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.”

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.”

‘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.”

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.”

Oxford Tourism Council discusses Double Decker bus rental management, empowering local employees as city ambassadors using hospitality program

The monthly Oxford Tourism Council meeting started Wednesday at noon with a change in management for Oxford’s iconic Double Decker buses.

Coordinating rentals for the buses, a prior responsibility of the mayor’s office, are now under the management of the Visit Oxford Visitor’s Center in an effort to decrease usage of the buses for transportation. Instead, Visit Oxford is hoping to use the buses for their original purpose – tourism.

“We took over Double Decker bus rentals about a week ago,” director of tourism Mary Allyn Hedges said. “For efficiency’s sake, we’ve made a few changes.”

Changes included requiring a three-hour limit on rentals, no changes within 48 hours of booking, buses to be rented only for pictures and not transportation during weddings and booking them a week in advance.

“This is just because the buses are old and weren’t purchased for transportation use, but more so for tourism, so we’re trying to go back to that,” she said.

The price to rent the buses has also made a significant increase to $200 an hour from $160 for the first hour and $100 for each hour after that. A non-refundable deposit was also added to the rental price tag.

“All changes are for longevity to the buses,” Visitor Services coordinator and office administrator Joe Scott said. “It’s a taking a toll on the engines. The increase in the price is because the cost to maintain them keeps going up. [They’re to] make sure it’s making money and not losing a whole lot of money.”

Chairman of the council Christy Knapp expressed that Mayor Robyn Tannehill would be happy to surrender her office’s control of the buses.

The council approved the next item on the agenda, a work agreement for the Treat ‘Em Right Custom Hospitality Program to better educate citizens “on the frontline” on how to promote Oxford.

“A lot of times, we don’t see a visitor but the waiter at Ajax might,” said Kinney Ferris, deputy director of the Visit Oxford Visitor’s Center.

The Treat ‘Em Right Custom Hospitality Program is a four-part video series that will be shown to local restaurant, hotel and retail employees to enable them to answer tourists’ questions.

“It will train these people to be Oxford ambassadors and connect with people on the frontlines,” Knapp said. “The more we can work with people that come in contact with our tourists is a great thing.”

Additional business considered at the Wednesday meeting included:

• According to Lee Ann Stubbs, Double Decker Arts Festival coordinator, planning for the two-day festival is well underway. The festival, which is taking place April 27 and April 28, will host 148 art booths, 28 food vendors and 10 musicians. T-shirts have been ordered and will be ready after Easter.
• The council approved an annual request for $1,000 in funds for the International Conference on the Science of Botanicals. In prior years, $1,000 has been requested, but this year, the conference requested $3,000 in funds. However, the partnership committee recommended the usual amount that had been budgeted for, which was approved.
• The Summer Sunset Series, a lineup of concerts on Sundays in the Grove, will return in June.
• Rebranding for an Oxford ad campaign is being finalized and will be likely be presented in May in coordination with National Tourism Week.
• An Oxford advertisement campaign with The Weather Channel are the highest performing advertisements on the app.
• Oxford will be featured in Southern Living’s April issue as the South’s Best Food Town of 2018.

Oxford Conference for the Book celebrates local, national talent, solidifies Oxford’s reputation as literary town

Oxford Conference for the Book returns on March 21 boasting a list of diverse panels and acclaimed writers, including headlining authors Martin Amis and Ann Beattie.

The three-day conference, which is celebrating its milestone 25^th year, is presented by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at Ole Miss and Square Books. It is known for bringing together novelists and editors and publishers and journalists for years.

“Oxford has been a literary town for a long time,” conference organizer and associate director for publication in the Center for the Study of Southern Culture James Thomas said. “Conversation about the conference started way back when Ann Abadie and Richard Howorth, owner of Square Books, got together and started talking about putting together something like this.”

Bringing together novelists, journalists, poets and intellectuals from far and wide as well as featuring local talent, the conference, which is free and open to the public, will kick off on Tuesday, March 20, at Off Square Books with a reading and book signing by Mississippi author Michael Farris Smith.

