University of Mississippi

The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university in University and Oxford, Mississippi, United States. The university's medical center is located in Jackson, Mississippi.

The Mississippi Legislature chartered the university on February 24, 1844, and in 1848 admitted its first 80 students. During the Civil War, the university operated as a Confederate hospital and narrowly avoided destruction by Ulysses S. Grant's forces. In 1962, during the civil rights movement, a race riot occurred on campus when segregationists tried to prevent the enrollment of African American student James Meredith. The university has since taken measures to improve its image. The university is closely associated with writer William Faulkner and owns and manages his former Oxford home Rowan Oak, which with other on-campus sites Barnard Observatory and Lyceum–The Circle Historic District, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ole Miss is classified as "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It is one of 33 institutions participating in the National Sea Grant Program and also participates in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. Its research efforts include the National Center for Physics Acoustics, the National Center for Natural Products Research, and the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research. The university operates the country's only federally contracted Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved cannabis facility. It also operates interdisciplinary institutes such as the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Its athletic teams compete as the Ole Miss Rebels in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I Southeastern Conference.

The university's alumni, faculty, and affiliates include 27 Rhodes Scholars, 10 governors, 5 US senators, a head of government, and a Nobel Prize Laureate. Other alumni have received accolades in the arts such as Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, and Pulitzer Prizes. Its medical center performed the first human lung transplant and animal-to-human heart transplant.

History

Founding and early history

The Mississippi Legislature chartered the University of Mississippi on February 24, 1844. Planners selected an isolated, rural site in Oxford as a "sylvan exile" that would foster academic studies and focus. In 1845, residents of Lafayette County donated land west of Oxford for the campus and the following year, architect William Nichols oversaw construction of an academic building called the Lyceum, two dormitories, and faculty residences. For 23 years, the university was Mississippi's only public institution of higher learning, and for 110 years, its only comprehensive university. In 1854, the University of Mississippi School of Law was established, becoming the fourth state-supported law school in the United States.

Early president Frederick A. P. Barnard sought to increase the stature of the university, placing him in conflict with the more conservative board of trustees. His hundred-page 1858 report to the trustees on his proposals resulted in little besides the university head's title being changed to "chancellor". Barnard's northern background—he was born in Massachusetts and graduated from Yale—and Union sympathies resulted in heightened tensions: a student assaulted his slave and the state legislature investigated him. Students organized themselves into a military company called the "University Greys", which merged with the Confederate States Army. Within a month of the Civil War's outbreak, only 5 students remained at the University of Mississippi, and, by fall 1861, the university closed. In its final action, the board of trustees awarded Barnard a doctorate of divinity. After three weeks, Grant and his forces left, and the campus returned to being a Confederate hospital. Throughout the war, over 700 wounded died and were buried on campus.

Post-Civil War

thumb|upright|alt=A woman in collegiate garb|The University of Mississippi was the first college in the Southeast to hire a female faculty member: [[Sarah McGehee Isom in 1885.]]

The University of Mississippi reopened in October 1865. In 1882, the university began admitting women but they were not permitted to live on campus or attend law school. Nearly 100 years later, in 1981, the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies was established in her honor. The term originated as a title domestic slaves used to distinguish the mistress of a plantation from "young misses". Fringe origin theories include it coming from a diminutive of "Old Mississippi", Within two years, students and alumni were using "Ole Miss" to refer to the university.

Between 1900 and 1930, the Mississippi Legislature introduced bills aiming to relocate, close, or merge the university with Mississippi State University. All such legislation failed. During the 1930s, the governor of Mississippi Theodore G. Bilbo was politically hostile toward the University of Mississippi, firing administrators and faculty, and replacing them with his friends Bilbo's actions severely damaged the university's reputation, leading to the temporary loss of its accreditation. Consequently, in 1944, the Constitution of Mississippi was amended to protect the university's board of trustees from political pressure. During World War II, the University of Mississippi was one of 131 colleges and universities that participated in the national V-12 Navy College Training Program, which offered students a path to a Navy commission.

