Mississippi Today

7 university presidents have left in the last year. Why is turnover so high?

Published

1 year ago

June 23, 2023

William LaForge — the former Delta State University president who was suddenly fired last summer — wants you to know this is not about “sour grapes.”

The regional public college he led for nine years in Cleveland, a small town in the Mississippi Delta, was losing students. There was a 27% decline in enrollment during the pandemic. He feuded with faculty. The school’s cash-on-hand, a financial health metric, was dwindling. And clashes with local donors over the golf course he closed sowed division.

LaForge concedes all of that. But if the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees had to fire him, he said there was a better way to do it.

Though the board gave LaForge a few weeks heads up it was considering parting ways, he says he did not learn he was officially fired until the commissioner, Alfred Rankins, called him on Monday, June 20, five minutes before a press release published announcing the decision.

“The way they did this gave Delta State an unnecessary black eye at a particularly vulnerable time,” he said. “I resent that.”

The stunning termination was the first in a series of presidential turnovers that have roiled colleges and universities in Mississippi over the last year. Weeks after LaForge was canned in 2022, Rodney Bennett, the president of the University of Southern Mississippi, stepped down in July — nearly a year before he said he would. Earlier this year, Thomas Hudson at Jackson State University resigned after the board placed him on administrative leave with pay. Then Felecia Nave was terminated from Alcorn State University.

All this has left students, faculty and staff and alumni wondering: Why is this happening? Mississippi Today spoke with more than a half-dozen former IHL board members, university administrators and faculty to understand the causes.

It’s unusual that LaForge — or for that matter, any president — was fired at all, some trustees said. Even presidents whose tenure ended in scandal have been allowed to step down. William Bynum Jr., the former Jackson State president who was arrested in a prostitution sting in 2020, resigned.

IHL acknowledged the board prefers presidents to resign in a written statement to Mississippi Today.

“That is common among employers,” IHL wrote. “No one wants to have to terminate an employee.”

The board added it could not comment on LaForge’s specific personnel matter.

Credit: Bethany Atkinson, Mississippi Today

The state’s private colleges haven’t been immune from turnover either. Millsaps College, Rust College and Tougaloo College have all seen their presidents depart in the last six months. The latter two are both historically Black universities, which have been especially impacted by turnover.

“It puts the university in maintenance mode,” said Dan Durkin, a University of Mississippi professor and the president of the United Faculty Senate Association of Mississippi.

As far as LaForge knows, “there’s been nothing like this exodus in the near past, in my lifetime.”

He feels like his longer-than-average tenure has been overshadowed by its bitter end. Now, a year after he was fired, he has a warning for university presidents in Mississippi: “Watch your back.”

“Future presidents should know it’s not forever,” he told Mississippi Today in a phone call from Virginia, where he has retired. “And you should know it’s not on your terms.”

Skirting a unified theory of turnover, some trustees said there are likely as many reasons for the recent turnover as there are departed presidents.

Others said it’s more general than that. But everyone agreed the job is getting harder, especially for the presidents of the smaller institutions. Wooing private donors matters much more in a time of declining state appropriations. So does enrollment. The eight universities are vying for the same pool of high school graduates, and University of Mississippi and Mississippi State, with their deep pockets and big stadiums, can out-compete them all.

“Many factors make the role of university president a complex and challenging position,” IHL wrote in a statement to Mississippi Today.

Ford Dye, a surgeon who was appointed to the IHL board by former Gov. Phil Bryant in 2012, said that turnover isn’t just an IHL or Mississippi issue. It’s a national problem.

Research backs him up. Across the country, university presidents are serving shorter terms than ever. According to the latest survey by the American Council on Education, a typical university president has served for 5.9 years. A majority don’t think another five years is possible due to the pandemic and the politicization of higher education.

That holds true for Mississippi, former trustees said.

“I agree with that,” said Bill Crawford, who served on the board from 1992 to 2004, when asked if the job of a university president in Mississippi has gotten more political. “What hasn’t?”

Presidents must wrangle so many constituencies on campus that even if they aren’t fired, frustrated faculty or outspoken alumni could drive them to quit. For leaders of the HBCUs, this presents a particularly fraught dynamic. In his autobiography, John Peoples, the beloved former Jackson State president, described walking a fine line between pleasing the mainly white board and advocating for his school. Another long-serving Jackson State president, Ronald Mason, resigned in 2010 in part due to outcry that he supported an IHL-backed plan to merge the three HBCUs.

