Mississippi Today
‘Goals nobody can argue with’: Mississippi universities rebrand DEI to focus on access, opportunity and belonging
The University of Mississippi is in the midst of restructuring its Division of Diversity and Community Engagement as other universities across the state have already made changes to their diversity, equity and inclusion offices, potentially in an effort to ward off a legislative ban.
Earlier this year, the head of Mississippi State University’s diversity division gave a presentation to faculty on the restructuring that was announced last fall. As of July 1, the University of Southern Mississippi’s renamed “Office of Community and Belonging” will serve a broader audience, a spokesperson confirmed.
Delta State University did not to refill its DEI coordinator after the position was vacated last year, according to a statement. The job was eliminated during the recent budget cuts.
At all three institutions, the universities told Mississippi Today the changes did not come with a reduction to any programs, scholarships or initiatives that aim to support the enrollment, retention and employment of students and faculty from historically marginalized groups such as racial minorities, veterans, first-generation and low-income students. In higher education, DEI traditionally refers to a range of administrative efforts to comply with civil rights laws and foster a sense of on-campus belonging among those populations.
At Ole Miss, it’s unclear if the university’s restructuring of the division will result in a reduction to any of the efforts the university announced in its ambitious “Pathways to Equity” plan three years ago.
“University leaders are working to determine the best way to align our resources to focus on what matters for educational attainment and student success,” a spokesperson, Jacob Batte, wrote in an email to Mississippi Today. “We anticipate some changes will be forthcoming, but the internal review is not completed.”
Across the country, conservative legislation has caused universities to shutter such offices, reassign or fire employees, and end scholarships and programs aimed at supporting marginalized students. Fourteen states have passed laws banning or restricting DEI practices of some kind, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Just last week, the University of Alabama System announced its campuses would close offices and reassign staff in response to a law banning DEI offices, programming and training in state agencies, AL.com reported.
The changes at Mississippi’s universities have come without a legislative mandate. Mississippi lawmakers have nominally banned the teaching of critical race theory, but the Republican-controlled Legislature has not put the kibosh on funding for DEI initiatives. Earlier this year, Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, introduced a bill that would have done so, but it died in a House committee.
Universities in Arkansas and South Carolina also preemptively reorganized their DEI offices, according to Inside Higher Ed. In both states, lawmakers have not passed a ban. The University of Missouri at Columbia announced a similar move earlier this year.
In Mississippi, the state’s loudest advocate for a DEI ban, State Auditor Shad White, focused much of his speech at the Neshoba County Fair this week on DEI. He has used his office to audit DEI programs at the eight public universities, including his alma mater, Ole Miss. In interviews and on social media, White has repeatedly warned about the “dangers of DEI,” saying it teaches college students “that we have to discriminate against some people because of the color of their skin.”
Last year, White’s office determined the eight universities have spent at least $23 million in state and institutional funds since 2019 on a range of DEI programs, including affinity groups for minority students, programming like International Student Month, and staff members to support students who are veterans.
The bulk of DEI spending occurred at Mississippi’s five predominantly white institutions, with the three historically Black institutions having little programs or initiatives to report. Alcorn State University reported scholarships for non-Black students as DEI spending.
Changes across the system
Mississippi Today asked every university in Mississippi about possible changes to their DEI programs, including if there has been a reduction in any related programs or jobs.
At some schools, it’s unclear what changes, if any, have occurred. Mississippi Valley State University did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did Alcorn State, which listed an Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion on the state auditor’s report. The university’s website now lists an Office of Educational Equity and Inclusion, but a spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
In response to questions from Mississippi Today, a Jackson State University spokesperson responded “I have no new info to share with you.”
Though USM renamed its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion last month, its mission remains unchanged, according a statement from the university.
“The Southern Miss family is comprised of many first-generation students and graduates, and that is something we are very proud of,” Eddie Holloway, a senior associate provost who helped lead the restructuring, said in a statement. “Ensuring these, and all students at Southern Miss, have opportunities to learn, lead and excel, remains a key priority for our institution.”
Last November, Mississippi State University announced a new organizational structure for its Division for Access, Diversity and Inclusion, as well as a new name. It is now called the Division of Access, Opportunity and Success. This effort got underway in 2020 in an effort to lessen disparate outcomes that a taskforce found among first-generational, low-income and racial minority students at the university.
Alongside the renaming, the university moved programs aimed at low-income, housing insecure and first-generation students under the Office of Access and Success, according to a presentation the division’s vice president, Ra’Sheda Boddie-Forbes, gave to the faculty senate earlier this year.
Boddie-Forbes told the faculty senate it’s not a secret that DEI has come under attack but that it was important for Mississippi State to continue the work of trying to help students from all backgrounds earn a degree. She said she had spoken with President Mark Keenum about how to protect and expand efforts to support the university’s marginalized students.
“When we think about how we deepen that work at the institution, one of the things that we know we can do is think about the nomenclature associated with the work,” she said, according to a recording of the meeting. “So, how does our work become more grounded in the fact that we’re doing work around ‘access,’ we’re doing work around ‘opportunity,’ and we’re doing work around ‘success?’ So that’s what we decided to do.”
In a statement, Sid Salter, MSU’s vice president for strategic communications, said the restructuring did not result in the loss of any programs, initiatives, scholarships or jobs but that the university’s offerings are “constantly evaluated and are subject to change as the needs of our students evolve.”