From then, the three-day conference will continue with panels, lectures and discussions with sociologists, anthropologists, writers and scholars alike at various locations on the Ole Miss campus and in Oxford. Held in conjunction with Oxford Conference for the Book, the 2018 Children’s Book Festival will encourage literacy among the young members of the LOU community with a reading by Matt de la Peña.

Thomas began coordinating the conference in 2014. Though some aspects of Oxford Conference for the Book have changed, the main goal, bringing in writers from across the country and allowing them to interact with students and members of the LOU community, has remained the same.

“[Oxford Conference for the Book] reinforces the notion that Oxford is a particularly literary city,” Thomas said. “It brings both readers and writers to Oxford, allowing them to share ideas with each other.”

Many changes have been added over the years to draw more people to the event. It has expanded to include films, plays, and much more. In fact, this year, a one-woman production about Fanny Cook, a famous Mississippi conservationist, will be performed at the conference. The editors of the book that the production is based on will be in attendance, allowing those interested to ask them questions.

Above is the official poster for the 2018 Oxford Conference for the Book. (Courtesy: Oxford Conference for the Book)

The diversity of this year’s topics, such as the Bohemian South, Latinos in the South and Affrilachian poets, allows for a varied conference experience. Julian Randall, an Ole Miss MFA student, will be moderating the panel about Affrilachian poets, a “hugely foundational” group of black poets from the Appalachian area. He appreciates that the Oxford Conference for the Book has allowed the distinct genre to have a platform at the conference.

“It’s important that we have spaces that exist for themselves and doesn’t exist against a narrative. The Affrilachian poet panel is going to be an incredible example of that,” Randall said. “Yes, black people come from cities, but they also come from mountains, and what does that context speak to? It wasn’t created in opposition to black urban narratives but in support of black Appalachian narratives.”

Randall himself is a big fan of a couple of writers on the panel, like Frank X. Walker and Kelly Norman Ellis, and considers being able to moderate a wonderful opportunity. Oxford Conference for the Book is one of the reasons Randall chose to come here for his degree, something that went against the “anti-intellectualism narrative that is seen in the South.”

“I think it’s nice that we have these literary spaces that are dedicated to thinking about poets in a southern context,” he said. “There’s so much about southern politics that is overlooked.”

Ole Miss professor and Mississippi Poet Laureate Beth Ann Fennelly is looking forward to bringing her students to the conference, allowing them to meet the authors of the books they’re reading.

“It’s a great opportunity for them to ask questions about craft and technique,” she said.

Fennelly will be participating in the conference as well.

Jonathan Miles, a prolific writer and former Oxford resident, will be returning to the Velvet Ditch for the conference, coming full circle.

“I attended the first [Oxford] Conference for the Book as a scruffy kid living in Oxford, so there’s something lovely and circular about presenting a new novel at the conference a quarter century later,” he said.

Miles attributes his first conference as partially inspiring his literary ambitions and describes this return as something of a homecoming. He said that his time in Oxford was instrumental in leading his journey to become a writer.

“Subtract my years in Oxford, and I think you subtract my life as a writer. It was that formative,” he said. “But Oxford’s reading community had as much to do with it as the writing community.”

Miles remembers Oxford as a town “where people read hungrily and passionately,” and these people were not just professors and students.

“I’ve lived and traveled many places since leaving Oxford but have yet to find any place where books are so central to the diet,” he said. “For book lovers in the Oxford and Ole Miss communities, it’s like Mardi Gras – a multi-day celebration of reading and writing, an annual rite for binging on culture.”

Oxford’s reputation as a literary town is “solidified and amplified” with a conference like Oxford Conference for the Book, according to Miles, a sentiment shared by Thomas.

As an undergraduate, Thomas said that he remembered seeing lectures happening across campus, and he thought they just sounded like more work but discovered after he went that it was amazing opportunity to interact and learn more. He hopes that community members will attend the conference and discover the same thing.

