first-ever appearance in a super regional. And how about Braden Thornberry? He brought home the first-ever individual NCAA national championship for a Rebel in men’s golf! Finally, be sure to tune in June 7–10 for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, where we will have a total of 11 Rebels competing.
Though we can put the 2016–2017 academic year into the books, we’ve got a lot to look forward to over the summer. In addition to summer terms and freshman and transfer orientation sessions (16 of them!), just a brief look ahead brings us the 27th annual Mississippi on the Mall in D.C., exciting Bicentennial celebration concerts and events on the Oxford campus, and even a couple more Rebel Road Trips (Memphis and Jackson). Also, be on the lookout for information about the 2nd annual universitywide Town Hall to be held in the fall.
Congratulations again to all our graduates, students, faculty, and staff! Here’s to a restful, productive summer. Can’t wait to begin again in August! Let me leave you with some powerful words that Jon Meacham shared during the commencement address in Oxford:
“At its best, Ole Miss has armed you for what Oliver Wendell Holmes called the passion and action of the times. Your weapons are the elements that form this school’s sure foundation: grace and strength and love.”
As always, Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
Arts & Cultural Life at Ole Miss Enrich Us All –April 28, 2017
As tens of thousands celebrate the 22nd Annual Double Decker Festival this weekend, I thought it would be a great time to share some thoughts about the importance of arts and culture to our university community. Anyone who has visited Ole Miss and Oxford — even just one time — knows that the cultural life of our university and town are second to none. It is no mistake that Visit Oxford touts our description as the “Cultural Mecca of the South.” As Sharon reminds me, the arts keep everything vibrant and relevant, and members of the Ole Miss and Oxford communities have immense opportunities to take advantage of the arts that are so conveniently located.
“In my own philanthropy and business endeavors, I have seen the critical role that the arts play in stimulating creativity and in developing vital communities….the arts have a crucial impact on our economy and are an important catalyst for learning, discovery, and achievement in our country.” –Paul G. Allen, Co-Founder, Microsoft
The arts are a quintessential part of life on a college campus — where members of the university community are exposed to cultural opportunities they might not otherwise have access to — from literature to music to visual and performing arts. While we cannot all be world-renowned concert pianists like our own Chancellor’s Artist-in-Residence Bruce Levingston or the Poet Laureate of Mississippi like UM English Professor Beth Ann Fennelly, we can all appreciate and benefit from how the arts speak to our human experiences.
For me, my appreciation for the arts is deeply rooted in my New Orleans upbringing. It only takes one visit to NOLA to grasp the city’s joie de vivre mentality through its strong cultural foundation, vibrant arts scene, and love of music. The arts provide an enduring legacy that helps us gain insight into cultures of other times and places. It brings us beauty and joy, expands our thoughts and perceptions, and provides inspiration for the soul. And the real splendor lies in how the countless expressions of art and culture intersect across all disciplines.
From Faulkner to the Ford Center, we have a plethora of amazing experiences and venues here. While this blog cannot be a comprehensive listing of all our opportunities, suffice it to say that we serve as an art and cultural hub. For example, did you know that our University Museum is ranked as one of the nation’s best collegiate art museums by Best College Reviews? With a collection of more than 20,000 objects, our museum serves more than 10,000 Mississippi school children and youth annually.
On any given weekend, you can discover a multitude of performances, concerts, shows, and events. Take the annual Oxford Conference for the Book just held last month. Founded by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and Square Books 24 years ago, the conference brings together fiction and nonfiction writers, journalists, artists, poets, publishers, teachers, students, and literacy advocates from all over the world to celebrate the written word. Goodness knows we’ve got quite a bit of literary cred around here — from John Grisham, Barry Hannah, and Willie Morris to Larry Brown, Greg Iles, Donna Tartt, and Tom Franklin! And, of course, to bring the literary component alive, we have the original family home of William Faulkner, Rowan Oak.
Or how about our Gertrude C. Ford Center for Performing Arts — truly one of the gems of the Oxford campus for 15 years now — where you can catch phenomenal performances, everything from ballet to Broadway. It is a premier entertainment venue, with over 50 events a year!
As for music, our Blues Archive, established in 1984, not only serves Ole Miss students and faculty, but researchers worldwide. With over 60,000 sound recordings, over 20,000 photographs, more than 1,000 videos, and over 34,000 books, periodicals, and newsletters, the Blues Archive houses one of the largest collections of blues recordings, publications, and memorabilia in the world. Our collections even include B. B. King’s personal record collection!