“Navigating competing priorities and demands is one of the reasons the job is so difficult,” IHL wrote.

The presidents who thrive in this environment, trustees said, are politically savvy.That’s why Mark Keenum, Mississippi State University’s president, has lasted so long. (For LaForge, this is particularly ironic, as just like Keenum, he got his start in Thad Cochran’s office.)

Mississippi State University President Mark Keenum Credit: MSU

Keenum invites board members and lawmakers to sporting events and remembers the names of their family members, former trustees told Mississippi Today. His 14-year tenure as the president of Mississippi State University makes him the longest currently serving president and the exception to the rule.

“Mark is an intense listener,” said Sid Salter, Mississippi State’s director of public affairs. “He is, by nature, kind and thoughtful.”

Then there’s the view that the issue of turnover starts at the top — with the 12 trustees who are appointed by the governor to lead the system, a job that includes picking the university presidents.

“That is a matter of opinion,” IHL wrote. “Every personnel situation is different.”

That is also LaForge’s perspective.

He said his experience shows that when the going gets tough, this crop of IHL trustees lets the presidents go. Their four-year contracts are at-will. And the commissioner, Alfred Rankins, the presidents’ manager, is not standing up for them, LaForge said.

“I have grave concerns, and I know others do too, but they would never go public,” LaForge said. “Some of them are university heads.”

Past trustees were more understanding of the pressures that presidents face, he said.

Around the time he was appointed in 2013, LaForge spoke with Alan Perry, a trustee, and Hank Bounds, the then-commissioner. They warned LaForge that even though he should try to increase enrollment, it would be a serious challenge due to many factors, including the depopulation of the Delta.

“I took offense to that,” LaForge said.

But he said that they told him, “It’s not just you. It can’t be done. There are external factors beyond human capacity.”

Bounds told Mississippi Today he recalled the meeting. Perry wrote in an email that he did not remember this but in general had many discussions about the difficult task of increasing Delta State’s enrollment and thought LaForge was recalling those.

Nine years later, declining enrollment was one of the putative reasons for his firing, LaForge said. It is the number one metric on a list of 20 that university presidents are now graded on, according to the evaluation criteria obtained by Mississippi Today.

The IHL board, which can in nearly all cases hire or fire its eight university presidents at the whim of a majority vote, is a jumble of contradictions. It was created to be insulated from politics, but board members are political appointees. The board has been dogged by accusations of favoritism, but trustees are supposed to check their school colors at the door.

Some trustees like to say that “running a university is like running a city,” said C.D. Smith, an AT&T regional director who was appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour in 2008 and served until 2018.

Unlike a city, there is little democracy at the universities — and none at all within IHL.

The board knows that. Increasingly, Smith said, trustees think of the university presidents as CEOs who can be hired or fired “as the circumstances require.” The commissioner is a middle-manager who meets weekly with the presidents, who are his direct reports, and conducts their biennial performance reviews.

All this goes against the expectation many faculty have, which is of “shared governance,” a way of viewing the university as a partnership between students, faculty, staff and a transparent administration.

Trustees are aware of that too. When Crawford sat on the board, he said that any time a president had to be removed, trustees faced a tug-of-war between sharing just enough information to ameliorate upset alumni but not so much that it would denigrate a reputation — or lead to an employment lawsuit. He said the board also wants to make Mississippi a “congenial” place to be a college president.

“To the extent that you can comment, you offer a reason for making the change,” Crawford said. “But what you want to do is not harm somebody’s career by talking about those sorts of things which are personnel matters oftentimes.”

IHL wrote that the board “recognizes that all employees are entitled to confidentiality in personnel matters.”

In recent years, the board has said less and less, offering little-to-no information about its decisions and spurring calls for accountability from alumni, particularly from Alcorn State and Jackson State.

Just as trustees were not engaging with the community, it seemed to LaForge like they could do more to support the funding needs of each university.

The commissioner, legislative liaisons and lobbyists all advocate for funding during the legislative sessions, and IHL wrote that individual trustees “may, and do” advocate for the board’s requests.

But a few years after Rankins was appointed in 2018, LaForge recalled that he and some of the other presidents asked the commissioner if trustees could help lobby for more state funding at the Capitol, considering many of them donated to lawmakers. That could alleviate some of the pressure that presidents face to fundraise, he said.

The suggestion seemed to go nowhere, LaForge said.