“These opportunities exist for us to learn,” he said. “They are about things that we may not have thought about before or dealt with, and it’s a cool opportunity to learn something new.”

‘Barber Shop and Beauty Shop Talk’ to encourage conversation about issues facing African-American community

The Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement at the University of Mississippi, along with the UM NAACP and Queer People of Color organizations are hosting a public forum at Residence Hall 2 on Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 5 p.m. called “Barber Shop and Beauty Shop Talk” as part of Black History Month events at Ole Miss.

The event is meant to encourage candid and intersectional discussion regarding issues facing the black community locally and nationally. Participants will be invited to share stories and network with others, all while enjoying refreshments and receiving free beauty tips and hair “line-ups” from a local barber. There will also be an opportunity to win a $25 and $50 gift card.

The event’s official poster. (Courtesy of the UM CICCE)

“Barber Shop and Beauty Shop Talk” will be facilitated by Tammy Herod, a local hair salon owner, and Julian Randall, an MFA candidate in creative writing at Ole Miss.

Edwin Aguilar, a graduate assistant for the CICCE, explained that the “barbershop” talk series was typically geared toward men to have a space to talk about whatever they need to, and that this week’s forum was the first “beauty shop” addition. He described the event as a collaborative effort and something that is open to the whole campus.

Randall emphasized how uncommon it was that the university was sponsoring a forum surrounding that topic. He also said that the conversation will be focused on the concept of reparations for African-Americans but is open to the entire community.

“I chose to talk about reparations because we need them. I’m always curious to know what everyone’s individual idea of liberation looks like, and these conversations are often only allowed to happen in the shadows,” he said. “Sometimes you get to have these conversations with your friends, but rarely does a university platform allow a conversation like that to be official.”

Calling it a “Barber Shop and Beauty Shop Talk” was an intentional decision – the implications and significance of hair salons and hair care in the black community is a major part of African-American culture. In fact, Randall said the first place he ever heard about the concept of reparation was in a barbershop.

“In a barber shop, it was all black men. It was where I did a certain kind of growing up. Ever since I was little, I went to black-owned hair care places,” he said. “The main point is that I think that barber shops, historically, are one of the only places consistently in American history where black people deserve something or are allowed to deserve something. There, whiteness is an anomaly.”

Barbershops being a place where black people are allowed to be unapologetically black and express their views without dissent is a clear nod to the talk and claiming it as a forum to freely express opinions.

“Blackness has to prove itself to enter the barber shop, compared to any other public space in America where we have to prove our docility. We have to prove that we are not violent. That is not true in a barber shop,” Randall said. “We are trying to facilitate a place where people are there, and they can feel like they own it, even temporarily, to discuss what the world could look like and how it could be.”

Herod, the other facilitator for the event and owner of Tammy’s Hair Gallery on University Avenue, also stressed the importance of hair and hair care in the black community.

“In our community, that’s one of our top priorities. We don’t do certain things if we don’t have our hair done,” she said. “It’s just a big deal. Something my salon stresses is maintaining healthy practices, and we do all types of hair. Hair is hair.”

Executive director for the Ole Miss chapter of Queer People of Color Malik Pridgeon also acknowledged the role of barber shops in the lives of black people.

“Barbershops are essential spaces for black men and women. Repeatedly throughout history, they have been a space for us and by us,” he said. “They are Mecca, if you will, for almost every black/brown American and play a central role in the black American experience.”

Though he realizes their significance, Pridgeon has a different experience with barber shops, however. His perspective as a member of the LGBTQ community has painted his times in barber shops as definitively negative.

“As a queer man of color, barber shops have always been a place where I’ve been forced to go back into the closet. Whereas masculinity, in general, is fragile, black masculinity is even more fragile,” he said. “I am hoping that we can address the dangers of hyper-masculinity and examine it from the perspectives of queer people as well as women.”