And staying with the music theme, for more than 40 years our UM Gospel Choir has performed at countless events and received numerous awards and recognition. In fact, this premier student organization has even been nominated for a Grammy Award. And guess what? They are a featured performance this Sunday at a Gospel Choir Showcase on the Square to close out Double Decker weekend.
In addition to all the exceptional experiences offered on campus, we cultivate our fantastic town–gown relationship with Oxford and regularly collaborate, partner, and sponsor events in the community. A great example is this weekend’s event, Double Decker, which is presented by UM Museum and Ole Miss Athletics. Or how about Thacker Mountain Radio — celebrating its 20th anniversary this year — that you can catch live on Rebel Radio 92.1 FM. And the Oxford Film Fest, celebrating the art of independent cinema for 15 years now, provides a great opportunity for Ole Miss students, faculty, and alumni to volunteer, sponsor, as well as feature their talents.
With many events on the horizon, I encourage you to be on the lookout for opportunities to immerse yourself in the arts — whether by enjoying an exhibit in Gallery 130 in Meek Hall, attending the numerous concerts and recitals hosted by the Department of Music, or taking in one of the 4–5 shows produced each year by Ole Miss Theatre.
Be sure to mark your calendars for the May 20th Oxford celebration and author event at City Hall for the publication of The Mississippi Encyclopedia. This mammoth collaboration includes over 1,451 pages of entries on every county, every governor, and numerous musicians, writers, artists, and activists. You should also make plans to attend the exciting events in celebration of the state’s Bicentennial. Country and Americana music legend Marty Stuart will headline the Governor’s Concert on June 24 at the Ford Center, which will also feature Mississippi’s Music and Culture Ambassador Steve Azar, Mac MacAnally, Vasti Jackson, Shannon McNally, David Lee (winner of the 2015 Ultimate Elvis Tribute Contest), the Mississippi Bicentennial Symphony Orchestra, and the Mississippi Bicentennial Singers. And don’t miss a special edition of Thacker Mountain Radio Show live in the Grove followed by a Mississippi Soul Singer Tribute by our very own Rebel, Damein Wash. We are certainly helping live up to our state’s motto as “The Birthplace of America’s Music.”
As a flagship institution, we are committed to growing our capacity in the arts. Looking ahead, we must focus efforts to enhance and build upon our wonderful — and numerous — arts and cultural resources and programs. As I announced in my investiture speech last November, one of our new initiatives is to develop a cultural gateway to draw together our arts and cultural programs to connect our visual arts, performing arts, museums, archives, and archeological resources. This space will create performance, experiential learning, and enrichment opportunities to support our community and region. It will allow people of all ages and from all over the world to come — physically and virtually — to learn about our culture and history and to experience the talent and creativity of our artists.
In closing, I remind you of the words of famous writer and philosopher Thomas Merton, who once said, “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” I encourage you to come find yourself… and then lose yourself in all the amazing opportunities that abound in the arts at Ole Miss and in Oxford!
As always, Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
We’ve Heard You! New Policies & Guidelines to Impact UM Students –March 31, 2017
I relish my role as the voice of the university. Since arriving at Ole Miss, I have made it a priority to expand communication and connectivity via personal visits, town halls, informational blogs, and robust use of social media. One of the great benefits of doing so is that not only do you get to hear more from me, but in addition I get to hear from you — faculty, staff, alumni, and students. Especially students.
Over the last 15 months, I have received numerous requests, suggestions, and observations, particularly via Twitter, on a wide range of topics related to university life. I am pleased to report that the senior leadership team and I have carefully reviewed these tweets, and based upon your insightful input, we are now updating several policies and guidelines.
A primary theme running through many of the communications indicated a dire need to re-examine our attendance policies, in particular, for those situations that necessitate cancellation of classes. After in-depth consultation with Provost Noel Wilkin, Vice Chancellor LouAnn Woodward, and emergency management coordinator Barbara Russo, we are instituting the following items as grounds for class cancellations, effective April 1, 2017:
1. City-wide power outages.
2. Mardi Gras.
3. Persistent plumbing issues.
4. Building temperature regulation issues.
5. Precipitation falling from the sky.
6. Great weather, blooming tulips, and baseball games. (All three factors must occur concurrently.)
Attempt focus & study but looking outside & seeing great weather & tulips blooming & baseball games DURING CLASS this is CRUEL @UMchancellor— Neely Walker (@neely_walker) March 28, 2017
7. Stressful Super Bowl games.
@UMchancellor Hi, Chancellor Vitter! As a New Englander I just endured the most stressful Super Bowl of my life… can we cancel classes? jk — Arianna Duprey (@ariduprey) February 6, 2017
8. It’s your birthday. Please note that this new policy does not cancel classes universitywide, but instead, gives individuals an excused absence from classes that fall on the day of their birth.