On June 7 last year, LaForge said he received a personal visit from Rankins and IHL’s legal counsel. They met in the conference room in Kent Wyatt Hall. There, LaForge said the commissioner informed him that trustees were considering ending his contract at the upcoming board meeting on June 16 — news that LaForge recalled Rankins acknowledging was “a punch in the gut for you.”

Delta State University president William “Bill” LaForge attends a state College Board meeting Thursday, June 18, 2015 in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

The commissioner offered LaForge several options to resign, including staying on at Delta State to research how to bring more students to campus or increase faculty retention — a proposal that LaForge considered “frankly garbage.”

“Why the hell would I stay around Cleveland on campus doing research when that’s supposed to be done by somebody else on my campus anyway,” LaForge said he thought at the time.

He rejected all the options to resign. Then he said he asked Rankins what advice the commissioner had given the board on whether to fire him. LaForge said Rankins told him he gave the board no advice.

“He is supposed to support his presidents, that’s part of his job,” LaForge said. “I didn’t get the feeling he did that (for me) and nor do others.”

In a statement to Mississippi Today responding to LaForge’s recollection of the June 7 visit, IHL said the commissioner does not make a “recommendation regarding continued employment” of a president when he presents performance reviews to the board.

In the IHL board room later that month, the vibe was “cordial but cold,” LaForge recalled. Sitting in front of the trustees during executive session, he made his case.

He wasn’t trying to save his job. He just wanted to stay at Delta State through the end of his contract in 2023 to “make it a smooth, orderly transition.” He said he thought that was the deal trustees had given Rodney Bennett, the then-president of USM, who was also appointed in 2013.

“That’s what you did for Rodney, at least do it for me,” he said he told the board.

Mississippi Today could not confirm any sort of “deal” took place and while many outlets, including this one, reported Bennett stepped down before he initially said he would, no articles detailed some sort of compromise between the former USM president and the IHL board.

Four days later, the termination letter came. It was labeled “personal and confidential” and signed by Rankins. It listed no reason for LaForge’s firing and noted he would be paid by the board through June 2023, the original end of his contract.

IHL meeting minutes show that in the same executive session, trustees also voted to terminate Bennett’s contract and name Joe Paul interim president at USM. IHL wrote that the termination of Bennett and LaForge’s contracts were unrelated.

Delta State had consistent leadership up until LaForge’s firing. Now he spends his time exercising, running errands for his kids and contemplating creating a Wikipedia page.

He said he wishes his successor, Daniel Ennis, well. But he worries for the future of the system. So do many students, faculty and alumni.

Take Jackson State University which, along with the two other public HBCUs, has had more presidential turnover in the last two decades than the predominantly white institutions. Its community has repeatedly asked the board to conduct a more transparent search.

But as Keenum’s success has shown, closed searches aren’t the be all, end all. He was confirmed following a search that was unusually secretive for its time.

The Legislature could make a change to the board, Crawford said, through the constitutional amendment process. Without a ballot initiative process, the public has no direct avenue to influence IHL. In a statement, IHL said the board “regularly listens to input and concerns from constituents and tries to be responsive within the parameters of its constitutional duty.”

But recent bills to dissolve IHL have failed. And lawmakers may not view turnover as IHL’s fault. Sen. Hillman Frazier, a Democrat who represents parts of Jackson, said at a listening session in April for the Jackson State presidential search that he has heard lawmakers cite the university’s turnover as a reason not to provide it with more funding.

Presidential turnover, LaForge said, is just like enrollment. The three largest and wealthiest universities in Mississippi will be just fine; if they wanted to buy the entire freshman class, LaForge said, they could do it, and leave the smaller schools scrambling.

“It’s just like how the rich get richer,” he said. “I’m not bemoaning it. It’s a fact.”

Editor’s note: Ivy Taylor, the former president of Rust College, is a member of Mississippi Today’s board of directors.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1867

Published

21 hours ago

November 23, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-23 07:00:00

Nov. 23, 1867

Extract from the Reconstructed Constitution of the State of Louisiana, 1868. Credit: Library of Congress

The Louisiana Constitutional Convention, composed of 49 White delegates and 49 Black delegates, met in New Orleans. The new constitution became the first in the state’s history to include a bill of rights.

The document gave property rights to married women, funded public education without segregated schools, provided full citizenship for Black Americans, and eliminated the Black Codes of 1865 and property qualifications for officeholders.