However, he said that it is important to have these conversations on campus to highlight the “contributions of black Americans to society, and it proves that the black community is diverse and comprised of many narratives.” The decision to support the event was made to shift the direction of the conversation, according to Pridgeon, to hopefully highlight how unwelcoming barber shops can be to same-gender-loving men, especially the “flamboyant” ones.

Randall is looking forward to talking about the numerous issues the black community faces in barber shops as well as outside of them.

“I’ve never had the opportunity to publicly discuss it at length in a forum,” he said. “I’m excited to have that conversation with a bunch of strangers for the first time since my last haircut.”

Oxford’s first Mardi Gras Ball to foster inclusivity within LOU community

A sign sits outside of The Lyric on the Square in Oxford promoting the Mardi Gras Ball on Tuesday night. (Photo by: Devna Bose)

A little bit of the Big Easy will come to Oxford in the form of a Mardi Gras Ball on Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. at the Lyric.

The Mardi Gras Ball will be the first of its kind and is open to the community. OUTGrads, OutOxford and OUTlaw, organizations intended to advocate for equality and create a safe and comfortable climate for allies or openly gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members of the community, are sponsoring the ball. The Mardi Gras Ball is intended to promote inclusivity in Oxford.

“Mardi Gras personifies exuberance, diversity, and communal enjoyment,” co-founder of OutOxford Blake Summers said. “These themes encompass everything we hope to bring to Oxford.”

Summers is especially proud of the community support the ball has received.

“The amount of opportunity and support from local businesses, OPD, and individuals speaking with me about past events is humbling,” he said.

Summers explained that the point of the ball is to “promote self-acceptance and re-educate unhealthy attitudes towards our community, internally and externally.” He hopes eventgoers will be enlightened by the progressive spirit of the evening.

He also emphasized that the ball was open to everyone, including members of the LGBTQ community and allies of the community. In fact, Summers hopes allies will continue to support the LGBTQ community by attending the Mardi Gras Ball.

“We hope that allies will join us in a night for the sake of bonding and camaraderie between diverse demographics,” he said. “It is a joy to see our community flourish and now unify for an event.”

President of OUTGrads Sarah Heying echoed that the party will be a safe space for the entire community. She said that the Mardi Gras Ball seemed like the perfect “opportunity to work with some other important LGBTQ groups in the area.”

“It’s an affirming, open-minded party that everyone can enjoy,” she said. “We hope to make this an annual event, so we’re excited about this kick-off.”

The official poster for the event. (Photo courtesy: The Lyric Oxford)

OUTGrads and OutOxford reached out to OUTlaw to combine efforts in the early planning stages of the event. By unifying, they hoped to be able to reach a wider audience and bring in more members of the LOU community.

Bri Warner, vice president of OUTlaw, the law school division of these organizations, said OUTlaw is sponsoring the event because it wants the law school to be an active participant in inclusive community-wide events like the Mardi Gras Ball.

“Events like this are vital to ensuring that LGBTQ people at the university and in Oxford have an opportunity to have fun in an inclusive, safe environment,” she said.

The Mardi Gras Ball will celebrate diversity in Oxford with a DJ and drag shows at the event, as well as Mardi Gras-inspired décor and food. Event-goers are asked to wear cocktail or formal attire.

Ole Miss student Cole Durrett is planning to attend the ball because of its uniqueness in Oxford as a Mardi Gras-themed event.

“I think it might be fun because Mardi Gras doesn’t get a lot of attention here in Mississippi compared to other places,” he said. “It’s important that Oxford has events like this to keep excitement up during the brutal cold months when football games are no longer a steady source of hype.”

Occasions such as Mardi Gras Ball, which all of the organizations hope will become an annual event, cultivate a healthy community environment and make other future inclusivity events possible, according to the treasurer of OUTlaw Cody Bradford, who also encouraged community donations. Money raised from the Mardi Gras Ball will be used to foster an inclusive environment in Oxford as well as create future community engagement events.

