Dr. Bonnie Oppenheimer, assistant professor of mathematics, delivered a round-table talk and poster display at the first Hawaii International Conference on education in Waikiki in January. Oppenheimer's talk was titled "Results from an Arithmetic Test for Elementary Preservice Teachers." She also visited the University of Hawaii's laboratory school. Some of the curriculum materials tested in the Laboratory School in Hawaii have been used in Tupelo.

Art Instructor Shawn Dickey's Serigraph prints have won an award and been featured in art exhibits around the country. Dickey's work has been displayed in Kentucky, New Jersey, Indiana, Texas and Mississippi. Dickey's dimensional screenprint titled "War: The Torments of Identity" won the 2002 Best of Show Award in the amount of $1000 from the Bi-State Exhibition at the Meridian Museum of Art. At the Colorprint USA National Print Exhibition at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas, Dickey exhibited his work and presented on a panel discussion of life after graduate school and demonstrated the printing and assembling of a dimensional screenprint.

Dr. Patricia L. N. Donat, psychology professor, had an article published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence titled "The role of sexual victimization in women's perceptions of others sexual intent." Donat said, "This study investigated the relationship between women's sexual victimization experiences and their perceptions of sexual interest for an actor's mundane, romantic and sexual behaviors." Donat tested 329 undergraduate female college students. They were divided into four mutually exclusive categories: women sexually victimized through verbal coercion, through intoxication, through force or threat of force and women who reported only consensual sexual experiences. The women rated the sexual connotativeness of a list of dating behaviors, rating either a male or female actor. The study showed that overall women perceive more sexual interest in men's behavior than in women's comparable behavior.