Mississippi Today
Handwritten notes show what IHL trustees thought during JSU listening sessionĀ
Over the last year, students, alumni, faculty and staff at Mississippi's eight public universities have come to know this routine well: The Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees fires or lets go of a president, often providing little information as to why. Then the board asks the community to participate in hours-long listening sessions to provide feedback on desirable qualities in the next president.Ā
But are the trustees actually listening? If they are, what do they think? That part is often unclear.Ā Ā
At last month's listening sessions on Jackson State University's campus, five trustees and the commissioner, Al Rankins, quietly took notes as stakeholders shared their thoughts on the kind of president they'd like to succeed Thomas Hudson, whose two-and-a-half-year tenure ended earlier this year in a mysterious resignation.Ā
Steven Cunningham, the board's only Jackson State alumnus and the trustee leading the search, occasionally shared his thoughts with the crowd. But the rest of the trustees and the commissioner kept their perspective confined to legal pads or notebooks, which Mississippi Today obtained through a public records request.Ā
The handwritten notes ā from all the trustees who attended except Tom Duff, the former IHL board president ā provide a glimpse into how trustees are thinking about the key hire at Jackson State, which is not just the largest historically Black university in Mississippi but the largest university in the state's capital city.Ā
Trustees typically keep thoughts like these hidden behind the closed doors of executive sessions, but Mississippi Today has reprinted the notes, when legible, exactly as they appear in the records.
There were some common themes. Though none of the notes mentioned Hudson outright, nearly all trustees wrote that community members asked for the board to conduct a more thorough background check on Jackson State's next president ā or more generally to follow an unbiased, by-the-book selection process.
āVetting,ā Cunningham wrote. āWhat are we going to do DIFFERENT?ā
It's still not clear why Hudson left Jackson State, but many in the community believe the university would not be looking for a new president had IHL not cut the search short to hire him. Community members have a similar critique of IHL's hiring of Hudson's predecessor, William Bynum Jr., whose tenure ended after he was arrested in a prostitution sting in 2020.
ādon't hire friends,ā noted Teresa Hubbard, a trustee and Delta State University alumnus who had just wrapped up the search for the next president there, which resulted in an out-of-state hire.Ā
Hubbard also noted that the community wants a president who will advocate for JSU, writing ādon't run off a strong willed person.ā
Many students said they wanted to be more involved in the selection process, Hubbard also noted. IHL has yet to announce a presidential search committee, a panel of stakeholders that confidentially advise the board, for Jackson State.
Other stakeholders want to be more involved in the search too, Cunningham noted.
āListen to the Alums,ā he wrote. ā$,$,$.ā
āAllow us to sit before you and listen,ā wrote Gee Ogletree, a trustee and University of Southern Mississippi alumnus who, like Hubbard, recently finished a presidential search. āDon't want to be shamed.ā
A few trustees took note of the one person who wanted to see Elayne Hayes-Anthony, the temporary acting president, take the top spot permanently. Chip Morgan, a trustee and retired executive vice president of the Delta Council, wrote that trustees would start looking at applications after the job description was posted. It's not live yet.
Multiple trustees wrote that community members said the university urgently needs more money to fix its ailing infrastructure ā and to get its own water system. Hudson's administration had been lobbying for $17 million in funding for infrastructure repairs, including a new water system, during the legislative session.
āPWI's have water systems,ā Hubbard wrote. Cunningham noted that this was a āpriority!!!ā
The trustees did not shy away from taking note of the extensive criticism that some community members had for them. Ogletree summarized nearly every point made by Ivory Phillips, a dean emeritus at Jackson State and a former faculty senate president.
Phillips, Ogletree noted, is a āCritic of College Board,ā that trustees have āNot Given JSU Best Attentionā and many community members believe the āListening Sessions are a Sham.ā
Ogletree also noted another community member who put the blame for the failures of Hudson, Bynum and his predecessor Carolyn Meyers squarely on the board: ā3 Presidents Chosen by You Guys.ā
Several trustees seemed alarmed by one faculty member who said that she and other professors had experienced bullying from students. āSAFETY e.g. student threats!!!,ā Cunningham wrote; āstudents cheat + admin does nothing,ā Hubbard noted.
