Mississippi Today
Despite assurances, IHL board does not publicly discuss JSU leadership at its regular meeting
Despite assurances, IHL board does not publicly discuss JSU leadership at its regular meeting
As speculation swirled over the last month about former Jackson State University president Thomas Hudson’s resignation, the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees repeatedly promised the public it would discuss “the future leadership” of the university at its regular board meeting.
But on Thursday, the board provided no new public information about leadership at Mississippi’s largest historically Black university, where Hudson is the third president in a row to resign. IHL’s press releases said “the Board of Trustees will discuss the future leadership of Jackson State at its regular Board meeting later this month.”
“This is going to be a brief meeting,” said Tom Duff, the board president. “Are there any additional items that we need to be discussing as an IHL board that we’ve not been talking about for the last few days?”
Hearing none, trustees voted to go into executive session to discuss two Delta State personnel matters and one Jackson State personnel matter around 9:20 a.m. Trustees adjourned at 11:43 a.m. No information about any actions was provided.
The only public reference to the university came when Duff thanked Jackson State’s temporary acting president Elayne Hayes-Anthony for her presence at the meeting.
After trustees went into executive session, Hayes-Anthony addressed the press outside the IHL meeting room. She said she was interested in becoming Jackson State’s permanent president and that she would apply for the position if the board conducted a national search.
But she added that she has no preference for the kind of process she’d like to see the board use to fill the position. In 2020, many faculty members had called for the board to conduct a national search – instead, the board elevated Hudson from interim to permanent president.
Hayes-Anthony also addressed concerns about the board’s lack of transparency. Unlike Hudson’s predecessors, the public doesn’t know why he resigned. The announcement earlier this month came on the heels of the board voting to renew his four-year contract in January.
“I’m sure they will get to the community and let them know what their deliberations are,” she said.
Several administrators, alumni and faculty members from Jackson State attended the meeting.
Ivory Phillips, a dean emeritus at Jackson State and a former faculty senate president, said he wasn’t surprised the board said nothing about the university’s leadership. Still, Phillips thought the board should have at least addressed the process it will use to select the next president.
“The board is more notorious than any other agency in terms of not revealing anything,” he said.
Phillips noted that the board did not link to its agenda online and that the paper copy distributed at the meeting did not contain minutes describing any action that occurred during its executive sessions about Jackson State over the last month. The board emails a copy of its agenda the day before the meeting and typically uploads that copy to its website.
Caron Blanton, the board spokesperson, said she did not know when the board would release the minutes from those executive sessions.
At the March 2 meeting which took place before the board announced Hudson was placed on administrative leave, Blanton told reporters and members of the public that any action taken by the board must be reflected in meeting minutes “within 30 days of the meeting.”
“If they did take action, it will be in the minutes,” she said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1997
Dec. 22, 1997
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers.
In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.”
He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.”
The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi
About the time people ring in the new year next week, the digital tracker on Mississippi Today’s homepage tabulating the amount of money the state is losing by not expanding Medicaid will hit $1 billion.
The state has lost $1 billion not since the start of the quickly departing 2024 but since the beginning of the state’s fiscal year on July 1.
Some who oppose Medicaid expansion say the digital tracker is flawed.
During an October news conference, when state Auditor Shad White unveiled details of his $2 million study seeking ways to cut state government spending, he said he did not look at Medicaid expansion as a method to save money or grow state revenue.
“I think that (Mississippi Today) calculator is wrong,” White said. “… I don’t think that takes into account how many people are going to be moved off the federal health care exchange where their health care is paid for fully by the federal government and moved onto Medicaid.”
White is not the only Mississippi politician who has expressed concern that if Medicaid expansion were enacted, thousands of people would lose their insurance on the exchange and be forced to enroll in Medicaid for health care coverage.
Mississippi Today’s projections used for the tracker are based on studies conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning University Research Center. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the study that are inexact. It is impossible to say, for example, how many people will get sick and need health care, thus increasing the cost of Medicaid expansion. But is reasonable that the projections of the University Research Center are in the ballpark of being accurate and close to other studies conducted by health care experts.
White and others are correct that Mississippi Today’s calculator does not take into account money flowing into the state for people covered on the health care exchange. But that money does not go to the state; it goes to insurance companies that, granted, use that money to reimburse Mississippians for providing health care. But at least a portion of the money goes to out-of-state insurance companies as profits.
Both Medicaid expansion and the health care exchange are part of the Affordable Care Act. Under Medicaid expansion people earning up to $20,120 annually can sign up for Medicaid and the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost. Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not opted into Medicaid expansion.
People making more than $14,580 annually can garner private insurance through the health insurance exchanges, and people below certain income levels can receive help from the federal government in paying for that coverage.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden significantly increased the federal subsidies provided to people receiving insurance on the exchange. Those increased subsidies led to many Mississippians — desperate for health care — turning to the exchange for help.
White, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Gov. Tate Reeves and others have expressed concern that those people would lose their private health insurance and be forced to sign up for Medicaid if lawmakers vote to expand Medicaid.
They are correct.
But they do not mention that the enhanced benefits authored by the Biden administration are scheduled to expire in December 2025 unless they are reenacted by Congress. The incoming Donald Trump administration has given no indication it will continue the enhanced subsidies.
As a matter of fact, the Trump administration, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for ways to cut federal spending.
Some have speculated that Medicaid expansion also could be on Musk’s chopping block.
That is possible. But remember congressional action is required to continue the enhanced subsidies. On the flip side, congressional action would most likely be required to end or cut Medicaid expansion.
Would the multiple U.S. senators and House members in the red states that have expanded Medicaid vote to end a program that is providing health care to thousands of their constituents?
If Congress does not continue Biden’s enhanced subsidies, the rates for Mississippians on the exchange will increase on average about $500 per year, according to a study by KFF, a national health advocacy nonprofit. If that occurs, it is likely that many of the 280,000 Mississippians on the exchange will drop their coverage.
The result will be that Mississippi’s rate of uninsured — already one of the highest in the nation – will rise further, putting additional pressure on hospitals and other providers who will be treating patients who have no ability to pay.
In the meantime, the Mississippi Today counter that tracks the amount of money Mississippi is losing by not expanding Medicaid keeps ticking up.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1911
Dec. 21, 1911
Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia.
When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs.
He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame.
The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays.
Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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