| Friday, August 29, 2014 |
| Mississippi State Hosts 2014 Men of Color Summit | |
 | Mississippi State University's Men of Color Summit focuses on and calls attention to specific and unique obstacles to both men and women of color. "The problem really is we have so many children coming to school who are not prepared. 33 percent of the public school children in Mississippi are coming from families of poverty and about 70 percent are coming from low-income families," said Lewis Whitfield with the Create Foundation. "And what we have to do is to ensure that we engage all stakeholders -- meaning parents, teachers, politicians, economic developers," said retired MSU professor Melvin C. Ray. |
| Young men learn how to compete on global stage at MSU | |
 | A two-day summit at Mississippi State University this week is teaching young men of color how to compete on a global scale. The event also features a host of big name speakers and organizations. Joe and Sherece West-Scantlebury are a husband and wife team working at separate well-known foundations. Joe represents the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, while Sherece is president and CEO of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. Both attended Mississippi State's 2014 Men of Color Summit. |
| Annual Leadership Program Taps 12 Mississippi State Faculty Members | |
| A dozen Mississippi State faculty members are new selections for the competitive 2014-15 George Duke Humphrey Faculty Leadership Program. Sponsored by the university's offices of Research and Economic Development and of the Provost and Executive Vice President, the annual program works to develop the next generation of campus academic leaders, among other goals. It honors the memory of the land-grant institution's ninth president (1934-45) and namesake of Humphrey Coliseum. "This program builds upon Mississippi State's tradition of effective leadership on our campus and in the communities we serve," said David Shaw, the university's vice president for research and economic development. |
| Mississippi State' Ebelhar discusses fertility needs of bin-busting Mid-South grain crops | |
 | Mississippi producers appear to be on track to harvest a soybean crop of about 48 bushels per acre and a corn crop of around 178 bushels per acre as a result of near-perfect growing conditions earlier this summer. Those projected statewide average yields are significantly higher than what growers were harvesting just a few years ago, and it may signal the need for them to take another look at how much phosphorus, potassium and lime they're putting back in the soil. "With the crops we're growing today a lot of our recommendations are based on much lower-yielding corn crops and soybean crops that we've had in the past," says Wayne Ebelhar, research professor at Mississippi State University's Delta Research and Extension Center at Stoneville. |
| Traffic Changes in Downtown Starkville | |
| Just in time for football season, City of Starkville crews are changing some local traffic patterns. Workers have removed the traffic light at the intersection of Lampkin and Lafayette Streets, and replaced it with a stop sign. The intersection will now be a two-way stop with drivers on Lampkin Street having the right of way. The move comes as Starkville Electric Department works to improve its infrastructure downtown. Crews also replacing aging power poles in the area. |
| Katrina ninth anniversary: 'We had to start over' | |
 | The ninth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is remembered today as a time of unimaginable loss of life and property -- and the starting point to building a stronger South Mississippi. When the next hurricane hits the Coast, experts say, South Mississippi will be better prepared and will bounce back faster. Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway angered people when he said early on the Katrina recovery would take 10 years. He couldn't have known at the time the worst natural disaster in U.S. history would be followed by soaring insurance rates, a lingering national recession and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. |
| Alan Nunnelee prepares to return to Mississippi | |
| Congressman Alan Nunnelee says doctors have cleared him to return to Mississippi to continue rehabilitation from a stroke. The Republican from Tupelo suffered the stroke while undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous mass from his brain. In an email sent out Friday morning, Nunnelee says his medical team says he is ready to return to Mississippi to continue outpatient rehabilitation. |
| McDaniel challenge ruling will be issued Friday in Gulfport | |
| The judge in the Chris McDaniel election challenge will announce his decision on a motion to dismiss the challenge Friday at the Harrison County courthouse. The challenge, filed in Jones County, sought to overturn Sen. Thad Cochran's Republican Primary victory and award the party's nomination to McDaniel. Cochran wants the challenge to be dismissed because, among other things, it was not filed on time, according to a motion filed by his attorneys. Special Judge Hollis McGehee will announce his ruling at 2 p.m. |
| State auditor issues demand of $313K to Judge Landrum | |
 | State Auditor Stacey Pickering has issued a demand against a judge in his home area, Jones County, saying the judge didn't follow the law in management of funds for an alternative probation program. |
| Google gets into game of drones | |
 | Google long ago embarked on the road to self-driving cars -- and now the company is turning its ambitions to the skies with drones. The top secret Google[x] research lab announced Thursday it is investing in and testing unmanned aerial vehicles -- an endeavor called Project Wing -- that someday might deliver packages to consumers. The gambit puts Google in a growing camp of companies like Amazon and Facebook, which increasingly are sponsoring their own research -- or trying to buy their way -- into the emerging drone market. Google must navigate a host of technology challenges in the lab -- and a thicket of regulatory hurdles in Washington -- if it really wants its new drones to take flight worldwide. |