@UMchancellor hey since it’s my birthday, can I be excused from classes?— Cody Donahue (@codydonahue16) February 8, 2017
A second area identified was the need for additional factors to consider when granting tuition waivers and other special accommodations. After lengthy discussions with Larry Sparks, our vice chancellor for administration and finance, and Brandi Hephner LaBanc, vice chancellor for student Affairs, here are some new guidelines we are putting into place effective April 1, 2017:
1. Electrocution while utilizing university facilities.
2. Supplying concrete evidence of the Lake Sardis Monster.
@UMchancellor what are your thoughts on the pressing public safety hazard known as the Sardis Monster? — Wax Paul Bunyan (@jgc_603) February 28, 2017
3. Offering the chancellor a ride when it is raining. Deemed null and void when class is cancelled. See updated policy 5 for class cancellation.
4. Asking the chancellor for a ride.
@UMchancellor can I hitch a ride to the Memphis airport tomorrow morning?— Melissa McCann (@melleemccs) December 8, 2016
5. No hot showers in residence halls for more than two consecutive days.
6. Acute awareness of carillon repertoire for Paris-Yates Chapel.
7. 47 Parking tickets. While this specific item is not actually included in the new tuition waiver policy, it will gain you naming rights to the tulip beds in front of the Lyceum.
A final area that I want to update you on relates to new and expanded special events and venues around campus.
1. Puppy rooms for stressed students.
2. Expanded offerings of crawfish boils at every athletic venue on campus, February through June.
Before I close, I want to make a few additional announcements of interest. I am pleased to share that Director of Admissions Whitman Smith has been collaborating with members of the LIGO team in our physics department to apply their exciting, new discoveries related to gravitational waves to our recruiting strategies in order to draw in more students. It will allow us to extend our international student presence to other galaxies as well. We expect a big bang effect on enrollment. They are working with Vice Chancellor for Research and Sponsored Programs Josh Gladden to formalize the approach and spin off other applications. And last, but certainly not least, we are instituting the mandatory, university-wide use of the Oxford comma.
Sound too good to be true? Like, literally unbelievable? Click here to learn more about these updated policies and new guidelines.
As always, Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
A Look Ahead: 2017 Momentum & Initiatives –February 3, 2017
It is great to be back into the swing of things with the start of our spring semester! Our campuses are always transformed and re-energized with the return of our students and faculty. It is also a new calendar year, which offers a great opportunity to take stock and reflect upon the previous year, as well as share some thoughts about all we have to look forward to in the coming months.
As we start the new year, we have so much to be grateful for, and I want to express my deepest thanks to the entire Ole Miss family for all you do to enable the success of our university. The year 2016 was a seminal one in the life of the University of Mississippi … and for Sharon and me personally: It marked our first year as Ole Miss Rebels! It doesn’t get any better than that! As Mississippi’s flagship university, we celebrated some amazing accomplishments by our faculty, staff, students, and friends — so many accomplishments, in fact, that I would need a separate blog to list them all! Instead, I encourage you to see a snapshot of 2016 highlights at the end of this one.
So how do we go about ensuring that we capitalize on our momentum and continue this journey to achieve ever greater heights? In case you missed it, I outlined several new initiatives during my investiture address to further our upward trajectory. I’m here to tell you that I think 2017 will be as exciting and successful as 2016. Put your seat belts on — it’s going to be a fun ride!
First, we are committed over the coming years to growing our endowment from $600 million to more than $1 billion to support the development, retention, and engagement of our highly talented faculty, staff, and students. This commitment includes an athletics endowment to build a resource base to sustain competitive excellence. The University of Mississippi — stretching across our Oxford campus, Medical Center in Jackson, and regional campuses around the state — is a $2.5 billion enterprise, and we must generate slightly more than 88 percent of our operating revenue from sources other than state appropriations. We rely on state funds and tuition across all our campuses as a crucial revenue source; they fund the running of a major comprehensive educational enterprise.
