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The W joins the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges

Published: 22 August 2022
Written by Tyler Wheat
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Categories: Academic Affairs, News

Mississippi University for Women has been approved as the 30th member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC).

“We are pleased to join this organization and to be recognized as Mississippi’s Public Liberal Arts College.  This association will offer great opportunities for our faculty, staff and students,” said Nora Miller, W president.

COPLAC consists of colleges and universities from 28 states and one Canadian province. All members are state institutions that serve local and regional student populations with academic focuses surrounding local matters. Enrollment of member institutions varies from more than 8,000 students to as few as 800.

COPLAC Executive Director Cole Woodcox said, “The W has unique strengths — a great digital humanities initiative, well-resourced library, large-scale science conference, strong inter- and multidisciplinary collaborations in prelaw, legal studies, non-profit management, culinary arts and business and women, gender and sexuality studies. The W will add to and compliment the diversity of universities in COPLAC.”

In June 2021, the COPLAC Executive Committee voted and officially approved The W as a provisional member. President Miller represented the university at the COPLAC board meeting in January 2022. COPLAC members visited The W’s campus in spring of 2022.

“We hope the membership provides an intellectual space for The W’s faculty and students to share and innovate with like-minded, student-centered, public institutions. We can see that The W is committed at all levels to the public liberal arts mission. We welcome you into the community of COPLAC universities and look forward to building a long and productive relationship with you,” added Woodcox.

Each institution likens itself to one another with accessible and teaching focused faculty, seminar-styled classes for undergraduates and the availability to engage students in a range of curricular and extra-curricular activities. Additionally, a campus environment that is described as “pleasant” and “unified” where students can walk from class to class is a unifier.

“COPLAC membership is an affirmation of our mission and solidly establishes The W among a small, elite collection of institutions providing high-quality, public liberal arts education to students across the United States and Canada,” said Dr. Tollison, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.

According to Tollison, COPLAC will further bring the university’s liberal arts mission to the forefront. The annual summer institute will provide faculty development and student research opportunities.

COPLAC has developed regional undergraduate research conferences and a web-based platform for outstanding scholarship at the undergraduate level. COPLAC campuses have started to share online courses across the disciplines to increase curricular opportunities for students. Students who enroll at a COPLAC institution are now directly engaged in the wider mission of public liberal arts education, the best preparation for a meaningful life and professional career.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 22, 2022
Contact: Tyler Wheat
(662) 241-7683
ltwheat@muw.edu

W professor lectures/performs at Vienna Conference

Published: 17 August 2022
Written by Tyler Wheat
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Categories: Academic Affairs, Arts & Sciences, News

Dr. Susan Hurley, associate professor of voice at Mississippi University for Women, presented a lecture recital at the International Congress of Voice Teachers earlier this month in Vienna, Austria.

Dr. Susan Hurley

Hurley, the founding artistic director of an annual ”AIDS Quilt Songbook”benefit concert in Phoenix, Arizona, presented a lecture on the origins and literature comprising the “AIDS Quilt Songbook”and performed a recital of representative works. She was joined in the performance by two colleagues, Dr. Marcy McKee of Northwestern State University in Los Angeles and Dr. Deborah Popham of Sam Houston State University in Texas.  Dr. William Reber, staff pianist and director of choirs at The W, collaborated at the piano in the performance.

“The ‘AIDS Quilt Songbook’is at its core a collaborative endeavor. Community lies at the heart of the project. Both Dr. McKee and Dr. Popham have performed with us in previous years on the benefit concerts that I produce for the Joshua Tree Feeding Programin Arizona. It was a wonderful opportunity to take the songbook‘on the road,’ so to speak, to share this outstanding contemporary classical song literature with international colleagues,” Hurley remarked.

The recital featured five songs, including one duet for two sopranos which Hurley sang with McKee. The lecture and performance were held in the orchestra studio of the Universitat fur Musik und darstellende Kunst (University for Music and Performing Arts) in Vienna. 

The “AIDS Quilt Songbook”is an ongoing classical music parallel to the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.While the first 18 songs, premiered at NYC’s Lincoln Center in 1992, have been collected and published, no second collection of works from the songbookhas yet been published.

