The five-year bachelor’s degree: UM fails to provide resources to help students graduate on time

When Jack Fox first enrolled at the University of Mississippi, he expected, like most other students, to follow the traditional undergraduate path, graduating in four years. However, four years later, Fox is preparing for another semester as a fifth-year “super” senior, along with about half of his class.

More commonly than ever, college students are taking five or six years to acquire their bachelor’s degrees. According to a 2013 article from Forbes by Chris Denhart, only about 49% of students graduate on time, if at all.

“More and more students are taking five years to complete what have historically been four-year programs,” Denhart writes. And the University of Mississippi is no different.

Students like Fox are taking longer to complete their degree requirements for a multitude of reasons. For Fox, he believes his holdup lies in poor academic advising for the first few years of his college career.

Fox changed his major a number of times during his freshman year before finally landing on sport and recreation administration. He found the way the courses were planned especially helpful. However, only a semester after he changed into the major, it was entirely restructured.

Jack Fox will begin his fifth year of college in the fall.

“They changed things up and made it so there was an internship class that you had to take before you could have an accredited internship,” Fox said. “As a result, no matter what, we couldn’t really graduate on time because that class was during the spring of our senior year,”

Throughout this confusing time, Fox tried to figure out which classes to take without help from his advisors. Instead, he had to navigate the redesigned major on his own.

“When I was a freshman and sophomore, the advisors didn’t even know that this major was going to be a thing across all the departments,” Fox said. “Somehow I knew more about it than they did, which was really surprising to me.”

Terrius Harris echoed Fox’s sentiments. The triple major student lacked a cross-departmental advisor to steer him in the right direction, so he will begin his fifth year in August to complete his final degree.

“[It] was not possible in four due to a lack of a cross-departmental academic advisor that would advise me on classes to take to complete all of my degrees instead of only one,” he said. “If there was a cross-departmental advisor that could help those double and triple majoring, I believe I would have been able to graduate in four, with knowledge of the courses needed and summer and intercession resources.”

Harris suggested that the university hire a dual major specialist advisor to assist others in similar predicaments, provide more opportunities for students to be able to take and afford intercession courses, and track current advisors through evaluations to ensure that they are doing their job effectively.

Ronnie “R.J.” Morgan, professor at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media and Mississippi Scholastic Press Association director, is an academic advisor for journalism students and said that students sometimes don’t understand the basic math involved with graduating in four years.

Nearly every bachelor’s degree at the University of Mississippi consists of 124 credit hours. Assuming that a student does not change his or her major, if a student were to take a 15-hour course load each semester, he or she would still not be at enough hours to graduate with a degree at the conclusion of four years. To graduate in four years, he or she would have to take 18 hours for a couple of semesters or take one or two intercession courses.

When students changing their majors is taken into account as well as failing courses, it is easy to see how many students don’t graduate in four years, Morgan said.

“I don’t think people understand that 15 times 8 doesn’t equal 124,” he said. “Finishing in five years is not uncommon at all.”

In order to combat the high five or six-year graduation rate, Morgan suggested a more streamlined degree process, but that has its cons as well.

“We could make the degree process less complicated, but it’s a ‘catch 22’ situation,” he said. “When you make the process more streamlined, you would be eliminating pathways to get that degree.”

Morgan said that students ultimately should be more proactive in their own learning path. Many who see him for advising don’t know what they want to minor in or what classes they want to take.

“It’s your life, and you’re going to have to make those decisions eventually,” he said.

Kody Archer, who will also begin his fifth year in the fall, admitted that he didn’t take full advantage of advising while at Ole Miss, but he also claims that his fifth-year “victory lap” is partially due to the expense of intercession courses.

“I didn’t declare until sophomore year, but then I changed my major twice,” he said. “I have enough credits to graduate, but it doesn’t line up the way it needs to, and summer classes are too expensive for me to take. I’m glad my parents were on board with a fifth year.”

