CHANCELLOR’S 3 THINGS TO KNOW
Welcome to the October edition of @ The Flagship! This month, we celebrated Homecoming, hosted the staffs of Mississippi’s federal congressional delegation, and enjoyed a spectacular Harvest Supper in support of the UM Museum. Here are three things to know right now:
- LIFE-CHANGING WORK: Our faculty makes amazing contributions to the greater good. Nikki Reinemann, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, recently received a $1.5M Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the NIH to fund research related to cytoskeletal diseases such as cancer and heart disease. This award is Dr. Reinemann’s second award this year! Or, consider the transformative work that our School of Applied Sciences is doing with the North Mississippi Literacy Project. Our students in Communication Sciences and Disorders receive training and experiential learning as they work with schools in Lafayette County and Oxford to implement a multi-sensory structured language program to teach children to read, write, and spell. The program has benefited more than 2,000 children and will soon reach more.
- HOTTY TODDY: We will celebrate the 2022 baseball national championship Nov. 9-12 by honoring the team during the Alabama football game. We’ll also premiere “Belief,” a documentary film from Ole Miss Sports Productions that gives an unprecedented inside look into the title run. On Nov. 10, the team will travel to Jackson for a luncheon at the governor’s mansion and visit Children’s of Mississippi Hospital. What a great series of events to celebrate our national champs! You don’t have to wait ‘til spring to see the national champs in action. Catch the team’s final fall game Oct. 29 at 1 p.m. against the Blazers of UAB.
- MANY HAPPY RETURNS: We’re celebrating major anniversaries this year! The Mississippi Excellence in Teaching Program (METP), which was created to address the severe teacher shortage in Mississippi public schools, has been training high-performing teachers for 10 years. The Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts will mark its 20th anniversary throughout the year with a diverse slate of performances, an expanded offering for area school children, a book, and a spring gala featuring Mississippi celebrities and friends. Finally, the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College celebrates 25 years of cultivating academic excellence and outstanding student scholars. See the special section for highlights about this prized academic program.
Until next month, take care!
Glenn F. Boyce
Chancellor
FLAGSHIP FACTS
TOP STORIES
CRANIOFACIAL EXPERTISE
A $3 million gift is making the most advanced cleft and craniofacial treatment available to Mississippi’s children through the Stephanie and Mitchell Morris Center for Cleft and Craniofacial Research and Innovation.
STEM ON TRACK
The Jim and Thomas Duff Center for Science and Technology Innovation is roughly 50% complete, and on track to open in fall 2024. The building is anticipated to be one of the nation’s top facilities for STEM education.
BRIDGING THE GAP
First-generation student Ember Suh, a senior from Southaven, was named a 2022 mentee for Toxicology Mentoring Skills Development and Training, an NIH-funded program that bolsters underrepresented populations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.
Special Section
SMBHC Celebrates 25 Years
Bold Beginnings: In May 1996, following a lead donation from Jim and Sally Barksdale, Chancellor Robert Khayat announced the formation of the McDonnell-Barksdale College (now the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College). The Honors College’s creation was instrumental in helping the university establish a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s preeminent liberal arts honor society. Elizabeth Payne, professor of history, served as its founding director.
Accomplished Students: Since 2000, 732 Honors College students have received fellowships totaling more than $1.5 million. In 2021-2022 alone, Honors College students received six Fulbright awards, three Goldwater Awards, and two Truman Awards.
Challenging Curriculum: The program’s rigorous Capstone requirement is a structured, extended academic experience culminating in an independently researched honors thesis. These theses have helped Honors College graduates secure professional positions, earn prestigious national awards, and gain entrance into competitive graduate programs.
Distinguished Visitors: The Honors College has attracted renowned visitors to the university campus, including Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, legendary filmmaker Ken Burns, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas L. Friedman and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
Distinguished Leadership: In the 18 years history professor Douglass Sullivan-González served as Honors College dean, he worked with four different chancellors to raise more than $30 million in private funding for the Honors College, completed a $6.6 million addition to its building and more than quadrupled the number of students in the program.
Bright Horizons: Today, the Honors College is a thriving and expansive program. From its initial class of 121 students, enrollment now tops 1,600 students. People of color comprised one out of every six recent graduates. In 2021, the entering freshmen class posted an average ACT of 30.9 and an average high school GPA of 3.97. Ethel Scurlock, who joined the university in 1996 and has earned three of its top teaching awards, was named dean earlier this year. She is the first Black female to hold the title of dean on the Oxford campus.
