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The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1848, the school is composed of the main campus, with three branch campuses located in Booneville, Tupelo, and Southaven. UM maintains a field station in Bay Springs as well as the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. Additionally, it is a sea-grant institute, as well as a space-grant institute.
Sixty-seven percent of undergraduates are from Mississippi, and 19% of all students are minorities. International students come from 66 nations.
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Academic divisions
The degree-granting divisions located at the Main Campus:
School of Applied Sciences
School of Business Administration
School of Nursing (added 2006)
The colleges in the University Medical Center in Jackson:
School of Health Related Professions
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History
The Lyceum, built in 1848, is the oldest building on campus. In its first year, it housed all of the classrooms and faculty offices of the university. The Lyceum is now the home of the university's administration offices. The columned facade of the Lyceum is represented on the official emblem of the university, along with the date of establishment.
The School of Medicine, which was originally located at the eastern gate of the campus, was used as a hospital during the Civil War for both Union and Confederate soldiers, especially those who were wounded at the battle of Shiloh. The School of Medicine is now located in Jackson, Mississippi and the original building, which served as a dormitory for male students in its last years before being condemned in the early 1970s, was replaced by a new Chemistry building in the mid 1970s. Soldiers who died in the campus hospital were buried in a mass grave located at the northeast corner of the Coliseum which was built nearly 100 years later as a venue for concerts and basketball games.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, classes were interrupted when the entire student body and many faculty from Ole Miss enlisted in the Confederate army. Their company was nicknamed the University Greys, and suffered a high casualty rate during The War Between the States. A great number of those casualties occurred during Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, when the University Greys made the deepest encroachment into Union territory. Some of the soldiers actually crossed the Union defensive fortification wall, only to be killed, wounded or captured. On the very next day, July 4, Confederate forces surrendered at Vicksburg, Mississippi; the two battles together are commonly viewed as the turning point in the war. When Ole Miss re-opened, only one member of the University Greys was able to visit the university to address the student body. The university was led, during the post-war period, by former Confederate general A.P. Stewart, a Rogersville, Tennessee native, who was President from 1874-1886.
The University of Mississippi was also the site of rioting during desegregation, when James Meredith of Kosciusko, Mississippi, attempted to enroll in the school to become the university's first black student. Thousands of students and citizens from the surrounding area, a number of whom were armed, swarmed the campus on September 30, 1962 in a riotous effort to prevent Meredith's enrollment.
Meredith, thanks to the protection afforded by federal marshals, was able to enroll and attend his first class on October 2. Two people died during the race riots on campus. Following the riot, elements of an Army National Guard division were stationed in Oxford to preserve the peace. While most Ole Miss students did not riot prior to his official enrollment in the university, many harassed Meredith during his first two semesters on campus. According to first person accounts chronicled in Nadine Cohodos' book The Band Played Dixie, students living in Meredith's dorm bounced basketballs on the floor just above his room through all hours of the night. When Meredith walked into the cafeteria for meals, the students eating would all turn their backs. If Meredith sat at a table with other students, all of whom were white, the students would immediately get up and go to another table.
Because of this incident, the university itself is mentioned in Billy Joel's history themed song "We Didn't Start the Fire" ("Ole Miss").
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Accolades
University of Mississippi is among the top 30 public institutions with largest endowments per student.
The School of Pharmacy ranks 20th in the nation among schools of pharmacy for funding from the prestigious National Institutes of Health and 2nd among pharmacy schools for total federal funding.
Ole Miss was recently listed as the number 5 party school by the Princeton Review, 2006.
The University of Mississippi's Sally McDonnel-Barksdale Honors College (founded and supported by Jim Barksdale in honor of his late wife) was ranked one of the top 3 honors colleges in the nation by Reader's Digest.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center was recently granted a secondary nursing program, which is a program for first semester nursing students who already have a degree. It is the only school in Mississippi with this type of grant.
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Interesting facts
The university houses the largest blues music archive in the United States. Some of the contributions to the collection were donated by BB King.
University of Mississippi Medical Center surgeons performed the world's first lung transplant in man and transplanted the heart of a chimpanzee - man's closest genetic relation - into the chest of a dying man.
William Faulkner's estate, Rowan Oak, is owned by the university. Faulkner's Nobel Prize for Literature is kept in the Ole Miss Library. The town of Oxford surrounds the campus which is located in Lafayette County and inspired Faulkner and his imaginary town of Jefferson, the county seat of Yoknapatawpha County
The university is home to the first Civil Rights Monument on a college campus in the Southern United States.
In 2006, the university was ranked as the number 5 party school in the United States by the Princeton Review.
Robert Langley became the first University police officer to be killed in the line of duty on October 21, 2006, after he was dragged over 200 yards by a student whom he had pulled over for speeding.*
Baptist Memorial Hospital in Oxford reported 15 alcohol posioning incidents among the entering freshman class during the first week of classes of the Fall 2006 term.
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Athletics
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University of Mississippi sports teams, nicknamed the Rebels, compete in the competitive twelve-member Southeastern Conference (West Division) of the NCAA's Division I. The school's colors are crimson and navy blue, purposely chosen to mirror the school colors of Harvard and Yale, respectively.