Integration

thumb|left|alt=James Meredith accompanied by federal officials on either side before the columns of the Lyceum|[[James Meredith accompanied by federal officials on campus]]

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Eight years after the Brown decision, all attempts by African American applicants to enroll at the University of Mississippi had failed. Shortly after the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, James Meredith—an African American Air Force veteran and former student at Jackson State University—applied to the University of Mississippi. After months of obstruction by Mississippi officials, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Meredith's enrollment, and the Department of Justice under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy entered the case on Meredith's behalf. On three occasions, either governor Ross R. Barnett or lieutenant governor Paul B. Johnson Jr. physically blocked Meredith's entry to the campus.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held both Barnett and Johnson Jr. in contempt, and issued fines exceeding $10,000 for each day they refused to enroll Meredith. On September 30, 1962, President Kennedy dispatched 127 U.S. Marshals, 316 deputized U.S. Border Patrol agents, and 97 federalized Federal Bureau of Prisons personnel to escort Meredith. After nightfall, far-right former Major General Edwin Walker and outside agitators arrived, and a gathering of segregationist students before the Lyceum became a violent mob. Segregationist rioters threw Molotov cocktails and bottles of acid, and fired guns at federal marshals and reporters. 160 marshals would be injured, with 28 receiving gunshot wounds, and two civilians—French journalist Paul Guihard and Oxford repairman Ray Gunter—were killed by gunfire. One-third of the federal officers—166 men—were injured, as were 40 federal soldiers and National Guardsmen. More than 30,000 personnel were deployed, alerted, and committed in Oxford—the most in American history for a single disturbance. Meredith enrolled and attended a class on October 1. By 1968, Ole Miss had around 100 African American students, and by the 2019–2020 academic year, African Americans constituted 12.5 percent of the student body.

Recent history

thumb|alt=A white house set among trees|The campus hosts [[Rowan Oak, former home of Nobel Prize-winning writer William Faulkner and a National Historic Landmark.]]

In 1972, Ole Miss purchased Rowan Oak, the former home of Nobel Prize–winning writer William Faulkner. The building—a National Historic Landmark—has been preserved as it was at Faulkner's death in 1962. Faulkner was the university's postmaster in the early 1920s and wrote As I Lay Dying (1930) at the university powerhouse. His Nobel Prize medallion is displayed in the university library. The university hosted the inaugural Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in 1974. In 1980, Willie Morris became the university's first writer in residence.

In 2002, Ole Miss marked the 40th anniversary of integration with a yearlong series of events, including an oral history of the university, symposiums, a memorial, and a reunion of federal marshals who served at the campus. In 2006, the 44th anniversary of integration, a statue of Meredith was dedicated on campus. Two years later, the site of the 1962 riots was designated as a National Historic Landmark. The university also held a yearlong program to mark the 50th anniversary of integration in 2012. The university hosted the first presidential debate of 2008—the first presidential debate held in Mississippi—between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.

Ole Miss retired its mascot Colonel Reb in 2003, citing its Confederate imagery. Although a grass-roots movement to adopt Star Wars character Admiral Ackbar of the Rebel Alliance gained significant support, Rebel Black Bear, a reference to Faulkner's short story The Bear, was selected in 2010. Beginning in 2022, football coach Lane Kiffin's dog Juice became the de facto mascot. In 2015, the university removed the Mississippi State Flag, which included the Confederate battle emblem, and in 2020, it relocated a prominent Confederate monument.

Campus

Oxford campus

The University of Mississippi's Oxford campus is partially located in Oxford and partially in University, Mississippi, a census-designated place. The main campus is situated at an altitude of around , and has expanded from of land to around . The campus' buildings are largely designed in a Georgian architectural style; some of the newer buildings have a more contemporary architecture.

thumb|upright=1.2|alt=Barnard Observatory|[[Barnard Observatory (1859) was designed to house the world's largest telescope.]]