We look increasingly to philanthropy to give us the competitive edge that enhances the flagship experience and sets Ole Miss apart, such as the Sally M. Barksdale Honors College, the Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence, the Trent Lott Leadership Institute, the Croft Institute for International Studies, and the McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement. Our endowment must be a priority if we are to enhance our flagship status and academic excellence while also ensuring access and affordability.
We will also develop a Cultural Gateway — anchored by one of the gems of our Oxford campus, the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts — to draw together and celebrate our arts and cultural programs. This space will create performance, experiential learning, and enrichment opportunities for our community and our region.
Another initiative I shared at the investiture involves our role in building healthy and vibrant communities. We will channel the talents of our entire university and partner with towns and cities around the state — one at a time — to enhance every aspect of community life. The needs in Mississippi’s communities are great, and we will collaborate with them on joint projects harnessing the full range of university expertise — from medicine and population health to policy and law, science and engineering, business and entrepreneurship, education, arts, and culture.
Finally, let me elaborate on the launch of the Flagship Constellations Initiative, which is quickly coming to fruition. Simply put, our goal with this initiative is to accelerate and inspire solutions to some of society’s grand challenges that the University of Mississippi and its partners can play a major role in addressing. We will form innovative, multidisciplinary research and creative achievement clusters — called Flagship Constellations — of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and external partners. I see the Flagship Constellations as an avenue for us to excel by attracting stellar personnel to Ole Miss to work with the incredible talent we already have in place — bringing together people and ideas in fresh and unique ways with great potential for added achievements, increased grant funding, scholarly visibility, and international prominence.
We recently held kickoff town hall meetings about the Flagship Constellations on our Medical Center and Oxford campuses , attracting more than 300 people. In keeping with the celestial analogies, I would describe the energy at these meetings as truly electric and say that our atmosphere of innovation is charged for amazing outcomes! Stay tuned. We will announce our initial Flagship Constellations later this spring. You can find information about the process and status online.
I encourage you to keep up with the exciting developments at our university. I have an open door policy and encourage your input. You can always reach me at chancellor@OleMiss.edu. Thank you for all your efforts for advancing our flagship role as a great public international research university.
As always, Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
2016 Snapshot
- We achieved Carnegie R1 Highest Research Activity status. UM is the only R1 institution in the state and is among the top 2.5% higher education institutions in the U.S.
- We welcomed our largest-ever freshman class (3,982) with the highest-ever ACT (25.2) and GPA (3.57).
- We have the largest overall enrollment (24,250) and highest retention rate in the state.
- We hit an all-time new record with philanthropic giving when we topped $100 million for the 5th year in a row.
- We commemorated the naming of our newest health science school, the John D. Bower School of Population Health — the seventh school at the UM Medical Center campus and only the third of its kind in the country.
- We were named one of the nation’s top schools for military programs and educational opportunities for veterans (for the fourth straight year!), by Military Advanced Education and Transition’s 2017 Guide to Colleges and Universities.
- We hosted Undersecretary Ted Mitchell of the U.S. Department of Education as part of their Back-To-School Bus Tour to highlight our diversity and inclusion efforts.
- We held our first-ever universitywide Town Hall that resulted in over 500 ideas that will help guide us in our strategic planning, which is picking up steam this semester.
- We also held a number of powerful events, such as the CEO Technology Summit and the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Panel, that demonstrate our commitment to address the needs of today’s global workplace and to foster an environment of innovation and creativity.
- And we celebrated a fun investiture, which formally installed me as 17th chancellor of this great flagship university.
UM Entrepreneurs Share Keys to Success and Encourage Innovative Thinking –December 2, 2016
Today I am writing about a powerful event — the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Panel — we hosted on campus on October 28. The panel highlighted and celebrated the many ways our university supports and encourages innovative thinking and entrepreneurial activities. I walked away from the event energized by how much the audience benefitted from the inspiring entrepreneurial stories and informed perspectives shared by our distinguished panelists and dynamic entrepreneurs.
Starting things off for the standing-room-only crowd of 200-plus students, faculty, and staff were two well-known Ole Miss student entrepreneurs — William Ault, founder and CEO of Curtsy, and Janet McCarty, owner and principal at Cotton’s Cafe Dog Treat Barkery. William shared how he and the other Curtsy team members are currently working in Silicon Valley to grow their peer-to-peer dress rental start-up app. He also shared that the support of the entrepreneurial programs at Ole Miss were key to Curtsy’s success. He encouraged the audience to take advantage of all that the university offers. Conveniently, I’ve included a list of these university resources at the end of this blog.