Since 1983, the administration has tried to distance itself from the negative connotations associated with Confederate symbols, including barring faculty from displaying any Confederate imagery in their offices. In 1997, sticks were banned, under the guise of fan safety, to discourage fans from displaying the Confederate battle flag at football games. This controversy began when coach Tommy Tuberville complained that the battle flag was undermining his efforts to recruit black athletes. It should be noted however, that Tuberville was working under a probation handed down by the NCAA for numerous recruiting violations committed by his predecessor, Billy Brewer, which along with Ole Miss's sub-standard facilities at the time, also hampered Tuberville's recruiting efforts in his four seasons in Oxford. Tuberville departed for SEC rival Auburn in late 1998.
It should also be noted that many football coaches prior to Tuberville had trouble recruiting black athletes, most notably John Vaught, who was the Rebels' most successful coach and led the team from 1947-1971. He served in the athletic department from 1971-72, and then took over as head football coach during the 1973 season. That was the first season that Ole Miss had a black athlete on the football team, Ben Williams. The defensive tackle eventually claimed All-SEC honors and had a long and successful NFL career following his stint at Ole Miss. He was recruited out of a small school in the Delta-region of Mississippi near the Mississippi River and border with Arkansas.
Members of Vaught's staff had trouble recruiting black athletes during the early 1970s as a result of racial tension on the campus, and the propensity of Ole Miss fans to scream racial slurs at opponents that had black athletes featured prominently on the respective teams. After 1970, when the other SEC-member schools at the time integrated its football programs, Ole Miss fans would holler "run Willie, run" at any black athlete on an opposing team, whether his name was Willie or not, and whether the athlete had the ball or not.
During the Vaught-led years, the Ole Miss football team did very well, advancing to post-season play in almost all of his 18-year tenure. Ole Miss did not play in a bowl game following the 1973 season, which led many Ole Miss fans to lay blame for the poor fortune on the recruitment and integration of the football team.
After the Vaught-led season in 1973, however, Williams was elected Mr. Ole Miss by the student body, but recruitment of black football players remained difficult for the coaches that followed Vaught. Ken Cooper, Steve Sloan, Billy Brewer, Tuberville, and David Cutcliffe, all spoke publicly at one point or another about the difficulties of recruiting the best black athletes. The coaches said that most of the talented black athletes coming out of Mississippi opted to play football at nearby Alabama, Auburn, Memphis, LSU, Florida, or chose in-state schools, Southern Mississippi (USM) or Mississippi State.
In 2003, the administration eliminated Colonel Reb , the mascot since 1979. A contest was held in which fans were invited to design a replacement. The athletic department chose two finalists, Rebel Bruiser and Rowdy Rebel, and invited fans to vote on their favorite. The limited fan response as well as ridicule from fans of rival schools prompted the administration to cancel the poll, so Ole Miss currently has no official mascot. The school's students however have created "Colonel Too". Supposedly he is the Colonel Reb's cousin, and can be found cheering in the stands.
With a long history in intercollegiate athletics, the university competes in 18 men’s and women’s sports. Student-athletes, 630 in all, received all-conference academic honors from 1995-2004. On the field, Ole Miss has gone through some lean years since the 1960s, but has enjoyed more success recently. Including a SEC Western Division Co-Championship and Cotton Bowl victory in 2003, as the Rebels were led to 10 victories by Eli Manning, the son of Ole Miss great Archie Manning.
Also the Ole Miss Rebel Baseball program has made great strides under the leadership of Mike Bianco, since 2003 the Rebels have hosted three NCAA Regionals and two NCAA Super Regionals. The Rebel baseball team has missed the College World Series by only one game twice, falling to Texas, the eventual National Champion, in 2005 and Miami in 2006.
No family has had more impact upon the shape of Ole Miss athletics than the Manning family. Archie was an Ole Miss football great in the late 1960's and his son Eli Manning led the Rebels to their first ten win season in thirty years in 2003. The impact of Archie Manning, who married a former Ole Miss homecoming queen, is undeniable. His uniform number, 18, has become the official speed limit of the Oxford campus.
Ole Miss' athletic rivals are LSU (the Tigers) and primarily Mississippi State (the Bulldogs). The Rebels and Bulldogs close each football season with the Egg Bowl, with the victor receiving possession of the Golden Egg Trophy.
The school's fight song is "Forward Rebels" while the school cheer is entitled Hotty Toddy:
The song, "Dixie" is an unofficial song. A rendition of the song, known as From Dixie with Love is now played during home and away football games. The song has verses from "Dixie" as well as the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
School Cheer:
Hotty Toddy:
ARE YOU READY!!??
HELL YES! DAMN RIGHT!
HOTTY TODDY, GOSH ALMIGHTY
WHO THE HELL ARE WE? HEY!
FLIM FAM BIM BAM
OLE MISS BY DAMN!!!!
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Greek Life
Despite the relatively small number of Greek-letter organizations on campus, many students participate in Greek life at Ole Miss. The sorority chapters are very large, with many around 250 members. Recruitment is fiercely competitive and potential sorority members are encouraged to secure personal recommendations from Ole Miss sorority alumna in order to increase the chances of receiving an invitation to join one of the 12 sororities on campus.
Sororities
Fraternities
Phi Pi Phi 1927, merged with Alpha Sigma Phi in 1938, no longer active
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Noteworthy alumni
Haley Barbour, former Republican National Committee chairman and current Mississippi governor
Anthony Boone, first black student-athlete to have jersey retired
Tony Dees, 1992 Olympic 110M Hurdles Silver Medalist
James Meredith, first black student at Ole Miss and a leader in the American civil rights movement
Stel Pavlou author and screenwriter (attended as an exchange student)
Sean Tuohy, radio analyst for the Memphis Grizzlies and named to the All-Century SEC basketball team
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See also
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