IMC student Garland Patterson took a semester off and as a result, will be at the university for another year to make sure she is taking all of the classes she needs to acquire her degree. Anthropology student Harrison Williams, on the other hand, needs to take a specific class for graduate school that is only offered at certain times of the year, so he is staying for “another semester or two.”

Jennifer Simmons, Assistant Dean for Student Services in the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, has been advising students for three years, most of whom are freshmen, and she said many students, instead of prioritizing classes they have to take in order to graduate, select their schedule based on professors and class times. Students also are affected by holds on their account and other factors that delay them when creating their schedule.

“The student and the advisor could have mapped out the perfect plan, but if the class is full or if there is a hold on the student’s account, there’s not a whole lot we can do,” she said. “But the university is working on it.”

Simmons serves on the Graduation and Degree Completion Group subsection of the Academic Policy Review Committee, which looks at potential issues that create barriers for students to finish their degrees. She said that the committee has noted that as more and more students enroll at Ole Miss, the university is struggling to keep up with them.

“At the rate the university has grown, we’ve attempted to increase the number of individual course section, but in some departments, the university has even outpaced those,” she said. “In some departments, the growth of the university and student population, in general, has outpaced the faculty in the ability to teach these courses.”

Ole Miss isn’t alone in its struggles to provide the resources to graduate students in four years. Among the 14 Southeastern Conference universities, Ole Miss ranked 12 out of 14 in four-year graduation rates in 2015, succeeded by the University of Kentucky and Mississippi State University. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, only 30.9 percent of students graduate from Mississippi State University in four years, while 61 percent graduate in five years.

A chart that maps the increasing four, five and six-year graduation rates. (Photo courtesy of the Office of IREP)

However low its ranking among SEC universities is, Ole Miss’ four-year graduation rate is on the rise. Statistics from the UM Office of Institutional Research, Effectiveness, and Planning show that since 2010, four-year graduation rates have been steadily increasing.

Associate Provost Donna Strum suggested that this positive trend was due to exceptional programs and process that facilitate academic success among students.

“Our dedicated faculty and staff genuinely care about our students and work to engage and empower them,” she said. “Our ultimate goal is for our students to achieve their goals and pursue their passions and career interests. We hope our students leave Ole Miss feeling like they have grown both personally and professionally so they will make meaningful contributions to their communities.”

As he prepares to begin his final year at the university, Fox wishes that the university would consider the stress that comes along with the tumultuous nature of college when setting expectations for students. He thinks that more effort could be put towards student success, and perhaps if the university provides proper resources for their students, four-year graduation rate will increase exponentially.

“Taking 15 hours a semester is kind of a lot because most students are working and doing other stuff,” Fox said. “The school doesn’t take into account the other extracurricular stuff that [students] do. College is kind of the time that you’re trying to grow as a human being. You grow in so many other aspects than just going to class. I feel like they just need to think about that.”

Weekly ‘What Works?’ Assignment 11

Headline: She Tried To Report On Climate Change. Sinclair Told Her To Be More “Balanced.”

This week, I chose a story from Buzzfeed News for a number of reasons. As I understand it, among journalists, Buzzfeed is seen as a laughable news source, and understandably so. Their listicles rely on social media trends and crass humor for clicks, and when they attempt investigative reporting,  it is sloppily done, as exemplified in their Trump dossier leaks in January 2017, for which they garnered a considerable amount of negative attention. However, I noticed that their news staff was a 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist for international news reporting, which impressed me. I thought, “They must be doing something right.”

I gave their news section a glance and settled on this article about a reporter whose news station changed once Sinclair took over management. Her work was criticized more often, and she was encouraged to include the ‘conservative’ perspective in her stories, which seems valid, honestly. I also found this story interesting given the recent scrutiny of the media conglomerate.

I really love the way Buzzfeed lays out these long-form stories, and I assume they look equally as clean on mobile devices. The large photograph on top, with the headline and deck laid over, looks polished and immediately draws me in. This first picture is poignant and well-done; however, the pictures get increasingly strange and unrelated as the story continues. Crowe is seen with her dog in dim light in the last photo in the story. What does that pup have to do with Sinclair and her experiences with her former employer?