What a treat (pun intended!) it was to hear from Janet who creates specialty dog treats from the university’s research and business park, Insight Park, and how she has expanded Cotton’s Café to a national market. It was hard not to get caught up in Janet’s enthusiasm for her product, her company, and her path to becoming an entrepreneur. My favorite piece of advice from Janet? “Find your purpose. If you are passionate about it, you will succeed!”
Moderated by Clay Dibrell of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the panel included some of our most successful Ole Miss entrepreneurs:
- Michael Burcham, currently CEO of Narus Health, a healthcare organization that offers support to patients with life threatening medical conditions. He has been the founder of numerous healthcare technology companies over the last 25 years. Burcham is an Ole Miss alum and UMMC graduate.
- Edith Kelly-Green, a UM alumna who worked in accounting at FedEx for 25 years. She retired in 2003 as the vice president of internal audit. Upon her retirement, Kelly-Green became a franchise owner of Lenny’s Sub Shop. She now owns six restaurants in Memphis.
- Bill Rayburn, current Mortgage Trade chairman and CEO. The former professor co-founded the technology company FNC while teaching finance at Ole Miss.
While each has had distinct entrepreneurial journeys to success, all three of our panelists shared many of the same peaks and valleys along their journeys. They imparted some key advice to the audience that I want to make sure you don’t miss:
People invest in people and business models.
Are you committed? You must be ALL IN.
Take care of your own reputation because it will come into play.
It is all about building relationships.
Don’t dwell on failure. Move on. Take failure as a stepping stone to the next great thing.
Make a difference. Do something that is significant, not just successful.
Never quit. Get right back up and do it again the next day.
For our students in particular, I thought our panelists’ responses to a question about workforce skills were very enlightening. Edith shared that while she is in the business of making money, her investments have turned more into a passion for helping other people. In her employees, she values core qualities like honesty, integrity, and punctuality. Michael, who has hired about 50 Ole Miss alums over the years, looks for ambitious self-starters with strong problem-solving skills.
And I was really fond of Bill’s use of mosaic theory to describe how he hires people with complementary skills to address strengths and weaknesses in order to put the pieces together to create the whole picture, namely, the company.
So whether you are an established businessperson or a budding entrepreneur, I encourage you to take advantage of the many ways the university is fostering an atmosphere of innovation, an environment of synergy and encouragement, and a spirit of entrepreneurship. Who knows? Maybe even one of you will be our next Ole Miss success story and be a featured panelist in one of our upcoming events!
Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
UM Innovation and Entrepreneurship Resources
A Thanksgiving Message –November 23, 2016
Dear Students and Colleagues:
As we take a brief break from a busy academic year and gather in the coming days with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving, we have much to be grateful for here at the University of Mississippi. First and foremost, Sharon and I are grateful to count ourselves as members of the Ole Miss family and the LOU community. We are a family filled with committed students, creative faculty, dedicated staff, and passionate alumni. I appreciate all you do as members of this community to enable our role as a flagship university to advance society through learning, discovery, and engagement.
Now is a time of reflection on our relationships, our achievements, and our challenges. We have achieved new heights, such as our largest freshman class ever, but we have also faced challenges — in our community and in our nation. The hallmark of the University of Mississippi is that we celebrate our successes and confront our challenges together, as a family. Empathy, communication, and genuine caring truly are the very fabric of our community.
Sharon and I wish each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. May it be a time of relaxation with family and friends as well as a time of reflection for all in our lives for which we are thankful.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
Investiture Celebrates Next Chapter of UM –November 18, 2016
After 10 months on the job, the day of my investiture finally arrived. And what a day it was! There was so much emotion and such amazing moments, I wanted to capture as much as possible — photos, tweets, memories, speeches, music — and what better way than via my blog.
To everyone who attended and to those who watched via the livestream — thank you! If you missed it, you can watch it here. I’ve even marked out some of my favorite moments:
- “Clarinet Marmalade”: 0:59
- Welcome to platform party: 5:30
- Introduction of special guests: 26:12
- “Just a Closer Walk with Thee”: 1:18:00
- Commissioner Boyce’s charge and my uniquely Ole Miss answer: 1:29:40
- Investiture Address: 1:32:30
To my family — all 15 of you there — and to our many friends: Thank you!