Summers encouraged community members to come out to have fun, first and foremost, and also explore their personal creativity.

“A mask and beads are all you need,” he said. “It’s a ball, honey.”

StoryMap: https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/e442fa6ca561b889c44df9fe7c480fc5/pride-celebration-in-the-deep-south/index.html.

Discount offered for movies in LGBTQ+ section at Oxford Film Festival

The 15^th annual Oxford Film Festival kicks off this Wednesday and will run until Sunday, and a discount is being offered for tickets to movies in the LGBTQ+ category in a show of solidarity with the community.

Executive director of Oxford Film Festival Melanie Addington said organizers of the festival launched the LGBTQ+ category after House Bill 1523 was temporarily stopped. However, after this year when it became legal to discriminate based on religion against the LGBTQ+ community, the film festival strengthened their support by offering a 50% discount with code “OutOxford” for the LGBTQ+ section of the festival.

“We decided to further our support and efforts of our new film series by making sure there are no barriers to access,” Addington said. “Six dollars for a movie ticket these days is less than going to a coffee shop, and so we hope it is an encouragement to try out one of the LGBT films, especially for those who never have before. We really want to fill every seat to further show support.”

Photo courtesy: Oxford Film Festival

In addition to an LGBTQ+ short film block, three features, “Between the Shades,” “Boys for Sale” and “Alaska is a Drag,” will be shown at the film festival.

“For someone new to the category, Jill Salvino’s ‘Between the Shades’ is a great starting point as it is people just discussing exactly what it means to be an L, G, B, T and everything in between,” she said. “It is an informative documentary, and the filmmaker will be present for a Q&A.”

The films are not only accessible to the LGBTQ+ community but friends of the community as well.

“The important thing is for people to see these incredible films. Our town is so full of culture and things to do that we often lose track of what’s happening around us,” head programmer for the LGBTQ+ category at the film festival Brian Whisenant said. “In our current political climate, it can be really scary for LGBTQ people and we need our allies to come out and show us love.”

The “current political climate” has made some filmmakers nervous to come to the film festival, according to Addington.

“I had LGBT filmmakers asking me about their safety coming to Mississippi this year because of HB 1523, and I want to show them that Oxford is a welcoming place for everyone,” Addington said. “I hope that Oxford responds in kind to welcome filmmakers from across the globe to our town and prove to them that laws like this do not represent us as a people.”

By offering a discount to LGBTQ+ films and standing in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, Whisenant hopes to show the world that Oxford is a welcoming town.

“Oxford Film Festival has always shown LGBTQ films, but Melanie Addington and I believe that highlighting the community and giving it its own section shows our town and the film community at large that we are not our state’s legislative bigotry,” he said.

Blake Summers is the co-director for OutOxford, a recently created LGBTQ+ organization providing opportunities in education, activism, wellness and community in Oxford, and he got to preview a short film that will be shown at the festival called “Fishy.”

“It caught me off guard. I found myself relating to the gay son/father dynamic in an animation, and it hit me hard,” he said. “Being a child, you don’t have the intention of failing your parent. Coming out, for some is very much that. It is the sad truth of today, but empathy can change all that.”

Summers especially appreciates Oxford Film Festival’s dedication to diversity in film.

“Oxford Film Festival has been very dedicated to bringing LGBTQ+ films to Oxford. Film offers a unique experience to relate to an unexpected person or world, and I hope others utilize this opportunity to do so,” he said.

Whisenant encouraged the community to take advantage of the discount for the LGBTQ+ section of the film festival.

“LGBTQ Oxford needs to come out and support these films,” he said. “A discount? Well, it’s another incentive, even though the films themselves are truly the only incentive needed.”

Local middle school student to become youngest speaker in TEDxUM history

Photo courtesy: TEDxUniversityofMississippi

The Ford Center will be the stage for the 3^rd annual TEDxUniversityofMississippi event, and the opening speaker might stand a little shorter than the others, but her talk will stand out.

