Dear students, faculty, and staff,With the spring semester approaching, I want to share an update on our university’s ongoing response to the pandemic to help you understand what to expect on campus. We find ourselves facing another period of uncertainty, but I am confident that we will once again persevere and keep our students on track towards earning their degrees while continuing to move the university forward. The Omicron variant is now the dominant strain of the virus. While health officials indicate Omicron cases are generally mild (especially for those who are vaccinated), the transmissibility of Omicron is significantly higher than the Delta variant. We anticipate that classes and services delivered on our campus will face disruptions.
Ultimately, vaccination remains the best and most widely available protection against severe illness. We strongly encourage everyone to get vaccinated and boosted.We know there is a lot of COVID fatigue out there, but our best path forward is to get vaccinated, follow the protocols, and limit the spread. We may not want to wear masks, but doing so helps to minimize the impact of the virus. This is a special community, and that has been evident through the ways in which we have persevered for nearly two years in navigating this pandemic.Be on the lookout for additional communications in the coming days that will provide more detailed guidance and information. Thank you for your patience and your commitment to seeing this through.Stay healthy,
Glenn F. BoyceChancellor
What a year 2021 has been! Our community is resilient and thriving, and we’re grateful for the robust spirit that permeates our beautiful campus, our classrooms, and our athletics programs. As we put a bow on 2021, I’m pleased to share this “Year in Review” as the December issue of the @ The Flagship newsletter. The extraordinary accomplishments listed below offer a glimpse of the talent, kindness, and excellence that defines Ole Miss. See the full list below for all the amazing details of these achievements. And be sure to check out our Year in Review in photos.
We posted the largest year-over-year increase in the number of freshmen in university history. Our freshman class totals 3,584, an 18% increase over 2020! With overall enrollment up slightly to 21,856 students and applications for Fall 2022 up significantly, we are headed in the right direction. Enrollment for University of Mississippi Medical Center-based schools is at an all-time high, reflecting a growing commitment among students to meet the state’s needs for health care professionals.
The university launched the largest comprehensive campaign in the history of Mississippi universities. Taking its name from a line in our alma mater, Now & Ever will generate more than $1.5 billion in private support and grow our endowment to at least $1 billion. This support will enable investments that touch every area of the university, from supporting student success and access to creating new endowed chairs, fueling research and enhancing our role in creating economic opportunities. Generations of students will benefit from expanded education, experiences, and opportunities.
We’re so proud of our students’ successes and the standards for excellence they’re setting! Two students won Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships, three students were awarded National Science Foundation fellowships, two UM seniors became Yenching Fellows, and seven students earned David L. Boren Scholarships from the National Security Exchange Program. Our new class of 12 first-year Stamps Scholars brings the total number of Stamps recipients at UM to 51, making Ole Miss the second-largest university in the Stamps Scholars Program. Our student-led fundraiser RebelTHON 2021 exceeded its fundraising goal this year by raising more than $185,000 for UMMC’s Children’s of Mississippi Hospital.
An important measure that we monitor is the freshman retention rate, the percentage of last year’s first-time students who continued their studies this fall. We hit a historical high this fall of 88.2%, which is 15 percentage points above the national average. Our outstanding retention rate is an indicator of how well our students are succeeding, supported by our Center for Student Success and First-Year Experience. It is also a reflection of the university’s commitment to fulfilling the expectations we set when recruiting students.
Our faculty continues to deliver many outstanding accomplishments and uphold our commitment to excellence in how we serve our students to build a better world through higher education. Our faculty includes:
Our online Master of Business Administration program ranked No. 7 nationally among public universities by U.S. News & World Report, while the UM Department of Health, Exercise Science and Recreation Management’s Ph.D. in health and kinesiology was recognized by the National Academy of Kinesiology as the nation’s No. 5 kinesiology program among public universities. We also celebrated the expansion of space for the Department of Biomedical Engineering, which was the state’s first such program to prepare students for careers in a pioneering field that combines technology with medicine.
For five years straight, University of Mississippi graduates have shown themselves to be the state’s best at finding employment and keeping it, according to U.S. Department of Education data analyzed and published by career site, Zippia. When our students graduate, they’re prepared to enter the workforce and take off on careers!