I like the inclusion of the drop-quotes, splitting up the different part of the story well. I also really appreciated them finding the tweet mentioned in the story about Crowe winning the Associated Press award.

As I have repeatedly mentioned in these assignments, when I critique articles, I look for a single person’s story to carry the article and the issue being discussed, and this article does that well, following Suri Crowe in the months after Sinclair took over management of her local news station. Her work became increasingly scrutinized, as were her ‘liberal’ views.

The sources in the story were strong, and I was very surprised that they managed to get quotes from the producer that Crowe claimed was mistreating her. I felt like their reporting was biased, though, even after they recorded both Crowe and her manager’s recollections of the incidents mentioned. The way stories are framed can also play a part in their tone and bias, and the way the story ends clearly nudges readers to empathize with Crowe, which seems hypocritical.

All in all, I was surprised at the thoroughness of their reporting, and I wish this story wasn’t buried under hundreds of articles about the Kardashians.

Theatre Oxford’s ‘The Other Place’ immerses audiences in realities of one neurological condition while raising funds for another

Theatre Oxford’s production of “The Other Place,” which premieres this weekend, will immerse audiences in the deepest, darkest realities of one mental health condition while raising money for another here in Oxford.

“The Other Place” was first performed Off-Broadway and starred Dennis Boutsikaris and Laurie Metcalf in 2011, who received an Obie Award and a Tony Award nomination for her performance. Since then, it has been performed all over the country, including a run on Broadway.

The play will premiere on the Powerhouse stage at 7:30 p.m. on April 19 at the Powerhouse, where it will be directed by Brian Whisenant and produced by Mary Stanton Knight.

In honor of April being Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Month, all of the funds raised, besides ticket sales, go towards the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s c.

“It’s a great way to tie in our last production of the season with raising money for a great cause,” she said. “We will be holding a silent auction and raffle on items donated by local and regional businesses each night of the run. All proceeds go directly to Team Fox.”

Knight describes the play as a “rollercoaster ride” and is looking forward to watching the actors bring the story to life each night.

“It’s an edge of your seat production, and I think the audience will have so much fun trying to unravel the mystery before the big reveal,” she said.

The official poster for ‘The Other Place.’ (Photo courtesy: The Local Voice)

In the production, the audience observes as the mind of the narrator, Juliana – whose expertise, ironically, is neurology – unravels as dementia slowly ravages the once-brilliant scientist. Part of the play’s brilliance, according to an NPR interview with playwright Sharr White, lies in its juxtapositions – it opens as the Juliana establishes her extensive knowledge in her field solidifying her position as the ultimate expert, and as the play continues, she becomes more and more unreliable.

The play blurs fact with fiction and draws attention to what it’s like to deal with the diagnosis of a mental health condition, something the cast members are passionate about.

Long-time actor Matthew King, who plays the narrator’s husband Ian, was personally affected by a mental health condition when his father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2014.

Since then, King has taken advantage of opportunities to raise money for Parkinson’s disease research. When he got involved with Theatre Oxford, his first question to the board was about if they had ever done anything for charity outside of their own non-profits. When he found out they hadn’t, King “charged right in.”

“We decided to figure it out as we went,” he said. “This will be our second Parkinson’s fundraiser. We’ve done well in soliciting from artists and local businesses. It’s been a really good effort – everyone is putting in a lot of hard work.”

Though revenue from the production’s ticket sales will be going to Theatre Oxford, money raised from raffle and art sales, which will take place in the main entryway to the Powerhouse, will all be donated to Parkinson’s disease research.

Whisenant will return to directing in this production, something he has been planning to do for “quite some time.”

“Interestingly enough, I was supposed to be the assistant director for this one, but a few weeks before auditions, I was asked to take the helm,” he said. “I’m so very glad that I did. This is a very complicated story with an unreliable narrator. Navigating those two things has been a dream come true for me, as I love a challenge.”

He said the biggest challenge, though, has come with casting. Many women backed out due to the “difficult” content of the play.