“It can be difficult and time-consuming to locate scores for the unpublished works. And because many singers are unaware that so many songs have been written for this project, the songs aren’t being performed as often as they should be,“ Hurley continued. “My presentation centered around introducing singers and voice teachers to a representative sample of the uncollected songs and directing colleagues toward where they can obtain the scores in order to perform and teach this repertoire themselves.”

The International Congress of Voice Teachers is a conference attended by hundreds of delegates from around the world. ICVT normally takes place once every four years, organized by a voice-related professional association in the host country. The event in Vienna this month was the 10th iteration of ICVT since its inception in 1987.

Forum Series kicks off with author Beverly Lowry

Published: 16 August 2022
Written by Tyler Wheat
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Categories: News
Beverly Lowry
Beverly Lowry

COLUMBUS, Miss.— Mississippi University for Women’s Fall Forum Series hosted by the Gordy Honors College will kick off Thursday, Aug. 25 with author Beverly Lowry, who will discuss her new book, “Deer Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta” with Mississippi novelist Deborah Johnson.

Lowry was 10 and lived mere miles from where society matron Idella Thompson was viciously murdered in 1948. In Deer Creek Drive, she tells a story of white privilege that still has ramifications and reflects on the brutal crime, its aftermath and the ways it clarified her own upbringing in Mississippi.

Lowry is the author of six novels and four other works of nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and many other publications. She has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Texas Institute of Letters and the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.

Signed copies of “Deer Creek Drive” are available at Friendly City Books.

On Thursday, Sept. 15, Abigail Franks will discuss her work on climate resilience and lead a discussion about how we can practice hope in collectively imagining a more sustainable and just future. Franks is programs and policy coordinator with the Southeast Climate & Energy Network (SCEN) and host of the podcast Climate Justice Y’all. Later named a Udall Scholar, she founded WEARE (We Envision Alabamian Renewable Energy) while an honors undergraduate at University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Abigail Franks
Abigail Franks

On Thursday, Oct. 13, Dr. Thomas S. Bremer will discuss the roles of religion in the history of national parks and the importance of the parks in the culture of the U.S. A long-time scholar of religion and tourism, he is associate professor of religious studies at Rhodes College and author of “Blessed with Tourists: The Borderlands of Religion and Tourism in San Antonio” and “Formed From This Soil: An Introduction to the Diverse History of Religion in America.”

Dr. Thomas S. Bremer

The Forum Series concludes Nov. 10 and 17 with the Honors College’s Research Symposium showcasing the independent research of honors seniors

All events begin at 6 p.m. in Nissan Auditorium on The W campus. All members of The W community are invited, and all events are also free and open to the public. For more information, email honors@muw.edu, call (662) 241-6850, or visit www.muw.edu/honors/forum.

Campus safety, parking guidelines for start of new school year

Published: 11 August 2022
Written by Tyler Wheat
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Categories: News, Student Affairs

As Mississippi University for Women prepares for the start of the 2022-23 school year, Chief of Police Randy Vibrock would like to offer some suggestions and a few reminders to ensure everyone has a safe and enjoyable experience on campus.

Chief of Police Randy Vibrock

“We are excited to see students, faculty and staff returning to campus,” Vibrock said. “The start of school year always sees a higher volume of vehicle and pedestrian traffic, so The W Police Department asks that everyone adhere to our parking and traffic safety rules.”

If you plan to have a vehicle on campus, you must register your vehicle with The W police department. To do that, log into Portal (WCONNECT) and click the Paperclip (Resources) link on the left-hand navigation panel. Then click the “Parking Permit and Ticketing” link, which will open a window for Ops-Com (http://muwparking.parkadmin.com/login). Click the “Create Account” button to complete your profile information and then register your vehicle. You can pick up a parking decal at The W Police Department, which is located in McDevitt Hall.

Individuals should hang their decals unobstructed from the rear-view mirror of their vehicle, so W police officers can clearly see the decal number.

If you need assistance, contact Janet Robertson at (662) 241-6261 or jgrobertson@muw.edu.