We jumped 10 spots in the most recent “Best Colleges” rankings from U.S. News & World Report, placing 67th nationally among 683 public institutions in the study — that’s in the top 10% of public universities nationally. U.S. News also ranked Ole Miss No. 31 among public institutions nationally for Best Value, making us the leader in Mississippi and in the top 5% of public universities nationally. We’ve also been cited as a Best for Vets among public universities for our support of military-connected students with U.S. News ranking us No. 64 nationally and Military Times ranking us No. 21 nationally.
On a historic day for our university, Donald R. Cole was celebrated as the newest namesake for the Martindale-Cole Student Services Center. Cole is an icon who served the Ole Miss community for more than five decades as a student, educator, administrator, and caring mentor. We also honored one of our football icons when we retired Eli Manning‘s No. 10 jersey and celebrated his Rebel legacy. Manning is just the third football player in Ole Miss’ storied history to have his number retired, joining his father Archie Manning (18) and Chucky Mullins (38). Additionally, we unveiled a bronze statue at The Pavilion Plaza honoring Coolidge Ball, Ole Miss’ first Black student-athlete. His statue is a fitting tribute that ensures Ball’s courage will always be remembered and celebrated by our university and our fans.
Our love of science is BIG. In October 2021, we broke ground on the largest and most extensive building project ever on the Oxford campus, the 202,000-square-foot Jim and Thomas Duff Center for Science and Technology Innovation. A crown jewel within the university’s Science District, the Duff Center will become a transformative resource for science and math education for our students, help address the critical need for more graduates in STEM fields, prepare our students for greater career opportunities, and become our hub for instilling in all of our students a more in-depth understanding of the role of science in society.
Children’s of Mississippi Hospital celebrated the first birthday of the opening of the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower, which dramatically expanded the equipment and facilities for UMMC to care for children across Mississippi who require specialty and sub-specialty care.
Through our most trying times and especially during the incredible challenges of COVID-19, our University of Mississippi Medical Center has demonstrated heroic levels of care, compassion, and leadership as it persevered in its missions of health care, research and education. Our health care professionals worked tirelessly to care for those stricken during the pandemic to serve as a leading voice in explaining the virus and the measures intended to quell transmission, and to provide exemplary treatment for Mississippi’s sickest of the sick. And here on the Oxford campus, our dedicated volunteer team of faculty, staff, and students staffed more than 60 vaccination events and administered 8,135 vaccines this year. We are forever grateful to our frontline health care workers!
ESPN confirmed what everyone affiliated with Ole Miss knows: Oxford is America’s best college town! ESPN touted the intensity of the Ole Miss fan base, and how the Grove and Oxford are celebrated for rolling out a warm welcome for gameday visitors. We’re thrilled that Oxford received this designation, and we’re grateful to call Oxford our home and partner in so many ways.
Ole Miss Women’s Golf brought home the 2021 NCAA Championship! With a victory over Oklahoma State in the finals, this is the first Ole Miss women’s team to capture an NCAA championship in any sport. Head Coach Kory Henkes became the first Rebel head coach to earn the Division I Jackie Steinmann Women’s Golf Coaches Association National Coach of the Year. What’s even more impressive is the team’s cumulative GPA of 3.91!
For the first time in the modern era, every Ole Miss fall sports program secured a postseason berth in the same year. Congrats to our men’s cross country, women’s cross country, soccer, volleyball and football squads! Since the spring, all 18 Rebel varsity teams have advanced to the postseason in the 2021 calendar year.
Our football team kept the Egg Bowl trophy in its rightful home in Oxford, celebrated its first-ever 10-win regular season, and earned a trip to New Orleans to play Baylor in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day. Now, that’s a fantastic way to ring in the New Year.
As we reflect on the past year and look ahead with hope for the future, I want to thank every one of you for your support of this extraordinary university. It is because of your dedication, your contributions, and your warmth that we excel. Best wishes to you and your family for a joyful holiday season!
Glenn F. Boyce
Chancellor
Dear faculty and staff,
Let me start with a heartfelt “Thank you.” Because of you, we’ve added another successful semester to the legacy of the University of Mississippi! You have filled our semester with incredible dedication and outstanding achievements. I’m inspired by your unwavering commitment to excellence in how we serve our students and build a better world through higher education.
While we continue to navigate headwinds related to the pandemic, our people have persevered to deliver this semester. The resumption of a full on-campus experience reignited the deep sense of community and care that is core to who we are as a university. It has been remarkable to experience the vibrancy of our campus and how we’ve delivered a robust semester of life-changing academics, experiences, and opportunities.
Your selfless efforts and extraordinary contributions help our students find their purpose, and you are the backbone of how we fulfill our vital mission. Thanks to you, it has been an exciting semester marked by increased enrollment, a historically high freshman retention rate, and stronger national rankings. We’ve enjoyed extraordinary experiences in our classrooms, lecture halls, laboratories, and green spaces.
As we look ahead to the spring, we will build on our successes from the fall semester to inspire continued growth and excellence. It’s essential that we remain focused on how we work as a community to build leaders, empower student success, create opportunity, drive progress and change through research and innovation, and champion our communities. I know you join me in the commitment to offering the best on-campus living, learning, and working environment possible.
Please take time to enjoy the holiday season surrounded by family, friends, and festivities. My hope is for you to enjoy some much-deserved downtime, and take the opportunity to do those things that bring you joy and happiness.
Sincerely,
Glenn F. Boyce
Chancellor
To our alumni and friends,
As our state’s flagship institution, the University of Mississippi strives to set the standard in all that we do. It’s an expectation that permeates every aspect of Ole Miss — from academics to athletics to providing exceptional experiences that propel our students on their paths to building their legacies and leaving their mark on the world. This mindset is expected by our 130,000-plus alumni, nearly 22,000 students, and 12,000-plus employees. In that spirit, I’m thrilled to highlight several recent achievements that reflect our university’s continued momentum. I know these developments will deepen your pride in this extraordinary place.
Enrollment is up!
Overall enrollment is up. Transfer enrollment is up. Graduate and professional student enrollment is up. UMMC enrollment is up. Freshman enrollment is up BIG. With gains among both in-state and out-of-state freshmen, we posted the largest increase in the number of freshmen from one fall to the next in university history with our freshman class totaling 3,584 — an 18% increase over 2020! In a year when higher ed enrollment dropped 3.5% nationally, we’ve bucked the trend with overall enrollment up nearly 1% to 21,856. And we expect this trajectory to continue as undergraduate applications for next year are up 32%.
When students enroll at Ole Miss, they are persisting more than ever. Our historically high freshman retention rate this fall is 88.2% — 15 percentage points higher than the national average. Our incredible faculty and staff deserve a tremendous thanks for their contributions to how our students have persevered and thrived during this time. After nearly two years of change and uncertainty prompted by COVID-19, we’re ecstatic about this measure because it means more of our students are closer to walking across the stage at Commencement. We are grateful to our alumni and friends who support our recruitment efforts and enable us to attract high achieving students across the country. Be sure to read the entire news story for all the details of this great news.
Ole Miss remains the highest-ranked university in Mississippi!
According to U.S. News & World Report, we jumped 10 spots from last year to No. 67 among public universities, which places us among the top 10% of public universities nationally. We are also the state leader and in the top 5% of public universities nationally for Best Value, a critical indicator for our students and their families. We have been cited as a Best for Vets among public universities for our support of military-connected students with U.S. News ranking us #64 nationally and Military Times ranking us #21 nationally. See the news story.Ole Miss grads are the state’s best at finding and keeping a job!
These developments signify who we are now, and who we are becoming for our students and our future as an institution. As some of our best and most enthusiastic supporters and advocates, you do so much for Ole Miss and we’re grateful for all that you do. Your involvement, input, support, and advocacy makes a more meaningful experience for everyone and elevates our entire university. And, we can’t wait to see you in Oxford this weekend when ESPN’s “College GameDay” comes to town to see our Rebels take on the Aggies!
HOTTY TODDY!
Glenn F. Boyce
Chancellor