At the campus' center is "The Circle", which consists of eight academic buildings organized around an ovaloid common. The buildings include the Lyceum (1848), the "Y" Building (1853), and six later buildings constructed in a Neoclassical Revival style. Barnard Observatory, which was constructed under Chancellor Barnard in 1859, was designed to house the world's largest telescope. Due to the Civil War's outbreak, however, the telescope was never delivered and was instead acquired by Northwestern University. The observatory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The first major building built after the Civil War was Ventress Hall, which was constructed in a Victorian Romanesque style in 1889. During the 1930s, the many building projects at the campus were largely funded by the Public Works Administration and other federal entities. Among the notable buildings built in this period is the dual-domed Kennon Observatory (1939).

Two large modern buildings—the Ole Miss Union (1976) and Lamar Hall (1977)—caused controversy by diverging from the university's traditional architecture. In 1998, the Gertrude C. Ford Foundation donated $20 million to establish the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts, which was the first building on campus to be solely dedicated to the performing arts. As of 2020, the university was constructing a STEM facility, the largest single construction project in the campus' history. The university owns and operates the University of Mississippi Museum, which comprises collections of American fine art, Classical antiquities, and Southern folk art, as well as historic properties in Oxford. Ole Miss also owns University-Oxford Airport, which is located north of the main campus. It opened in 2008 and was jointly established by several Japanese companies and the university. Many children have parents who are employees at Toyota facilities in Blue Springs.

File:Ventress Hall 2.jpg|alt=Ventress Hall|Ventress Hall (1889)

File:Kennon Observatory.jpg|Kennon Observatory (1939)

File:Farley Hall 2.jpg|Farley Hall (1929)

File:Oxford - Bryant Hall.jpg|Bryant Hall (1911)

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Satellite campuses

In 1903, the University of Mississippi School of Medicine was established on the Oxford campus. It offered only two years of medical courses; students had to attend an out-of-state medical school to complete their degrees. This form of medical education continued until 1955, when the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) was established on a site in Jackson, Mississippi, and the School of Medicine was relocated there. A nursing school was established in 1956 and since then, other health-related schools have been added. , UMMC offers medical and graduate degrees. DeSoto, Grenada, Rankin, and Tupelo.

Organization and administration

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! style="background:#011E41;color:white;text-align:left;" |School

! style="background:#011E41;color:white;" |Founded

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| College of Liberal Arts

|style="text-align:center;"|

| School of Law

|style="text-align:center;"|

| School of Education

|style="text-align:center;"|

| School of Medicine

|style="text-align:center;"|

| School of Business Administration

|style="text-align:center;"|

| School of Journalism and New Media

|style="text-align:center;"|

| School of Nursing

|style="text-align:center;"|

| School of Health Related Professions

|style="text-align:center;"|

| School of Dentistry

|style="text-align:center;"|

| Patterson School of Accountancy

|style="text-align:center;"|

| School of Applied Sciences

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| School of Graduate Studies in the Health Sciences

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Divisions of the university

The University of Mississippi consists of 15 schools. The largest undergraduate school is the College of Liberal Arts. a position Glenn Boyce has held since 2019. The chancellor is supported by vice-chancellors who administer areas such as research and intercollegiate athletics. The provost oversees the university's academic affairs, and a dean oversees each school, as well as general studies and the honors college. A faculty senate advises the administration.

The board of trustees of the Mississippi State Institutions of Higher Learning is the constitutional governing body that is responsible for policy and financial oversight of the University of Mississippi and the state's other seven public secondary institutions. the board consists of 12 members, who serve staggered nine-year terms and represent the state's three Supreme Court Districts. The board appoints the commissioner of higher education, who administers its policies.

Finances

, the University of Mississippi's endowment was $775 million. The university's budget for fiscal year 2019 was over $540 million. Less than 13% of operating revenues are funded by the state of Mississippi,

Academics

The University of Mississippi is the state's largest university by enrollment and is considered the state's flagship university. In 2015, the student-faculty ratio was 19:1. Of its classes, 47.4 percent have fewer than 20 students. The most popular subjects include marketing, education and teaching, accountancy, finance, pharmaceutical sciences, and administration. To receive a bachelor's degree, students must have at least 120 semester hours with passing grades and a cumulative 2.0 GPA.

