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A formerly incarcerated woman facing terminal breast cancer is suing the prison system’s former and current health care providers for failing to diagnose and treat the disease until it spread in her body. 

Susie Annie Balfour, 62, of Memphis, is the plaintiff in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi that alleges prison medical officials acted with deliberate indifference because they knew for years that she might have cancer, but they did not order a biopsy to confirm until November 2021. 

Over the course of a decade, Balfour had at least eight mammograms at Merit Health Central in Jackson. That number is less than the annual mammograms and later twice a year mammograms outside doctors recommended after each of her visits, according to the lawsuit. 

Stage 4 cancer has metastasized and spread to Balfour’s lymph nodes, bones and other parts of her body. She said she’s trying to stay encouraged and do what she can. 

“I never know when my time will be up, but until then I’m not going to stop fighting,” said Balfour, who was incarcerated at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility for over 30 years and released on parole in December 2021. 

The complaint alleges the contract between the Mississippi Department of Corrections – which is not named as a defendant – and former medical contractors Wexford Health Sources and Centurion of Mississippi and current contractor VitalCore Health Strategies created financial incentive for the companies to withhold necessary and lifesaving care to incarcerated people. 

How that manifested was reduced outpatient referrals and hospitalizations and encouragement of conservative care to cut costs, according to the complaint.  

“This is just another avenue to draw attention to what’s happening in the prisons,” said Andrew Tominello, who is representing Balfour. 

Balfour first asked prison medical staff for a mammogram in June 2011. 

After that visit, doctors recommended she return for follow-up annual mammograms to monitor any changes in calcifications found in her right breast. By 2016, doctors recommended she have mammograms every six months. 

Instead, Balfour went up to three years between follow-ups, according to the lawsuit. 

It wasn’t until Nov. 3, 2021, that a biopsy revealed Balfour had an invasive, malignant cancer in her breast, court documents state. 

The lawsuit alleges VitalCore was aware of the doctors’ findings from the November visit and did not inform Balfour about the cancer until days before her release on Dec. 27, 2021. 

Less than a week after leaving prison, Balfour went to the University of Mississippi Medical Center where she had another mammogram and full testing, which the doctor used to diagnose her cancer as Stage 4.

Balfour wonders if actions had been taken sooner, maybe things would have turned out differently with her health. 

On behalf of its provider VitalCore, MDOC declined to comment. Representatives from Centurion and Wexford did not respond to a request for comment. 

Other defendants named in the lawsuit are Merit Health Central and multiple physicians and nurses employed by the hospital and prison health care providers. The lawsuit accuses them of malpractice for failing to properly diagnose and treat Balfour, causing her cancer to progress. 

A spokesperson for Merit Health declined to comment. Defendants will have 21 days to respond to the lawsuit complaint. 

The lawsuit also alleges Balfour and other incarcerated people were required to clean the prison with chemicals such as glyphosate that are known to cause cancer. They were not given protective equipment when mixing raw chemicals to avoid exposure, according to the complaint. 

To date, at least 15 other people incarcerated at CMCF have cancer, and they are not receiving “necessary, life-saving treatment,” according to the lawsuit. 

READ: SMCI inmate, fearing he has cancer, still awaiting needed medical procedure, he says

“These are human beings that deserve a second chance in life. Instead they’re being allowed to get sick and left to die,” Pauline Rogers, co-founder of the RECH Foundation that helps women returning from prison, said in a statement. 

Balfour is seeking compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial. 

Centurion became MDOC’s inmate health care provider in 2016 after a multi-year bribery scandal that led to the 2014 indictment of then-MDOC commissioner Christopher Epps and prison contractors including Wexford. VitalCore Health Strategies became the provider in 2020. 

In a separate lawsuit, VitalCore is being sued for failing to provide adequate medical and mental health care to incarcerated people and proper accommodations and services to those with disabilities. 

