The Daily
Monday, April 28, 2014
Mississippian
Vol. 102, No. 132
The Student Newspaper of The University Of Mississippi | Serving Ole Miss and Oxford since 1911
Chancellor awaits reports, discusses campus diversity University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones sat down with The Daily Mississippian last week to talk about what the university has done in the months following multiple discriminatory incidents of the past two years. BY ADAM GANUCHEAU amganuch@go.olemiss.edu
Chancellor Dan Jones and other university officials are expecting reports from two outside consultants about both physical symbols on campus and organizational structure regarding the handling of issues of diversity and inclusivity. The consultants were scheduled to come to campus after the Extended Sensitivity and Respect Committee released a campus climate report in October 2013 that called for outside consultation. Edward Ayers, president of the University of Richmond and noted historian, visited campus to assess features of campus like building names, street names, statues and other physical symbols. “(Ayers) has written a great deal about a lot of these things, but he was also a college president that had tried to provide leadership both at his university and in his community about having an honest conversation about race, issues of slavery, Jim Crow, Civil Rights, and he led his university and community in those conversations,” Jones said. Gregory Vincent, vice president for diversity and community engagement, visited campus to assess the university’s organization structures that deal with issues of diversity and inclusivity. Jones said universities typically take one of two approaches when
dealing with similar issues: a centralized approach, where there is one main office for diversity within a university that reports directly to the chancellor or provost, or a distributed approach, where there are diversity officers in many different offices on campus that report to their superiors, who then report to the provost or chancellor. Ole Miss currently uses the distributed approach, but the Sensitivity and Respect Committee suggested a reevaluation of whether it was best for the university. Jones then reached out to Vincent, who led the University of Texas through a reorganization of their approach to diversity. “Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages,” Jones said. “Because we’ve had reasons to question our environment about race and inclusiveness, the (Extended Sensitivity and Respect Committee) suggested we look at our organizational structure. I decided to bring someone in who works at a university and works with those kinds of responsibilities and in a place where they’ve evaluated that recently in a purposeful way.” Both Ayers and Vincent are leaders in places with extreme symbolism related to the Confederacy. Richmond was the capital of the Confederate States of America, and Jones said the University of Richmond has many physical
FILE PHOTO (THOMAS GRANING) | The Daily Mississippian
Chancellor Dan Jones speaks during the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College Spring Convocation.
characteristics that tie them to those times. Jones also said the University of Texas has six monuments on their campus that are related to the Confederacy. Jones requested specific reports from each consultant but is still waiting for them to come in. He hopes that he will receive the reports in the coming days, but does not expect them before the end of the semester. While he was hoping to have the reports by now, he is grateful for the work of the consultants. “Because we don’t have both reports in, I want to wait so the university leadership can digest those and draft a specific response,” Jones said. “I would have
liked to have it completed during this semester, but I’m certainly not disappointed that the consultants are taking a thoughtful, purposeful approach to what is obviously so important for our university and for the broader society right now.” Since the reports have not yet been returned, Jones declined to disclose many specific actions that may or may not be addressed by the university. The DM asked Jones about some widely-discussed concerns that many students, alumni and other university supporters have voiced over the past few weeks, including the future of the university’s secondary name “Ole Miss”
and the nickname “Rebels.” “When I receive the consultants’ reports, I will issue a specific response to those reports and there will be clarity in my response,” Jones said. “I have, in the past and on the record, talked about not having any interest in addressing the nomenclature around ‘Ole Miss’ and ‘Rebels.’ Those are terms that are embraced by the vast majority of our people and are seen by the vast majority of the people in the country in positive light of a modern university. The consultants did address those, and we’ll have some further things to say about those in our response See CHANCELLOR, PAGE 3
Severe weather, tornadoes expected across Mid-South BY MAGGIE MCDANIEL & LOGAN KIRKLAND thedmnews@gmail.com
Many states in the South including Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky will be enduring severe weather starting today, lasting until Tuesday evening. According to The National Weather Service there are going to be widespread severe thunderstorms including strong tornadoes, damaging
Opinion:
winds and very large hail. Starting yesterday, a bigger upper level disturbance moved across the lower Mississippi Valley. This will initiate an additional round of showers and thunderstorms across the mid south, said Corey Chaskelson, a meteorologist of the Memphis National Weather Service. “Some of these storms could be severe with the potential of large hail, damag-
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ing winds and perhaps some tornadoes,” Chaskelson said. This storm system should clear up either late Tuesday afternoon or early Tuseday evening across north Mississippi, according to Chaskelson. In other areas the storm system should clear up earlier. Chaskelson said weather like this is pretty common around this time of the year. “When you have a combination of all these come
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together you can have the potential for strong to severe showers and thunderstorms,” Chaskelson said. The National Weather Service has many tips and safety precautions to follow before or during bad weather. These tips include that the safest place to take cover is a basement, safe room or an underground shelter. According to Chaskelson, the best action students can
take is to be prepared. “If there is a watch out, or before a watch is issued it is best to have a safety plan in mind,” Chaskelson said. “Once a warning is issued you need act on that safety plan.” Chaskelson also mentioned if a emergency happens during or after severe weather people should contact their local authorities or emergency responders for help.
Sports:
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No. 12 Ole Miss sweeps No. 17 Kentucky with 9-6 win
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