To Morris Stocks and the Investiture Committee — for all your efforts for this wonderful day: Thank you!
To the UM Concert Singers, Faculty Jazz Septet, and the Trombone Octet — the music was spectacular! Thank you!
To the platform party — what an honor to share the stage with you. Thank you!
To all the faculty, official delegates of universities and colleges, learned societies, and educational and professional associations — what an impressive group! Thank you!
To the speakers — I cherish all your kind words: Thank you!
To Commissioner Glenn Boyce — thank you for giving me the opportunity to say, “Hell yeah! Damn right!” Do you think you’ll ever hear those words at any other university inauguration?
It was truly a privilege for me to share during my keynote address what I have learned since starting in January — Ole Miss is a great university — and to share how we can take Ole Miss from great to greater.
I was especially excited to unveil new initiatives including growth of our endowment to $1 billion, establishment of Flagship Constellations to address compelling challenges through high-impact multidisciplinary research initiatives, and development of a cultural gateway to draw together our arts and cultural programs.
The investiture was truly a wonderful event, and I am honored and humbled by your support. I know we are all hopeful and energized as we turn our efforts to taking our university to ever greater heights. As I said in my remarks:
“The next chapter in the life of this magnificent university sits squarely in all of our hands, waiting to be written — and read by future generations. All of us will ultimately be defined by what we leave behind. It is our destiny as a flagship university to desire more, to give more, to be more, and to leave more behind. It is our calling to transform lives, communities, and the world.
“JUST IMAGINE WHAT WE WILL DO! . . . JUST . . . IMAGINE!”
Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
P.S. I don’t think my fondness of social media is a big secret so I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite tweets:
Big Data + UM = Big Opportunities –September 22, 2016
Today’s blog is a follow-up on the exciting UM Tech Summit we hosted on August 31. We were grateful to have U.S. Senator Roger Wicker highlight an effort to bring key technology leaders to campus to share perspectives from the computer, telecom, Internet, and cyber security industries. These leaders shared valuable insights about how universities — especially our university! — can transform educational paradigms to address the needs of today’s global workplace. Key to that transformation is the growing multidisciplinary field of data science, and at the Tech Summit we explored the opportunities the University of Mississippi has to be a national leader in the field.
Let me back up a minute. To understand why this matters, I want to share the following important national trends in data sciences:
- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the next eight years there will be about a half million net new jobs created in the U.S. in the fields of computer and information technology. (http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/home.htm).
- According to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, the United States would need to increase its yearly production of undergraduate STEM degrees by 34 percent over current rates to match the demand forecast for STEM professionals.
- An analysis from International Data Corporation (a global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets) projects that the big data technology and services market will grow at an annual growth rate of nearly 25 percent from 2014–2019, with yearly spending reaching nearly $49 billion by 2019.
Perhaps Senator Wicker best explained why data science matters when he stated, “Our state and this university are not only a vital part of technology and Internet progress today, but in many important respects, we are leading the way. It is, in fact, our problems and our unique challenges in Mississippi that are causing us to be a world leader.” For example, technology enables us to bring services and expertise, such as from our world-class telehealth program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, to rural areas of the state. Rural communities throughout the world may benefit from sharing what we have learned.
To paraphrase Senator Wicker: where there are challenges, there are opportunities. At Ole Miss, as a Carnegie-designated “R-1” highest-level research university, we see a tremendous opportunity to establish transdisciplinary research and educational programs focused upon data science — “big data,” data analytics, data security — so as to harness the power of data to improve lives and wellbeing while at the same time guard against the growing potential for abuse. From precision medicine to commerce to national security, we will build upon our existing strengths in medicine, business, accounting, remote sensing, intelligence studies, media, entrepreneurship, and emerging technologies.
One Tech Summit panelist suggested there is no reason that students wouldn’t flock to Ole Miss instead of another university like Stanford if data science programs were set up to accommodate those interests. He may have been taking a jab at me as a Stanford alum, but I couldn’t agree more!
The power of data will be evident in the massive new STEM building that will soon begin construction on All-American Drive across from Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. When completed, the facility will focus on active learning methodologies, in which students make novel use of IT/multimedia and team-based interactions, while instructors use data analytics to tune their personal interactions with students in the classroom, resulting in a superb learning environment.