Balfour was incarcerated for a capital murder conviction in the shooting death of a Southaven police officer that carried a death sentence that was overturned in 1991. She was resentenced to serve 30 years, according to court records. 

“I just want everybody to be held accountable,” she said. “ … and I just want justice for myself and other ladies and men in there who are dealing with the same situation I am dealing with.”

The post As cancer spread in Susie Balfour’s body, she says prison medical providers failed to treat it. Now she’s fighting for life. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The House Colleges and Universities Committee advanced a bill Wednesday to increase award amounts and expand eligibility to more Mississippians under the state’s largest college financial aid program. 

Under House Bill 994, adult, part-time and low-income college students would be able to receive the Mississippi Resident Tuition Assistance Grant. All told, an estimated 37,000 more Mississippians, many who don’t receive any form of state financial aid for college, would be eligible for MTAG. 

Depending on a student’s income and academic year, the bill would increase MTAG award amounts to a maximum of $2,000 a year. This would be the first time the Legislature has increased MTAG awards since the program was created in the 1990s to benefit middle-class Mississippians who aren’t eligible for the federal Pell Grant. 

“It opens it up to every Mississippian out there,” said House Chair Donnie Scoggin, R-Ellisville, the bill sponsor. “From the poorest of the poor to the richest of the rich, there is some benefit.”

Though the bill has broad support, Scoggin said it faces a major hurdle: The cost. To fully fund the program, lawmakers would need to greenlight upwards of $30 million in additional spending. Last year, Mississippi spent just under $10 million on MTAG. 

But Scoggin is hoping to convince lawmakers to see the changes as an investment in Mississippi’s workforce. He said it doesn’t matter how much the state of Mississippi spends on workforce development programs if potential students can’t afford to attend. 

“My argument would be, very simply: Education is the future,” Scoggin said. “We’ve got to do something to help people go to college.” 

During the committee meeting, Scoggin told members the bill is supported by community colleges and universities whose disagreement last year was one reason his proposal failed last session. That plan also sought to overhaul the Higher Education Legislative Plan for Needy Students, or HELP, grant. 

The Mississippi Economic Council is also supporting this bill, which Scoggin worked on closely with the Office of Student Financial Aid and its director, Jennfier Rogers. After the committee meeting, multiple lawmakers came up to Rogers to tell her they supported the bill. 

Rogers said that she worked on the proposal with a taskforce to set higher MTAG award amounts without increasing the overall cost of the program too much. Though it’s hard to say if the increased award amounts would be enough to affect student behavior, Rogers said studies have shown increasing grant aid has a positive impact on college graduation rates. 

“I wish we could increase them more,” she said. “I think the award amounts need to be larger. But this is a reasonable first step.” 

MTAG has lost significant buying power since it was created in 1995. 

That year, the award amounts under MTAG for freshmen and sophomores covered roughly 10% of the average four-year, in-state tuition, room and board, and 20% for juniors and seniors, according to an analysis of federal data. In fall 2021, MTAG covered 2% of tuition, room and board for freshmen and sophomores, and 5% for juniors and seniors. 

Scoggin said he doesn’t know yet where the money would come from to fund the bill, and that it will face competition from other initiatives. 

“I think this is a priority, but someone else may think roads and bridges are a priority or someone else may think expanding Medicaid is a priority,” he said. 

Scoggin said Republicans need to balance tax cuts with programs that can help Mississippians take personal responsibility. 

“We’re trying to limit the government, but in doing that, we’re still trying to get people into that workforce development,” he said.

The post House committee passes bill expanding college financial aid to adult, part-time students appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Two Mississippi Today investigations — “Committed to Jail” in collaboration ProPublica and “Unfettered Power” in collaboration with The New York Times — were named semifinalists for the coveted Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

The two Mississippi Today projects were among 30 semifinalists that judges “deemed to be of extremely high quality and in keeping with the Prize’s criteria for impact on US public policy,” a Feb. 14 press release said.