The university also offers graduate degrees such as PhDs and masters of art, science, and fine arts. The university maintains the Mississippi Teacher Corps, a free graduate program that educates teachers for critical-needs public schools.

Taylor Medals, which were first awarded in 1905, are presented to exceptional students nominated by the faculty. The medals are named in honor of Marcus Elvis Taylor, who graduated in 1871 and are given to less than one percent of each class.

For the 2024–2025 academic year, the middle 50% of enrolled students scored between 1000 and 1200 on the SAT (with a 50th percentile of 1090), with a 50th percentile of 550 on the SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section and a 50th percentile of 540 on the SAT Math section.

Research

thumb|upright=2|alt=A series of shallow ponds arranged in a grid and surrounded by forest. There is light snow on the ground.|Research ponds at the University of Mississippi Field Station

Ole Miss is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". According to the National Science Foundation, the university spent $137 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 142nd in the nation. It is one of the 33 colleges and universities participating in the National Sea Grant Program and participates in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. Since 1948, the university has been a member of the Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

In 1963, University of Mississippi Medical Center surgeons, led by James Hardy, performed the world's first human lung transplant, and in 1964 the world's first animal-to-human heart transplant. Because Hardy researched transplantation, consisting of primate studies during the previous nine years, the heart of a chimpanzee was used for the transplant.

In 1965, the university established its Medicinal Plant Garden, which the School of Pharmacy uses for drug research. Since 1968, the school has operated the only legal marijuana farm and production facility in the United States. The National Institute on Drug Abuse contracts to the university production of cannabis for use in approved research studies and for distribution to the seven surviving medical marijuana patients grandfathered into the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program. The facility is the only source of marijuana medical researchers can use to conduct Food and Drug Administration-approved tests.

The National Center for Physics Acoustics (NCPA), which Congress established in 1986, is located on campus. In addition to conducting research, the NCPA houses the Acoustical Society of America's archives. and hosts the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research and the Mississippi Law Research Institute. In 2012, the university completed Insight Park, a research park that "welcomes companies commercializing University of Mississippi research".

Special programs

thumb|left|upright=2|alt=Trent Lott Leadership Institute|Panoramic view of the Trent Lott Leadership Institute

Honors education at the University of Mississippi, consisting of lectures by distinguished academics, began in 1953. In 1974, this program became the University Scholars Program, and in 1983, the University Honors Program was created and honors-core courses were offered. In 1997, Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale and wife Sally donated $5.4 million to establish the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College (SMBHC), which provides a capstone project—a senior thesis—and endowed scholarships. In 2000, the university established the Trent Lott Leadership Institute, which is named after alumnus and then-US Senate majority leader Trent Lott. The institute was funded with large corporate donations from MCI Inc., Lockheed Martin, and other companies. In addition to leadership initiatives, the institute offers a BA degree in Public Policy Leadership.

The Center for Intelligence and Security Studies (CISS) delivers academic programming on intelligence analysis and engages in applied research and consortium building with government, private, and academic partners. In 2012, the United States Director of National Intelligence designated CISS as an Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence (CAE), becoming one of 29 such college programs in the United States. Other special programs include the Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence—established jointly by the university and Toyota in 2008— as well as the Arabic Language Flagship Program and the Chinese Language Flagship Program (). The Croft Institute for International Studies, which was founded in 1998, provides the only international studies undergraduate program in Mississippi.

The University of Mississippi is a member of the SEC Academic Consortium, which has since been renamed SECU. The collaborative initiative was designed to promote research, scholarship, and achievement among the member universities in the Southeastern Conference. In 2013, the university participated in the SEC Symposium on renewable energy in Atlanta, Georgia, which was organized and led by the University of Georgia and the UGA Bioenergy Systems Research Institute.

In 2021, actor Morgan Freeman and Professor Linda Keena donated $1 million to the University of Mississippi to create the Center for Evidence-Based Policing and Reform, which aimed to provide law-enforcement training and seek to improve engagement between law enforcement and communities.