Elsie Andre, an 8^th grader at Lafayette Middle School, will be the youngest person to ever speak at TEDxUM.

Photo courtesy: TEDxUniversityofMississippi

Andre’s talk will be about the idea of traveling and meeting others in order to broaden one’s horizon, inspired by her own life when she lived in Africa with her family. She will describe how traveling allows people the opportunity to meet, understand and empathize with others from different cultural backgrounds, which can often lead to “inspiration and creative breakthroughs.”

She was selected after judges saw her TED Talk entitled “Travel to Creativity” in Lafayette Middle School’s inaugural TED-Ed conference on May 11, 2017. Lafayette Middle School is the first school-level organization in the state to be officially certified as a TED chapter.

TED, an acronym for Technology, Entertainment and Design, is an organization dedicated to spreading knowledge and the exchange of ideas. TED Talks occur all over the globe, and independently organized TED Talks, like the University of Mississippi’s, are denoted as TEDx events.

Junior Ole Miss student Mary Scott Polk is a member of the speaking committee, which picks the speakers and serves as the point of contact between speakers and the TED committee, answering questions or giving advice throughout the process of creating a TED Talk. The speaking committee has interacted with Andre several times during the past year to give her feedback and help her with transitions and her overall presentation. She spoke highly of Elsie and said her talk ties in perfectly with the theme of TEDxUM this year, which is “MomentUM – a celebration of old ideas with new places.”

“Elsie is the greatest. I think she is very excited, and you can tell when she talks how truly passionate she is about her topic. Her talk is valuable to all ages,” Polk said. “She has remarkable insight form living in East Africa and I am very excited to watch her shine. Public speaking is an important tool in every day, and as a TEDx organization, we are very happy to help foster that experience for her.”

Senior Ole Miss student William Tribble is the director of the speaking committee and said Elsie has prepared a talk that is on-par with that of the adult speakers.

“This event is about showcasing the best of our state. We can’t do that genuinely if we don’t acknowledge the best of our future,” Tribble said. “Elsie is a rockstar, and we have simply provided her as many resources to succeed as possible.”

The TED club at Lafayette Middle School was started after student teacher Shelby Knighten, who had previously worked with TEDxUM during his time at Ole Miss, brought the idea to teacher Katie Szabo. Szabo and colleague, 7^th grade English teacher Elisa Bryant, who had already been “tossing around club ideas,” formed the club, after the initial excitement of the first meeting died down, dedicated students kept showing up week after week.

“We decided from the very beginning to work with TEDxUM,” Bryant said. “I’m not sure who came up with the idea for the TEDx event to be a contest, but it was a great incentive for our student speakers.”

Elsie was Bryant’s student last year in her English class, and she says she has a unique experience of the world for someone her age.

“Elsie continually showed creativity and excellent communication skills,” Bryant said. “She’s a very bright student. Her talk can really help others her age expand their thinking and view of the world.”

Bryant said they started the club because Knighten wanted to carry out the vision of TEDxUM organizer Dr. Marvin King of implementing TED-Ed clubs across the state of Mississippi.

“TED-Ed has really helped students feel like they have a voice and that what they have to say is important. We have seen students overcome fears and build their overall self-esteem through giving a TED Talk,” Bryant said. “We know that TED-Ed is making a lasting impact, not only on the audience who get to hear the amazing ideas but on the speaker’s lives as well.”

King, organizer of TEDxUM and professor of political science and African-American studies at Ole Miss, agreed that TED-Ed affects young students’ confidence, which in turn, can positively affect other areas of their lives.

“Public speaking is a great skill for anybody, especially young students, and the format of TED is especially well-suited because the talks are short. Eight to ten minutes is long but not impossible,” King said. “Once they master something like this, they become more confident in general, and that can translate into better academic performance.”

King wanted to implement a TED-Ed program in Mississippi once he realized the community was lacking one, and he is hoping to create more.

“We’re super excited to have Elsie,” he said. “She has put in a lot of work.”