| William Carey dedicates new School of Business | |
 | More classrooms, study areas for students, faculty offices and -- most importantly -- state-of-the-art technology are all part of William Carey University's new School of Business. Situated just off the main campus on Tuscan Avenue, the $3.3 million facility will allow the university to increase enrollment in its business school and expand degree offerings, said School of Business Dean Cheryl Dale during a dedication ceremony for the facility Thursday. "With the new technology in this building, we hope to attract more students, locally and nationally, and give our staff and faculty more options to instruct in a global business environment," Dale said. |
| Coliseum completion wraps up Pearl River Community College's Katrina recovery | |
| For the last several years, Pearl River Community College's Wildcats basketball teams have played home games in Shivers Auditorium. This upcoming season -- 2014-15 -- that will all change when the men's and women's basketball teams play in their new house -- the recently completely Marvin R. White Coliseum. The new $8.9 million coliseum, which was turned over to the community college a few weeks ago, replaces the old facility of the same name that was destroyed when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf region on Aug. 29, 2005. "We've passed a milestone with this project's completion and gotten beyond all of the Katrina damage," said PRCC President William Lewis. |
| Uber transit service launches in Tuscaloosa, Auburn, other SEC hometowns | |
 | The app-based transit service Uber is now in Alabama thanks to launches in Tuscaloosa and Auburn. According to Uber's website, Thursday's expansion to 22 new areas considered college towns is part of a new UberCollege campaign. The expansion is particularly timely considering the upcoming football season -- many of the new cities are home to powerhouse football programs, just like Tuscaloosa and Auburn. Several SEC hometowns are represented, including Oxford, Knoxville and Athens. |
| Despite record donations, U. of Florida tuition must rise, Machen says | |
 | In what will very likely be his last state of the university speech before retiring, University of Florida President Bernie Machen told faculty on Thursday, "Our tuition needs to rise." Even if tuition were to increase significantly, Machen said, UF still would be a great value, noting its current ranking among the top 10 best values in several financial magazines, including Moody's and Forbes. His comment, which came toward the end of his speech, stands in sharp contrast to what Gov. Rick Scott has been campaigning on during his re-election bid -- that colleges and universities need to be more affordable. |
| 25 seeking Louisiana higher ed job | |
 | Twenty-five people are being considered for Louisiana's higher education commissioner job, but the state Board of Regents isn't yet releasing their names. The committee tasked with narrowing the candidate pool met -- mostly in a closed meeting -- in Baton Rouge Wednesday afternoon but took no action. Though an early timeline proposed for the search initially had said that the committee would select a list of semi-finalists, Jim McCormick of Washington, D.C.-based AGB Search said that candidates haven't yet been vetted for interest and the list includes people who were nominated by others. |
| U. of South Carolina removes two students from dorm for entering females' rooms | |
 | The University of South Carolina said Thursday that evidence suggests a pair of male students who entered several female students' rooms in a co-ed dorm during the early-morning hours last week acted out of "mischievousness not maliciousness." "That does not, however, forgive the actions of these two young men," USC spokesman Wes Hickman said. "They have been relocated to an all-male dorm and have been receptive to instruction regarding appropriate behavior." The students, whose names were not disclosed, also face disciplinary action, Hickman said. |
| NSF grant will help Texas institutions keep great minds in Texas | |
 | A partnership between Texas A&M, Texas University and Rice under a $3.75 million grant from the National Science Foundation established the state as a hub for turning academic research into real-world profitable business ventures. The trio of universities in the NSF Innovation Corps Southwest Alliance for Entrepreneurial Innovation Node will split the grant into thirds for three years starting Monday through Aug. 31, 2017. The program will push university scientists to find commercial applications to their research projects. Richard Lester, exceutive director of the Texas A&M Mays Business School Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship, said the SAEIN will be a much-needed outlet for the innovative minds in the area. |
| U. of Missouri welcomes new and returning veterans | |
 | New and returning veterans wore T-shirts and jeans rather than military uniforms Thursday at the Mizzou Veterans Welcome BBQ. Around 330 veterans are enrolled at the University of Missouri this fall. To welcome them to the campus, the MU Veterans Center, MU Student Veterans Association and the Department of Student Life organized a barbecue at the A.L. Gustin Golf Course. The event has been organized at the beginning of each fall semester since 2009, and more than 50 veterans arrived this year before the cooking began. |
| Student-Built Apps Teach Colleges a Thing or Two | |