Mississippi Today was the only local newsroom to earn multiple 2024 Goldsmith semifinalist honors. Mississippi Today journalists previously won the 2023 Goldsmith Prize for “The Backchannel” investigation of the state’s welfare scandal and the 2020 Goldsmith Prize for an investigation with The Marshall Project of the state’s restitution centers.

“This type of recognition is proof positive of Mississippi Today’s power to bring national audiences to important local news through partnerships with media institutions like ProPublica and The New York Times,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today editor-in-chief. “Our journalists are certainly deserving of being continually considered among the very best in the nation.”

“Committed to Jail,” a 2023 Mississippi Today and ProPublica investigation, revealed that Mississippi counties jail hundreds of people without criminal charges every year, for days or weeks at a time, solely because they may need mental health treatment — a practice that has resulted in 14 deaths since 2006 and is unique in scope in the United States.

We found that in just 19 of the state’s 82 counties, people were jailed without charges more than 2,000 times over four years. We spoke with 14 Mississippians about their experiences in jail and learned that people detained for being sick are generally treated the same as people accused of crimes. We obtained Mississippi Bureau of Investigation reports on jail deaths and pored over lawsuits and news clips to identify 15 people who died after being jailed during this process since 2006, (including the most recent death in January, after the original series was published). And we surveyed behavioral health officials and disability rights advocates in all 50 states to show that Mississippi stands alone.

READ MORE: Mississippi Today and ProPublica’s full series

“Unfettered Power,” a 2023 investigation from the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today and The New York Times, revealed how Mississippi sheriffs rule like kings, wielding vast power, exploiting and abusing the very people they are called to protect with no one stopping them.

Sheriffs accused of raping women in their custody without consequences. Beating others they arrested or jailed. Spying on citizens for personal reasons. Deputies using Tasers to torment residents. And a 20-year reign of terror by a “Goon Squad” that barged into homes in the middle of the night, handcuffing or holding people at gunpoint, and torturing them into confessing or providing information.

Mississippi Today and The New York Times produced a series of stories that revealed not just these travesties but also how powerful allies in the criminal justice system – from local prosecutors and judges to the state attorney general and the Justice Department – had repeatedly failed to investigate or prosecute sheriffs for them.

READ MORE: Mississippi Today and The New York Times’ full series

The Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, one of the nation’s most prestigious journalism honors, is housed at the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School. Finalists for the 2024 award will be announced in the coming weeks, and the winner will be announced on April 3.

The post Two Mississippi Today investigations named Goldsmith Prize semifinalists appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Patrick Mahomes was the MVP and the cameras were often on Taylor Swift, but there was plenty of Magnolia State on display at the Super Bowl. Mississippi State alum Chris Jones dominated for the victorious Chiefs on the defensive line. Jackson State’s Sonic Boom made a surprise halftime appearance with Usher, and there was more. Also, all hail Patrick Williams, Pro Football Hall of Fame-bound.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: Mississippi at the Super Bowl. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said that deciding how to ensure the long-term financial solvency of the massive Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System is “the major issue” facing lawmakers during the current legislative session.

PERS provides pension benefits for more than 360,000 current and former government employees in Mississippi, including school district employees and higher education and community college staff.

The system has experienced financial problems for years that many argue have gone largely unaddressed. It has about $32 billion in assets to pay its retirees, but it is about $25 billion in long-term debt. It has a funding ratio of about 56%, meaning the system has just 56% of the revenue needed to cover its liabilities over a 30-year period.

PERS leaders this year are asking the Legislature for an infusion of cash — which lawmakers traditionally do not provide on an annual basis — to help offset the system’s uncertain financial future.

Hosemann recently said until the issues facing PERS are resolved, the Legislature cannot commit on how much to provide in funding for state agencies, schools and other programs.

“We are going to pay the retirees,” Hosemann said.

House Speaker Jason White, R-West, has also talked of the importance of addressing PERS.