Cunningham editorialized his notes with emphatic capitalization, underlinings and exclamation points in blue ink. It appears he took great interest in comments made by Dawn McLin, a professor and the current faculty senate president, underlining her name multiple times and writing āCORE VALUESā beside it, a list that included integrity, āaccountabilityā and āstick to policies/ procedures.ā
After one instructor teared up talking about how she did not plan to send her kids to Jackson State due to security concerns, Cunningham wrote down the word āSafety.ā He drew a square around it. ā(Crying),ā he noted. āSAFETY,ā he wrote again, this time circling it multiple times.
In another note, Cunningham wrote that a community member wanted Jackson State to have an āopen door policyā and for the university to āfocus on RETENTION as well enrollment.ā
āIHL's roll(sic)?ā he wrote underneath it.
Al Rankins, the IHL commissioner whose role it is to manage the eight university presidents, took notes in two columns titled ā(Institutional Executive Officer) characteristicsā and āissues.ā
Under issues, Rankins wrote, among other things: ālow morale,ā āhigh presidential turnover,ā āadministration ignoring complaints,ā āneed more extensive background checksā and āneed to place fence around campus.ā
Under characteristics, he wrote, āintegrity,ā āstrong moral compass,ā āforward-thinking,ā āunderstand traditions,ā āparticipate in code of ethics training,ā āprogressive thinker,ā āstrong advocate for JSU,ā āvisible,ā ātransparent,ā āvisionary,ā āstructured and have backbone,ā āwelcoming,ā āis home-grown talent,ā āservant leader, faith in Godā and āloves JSU and its students.ā
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1951
April 28, 1951
Ruby Hurley opened the first permanent office of the NAACP in the South.
Her introduction to civil rights activism began when she helped organize Marian Anderson's 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Four years later, she became national youth secretary for the NAACP. In 1951, she opened the organization's office in Birmingham to grow memberships in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee.
When she arrived in Mississippi, there were only 800 NAACP members. After the governor made remarks she disagreed with, she wrote a letter to the editor that was published in a Mississippi newspaper. After that step in courage, membership grew to 4,000.
āThey were surprised and glad to find someone to challenge the governor,ā she told the Chicago Defender. āNo Negro had ever challenged the governor before.ā
She helped Medgar Evers investigate the 1955 murder of Emmett Till and other violence against Black Americans. Despite threats, she pushed on.
āWhen you're in the middle of these situations, there's no room for fear,ā she said. āIf you have fear in your heart or mind, you can't do a good job.ā
After an all-white jury acquitted Till's killers, she appeared on the front cover of Jet magazine with the headline, āMost Militant Negro Woman in the South.ā
Months later, she helped Autherine Lucy become the first Black student at the University of Alabama.
For her work, she received many threats, including a bombing attempt on her home. She opened an NAACP office in Atlanta, where she served as a mentor for civil rights leader Vernon Jordan, with whom she worked extensively and who went on to serve as an adviser to President Bill Clinton.
After learning of Evers' assassination in 1963, she became overwhelmed with sorrow. āI cried for three hours,ā she said. āI shall always remember that pool of blood in which he lay and that spattered blood over the car where he tried to drag himself into the house.ā
She died two years after retiring from the NAACP in 1978, and the U.S. Post Office recognized her work in the Civil Rights Pioneers stamp series. In 2022, she was portrayed in the ABC miniseries, āWomen of the Movement.ā
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Rare open negotiations occur on important Medicaid expansion issue
The curtain was pulled back last week for the first time in years on the Mississippi Legislature's often mysterious conferencing process.
A conference committee consists of three representatives and three senators appointed to try to reach agreement when the two chambers pass differing versions of the same bill. Last week, a conference committee formed to try to reach agreement on Medicaid expansion caused a stir by meeting in a public setting.
Even though the joint rules of the Mississippi Legislature call for an open conferencing process, the conferees seldom meet in public. They usually meet and negotiate their differences near the end of the session behind closed doors.
That was not always the case.
For a period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Legislature, under intense pressure from the Mississippi Press Association, made open conference committees the norm.
Some major issues have been played out in public conference committees. Notable open conferences include:
- The infamous, excruciatingly long special session in 2002 where businesses received more protection from lawsuits.
- Budget fights when Haley Barbour was governor when legislators often would reach an impasse in the negotiations process and spend the bulk of their time talking about their cars and eating candy.
- The major rewrite of the state's economic development package under then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove called Advantage Mississippi.
- The Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which for decades has provided the state's share for the basic operation of local school districts. It was hammered out in an open conference process in 1997 even before the joint rules mandated the open process.