“Kayleigh, who is absolutely fearless, is a dream in the part, despite its challenges,” Whisenant said. “When those women see this play I think they will regret their decisions.”

Graham plays the production’s protagonist, Juliana, and though most of her involvement with Theatre Oxford is on the technical side of theatre, she wanted to be back on stage again, under the lights. Graham is proud to play Juliana’s character, and said that she is proud to be “inhabiting her for at least a little while.”

“There are many members of Theatre Oxford’s tribe who have had family members and friends affected by this horrible disease,” she said. “This is our way of trying to give back and honor those people.”

King, who serves as president of Theatre Oxford’s board of directors, was also happy to switch places to get back on stage to perform and challenge himself as an actor.

“I wanted to do something different from what I have been doing,” he said. “I wanted to get my hands dirty again and flex those muscles that I haven’t flexed in a while. This was a great opportunity to do that. To be on stage with talented people, one, is an honor. To be on stage, two, with your friends is an even bigger boon to the spirit.”

Along with performing again after a stint in directing, producing and managing efforts on the board of directors’ end, King hopes the play will raise awareness about what it’s like to live with a neurological condition.

“It’s not a lighthearted play, which usually does well in Oxford. It’s hard material – very emotional. You get to see all of the different aspects of humanity,” he said “People need to see it because it brings attention to mental health. Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, dementia – they’re all neurological disorders, and we have a good population here in Oxford.”

When King’s father was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, he sought out a support group in Oxford but was told that there was not an active one. King said that instead, after visiting hospitals and neurology clinics, his father was told to he might have to travel to Memphis or Tupelo to find such a group. He said he hopes that the play will shed light on an underrepresented population in Oxford.

“I really want as many people to come see it as possible. It’s a great effort, put together we a lot of love, and we’ve had a wonderful time,” King said. “It’s a good opportunity to bring mental health into the conversation and get people in the door to see a well-performed show, if I do say so myself.”

Weekly ‘What Works?’ Assignment 10

Headline: Who gets state dollars to help pay for college in Mississippi?

Given that my final article’s topic will be about scholarships in Mississippi, I wanted to choose a relevant piece related to that subject. This article was fairly recently written and comes from Mississippi Today. .It discusses state-funded financial aid during fiscal year 2017.

The headline of this piece made me click on it in the first place. It’s a question, and a question that I hope to answer. I wanted to read more about how the article answered the question. The article’s opening was poignant and also drew me in – the author writes about how the most financial needy students in Mississippi are barred from receiving one of Mississippi’s primary grants and has a quote from the state director of Student Financial Aid, further drilling that point home.

The point of my final multimedia project concerns financial aid over intercessions, specifically, and hopes to investigate why there are such few minority students in these courses over break. This article, though it doesn’t specifically discuss that, does touch on which minorities are receiving the majority of these state-funded scholarships and grants, and the statistics surprised me. Caucasian students in Mississippi received 73% of financial aid in 2017.

I was glad to see a graphic in the form of a pie chart on the page – it made identifying the demographics much easier. However, I was surprised to see how poorly it was designed. It was also interesting to see what types of students were receiving MESG, as it is a scholarship I was also awarded. Most of these students are from private schools.

The article touched closer on what I am interested in towards the middle about Pell grants. Though students who are eligible for a full Pell grant almost always receive them, the grants do not come close to paying for the cost of college. There is another confusing graphic a few paragraphs below this information.

I liked that the article was split into sub-sections. However, I was disappointed in the quotes and sources in this piece. I have noticed that there is practically no contact information for any state financial aid administrators online, and that finding that information requires quite a lot of digging, so kudos to the author for getting in touch with the director of state aid. However, she relies on her quotes for the majority of the article and shoves in a couple sources towards the last few paragraphs of the piece.

Though I understand that articles and their purposes’ vary, resulting in a different approach, (and this article was more of an informative piece than a feature) I feel like if the author had gotten in touch with a family or student who was directly affected, it would have been a much more effective article. That is the source that this story lacks. It has data and a strong primary source in Rogers, but I wish it would have expanded on the thoughts of the Alcorn State University president and Hinds County senator mentioned at the end.