“I think there has been a commitment at least around the coffee pot that we (legislators) want to fix this long term,” White said before the session began. “… For myself, I would say we are not going to just increase it (the amount of government money put into the plan) 5%, 10% and hope it gets better.”

While Hosemann and many legislative leaders appear to be locked in on PERS, the problems have not been addressed by Gov. Tate Reeves. Reeves, in the first year of his final term as governor, did not mention PERS in his recently released budget proposal. At a time when legislative leaders and local government officials are grappling with how to fund PERS, Reeves instead touted his plan to eliminate the state income tax, which would, if passed, do away with one-third of the state’s current annual general fund revenue.

Fixing the pension program, many leaders believe, will take a significant infusion of funds. Some proposed solutions could place a significant strain on city and county governments, on school districts and state agencies that currently pay into the system unless the Legislature commits to appropriating an additional amount of money.

During a recent meeting with the Senate Finance Committee, Ray Higgins, the PERS executive director, did not provide a specific amount of money that he believes the Legislature needed to contribute to the program. Hosemann has spoken of the program possibly needing an additional $360 million annually.

“When it comes down to the long-term sustainability of PERS, we should either fund it, change it, or eventually we may risk it,” Higgins wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “Revenue must increase, expenses and liabilities should decrease, or both.”

The retirement system’s revenue to pay pension benefits is generated in the following ways:

• From employees contributing 9% of their salaries to PERS.
• From employers or governmental entities contributing a sum equal to 17.4% of an employee’s paycheck to the program.
• From investment income. Investment income is key since the employee/employer contributions are not enough to cover the monthly costs.

The average annual retirement income for retirees is about $26,900.

Multiple factors are contributing to the financial uncertainty in the system, including:

• Recessions through the years that have impacted the investment earnings.
• A shrinking governmental workforce and additional retirees.
• Legislature-approved added benefits through the years, dating back to the 1990s — some of which were provided, some argue, without a revenue stream to pay for them.

Perhaps the most confusing and controversial change that placed stress on the system was the action by the 10-member board that governs PERS to change what is known as the assumed rate of return. Based on recommendations from actuaries, the board recently dropped the assumed rate of return from 7.5% to 7%, meaning that PERS’ investments will earn 7% instead of 7.5% annually. The change was made to paint what PERS officials said is a more accurate picture of the system’s financial outlook. But the lower assumed rate of return means the expectation is that the investment earnings will generate less money, thus causing more debt.

Sen. Daniel Sparks, R-Belmont, pointed out that at one point not too long ago the assumed rate of return was 8%. He said, optimistically, that each year the investment earnings exceed the assumed rate of returns means the system’s debt is decreased.

Still, the PERS board believes that strong investment earnings will not be enough to totally resolve the financial woes facing the system. The board plans to phase in a 5% increase in the employer contribution rate over a three-year period. There has been talk of phasing in a 10% increase in the employer contribution rate. The first 2% increase that will be enacted on July 1 will cost the state $60 million, not counting the cost for local and county governments. Under current law, the board has the authority to act on its own to increase the employer contribution rate, though the Legislature could change the law.

City and county officials have told legislators they cannot afford the increase.

Senate Appropriations Chair Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said he already is hearing from state agency directors about the issue.

“I guarantee they are coming to me saying whatever you do, give us enough money to pay for the PERS increase,” Hopson said. “ … Either we provide the money or they have to absorb it,” meaning they cannot provide raises or enact other programs that cost money.

Hosemann said such increases in the employer contribution would be “catastrophic” for the system since local governments would start hiring contract workers instead of full-time government employees who would be eligible for PERS pensions. That, Hosemann said, would further reduce the number of employees paying into the system.

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, pointed out that each time the Legislature privatizes a governmental function it reduces the number of state employees paying into the system.

Bryan also pointed out that years ago, a separate public retirement system for Mississippi Highway Patrol troopers faced financial difficulties. Bryan said in that instance, the Legislature passed a law to place a fee on traffic citations with the revenue earned from the fee directed to the retirement system.