The voters ratified the constitution months later. Despite the document, prejudice and corruption continued to reign in Louisiana, and when Reconstruction ended, the constitution was replaced with one that helped restore the rule of white supremacy.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi Today

Crystal Springs commercial painter says police damaged his eyesight

Published

2 days ago

November 22, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2024-11-22 12:21:00

CRYSTAL SPRINGS – Roger Horton has worked decades as a commercial painter, a skill he’s kept up with even with the challenge of having what his wife has called “one good eye.”

It hasn’t stopped him from being able to complete detailed paint jobs and create straight lines without the help of tape. But last year following a head injury, he and others said people have been pointing out a change in his work. Horton says the sight in his right eye is clouded, like he is looking underwater.

Affected vision, short term memory and periods of irritability – potential symptoms of concussion – followed after he was arrested last September. During an encounter with several police officers, Horton alleges more than one slammed his head into a cruiser and placed handcuffs on so tight that he started to bleed.

“(The officer) was kind of rough with me and all, and he takes my head and I said, ‘What’d I do?’” he recalled recently.

Horton ended up being convicted of two misdemeanor charges and has paid off the fines, but a year later he still has questions about the arrest and treatment by the police.

To date, he has not seen a doctor to evaluate his eye and check for vision or cognitive issues. Horton and his wife Rhonda don’t have a car, and transportation to doctor’s appointments in the Jackson area remains a challenge.

The Hortons have lived in Crystal Springs all their lives, and they have lived in the home the past five years that belonged to Rhonda’s mother.

More than a quarter of all people in Crystal Springs live below the poverty line, and that includes the couple. Rhonda Horton said it’s hard to make a living because there aren’t a lot of jobs, but they support themselves as painters.

That’s how they met Yvonne Florczak-Seeman, who lived in Illinois and purchased her first historical property in Crystal Springs in 2019. She splits her time between the two states.

“We painted that porch bar and the rest is history,” Rhonda Horton said, adding that they went on to complete detailed work on mantles, kitchen cabinets and a cigar room at Florczak-Seeman’s North Jackson Street residence.

Over the years, the couple built a relationship with Florczak-Seeman, who is seeking to open a women’s empowerment center called the Butterfly Garden, in the building next to city hall.

Yvonne Florczak-Seeman poses for a portrait at her business, The Butterfly Garden, in Crystal Springs, Miss., Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

Florczak-Seeman has supported the couple numerous times, including helping them pay a late water bill and offering them work. She called them talented painters and hired them again to paint the interior of the future center, located at East Railroad Avenue.

In pieces, Rhonda Horton told Florczak-Seeman about her husband’s arrest and later the injuries she said he sustained from it. Florczak-Seeman had questions about the encounter and other potential injustices at play, so she offered to help.

“I just want them to pay for what they’ve done not just to him, but everybody,” Rhonda Horton said. “That’s what I want, justice.”

The Arrest

On Sept. 24, 2023, Horton was walking home from a friend’s house when officers approached him. One grabbed his arms to handcuff him, and he remembers them cutting his wrist and causing it to bleed.

Then, he said, a second officer slammed his head into the top of the police car, followed by another officer who slammed his head again. During the encounter, a bag of marijuana that Horton said he found fell out of his pocket onto the ground.

An officer put Horton in the back of the cruiser and took him to the station where Horton asked to speak to the police chief and call his wife. He said the police took his phone and clothes.

Afterward, he was taken to the Copiah County Detention Center in Gallman.

Police Chief Tony Hemphill disputed Horton’s allegation of mistreatment, saying he did not sustain any injuries that required hospitalization. He said Horton’s wrist was cut while he resisted arrest.

“He was not brutalized and targeted,” Hemphill said. “If he had just complied, he wouldn’t have had to come up there (to jail) that night.”

Two police reports from the night of the September 2023 arrest detail how officers had responded to a possible assault and were given the description of a white man. While in the area, they encountered Horton — the only person who fit that description.

Hemphill said a mother called police after her daughter told her she was assaulted. He said officers approached Horton on the street and tried to talk with him to rule him out as a suspect.

That’s when Horton began “fighting, pulling away, and kicking against (the officer’s) patrol vehicle, trying to run,” according to a police report from the night and Hemphill. Horton denies doing any of that.

The next day police took Horton from the county jail to the Crystal Springs police station. There, police informed him a teenage girl reported being assaulted. After learning about the assault allegation, Horton remembered feeling shocked and saying it couldn’t be true because he was not on the street where the alleged incident took place.

Hemphill confirmed the police investigated the assault allegation and found it not credible, meaning Horton wouldn’t face any related charges. He said he communicated this to Horton and his wife early on and since then, which the couple disputes.