‘The Vagina Monologues’ to narrate women’s varied experiences with sexuality, assault

“The Vagina Monologues,” a play about women’s varying experiences with sexuality, assault, gender, and race, is being performed Friday night at 6 p.m. in Fulton Chapel as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month sponsored by Rebels Against Sexual Assault.

The episodic play was written by Eve Ensler, winning her the Obie Award, and was first premiered at the HERE Arts Center in New York City in 1996. It consists of a number of monologues, which all explores similar themes of the female experience.

When it was first performed, Ensler was the star of the production. Since then, it has been performed widely across the country and the rest of the world in its original and adapted forms and has even inspired the launch of a global non-profit, V-Day, that has raised over $50 million for women’s anti-violence groups.

The play has been performed here at Ole Miss for a number of years, generally in February, and it has been sponsored by organizations like the Feminist Majority of Ole Miss. Rebels Against Sexual Assault has managed the production of the monologues since 2016.

Photo courtesy: RASA

President of RASA Sam Cox is looking forward to seeing the production come together Friday afternoon.

“It’s an incredible performance piece,” Cox said. “I’m excited to see students involved in RASA get excited about it and put on these impactful monologues in front of fellow students.”

Many other events, like Take Back the Night and Denim Day, are being held during the month of April in order to shed light on sexual assault.

“RASA is holding these events to not only bring about awareness of sexual assault on college campuses, but to offer events where we educate students on specific skills like how to communicate appropriately, and events where we empower women and events where we celebrate survivors,” Cox said.

President of FEMISS Sheffield Spence considers events like the performance of “The Vagina Monologues” crucial for spreading awareness of sexual assault, and using the medium of theatre allows the message to touch the lives of the audience members in a way that other forms cannot.

“The more we have events like this on our campus, the more we can open up about consent, reporting sexual assault, and what resources are available,” she said. “The issue of sexual assault has no boundaries and is not limited by political party affiliation; this is an issue that affects all of humanity and should be treated as such.”

Colleen Fay, RASA’s community outreach coordinator, believes that “The Vagina Monologues” expresses a core mission of RASA – bringing awareness to issues surrounding violence against women – but does it in an entertaining, expressive way.

“Particularly for ‘The Vagina Monologues,’ we hope that students come away with a better understanding of female empowerment,” she said. “Sexual assault can happen to anyone of any gender.”

RASA’s corresponding secretary Matt Travers hopes to bring attention to narratives that would likely otherwise be overlooked without ‘The Vagina Monologues.’

“We hope to hear and respect the voices of sexual assault survivors and teach others about how to prevent it at the same time,” Travers said. “By putting on events, like ‘The Vagina Monologues,’ RASA hopes to break the stigma attached to sexual assault and make others – especially on campus – aware of how prevalent it is.”

The all-female performance will touch on a number of uncomfortable topics through its individual, separate monologues but overall will promote an open dialogue about femininity, identity and sexuality while shedding the stigma surrounding sexual assault.

“’The Vagina Monologues’ is definitely not an easy performance, but [the performers] are all working hard to respect and honor the stories of the women they are sharing.”

One of these performers, Alana Mitias, appreciates that each member of the production got to choose the monologue they wanted to perform.

“Everyone is really supportive and we’ve been given a lot of freedom to choose how we want the performance to go. We get to perform the piece that we connect with the most, which I think is really valuable when dealing with sensitive subject matter,” she said. “An important part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month is encouraging an open dialogue about sexuality and sexual health, and ‘The Vagina Monologues embodies that message.’”

Her favorite monologue is “My Short Skirt,” which deals with female autonomy and “discredits the idea that the way a woman dresses is indicative of her respectability,” an issue Mitias feels is important to campus culture.

“I think, especially with the rise of the #MeToo movement and increased dialogue surrounding these issues, it’s important to keep the conversation going about topics like relationships and sexual violence, and ‘The Vagina Monologues’ is really open and unapologetic about its dealings with that kind of content,” she said.