Whether there is the legislative will to create a similar source of revenue dedicated to the much larger PERS system remains to be seen.

In the meantime, the Legislature is expected to act on a proposal by the PERS board to change the benefits for new governmental hires. The proposal includes eliminating the guaranteed 3% annual cost of living increase for new employees. Instead, under the proposal, new employees would get a cost of living increase when revenue is available and tied to the annual inflation rate instead of the automatic 3% cost of living increase each year. The proposal would not make any changes to the guaranteed 3% annual cost of living increase for current employees and retirees.

Both Hosemann and Hopson said they do not believe it is legal to reduce the benefits for current employees and retirees.

“I don’t think you can do that,” Hosemann said. “I am not going to do it.”

The post Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann calls state pension problems ‘the major issue’ of 2024 legislative session appeared first on Mississippi Today.

No state has fewer public electric vehicle charging stations per capita than Mississippi.

With 145 total stations, the state has just under five for every 100,000 people, much lower than the national rate of 19 per 100,000, according to data from the U.S. Department of Energy.

But with a boost of $50 million in federal funding, Mississippi plans to add about 30 new stations, which will be spread out along the state's busiest highways. Jessica Dilley, the director of Alternative Program Deliveries with the Mississippi Department of Transportation,told Mississippi Today that the agency projects that new charging stations will start showing up by 2026 or 2027.

The $50 million, which came from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is coming to the state over a five-year period. As of now, MDOT is still in its planning phase and hasn't spent any of the money.

Dilley said there was an adjustment period for the agency, versus its counterparts in other states that already had electric vehicle programs.

"There are some states nationwide that already had programs before the national program was established," she said. "We are not one of those states. So we spent time coordinating with the industry and educating ourselves... as well as coordinating with the utilities, the energy department, and communities throughout our state."

As far as where the new stations will go, MDOT is planning to build between 25 to 30 new locations along I-10, I-20, I-22, I-55, I-59, I-69 and I-269. In order to meet federal requirements, stations have to be spaced no more than 50 miles apart from each other, and no more than a mile from the nearest interstate. The average cost of each new station, MDOT estimates, is between $500,000 and $1.5 million.

MDOT is issuing two rounds of request for proposals, Dilley said. The first round will be issued by the end of this year, with awards going out by mid-2025. Based on what's happened in other states, she said, it'll take anywhere from six months to a year after contracts are awarded until the stations are up and running.

There are a wide range of companies that may put in bids to run the new stations, Dilley added.

"What we've seen from adjacent states is everywhere from Waffle Houses putting in (bids) to Tesla, and everything in between," she said. "So it'll be up to whoever submits to apply for the funding to put in the station."

Companies that win bids will be responsible for 20% of the station costs, and MDOT will use its federal dollars to pay for the rest. Each station will have to have four DC fast chargers, each supplying 150 kilowatts at a time.

Mississippi's current charging stations, as shown in the map above, are spread out around the state, but most of them lack the capacity that the new stations will carry.

During the agency's public engagement, Dilley said MDOT received over 2,700 comments in the first year of the program. She said a "good amount" of the responses expressed "resistance" towards the program, because they were against electric vehicles in general or because the program is being funded publicly rather than privately. Other commenters were supportive, Dilley said, showing interest in reducing fuel emissions.

As part of the federal requirements for receiving the funds, Mississippi has to submit annual plans for building electric vehicle infrastructure, which the public can view on MDOT's website. Dilley said the agency will continue to engage with the public and post updates online.

The post New EV charging stations two to three years away, MDOT says appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Former state Rep. Alyce Clarke, the first Black woman to serve in the Mississippi Legislature, sat patiently in her motorized wheelchair Tuesday as her many feats and accomplishments were listed inside the Capitol.