 | Vaibhav Verma was frustrated that he could not get into the most popular courses at Rutgers University, so he decided to try a new approach. He didn't sleep outside classrooms to be first in line when the door opened, or send professors a solicitous note. Instead, he built a web-based application that could repeatedly query the New Jersey university's registration system. As soon as anyone dropped the class, Mr. Verma's tool would send him a message, and he would grab the open spot. That experience and others are becoming common at campuses around the country, as students are showing up the universities that trained them by producing faster, easier-to-navigate, more informative and generally just better versions of the information systems at the heart of undergraduate life. |
| Business Is a Big Draw for International Students in the U.S. | |
 | Previous research has shown that international students at American colleges and universities tend to be concentrated in specific areas, such as business and engineering. Now a new report from the Brookings Institution goes deeper in telling us who these students are, which cities they are coming from, and where they end up staying. Nearly one in three international undergraduate students comes to the United States to study business, management, or marketing, according to the Brookings researchers, who looked at more than a million F-1 visas from 2008 to 2012. And it's not just the undergraduates. Close to 30 percent of all master's-degree students who came to the United States during that time studied business. |
| OUR VIEW: It's easy to get excited about college football | |
 | The Dispatch editorializes: "It is here. If you are a college football fan, that is all that is necessary to distinguish what makes this week exceptional. For those who are not quite so consumed with college football, 'it' refers to the 2014 college football season. The "here" is the week when virtually all of the nation's college football teams begin play. ...Mississippi State, which has played in a record four consecutive bowl games, will host Southern Miss on Saturday night in what will likely be the most celebrated season-opener in the school's history. ...Even if you are not a die-hard college football fan, it's pretty easy to get swept up in the excitement that the new college football season brings. Certainly, it is a boon to restaurants, hotels and other businesses that cater to the college football crowd." |
SPORTS
| Dan Mullen's final comments before Mississippi State's season-opener Saturday | |
| Dan Mullen admitted he's smiling a lot more at the start of this season than perhaps in other years. The sixth-year Mississippi State head coach gave credit to his veterans for his jovial mood through camp. "I like the leadership on this team," Mullen said Thursday night. "...That makes my job a lot easier." Mississippi State opens the season against Southern Miss at Davis Wade Stadium at 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network). Mullen talked about the matchup for an hour on his radio show, Dawg Talk, on Thursday. |
| Times have changed since Mississippi State, Southern Miss last played | |
| It's been almost 24 years since Mississippi State and Southern Miss competed in a football game. The Bulldogs beat the Golden Eagles 13-10 on Sept. 22, 1990 in their last meeting. To comprehend how much things have changed since then, let's take a look at how life was back in September of 1990. |
| Mississippi State women's tennis releases 2014-15 slate | |
| Five fall tournaments, eleven road tilts and 13 home matches at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre highlight the 2014-15 Mississippi State women's tennis campaign, announced Thursday. MSU will begin their 41st season of play by traveling to the Mizzou Invite in Kansas City on Sept. 19-21. The 2014-15 campaign will mark the sixth season under head coach Daryl Greenan. Greenan enters the year with 36 wins, and is fourth on MSU's all-time career wins list, just behind Libba Birmingham, who attained 39 total wins in her stint from 1978-80. |
| Internet changes landscape of Golden Triangle gridiron teams | |
| High school football players have long been kings of American adolescents. Athleticism, uniforms and championships have always been able to catapult kids battling acne and chasing crushes into the spotlight. The growth of social media in the 21st century -- Twitter, Instagram and Facebook -- has given young athletes a platform to share their brand of wisdom, joy, frustration and experiences with the world. And people are following: Prep football stars are often minor celebrities on social media. Those followers can add scrutiny to young athletes, but Golden Triangle coaches said there have been no negative incidents -- but it has become an extra thing coaches have to address. |
| UGA group to host alcohol-free tailgate party on Saturday | |
 | Alcoholic beverages often are the featured liquids at tailgating parties, not just for Georgia Bulldog fans, but for most college and professional football teams in the nation. But when Georgia takes on Clemson Saturday to kickoff the 2014 college football season, Jason Callis hopes to convince tailgaters they can still enjoy the party without imbibing alcohol. A member of the University of Georgia's Collegiate Recovery Community, Callis said there are many people who want to tailgate on gamedays without drinking. Thus CRC partnered with UGA's Office of the Dean of Students and Department of Recreational Sports, and nonprofit group Atlanta In Recovery to provide an alcohol-free atmosphere on Saturday for tailgaters. |
| Professors, robots protest U. of Iowa's pink locker room | |
 | For more than three decades, the walls of the visitors' locker room at the University of Iowa's Kinnick Stadium have been pink. When the football stadium was renovated in 2005, the university took the theme even further, adding new lockers, showers, and urinals all featuring various shades of the color. While it remains a beloved bit of visual smack-talk for many Hawkeye fans -- and was even featured in a recent ESPN ad about college traditions -- some students and faculty have decried the color scheme as sexist and discriminatory. Today, demonstrators dressed as robots are expected to march on the campus to protest the locker room's enduring paint job. |
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