“MSU’s Division of Access, Opportunity and Success exists with the express mission of providing programming and assistance to students to help them be successful in obtaining a college degree,” Salter wrote. “Our students come from many diverse backgrounds – some are first-generation college students, some are from the foster system, some are disabled, some are veterans, some have economic challenges – and the list goes on.”
Delta State University, according to a university webpage, started developing diversity initiatives in 2007. DEI programs, which have not been reduced, are now run through student affairs, according to an email from a spokesperson.
A spokesperson for Mississippi University for Women, which does not appear to have a DEI office, said the university had not made any changes.
‘An example for the nation and the world’
At Ole Miss, the division in question was founded in 2017 as a hub for various diversity initiatives the university had developed over the years.
But its primary responsibility was implementing the university’s ambitious “Pathways to Equity” plan that committed the campus to three, five-year goals: Create more capacity for equity on campus, cultivate a diverse community and foster an inclusive climate. Each administrative school was charged with creating its own DEI goals.
The university hoped the plan could be an inspiration to other institutions.
“By taking this responsibility seriously and plotting a principled and measurable path forward, we also can play a role in setting an example for the nation and the world,” Provost Noel Wilkin said in a 2021 press release.
Ole Miss has achieved some of the plan’s specific goals, such as commemorating the 60th anniversary of the university’s integration. The number of Black faculty at the university has increased but still comprises a small portion of the more than 600 faculty, according to IHL and federal data.
On other goals, progress has been a struggle. Since the plan was announced, the number of Black students on campus has steadily fallen, according to IHL data of on-campus headcount enrollment. In 2023, Ole Miss enrolled 2,156 Black students — several hundred less than it did in 2013.
Many Mississippi higher ed officials support DEI
This trend is not unique to Ole Miss. The IHL system enrolls fewer Black students than it used to while white enrollment remains roughly the same, though the root cause of this trend is likely complex.
Still, higher education officials in Mississippi continue to say diversity is an important part of their campuses. As of January last year, the governing board of Mississippi’s eight universities evaluates the college presidents, whom the board has the power to hire and fire, based in part on how well they promote “campus diversity.”
The Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees’ policies and bylaws also includes a diversity statement, last issued in 2013, that reads in part, “Institutions of higher learning have a moral and educational responsibility to ensure that talent is developed in all our citizens, and that our universities, individually and collectively, are strengthened by diversity in student bodies, faculties, administration, and in all areas offering employment opportunities, including construction, financing and consulting.”
When IHL held its annual diversity awards earlier this year, the trustee who presented the awards, Steven Cunningham, a radiologist who attended Jackson State University, thanked the presidents for supporting diversity on their campuses.
“In this current environment of nationwide, orchestrated assaults against DEI programs by organizations such as the Claremont Institute and others like it, you guys continue to foster representative communities on your campuses, and I just want to thank you for your courage and your leadership in that endeavor, so thank you so much guys,” Cunningham said. “Those thoughts are mine and mine alone, and I approve that message.”
The Claremont Institute is a conservative think-tank based in California with ties to former President Donald Trump that has helped to lead the movement against DEI programs, according to the New York Times.
In a sit-down video recorded last fall, Keenum discussed Mississippi State’s diversity programming with Salter.
The president said he was passionate about and defensive of the work Mississippi State does to support marginalized students. Keenum added that the total bans on DEI programs in states like Texas and Florida came from a place of misunderstanding.
“Because of the perception that there’s a ‘woke indoctrination,’ they’re missing the fact that these programs are here to help students succeed that come to us with different backgrounds,” Keenum said. “And that’s what we’re about here at Mississippi State.”
“What I heard you say and what I’ve heard Ra’Sheda say as she talks about reorganizing her division is access opportunity and student success,” Salter responded. “And those are all goals nobody can argue with.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1875
Nov. 2, 1875
The first Mississippi Plan, which included violence against Black Americans to keep them from voting, resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the state.
A year earlier, the Republican Party had carried a majority of the votes, and many Black Mississippians had been elected to office. In the wake of those victories, white leagues arose to challenge Republican rule and began to use widespread violence and fraud to recapture control of the state.
Over several days in September 1875, about 50 Black Mississippians were killed along with white supporters, including a school teacher who worked with the Black community in Clinton.
The governor asked President Ulysses Grant to intervene, but he decided against intervening, and the violence and fraud continued. Other Southern states soon copied the Mississippi plan.
John R. Lynch, the last Black congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: “It was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.”
A federal grand jury concluded: “Fraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi Today’s NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi
High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader support; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.
In a time when trusted journalists and media sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy reporting, civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Here at Mississippi Today we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories free for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.
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Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday life—whether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that help Mississippians understand and engage with what’s happening around them.
Special Event: “Freedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact”
As part of the campaign, we’re excited to host a special virtual event, “Freedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact.” Join Deep South Today newsrooms Mississippi Today and Verite News, along with national experts on press freedom, for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges facing journalists in the Deep South. This one-hour session will explore the critical role local newsrooms play in holding power accountable, highlighting recent restrictions on press freedom such as Louisiana’s “25-foot law,” which affects journalists’ ability to report vital news.
We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!
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Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we love—not only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to come.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Hinds County loses fight over control of jail
The Hinds County sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.
Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, including a failure to protect detainees from harm.
However, the appeals court called the new injunction “overly broad” in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.
The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be removed.
The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as “federal intrusion into RDC’s budget” – especially if the receivership has no end date.
Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion.
In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which holds people facing trial.
“But the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,” the appeals court wrote.
This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022.
The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the solutions they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in Jackson.
The county had a chance to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the death of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old infrastructure and use of force.
Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.
But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff.
The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference.
Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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