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Major questions unanswered about JSU president’s leave one week later

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Major questions unanswered about JSU president’s leave one week later

Significant questions surrounding the abrupt pause to Thomas Hudson’s tenure as president of Jackson State University remain one week after the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees placed him on administrative leave with pay.

So far, a spokesperson from the board has declined to answer multiple questions in detail.

Those include context like if Hudson’s contract has been terminated or if it is still in effect, the nature of the personnel issue that led the board to place Hudson on leave (rather than letting him resign or firing him), and if the board has ever before placed a president of the state’s eight public universities on leave.

Jackson State community members have said the silence makes it harder for them to hold the board accountable for its decision-making.

On Thursday, March 2, the IHL board met twice — all trustees attended virtually — and immediately went into executive session to discuss “a Jackson State University personnel matter.” After the final meeting, members of the press and public questioned IHL spokesperson Caron Blanton about how the board could call an open meeting but immediately close it to the public.

“It was an open meeting, you were all here, you could all hear everything except for what was said in executive session,” Blanton said at the time.

The Open Meetings Act permits public bodies like the IHL board to go into executive session for the “transaction of business and discussion of personnel matters relating to the job performance, character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of a person holding a specific position…”

Hours after the meeting adjourned, IHL sent out a press release stating the board put Hudson on leave and selected Elayne Hayes-Anthony, the chair of Jackson State’s journalism department, to serve as temporary acting president. The release expounded on Hayes-Anthony’s credentials and service to the university but did not explain the criteria that trustees had used to appoint her. If Hayes-Anthony ultimately replaces Hudson, it would be the third time the IHL board has passed on a national search to select Jackson State’s president.

The press release ended with a note that the board “will discuss the future leadership of Jackson State at its regular Board meeting later this month.”

No other information about Hudson was provided. The press release did not include the reason the board placed Hudson on leave.

The night of the meeting, a Mississippi Today reporter emailed two questions to Caron Blanton, IHL’s communications director about the board’s authority to place institutional executive officers on leave because it is not outlined in IHL’s policies and bylaws.

Blanton replied the next day, writing in an email that “the Board’s authority to place an institutional executive officer on administrative leave is provided in the Board’s powers and responsibilities outlined in Mississippi Code Section 37-101-15.”
That code section does not specifically mention “administrative leave,” so Mississippi Today sought more information and asked if the board has ever before placed a university president on leave. A search of IHL’s website, which contains press releases dating back to at least 2006, found just one other mention of administrative leave. That occurred in 2008, in a press release about a former commissioner’s “request to voluntary (sic) step aside from his day-to-day duties during the State Auditor’s investigation.”
Blanton did not reply until Wednesday, March 8.

“I am not declining to answer your questions,” Blanton wrote. “I answered your original question. The follow-up questions are a thinly-veiled attempt to gain additional information on the reasons JSU president Thomas Hudson was placed on administrative leave, which is a personnel matter. Since it is a personnel matter, I have no additional information to provide.”

On Wednesday evening, Blanton elaborated after Mississippi Today sent her the question again, along with eight more.

“The Board hires the institutional executive officers,” she wrote. “Any employer can place an employee on administrative leave.”

Blanton did not answer if the board had ever before placed a university president on leave, writing that “it would take a great deal of research to determine this. Please submit a public records request and I will provide you with the estimated cost to provide the records.”

In response to questions about when the IHL board had conducted a background check on Hudson prior to his appointment as president in November 2020, including who conducted the check and how much they were paid, Blanton also directed Mississippi Today to submit a records request.

Blanton offered the same reply to five questions about Hudson’s contract, if he had signed a separation agreement, why he was placed on leave or if the board had ever received complaints or grievances about his conduct.

“It is a personnel issue, so I will not be able to provide additional information,” she wrote.

This lack of transparency from the IHL board is familiar to many community members of Jackson State.

Ivory Phillips is a dean emeritus at Jackson State who fought for equitable funding for the university as the president of the faculty senate in the 1990s. In a recent editorial for the Jackson Advocate, the oldest Black newspaper in Mississippi, Phillips linked the IHL board’s silence on Hudson to other answers that citizens of Jackson are routinely denied about the water system and the roads.
“Frankly, we were not surprised at this turn of events,” he wrote. “It simply shows how many government entities, especially the college board, never plan to be transparent or accountable.”

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 1997

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-22 07:00:00

Dec. 22, 1997

Myrlie Evers and Reena Evers-Everette cheer the jury verdict of Feb. 5, 1994, when Byron De La Beckwith was found guilty of the 1963 murder of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers. Credit: AP/Rogelio Solis

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.

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Mississippi Today

Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi

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mississippitoday.org – Bobby Harrison – 2024-12-22 06:00:00

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.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1911

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-21 07:00:00

Dec. 21, 1911

A colorized photograph of Josh Gibson, who was playing with the Homestead Grays Credit: Wikipedia

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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