Travers agreed with Mitias in that the play is especially relevant to campus culture, especially after the #MeToo movement’s popularity.

“There has long been a culture of silence and disbelief regarding sexual assault, especially on college campuses,” Travers said. “Today, however, there are many movements like #MeToo and #TimesUp, spearheaded by survivors of sexual assault, that work to break down established power dynamics and the abuse of power. I think that in a similar way, ‘The Vagina Monologues’ is an empowering way to make survivors’ voices heard.”

In the end, though, he hopes that audiences will be more comfortable after watching the monologues discussing important issues that are not necessarily easy to talk about, further spreading RASA’s primary mission of awareness, this month especially and throughout the year.

“’The Vagina Monologues’ encourages a culture of being unafraid to share one’s story. I hope that students learn something after watching ‘The Vagina Monologues,’” Travers said. “I hope that viewers gain a clearer understanding of what life is like for survivors of sexual assault. And, I hope that students are more comfortable discussing seemingly uncomfortable issues.”

Weekly ‘What Works?’ Assignment 9

Headline: Poor Treatment of Local Media Comes to Head at Sanders, Lumumba Town Hall

This week, I took a look at the website of one of my former employers – Jackson Free Press. The tabloid-style newspaper is an extremely left-leaning publication led by Donna Ladd, one of the few female editors-in-chief in Mississippi. The publication often focuses on culture, art, and entertainment in Jackson, but it also manages to keep a close eye on city politics from its office only a few blocks over from the State Capitol.

Last week, when Bernie Sanders visited Jackson, Mississippi, to speak in commemoration of the 50-year anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, it drew national attention. However, it seemingly came at a cost to local media.

This article’s perspective was interesting and I enjoyed reading it, but it seems like it’s in the wrong section. I don’t agree that this is a news story – its tone is disillusioned and disappointed, and the author’s bias and personal involvement is clear. This is an editorial, not news. However, it does touch on an important issue that hasn’t been covered by national media, for obvious reasons – the attention politicians give to national media is the problem.

The lede of the story doesn’t touch on the actual point of the article and is tinged with bitterness already – “…Sanders traveled from one predominantly black city to the next on Wednesday for public appearances….”

Also, there are other instances of syntax that are inappropriate for a news story, like the usage of “incredulously.” I did like that the story was separated into several sections, each marked with a subhead.

There were many interesting tidbits of information that I wasn’t formerly aware of. I had no idea that both Sanders and Mayor Lumumba are known to ignore local media. Apparently Lumumba has a pattern of “prioritizing his time with national media and declining interviews with local media during the same time span,” and Sanders “has a reputation of tossing local media aside in favor of national reporters” in his home state.

I also appreciated how descriptive and detailed the author was, citing similar instances involving the mayor and the Jackson Free Press. Even the story’s ending, though, makes it seem like a staff editorial of sorts: “Treatment of local reporters as second-rate stepchildren keeps journalists from their jobs in reporting back to the people of Jackson on vital local issues that affect everyday lives. This outlet believes strongly that local people’s right to know should matter far more than a national media blurb, many of which this time around barely even included our mayor.”

I only clicked on the story because the topic seemed interesting because I am a journalist. However, I didn’t realize the story was actually about how local media was treated badly at the town hall – I just thought it came up in the town hall discussion, so I think the headline could have been worded more clearly. There are also no other pictures and media in the story besides AP photographer Rogelio Solis’ picture of Bernie Sanders, which is already used as a thumbnail in another story on the website.

I’m glad they are drawing attention to the issue. I just definitely think it should have been included in a different section – namely, the opinion section.

Timeline: MLK – The Life and Death

This timeline illustrates the life and death of Martin Luther King Jr., commemorating the 50th anniversary of his assassination.

Final pitch – Scholarship packages fail to cover intercession expenses

Over winter break, I took Mass Media Ethics with Prof. Wickham, which was my Christmas present from my parents. I needed to take a class to lighten my load this semester but couldn’t afford to. I’m on full academic scholarship here to Ole Miss, which does not cover classes during breaks. Luckily, my parents vouched for me, though they can’t every intercession. 