But when it came time to unveil her portrait, the 84-year-old Clarke stood. Clarke had said it was important to have her portrait hanging in the Capitol so that “little boys and little girls who come to the Capitol could see someone who looks like them.” Perhaps Clarke wanted to make sure that those little boys and girls saw her standing next to her portrait.

When Clarke was elected to the Mississippi House in a 1985 special election, there were three women serving in the Legislature. She is the first woman to have her portrait hung in the Capitol. A bust of former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Gandy is located prominently in a Senate committee room.

Clarke’s portrait was painted by Jackson artist Ryan Mack. The portrait was based on a photograph from 1985 when she was first elected to the Mississippi House.

Mack said on Tuesday that Clarke’s years-long work to establish drug courts that provided treatment opportunities for people convicted of crimes made the invitation to paint the portrait an even bigger honor.

“It is better to treat people than to incarcerate,” Clarke said in the past. “And that is what the drug court does.”

The portrait was hung in the House Education Committee room. She was a member of the Education Committee for most of her tenure, including serving as vice chair, and worked for many years to boost public education across the state.

Clarke’s tenure in the Legislature ended when she chose not to run for reelection in 2019. Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, said Clarke’s colleagues inquired of having her portrait placed in the Capitol. She said former House Speaker Philip Gunn supported the effort as did then-Speaker Pro Tem Jason White, who is now serving as speaker.

During Tuesday’s ceremony, current House Pro Tem Manly Barton, R-Moss Point, praised Clarke’s persistence in getting legislation passed. For years she filed bills to create a state lottery. When it was finally passed in 2018, Clarke’s colleagues chose to name the lottery in her honor.

Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, the House minority leader, said Clarke “effused power but did so with grace and persistence.”

Clarke, a nutritionist and educator, said during a 2019 interview on Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast that she was first encouraged by peers to run for Jackson City Council, but her supporters came to her at some point later and said, “We are no longer running for city council. We are running for the House.”

But she added, “The real person who made the decision was a lady in the Mississippi Delta. I called that person and she said, ‘Haven’t I always told you that you don’t know what you can do unless you try and you haven’t tried that.’ I said, ‘Thank you, Mama.’” At that point, she told her supporters she would run.

Clarke represented District 69 — one of the most densely populated districts in Mississippi. But she grew up in rural Humphreys County.

“I picked cotton, and I took pride,” she said, “I guess in making sure no male in the field could beat me picking cotton.”

Clarke went to Alcorn State on a scholarship and later ended up in Jackson, where for decades she has been an integral part of the community.

Her portrait will forever hang in the Mississippi Capitol.

The post Trailblazing state Rep. Alyce Clarke honored with portrait in state Capitol appeared first on Mississippi Today.

More than 40 years after going coeducational, Mississippi University for Women will ask lawmakers this session to approve a new name: Wynbridge State University of Mississippi. 

President Nora Miller asked the university community to support the new name Tuesday during a presentation in front of the university’s historic Poindexter Hall. It comes out of a multi-year process that saw the university engage a consulting group, conduct listening sessions and surveys, propose a name that flopped, apologize to alumni who felt excluded, then pivot to keeping “The W” brand it had decided to move away from. 

“After all, it is ‘the W’ that bridges us all together,” Miller said to cheers. 

The word “Wynbridge” is a portmanteau of an Old English rune for the letter “W” and the word “bridge,” which is meant to symbolize the university’s relationship to its history, Miller said. Though the new name is similar to ideas proposed by Chernoff Newman, the consulting group, it was created by alumni and faculty. 

In Jackson, Sen. Charles Younger, R-Columbus, told Mississippi Today he filed a bill Tuesday to open the code sections pertaining to the university’s name. In the House, Rep. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus, said he will co-sponsor a bill next week with the chair of the Colleges and Universities committee to support the university’s desired new name.

Younger said he likes Wynbridge State University of Mississippi compared to two other options the univeristy had floated — Wynbright and Welbright — and that the new name will support the university’s efforts to grow its male athletic teams. 