Then-state Sen. Musgrove and former House Speaker Billy McCoy deserve credit or blame, according to one's perspective, for proving the open conference process could work. When they chaired their respective chamber's education committees, they insisted on having an open conference process.
But in more recent years, open conference committees have been few and far between. The joint rule has been largely ignored.
The fact that the three House and three Senate conferees agreed to meet at least once in public on Medicaid expansion ā one of the most pivotal issues facing the Legislature in recent years ā drew considerable attention.
If nothing else, the open conference committee provided a raw and unedited view of how far apart the two chambers were at the time on an issue that would provide additional health care coverage to primarily the working poor.
The House wanted to provide coverage to those earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level, or about $20,000 annually for an individual, while the Senate had proposed providing coverage to those earning less than 100% of the federal poverty level, or about $15,000 per year.
According to various experts, the House plan would provide coverage to many more working Mississippians and cost less to the state than would the Senate plan. The reason for the lower cost to the state is that when expanding to 138%, the federal government will pay 90% of the costs and provide the state an additional roughly $700 million over two years as an enticement to expand.
Under the Senate plan, the federal government will pay 77% of the cost and offer no incentives. It is important to understand that in the expensive world of health care, the difference in 77% of the cost and 90% means tens of millions to Mississippi state coffers.
The House conferees repeatedly pointed out those numbers ā their plan covering more at less cost ā during last week's open conference committee.
One of the reasons legislators through the years have not been enamored with an open conference process is that it has often turned into efforts by the negotiators to sell their position to the public.
Once the open conference process starts, the side that feels the most comfortable with its position wants to meet more often in full view of the public to make sure the public understands where each side stands.
For whatever it is worth, the House conferees were more enthusiastic about continuing the open process after the initial Medicaid expansion conference committee.
And after that initial open conference, the Senate offered a compromise to cover those earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level ā just as the House proposed.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Legislation to strip key power of PERS Board passes both chambers
Legislation that strips significant power from the board that governs the state's public employee pension program has passed both chambers of the Legislature.
Under the legislation set to go to Gov. Tate Reeves during the final days of the 2024 session, the Public Employees Retirement System Board would no longer have the authority to increase the contribution rate levied on governments (both on the state and local level) to help pay for the massive retirement system.
The legislation, which passed both chambers in recent days, was a reaction to the decision by the board to increase by 5% over a three-year period the amount local governments contribute to each employee's paycheck for their retirement. Under the PERS Board plan, the employer contribution rate would have been increased to 22.4% over three years, starting with a 2% increase on July 1.
The board said the increase was needed to ensure the long-term financial stability of the system that pays retirement benefits for most public employees on the state and local levels, including staff of local school districts and universities and community colleges.
City and county government officials in particular argued that the 5% increase would force them to cut government services and lay off employees.
Under the bill passed by the Legislature there still would be a 2.5% increase over five years — a .5% increase in the employer contribution rate each year for five years.
In addition, legislative leaders said they plan to put another $100 million or more in state tax dollars into the retirement system in the coming days during the appropriations process.
Under current law, the PERS Board can act unilaterally to increase the amount of money governmental entities must contribute to the system. But under the new bill that passed both chambers, the board can only make a recommendation to the Legislature on increasing the employer contribution rate.
The PERS Board also would be required to include an analysis by its actuary and independent actuaries on the reason the increase was needed and the impact the increase would have on governmental entities.
In the 52-member Senate, 14 Democrats voted against the bill. Only one House member voted against the proposal.
Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, said the bill failed to address the financial issues facing the system. He said a permanent funding stream is needed.
Blount said, āYou are moving in the wrong direction and weakening the systemā with the bill the Legislature approved. āIs it painful? Is it going to cost more money? Yes, but we need to do itā to fix the system.
The system has assets of about $32 billion, but debt of about $25 billion. But Sen. Daniel Sparks, R-Belmont, and others argued that the debt was āa snapshotā that could be reduced by strong performance from the stock market. The system depends on its investments and contributions from employers and employees as sources of revenue.
The system has about 360,000 members including current public employees and former employees and retirees.
The legislation states that no changes would be made for current members of the system. The legislation does reference looking at possibly changing the system for new employees. But that would be debated in future legislative sessions.
The bill does not include an earlier House proposal to dissolve the PERS Board, which consists primarily of people elected by the members of the system, and replace them with political appointees.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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