I have friends who have experienced the same issue and know one girl who is using Go Fund Me to try to use donations to pay for a class over summer intercession. While I was in my class, too, I noticed the lack of minority students. I was one of two students of color in a class of at least 50. I wondered if this was because minority students are mostly here on scholarship. I may be totally off base, but I feel like this could be an interesting story that not only impacts students on our campus but students all over the state. 

I could use infographics of charts and graphs to compliment my story as well as photographs, possibly. This story will include hard data and statistics – I already found a Mississippi Today story that is on a similar topic that includes some of this data. Here is a list of people who I hope to pitch my story to as well as include in my story:

The Clarion Ledger

The Daily Mississippian

The Oxford Eagle

Jackson Free Press

Laura Diven-Brown – director of financial aid

Annie Vandegriff – student who is using Go Fund Me

Brandi Hephner LaBanc – Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs

Larry D. Sparks – Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance

Jennifer Rogers – director of Student Financial Aid for Mississippi

At least 3 other students (two of them must be minorities – I have already reached out to a few people)

Debbie Burt Myers

Ole Miss Theatre’s production of ‘Macbeth’ greatly influenced by female director, presents a traditional take on the classic

The Ole Miss Theatre will present their traditional take on Macbeth, William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy that has been performed countless times around the globe for the past four centuries, at the Gertrude C. Ford Center on April 20 at 7:30 p.m.

The classic play tells the tragic story of Macbeth and those who surround him on his quest to become king. After three witches tell Macbeth that the throne is in his future, he decides to expedite the process by killing the current king when the opportunity arises, and the tale takes a dark turn.

Cynthia White was brought in from the University of Central Florida and Orlando Shakespeare Theatre where she is Director of New Play Development to serve as the guest director of the play as a result of her expertise, a decision that’s greatly influenced the direction of the production.

Cynthia White (Photo courtesy of cynthiawhitedirector.com)

“I was first considered because of the contact, Joe Cantu, who is now a professor here at Ole Miss in the theatre department, from years ago when I was in graduate school at Southern Methodist University,” White said.

Her schedule allowed her to come to Oxford for six weeks to work on Macbeth.

“I’ve done a lot of Shakespeare, and they were also interested in having a woman as the director,” she said. “My name came up.”

She attributes the decision to include her as the director to a trend being seen across the country to better reflect the country’s demographics in theatres, both on stage and behind the scenes.

“Most plays were written by dead white men, they used to say. That’s changed a lot but you still have to work at it,” she said. “I’ve been known as a woman director for a long time, but I’m just a director.”

Ole Miss theatre student Reagan-Mary Walsh will play Lennox in the play in her first on-stage role, and she has appreciated White’s expertise throughout the production process as well as her point of view as a woman.

“Cynthia just has so much insight, not only or the play as a whole, but even sometimes for the Shakespearean language,” she said. “I do think Cynthia brings a new perspective to the play. Male directors might just see the point of view of Macbeth. She makes a lot of good points of Lady Macbeth’s character as well.”

Understanding of the language is an integral part of the play, emphasizing the passionate themes and denoting it as a Shakespearean classic.

“I fear that people sometimes think Shakespeare language is hard to understand,” White said. “I think the language is really athletic and visceral and strong. It’s a very exciting piece of theatre.”

Each director has his or her personal style, and White’s contribution has influenced the play.

“The actors and actresses in the play, they need to work with a lot of different directors to experience different styles,” White said. “There tends to be a different style if you’re a 60-year-old director or a 20-year-old director, or if you’re a man or a woman.”

According to Walsh, White’s presence has not only allowed the students a clearer perspective on the Shakespearean classic but also made the space more welcoming.

“It’s a really safe, welcoming community, and you need that with this kind of show – it’s just kind of a lot to handle. Especially with it being one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies, there’s pressure to put on a good show,” Walsh said. “The show carries a lot of baggage. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth go through such drastic changes – they murder. That can definitely take a toll on an actor if you’re not careful and keep yourself in the right headspace.”