In addition to registering vehicles, students, faculty and staff members are reminded to be familiar with the traffic and parking guidelines. Two common parking infractions W police officers encounter are “Parking Out of Zone” and “Parking Against the Flow.”

As a reminder, green spaces are for faculty and staff parking only from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. Students who park in these spaces at these times could be issued a citation for being “Out of Zone.” Students should park in spaces that are painted white. 

Also, when parallel parking along the street, your vehicle must be parked with the flow of traffic. The passenger’s side tires of the vehicle must be parked adjacent to the curb. Vehicles parked in the opposite direction of travel could be issued a citation for “Parking against the Flow.”

A complete list of the traffic and parking guidelines can be found at: https://web1.muw.edu/police/traffic 

For safety purposes, the posted speed limit for campus is 10 mph. Drivers should never exceed the posted speed limit. This could pose a threat to pedestrians. 

To help control vehicle speeds, speed bumps are located in areas of campus where drivers may inadvertently drive at a higher speed. These speed bumps are located on the north, east and west sides of Welty Hall. 

Individuals using bicycles and skateboards should follow the same traffic rules as motor vehicles. Bicycles and skateboards should never be used on sidewalks.  

Pedestrians should always use sidewalks and crosswalks. Please remember pedestrians have the right of way while using crosswalks. 

“We encourage everyone to be mindful of pedestrians and use caution while driving on campus,” Vibrock said. “We all play a role in maintaining a safe campus.”

Blues Week 22 kicks off Thursday

Published: 10 August 2022
Written by Tyler Wheat
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Categories: News, Student Affairs

Students are encouraged to “Find Their Path” as part of Mississippi University for Women’s Blues Week 22.

Sponsored by the Office of Student Life, Blues Week is The W’s annual list of programming designed to kick off the start of the school year with engaging events to help students connect to The W. More than 70 students and student leaders will participate in this year’s slate of events that will feature new campus programs as well as familiar favorites that will allow students to get together with peers, faculty and staff members.

“I’m eager to see our student leaders welcome new and returning students with pride,” said Coordinator of Engagement Amanda Williams. “Blues Week 2022 will be a blast!”

Blues Week will kick off at 9 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 11, with Move-In Day. It will continue at 7 p.m. with Floor Meetings in Nissan Auditorium, which will be sponsored by the Office of Housing and Residential Life. Events Thursday will conclude at 8 p.m. with Karaoke, also at Nissan Auditorium.

Students holding Owls sign

Each of the next eight days will feature myriad events designed to highlight the diverse array of activities available to students.

“It has been an amazing opportunity to be able to help organize Blues Week and its events,” SGA President Mackenzie Pearce said. “I am looking forward to watching all of our hard work come together to make our students feel welcome and at home.”

For a complete listing of events, go to https://www.muw.edu/bluesweek.

Here are some of the highlights of Blues Week 22:

  • From 7-9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 12, Campus Recreation will offer free demonstration classes for its Functional Fitness classes in The Cage as part of “Late Night at The Rec” in the Stark Recreation Center.
  • At 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, the Counseling Center will sponsor “Best of the Blues” at the Gazebo.
  • At Noon Sunday, Aug. 14, the MUW Alumni Association, Campus Rec, the Office of Development and Alumni and the Office of Student Life will sponsor “Sunday Funday” at Pohl Gymnasium.
  • At 11:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 15 (first day of classes), the Student Government Association (SGA) will hold a mixer on the Hogarth Sidewalk outside The W Room.
  • At 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 16, the Office of Student Life will sponsor an Organizational Fair at Pohl Gymnasium.

“I am so excited for the Organization Fair this year,” Pearce said. “I think one of the best things students can do to get acclimated to campus is to get involved. The Organization Fair makes it easy and accessible to meet and mingle with all the active organizations on campus and find which ones are right for them.” 

At 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 17, the Wesley Foundation will sponsor Barn Yard Bash at the Wesley Foundation Building – 11th Street.

At 1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18, the Student Success Center will sponsor “Get the Scoop on Student Success” at Reneau Hall.

Blues Week will wrap up at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 19, with the “Sisterhood Social” at Cochran Hall, which will be sponsored by the Office of Student Life.