As Horton was being arrested and detained, his wife grew worried because she had just spoken with him on the phone and expected him to arrive home shortly. Rhonda Horton and her adult son started calling Roger’s phone, each not getting an answer.

Then during one of the calls by her son, someone who did not identify himself answered Roger’s phone and said, ‘Your daddy’s dead’ and then hung up, Rhonda Horton said.

She was starting to assume the worst had happened. Rhonda Horton wouldn’t have confirmation her husband was alive until he called from the county jail in the early morning.

The next morning as she talked with the police chief, Rhonda Horton asked the chief about who answered the phone and told her son that Roger was dead. The chief told her the person who answered must have been from the county.

Hemphill later told Mississippi Today that he did not know about the call and that type of behavior by his staff “is not going to be tolerated.” Similarly, Copiah County Sheriff Byron Swilley said he had not heard about it and could not say whether a member of his department made the comment to Rhonda and Roger Horton’s son.

A Sept. 25, 2023, citation signed by Hemphill, shared with Mississippi Today, summoned Roger Horton to municipal court for the misdemeanor charges of possession of marijuana and resisting arrest and directed him not to have contact with the alleged victim in the assault case. No contact orders are typically for cases such as domestic violence and sexual assault and they are set by a judge.

LaKiedra Kangar, who works in municipal court services, said the no contact order was put in place because of the assault allegation. She confirmed Horton was not charged with the offense following the police department’s investigation of the allegation.

Weeks passed. Roger Horton went to court for the misdemeanor charges, to which he pleaded guilty. Felony assault charges were not part of the hearing. Municipal Court Judge Matthew Kitchens ordered Roger to pay over $900 in fines for the misdemeanors.

Horton was able to pay for some of the fine through at least 10 hours worth of court-ordered community service, which he said involved painting buildings for the city.

Months later after learning about Horton’s arrest and how he said the police treated him, Florczak-Seeman said she wanted to know more. Horton didn’t have access to his arrest documents, so she accompanied him and his wife to the police department to ask for them.

The first visit, Horton asked but did not receive the arrest report. Florczak-Seeman asked if he had a fine for any of the charges, which police said Horton did even after completing some community service hours. Florczak-Seeman paid for the remaining balance and had him work for her for two days to pay that off.

This year, they went to the police department a second time so Horton could ask for his arrest paperwork. An officer told him he didn’t need it and that the rape allegation had been investigated and found not to be credible, Horton told Mississippi Today.

Florczak-Seeman asked why Horton couldn’t receive the report. She said Hemphill asked if she was Horton’s attorney, and Florczak-Seeman clarified she was his representative.

The chief left for a few minutes and returned with two pieces of paper and handed them to Horton. Hemphill told Mississippi Today he did not recall whether he was the one who handed the report to Horton.

Florczak-Seeman took the document from Horton and began to read it as they stood in the lobby. She said she was horrified to see the name of the alleged, underage victim and her address in the report.

Hemphill said the victim’s personal information should have been restricted and not doing so was an oversight.

After reading the report, Florczak-Seeman went down the street to the mayor’s office at city hall to explain what happened, and how she believed the mayor had grounds to fire the police chief because he provided that document to Roger with the alleged victim’s information.

Crystal Springs Mayor Sally Garland Credit: Crystal Springs website

Mayor Sally Garland confirmed she had a conversation with Florczak-Seeman about the police chief’s employment.

She said she reviews all complaints about city officials, and Garland said she goes to the department head to get a better understanding of the situation. If she determines there are potential grounds for termination, a hearing would be scheduled with the Board of Aldermen, and the group would vote on that decision.

Garland did not find grounds for termination, and Hemphill remains police chief.

A Strange Visit

The Hortons and Florczak-Seeman hadn’t given much thought about the 2023 arrest, until weeks ago when a teenaged girl suddenly showed up in Florczak-Seeman’s yard.

At the end of September at the North Jackson Street home, Florczak-Seeman heard screaming and found the teenage girl who came onto her property. She asked what was wrong, and the teenager said she was chased by a dog, which Florczak-Seeman and Rhonda Horton did not see.

The teenager asked for a soda, and Rhonda Horton went inside to get one. Florczak-Seeman asked where the teenager lived, and she gave an answer that Florczak-Seeman said conflicted with what two girls who were standing nearby on the public sidewalk said she told them.

Then Florczak-Seeman asked the teenager’s name and recognized it as the name of the alleged victim on Horton’s arrest record. Immediately, Florczak-Seeman said she turned to Horton and told him to stay back, and she told the teenager to get off her property, which she did.