Without a doubt, our world is more connected than ever before. This connectivity has resulted from an explosion in computing power and an even larger explosion in the amount of data we can process. To put it into perspective, “the cloud” allows us to access billions of times more information than did my original 1984 Mac, which I have on my office shelf (and which just celebrated its 100,000th year-old birthday in binary!). Or consider that the smartphone you carry has millions of times more power than NASA’s combined computing in 1969. And they sent men to the moon!
As a computer scientist, I am excited to see our university and corporate communities come together to embrace the burgeoning opportunities of data science. To fully do so, we must continue building public-private partnerships with the likes of the leaders and companies that participated in the UM Tech Summit. The insight and guidance they provided was invaluable. I look forward to hosting them on campus again soon as we continue onward.
Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
UM Technology Summit Panelists
- Sen. Roger Wicker, Chair, Communications Technology Innovation & Internet Subcommittee, Senate Commerce Committee
- Jim Barksdale, former president and CEO of Netscape Communications Corp.
- Tom Becherer, founder and CEO of DeltaBridge
- Bob Curbeam, vice president of Space Systems, a mission area within Raytheon Co.
- Mayo Flynt, president of AT&T Mississippi
- Josh Gladden, UM vice chancellor for research and sponsored programs
- Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute
- Rich Langford, strategic alliance manager for education with Microsoft Corp.
- Hu Meena, president and CEO of C Spire
- Jay Monroe, executive chairman and CEO of Global Star
- Amb. John Palmer, founder and chairman of GulfSouth Capital and Skytel
- Bill Rayburn, co-founder of FNC Inc.
- Marc Siry, vice president of Comcast’s Strategic Development Group
- LouAnn Woodward, UM vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the UMMC School of Medicine
Rebs Represent in Rio –August 4, 2016
It’s a good summer to be an Ole Miss Rebel! We have nine — count them nine! — members of the Ole Miss family across three sports in Rio de Janeiro. What a great milestone for our university, as this is the most Rebels ever at any single Olympic games. Some unique bragging rights and I couldn’t be more proud of our #RebsInRio as they get ready to compete on the world’s largest stage — and rep Rebel Nation — in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
- Volunteer assistant coach Gwen Berry joined Team USA after finishing as a silver medalist in the hammer at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
- Former Rebel great Antwon Hicks competed at Ole Miss from 2002 to 2005 and will represent Team Nigeria in his first trip to the Olympics. He will run in the men’s 110-meter hurdles.
- Oxford native Sam Kendricks became the eighth Rebel all-time to wear a Team USA jersey when he was the top qualifier in the pole vault event.
- Former Ole Miss forward Anthony Perez will be playing for the Venezuelan men’s basketball team. Perez averaged 15.5 minutes and 4.7 points during his four-year career with the Rebels and was a member of the 2012–2013 SEC Tournament Championship team.
- Brittney Reese, a 2012 London Olympics gold medalist and Gulfport native, will be making her third appearance at the Olympics. As a Rebel, Reese was the NCAA indoor and outdoor champion in the long jump in 2008.
- Seven-time SEC champion Ricky Robertson is the first Rebel to make the Olympics in the high jump.
- Raven Saunders, only a sophomore, qualified for her first Olympics by placing second in the shot put at the trials. Read this outstanding feature about Raven’s journey to the top.
- Former Rebel Rafaelle Souza, who was a member of Ole Miss women’s soccer from 2011 to 2013, will be playing for Team Brazil. While a Rebel, Souza tied for the league lead in goals with 22, set the school record for goals in a career with 44, and earned all-SEC honors.
Wait, that’s only eight. I promise I can count! Our very own track and field head coach, Connie Price-Smith, will be in Rio, too — she is Team USA’s head coach for women’s track and field. She brings our total to nine Rebs in Rio!
We are also very proud of eight other Ole Miss Rebels (Craig Engels, MJ Erb, Holland Sherrer, Brian Williams, Isiah Young, and volunteer assistants Isaac Presson, Jessica Ramsey, and Jeneva Stevens) who just missed qualifying for the 2016 games.
You can follow all our Rebs on their Olympic journey at www.RebsInRio.com. And when you watch the opening ceremonies Friday night, be sure to give a hearty “Hotty Toddy” as we support our Rebels who get the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go for gold and call themselves Olympians.
Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
Fostering Communication, Connection, and Conversation –July 1, 2016
I can hardly believe it, but today marks six months on the job as chancellor of the University of Mississippi. The first part of 2016 has been a whirlwind of getting to know the great people of this amazing university and the transformational role you all play in education, innovation, health care and community engagement.