White insists on referring the play as “Mac” until the actual performance, adhering to an old theatre superstition about the production.

“There is a superstition that if you say the name of the play in a theatre in particular that terrible things are supposed to happen. Because the play is so much about superstition, it’s sort of pragmatic for me to,” she said. “Everybody is a little bit on edge saying the full name. When we say it in the show, it’s loaded a little bit more. The name takes on a certain weight.”

Photo courtesy of Ole Miss Theatre department

The Ole Miss Theatre’s production of Macbeth is a big project. Over 20 students are involved as cast members, and there are even more working with production.

“That is part of the joy for me,” White said. “Since the set is huge, too, effects need to be big. We have to find out how to create emotional responses on a much bigger scale.”

One of the ways White is hoping to do that is include “shadow play” on a screen on stage to magnify the special effects. Stage manager Madison Morrow believes that through those techniques and the traditional play itself, the production capture audiences.

“The production is a traditional take on the Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It incorporates a lot of shadow play and movement, which I’m sure the audience will greatly enjoy,” she said. “This show stands out because it’s a classic. Everyone has heard of, and probably has even seen, the story of Macbeth and the tragedy of his life. We as a department have to live up to that expectation to make this show great.”

The play is an iconic one, and Ole Miss Theatre will join a long line of departments that have performed the show. The story is one that delves into the darkest parts of the human psyche, questioning how far one will really go to achieve success – a relatable theme that is one of the reasons it has remained a classic, according to White.

“What causes us to go to the dark side, and what happens once you go to that side? Are you satisfied with that one murder?” White said. “It’s a fairly brutal world in Macbeth. The people who survive are the warriors and are the ones who fight. There’s a degree of whether you’re fighting the battle to save your country or to knock other people off and getting ahead. It’s pretty easy to find parallels to civilized behavior and why we do what we do.”

The play will premiere April 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Ford Center with a reception immediately after at the Graduate Hotel on the Square.

“I’ve had a great time. The students who are in it this year, their work is really strong,” White said. “It’s a stunning visual show. It’s a very exciting project for all of us.”

Weekly ‘What Works?’ Assignment 8

Headline: Jackson State officials identify student found dead in dorm room

The story that caught my eye this week came from The Clarion Ledger website. The article isn’t necessarily eye-catching on the newspaper’s homepage, but it made its rounds on social media, which garnered my attention.

On the homepage of the website, it is not featured as a rotating story at the top. Instead, readers have to scroll down to the categories of articles. It is found under news, and it isn’t even the first story under the section. It is the second story and is accompanied by a stock image of police tape that is pretty much unrelated to the story. If I hadn’t seen the story shared on Facebook and Twitter, I wouldn’t have been interested enough to click it.

Once you click the story, you’re directed to a misleading page. The article is set up like a multimedia package – video at top and quotes and pictures at the bottom with the actual story. However, the video at the top is just an ad for The Clarion Ledger, promoting their articles, which seems redundant since I’m already on their page. I’ve also always found the set-up of their page strange and distracting – it’s quite packed.

Once you get to the meat of the story, it is clear that the story was hurriedly put together. I completely understand that breaking news is, well, breaking, but the story is less than 100 words and some of it is repeated. The lead is disappointing and is unrelated to the story’s headline. It is later repeated one paragraph down, reiterating that no foul play is suspected in the death on the JSU campus.

I appreciated that they included a quote from the president of the college, but it was just copied from a Facebook post which is linked at the bottom of the article. I can’t help but think that more effort could have been put into this story. At least, I wish that they had updated the story with more information as they contacted more officials to get more quotes.

Also, I later checked The Clarion Ledger Facebook page to see if they had individually shared this article on social media, and they hadn’t. I felt like this was a lost opportunity. Breaking news always gets good traction on social media, so they lost out on potentially hundreds of clicks and shares.

However, as a breaking news story, it did its job, and maybe they have a more in-depth piece in the works.