At the moment, they were not able to verify whether the teenager was the alleged victim from the report. Neither the Hortons nor Florczak-Seeman had seen her before, and they only knew her name from the arrest report.

“That didn’t make sense at all,” Rhonda Horton told Mississippi Today.

Florczak-Seeman called 911 to report the situation and ask for police to come, which they did not. Hemphill told Mississippi Today a dispatcher informed him about the call with Florczak-Seeman, including details with the teenage girl and how she wanted to report the girl for trespassing.

Florczak-Seeman is one of the people who have noticed a difference in Horton’s vision. It’s clear when comparing the detailed and clean paint job Roger completed at her Jackson Street property in 2019 and the center where he painted last year.

During an interview at the center in October, Florczak-Seeman pointed to the ceiling and noted spots that Horton did not paint. She remembers telling him about them and realized that he couldn’t see them.

“The spots on my ceiling are still not painted, and they’re not painted as a reminder of the injustices that happened in this situation and why I got involved,” Florczak-Seeman said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi Today

Job opening: Jackson Reporter

Published

2 days ago

November 22, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Mississippi Today – 2024-11-22 15:00:00

Mississippi Today, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom focused on investigative and accountability journalism, is building a dedicated team of reporters to provide in-depth coverage of Jackson, Mississippi.

As the state’s largest and capital city, Jackson matters greatly to us and all Mississippians. Launched in 2016 as the state’s flagship nonprofit newsroom focused on Mississippi government and policy, Mississippi Today is focusing our lens beyond the statehouse and to the city of Jackson, serving our readers with the watchdog reporting they’ve come to expect from Mississippi Today. Our newsroom, with a proven record of providing impactful government accountability, aims to serve the city more directly with this team.

Our Jackson team will focus on sharp investigative reporting, watchdog accountability journalism and meaningful cultural storytelling. We aim to both elevate the voices of those working for positive change in the community while offering a balanced perspective on the city’s obstacles and triumphs. Our goal is to deliver impactful, honest journalism that will inform, inspire and empower Jackson’s citizens.

The team will be led by Pulitzer Prize winner Anna Wolfe, an investigative reporter with a decade of experience covering Jackson.

Roles and Responsibilities:

We are purposefully casting a wide net, hoping to connect with journalists of many different backgrounds who may be uniquely qualified to help us launch this team. If you’re a reporter with any of the following experience or attributes, this team may be for you.
Investigative reporting focused on uncovering systemic issues within government and politics. The bigger the impact of your reporting on government leaders or systems, the better.
Political reporting covering not only high-profile candidates for offices, but experience delving into issues and ideas that affect a community. We hope to delve deeply into a deep distrust in the city’s institutions.
Cultural reporting that highlights the often-overlooked success stories of citizens who are making a positive impact on their communities.
Strong understanding of Jackson (or similar large urban centers) and the unique challenges facing the city and its residents.
Commitment to the mission of balanced, impactful journalism that centers and respects the voice of the community.
Collaborative mindset and ability to work within a team-oriented newsroom.

The starting salary for this position is $58,000. Compensation is commensurate with experience level.

Expectations:

Work with a small team of journalists who are focused on social inequities and racial equality in our area.
Willingness to collaborate closely with a small team of like-minded journalists.
Get people to talk, find willing sources and protect them while telling sensitive and timely stories.
Build trust: Many people who have been impacted by inequities in Mississippi have been victims of predatory practices and forces. This will require empathy, patience and savvy.
Work with our Audience Team and data and visual journalists to create compelling story presentations.

Qualified candidates should have:

Experience working as a reporter in a newsroom.
Ability to work quickly, with accuracy and good news judgment.
Comfortability in digital or multimedia journalism spaces.
Ability to independently develop and cultivate sources.
Ability to use social media for research and to engage readers.

What you’ll get:

The opportunity to work alongside award-winning journalists and make significant contributions to Mississippi’s top nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news and information sources.
Highly competitive salary with medical insurance, and options for vision and dental insurance.
Use of appropriate technology and equipment.
29 days paid time off.
Up to 12 weeks of parental family leave, with return-to-work flexibility.
Simple IRA with 3 percent company matching. Group-term life insurance provided to employees ($15,000 policy).
Support for professional training and attending industry conferences.

How to Apply:

We’re committed to building an inclusive newsroom that represents the people and communities we serve. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply for this position, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people who are differently abled. Please apply here.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.