Rankings and accolades

In U.S. News & World Reports 2023 rankings, the University of Mississippi was tied for 163rd place among national universities and 88th among public universities. In 2023, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the professional MBA program at the School of Business Administration #72 nationally, and the online MBA program in the top 25. , all three degree programs at the Patterson School of Accountancy were among the top 10 accounting programs according to the Public Accounting Report.

Since 2012, the Chronicle of Higher Education has named the University of Mississippi as one of the "Great Colleges to Work For". In the 2018 results, released in the Chronicles annual report on "The Academic Workplace", the university was among 84 institutions honored from the 253 colleges and universities surveyed. In 2018, the university's campus was ranked the second-safest in the SEC and one of the safest in the U.S.

As of 2019, the university has had 27 Rhodes Scholars. Since 1998, it has 10 Goldwater Scholars, seven Truman Scholars, 18 Fulbright Scholars, one Marshall Scholar, three Udall Scholars, two Gates Cambridge Scholars, one Mitchell Scholar, 19 Boren Scholars, one Boren fellow, and one German Chancellor Fellowship.

Student life

thumb|alt=Class of 1861|The class of 1861

Student body

As of the 2023–2024 academic year, the student body consisted of 18,533 undergraduates and 2,264 in graduate programs. Around 57 percent of the undergraduate student body were female. The median starting salary of a graduate is $47,700, according to US News.

Although 54 percent of undergraduates are from Mississippi, The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student success and satisfaction, is 85.7 percent.

Traditions

A common greeting on campus is "Hotty Toddy!", which is also used in the school chant. The phrase has no explicit meaning and its origin is unknown. Other proposed origins are "hoity-toity", meaning snobbish,

On football game days, the Grove, a plot of trees, hosts an elaborate tailgating tradition; according to The New York Times, "Perhaps there isn't a word for the ritualized pregame revelry ... 'Tailgating' certainly does not do it justice". The tradition began in 1991 when cars were banned from the Grove. The spots are claimed by tailgaters, who erect a "tent city" of 2,500 shelters. With the university's emphasis on rhetoric, student-organized public orations on the first Monday of every month were popular. Studies were sometimes canceled so students could attend speeches of visiting politicians such as Jefferson Davis and William L. Sharkey.

In the 1890s, extracurricular and nonintellectual activities proliferated on campus, and interest in oratory and the now-voluntary literary societies diminished. Turn-of-the-20th-century student organizations included Cotillion Club, the elite Stag Club, and German Club. As of 2021, the handbook was still provided to students.

The Associated Student Body (ASB), which was established in 1917, is the university's student government organization. Students are elected to the ASB Senate in the spring semester and leftover seats are voted on in open-seat elections in the fall. Senators can represent registered student organizations such as the Greek councils and sports clubs, or they can run to represent their academic school. The University of Mississippi's marching band The Pride of the South performs in-concert and at athletic events. The band was formally organized in 1928, but it existed before that date as a smaller organization led by a student director. A Phi Beta Kappa chapter was established in 2001. Students are required to live on-campus during their first year. Within residence halls, students designated as community assistants provide information and resolve issues. In the early 20th century, the university provided cottages for married students.

The University of Mississippi provides Oxford-University Transit, a shuttle system that is free of charge for students, faculty, and staff. In early 2020, Starship Technologies introduced an automated food delivery consisting of a fleet of 30 robots on campus; it was the first such system of any SEC school.

On-campus dining services Catering at UM and the Rebel Market are the only Certified Green restaurants in the state of Mississippi. In 2019, the university opened a recreation center containing a gym, indoor climbing wall, basketball courts, and other services.

Greek life

thumb|left|upright|alt=A black and white photograph of a Victorian-style fraternity house|St. Anthony Hall Phi Chapter House, University of Mississippi, 1906

Greek life at the University of Mississippi comprises 33 organizations and around 8,700 affiliated students. Greek societies at the University of Mississippi are housed along Fraternity Row and Sorority Row, which were constructed in the 1930s with federal funds.

The Rainbow Fraternity, which was founded at the University of Mississippi in 1848, was the first fraternity to be founded in the South.