Through all my meetings, events, activities, and interactions, I am perhaps most pleased with how people have responded to my commitment to clear communication and transparency. So in keeping with this theme, today seemed like a fitting day to debut a redesigned website.
You will find that the new chancellor.OleMiss.edu website is a virtual hub of communication — from letters and news items to numerous interactive elements including videos and social media highlights. You will also find easy one-click links to key leaders and offices, such as UMMC, senior leadership team, and regional campuses. Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I have adopted this platform as one of the most direct ways to connect with the Ole Miss family. The redesign of the chancellor’s office website now showcases featured tweets in the sidebar throughout the site.
And since we are on the topic of Twitter, I thought it would be fun to share some popular tweets from the last six months:
The new website also features an informal mode of communication — blogs — through which we can engage in shared conversation about all things UM. Say someone asks me what I did this summer, I might share these recent snapshots:
As a general principle, I think it is important to communicate and keep people engaged and informed. Not only does it build trust, positive relationships, and lead to the best solutions, I also absolutely enjoy it! So in addition to communicating via this website, I will continue cultivating conversations via social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I am really pleased with the connectivity to the UM family that these platforms provide.
As we move forward into the rest of the summer and the start of the new academic year in August, I will continue to share various activities, thoughts, and musings with you via this blog. Watch for posts hot off the presses, and if you are not already on our email distribution list, please subscribe — you never know what you might miss! And mark your calendar for Monday, August 29 for our inaugural, university-wide interactive Town Hall meeting!
Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
Celebrating Commencement and Staff Excellence –May 26, 2016
The past two weeks have been an amazing time of celebration and appreciation at the University of Mississippi — our largest-ever commencements both at Oxford and (soon to be) at UMMC and a weeklong celebration of our dedicated and hard-working staff members. I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to wrap up my first five months as your chancellor.
As a computer scientist, I am fascinated with numbers. Did you know that we conferred degrees this past year to almost 5,700 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students? I would tell you how many chairs were set up in the Grove for commencement, but I stopped counting at 14,398! What a sight it was too, especially with our beautiful new regalia. I couldn’t resist capturing the moment and the incredible view before me via a panoramic photo with my phone.
Beyond the numbers, it was an incredible honor to have Tom Brokaw, longtime friend to this great university and one of America’s most venerable broadcast journalists, deliver the 2016 Commencement address. He reminded us what a unique and special American tradition our graduation ceremonies are. In fact, he encouraged anyone searching for affirmation of America’s greatness to look no further than the thousands of commencement ceremonies taking place across the country.
While Mr. Brokaw touched upon many important topics, his message resonated with me that equality and responsibility are the unfinished business of our time:
“The dream of equality for all is not an obligation of one race or another,” Brokaw said. “It is a common calling in our unique society. We are still a nation of immigrants, where the rule of law is inadequate if the rule of heart is not also an equal partner. All shades of the American palette matter.”
His stirring words reminded me of the UM Creed, and particularly the emphasis our community places on integrity, welcoming all people and respecting each person.
We are not quite done with ceremonies yet. I am looking forward to Friday when our medical center campus will hold its commencement. It is an honor for me to continue the celebration at UMMC with our future health care professionals, nurses, dentists, doctors, researchers, and scientists.
And keeping with the graduation theme, Sharon and I will end this commencement season as proud parents watching our daughter Jillian graduate from her residency program in early June.
To all our graduates, I reiterate the wise words of Mr. Brokaw and encourage you to use your special place in the world as an Ole Miss graduate to lift fellow Mississippians through tolerance, education, economic opportunity, and social acceptance. Follow your dreams, fulfill your great potential, and know you will always connect as part of our Ole Miss family — with or without clickers in hand!
And speaking of Ole Miss family, last week we held our Staff Appreciation Week. Thank you to all who organized and participated in the week’s activities. From a plant swap to karaoke to Zumba in the Grove, there was a little bit of everything for all to enjoy. Congratulations to all those honored at the Staff Awards Ceremony on May 20th. Whether you were honored for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 years of service, or for 47 years like Kathy Tidwell, you play vital role in making our university great and where students, staff, and faculty want to be.
I am looking forward to our Ole Miss baseball team hosting a regional this year. After attending many games this season, I can only imagine how electric the atmosphere will be. Here’s to lots of home run showers in right field!
Congratulations again to all our graduates, faculty, and staff!
Hotty Toddy!
Jeffrey S. Vitter
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor