- Continue to embrace and confront the institution’s past while developing opportunities to move forward.
- We have many great resources but no infrastructure to connect them. We need to make them more accessible. Easier to access.
- More clarity on decisions made by the administration.
- Forming beneficial partnerships.
- Break down the “we” vs. “us.” Each entity could not survive without the other. Both are growing and need to find a way to grow together.
- Attach each festival by driving the narrative with all our initiatives.
- Church announcements.
- Continue to communicate the vision of the UM of the Future so stakeholders can focus on the “Greater” UM.
- Be knowledgeable of what conversations need to be had, outside of just dealing with race. We preach diversity as a University, but we seem to only highlight race and historical context. There are so many more aspects of diversity. Continue to promote the Center for Inclusion. I also feel that the higher up administrators should be more accessible to students. We know their names and their positions, but we don’t really know them. If we’re going to engage in conversations, we want to know who we’re dealing with.
- Keep asking.
- Continue to lead conversation on difficult topics and encourage civil, candid thoughts.
- The future at Ole Miss is terrifying to think about. There’s talk of tearing down the Lyceum because it was built by slaves is forcing the campus community to overlook and erase history. It’s unnecessary. Rather than erasing history why not teach the students and community about history and slavery and how a country has grown and moved past it, rather than continually shining a negative light on a done part of this country; history.
- In order to engage the UM community in conversations about our future they first must understand the time period that this university established in. The better we inform students and leaders on campus the more they will be engaged on campus events, change, and vision of the future.
- We need to better engage not just students, but EVERYONE, in the history behind this university and the historical significance it involves. Rather than brush the history of Ole Miss aside to be forgotten, preserve it, learn from it, and embrace the message that the history of Ole Miss represents. Much of the history of Ole Miss has been ignored because people simply do not know the facts, but instead form their own opinions which results in bias and unnecessary hostility. It is a disgrace to those who were Ole Miss students before us, and does an injustice to those who will come after us.
- Enhance office Against Sexual Violence to serve the community more effectively.
- A university apology for UM’s beginnings in slavery.
- First, something needs to be done about the infrastructure, the University is growing. Traffic is growing, but the roads and services are not. Also, we don’t want shoddy apartments built that will cheapen the look of Oxford in a few years.
- Extra credit/rewards for students/alums who participate in conversations.
- Develop a strong and unwavering commitment to countering the neo confederate narrative.
- Break down social barriers
- Create clubs that bring engineering and business students together to work on innovative projects. Could continue to research excellence. Example: App Building Club.
- Global perception of Mississippi is largely negative. Obesity, poverty, racism, brain drain. The University of Mississippi, collectively, has an opportunity to publicly address these negative stereotypes and put forth an aggressive plan to counter the incorrect stereotypes as well as develop a plan to improve the factual ones.
- Use the Winter Institute. Be open and honest about the racism and misogyny on this campus.
- More data on what works at comparable universities.
- Identifying goals and shared vision.
- Reaching out via the UM news channel.
- Better informing students of academic expectations and requirements.
- Directly communicating about conflicts and campus issues.
- More transfer scholarships.
- More scholarships available based on commitment not as much as previous grades.
- More scholarship opportunities.
- Acknowledge and apologize for UM’s use of slave labor.
- Be open and frank about UM’s relationship with white supremacy.
- Expand the # of students on the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on History and Context.