“This is gonna make things better for the W,” he said.

Karriem said he thought the proposed name has a stately and literary quality that he feels everyone can get behind.

“Hopefully this will bring a new light to the W and increase enrollment,” he said.

If lawmakers approve the bill, the university’s new name would be effective July 1. The Commercial Dispatch reported MUW has budgeted $500,000 “for recruiting, advertising and marketing to prospective students.” 

During the presentation, Keith Gaskin, the mayor of Columbus, said the new name is for the betterment of the university and his town and that he will be calling lawmakers to ask them to support Wynbridge State University of Mississippi. 

“They have my unwavering support,” he said. 

Samuel Garrie, the student government association president, said the new name demonstrates the university’s forward-looking approach. 

The university was founded as the Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls.

Laverne Greene-Leech, who was one of five Black students to integrate the university in 1966 when it was known as Mississippi State College for Women, said each of the past four names have symbolized progress.  

“The mission did not change, the building did not change, just the name,” Greene-Leech said. “Change brings about progress, progress brings about change.” 

MUW’s push for a new name is just one way the regional college is attempting to reposition itself to meet an uncertain moment for higher education in Mississippi while maintaining its mission to provide educational opportunities for women. 

The number of high school graduates — and the rate at which they pursue higher education — is poised to fall, which will force increased competition among the state’s community colleges and universities. As a result of declining enrollment, tuition dollars will drop. 

This demographic reality, called the “enrollment cliff,” will be tougher on regionals like MUW. In the last 10 years, enrollment has fallen from 2,366 to 1,933 in fall 2022, according to federal data. Since 2019, the tuition-dependent university has seen its operating deficit outpace state appropriations and its total cash flow dip into the red.

Lawmakers, aware of this shaky outlook, held a hearing on the enrollment cliff last month.

Read more: ‘Mississippi University for Women is betting its future on a new name. Will it work?’

The post Wynbridge State University of Mississippi, proposed new name for MUW, has support from area lawmakers appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Alcorn State Univerity’s interim president appears to have at least some campus support if he wants the full appointment.

But if Mississippi’s public university governing board forgoes a national search and appoints Tracy Cook, it will mark the ninth time in 10 years that it has hired an internal candidate as a top leader. 

One was a university president already. Some were acting or interim presidents when given the full appointment. Others had worked as commissioners within the Institutions of Higher Learning.

Cook, who was the vice president of student affairs when he was tapped as interim, did not respond to inquiries from Mississippi Today asking if he wants the job. But he has what it takes to bring life back to the waning campus, some students, faculty and alumni told members of the IHL Board of Trustees last week. 

“The student body was given a questionnaire, and it was highly expressed that we would like Dr. Cook as our next president,” said Jordan Buck, the student government association president. 

Some of IHL’s internal hires — like Nora Miller, who had served as Mississippi University for Women’s acting president, senior vice president for administration and chief financial officer before the board permanently appointed her the day of the listening sessions — have gone over without a hitch. But others have landed the board in hot water, sparking protests, accusations of favoritism and even bills to abolish IHL.

Just three presidents since 2014 have been hired from outside the state of Mississippi: Jeffrey Vitter at the University of Mississippi, Felecia Nave at Alcorn State and Daniel Ennis at Delta State University, who was appointed following a rare split vote. Nave, who IHL fired last year, was an Alcorn State alumnus. 

Either way, IHL makes an unusually high number of internal hires for a public university system, said Judith Wilde, a George Mason University professor who studies presidential searches. She added internal hires are more common at private universities where presidents are often appointed on the strength of their connections.

“Having a friend in a high place who can help you is good for the candidate,” Wilde said. “I don’t know that it’s always the best for the institution.” 

On the other hand, internal hires could mean that Mississippi’s universities are growing their own, which Bill Crawford, who served on the IHL board from 1992 to 2004, said is a sign of healthy institutions. He noted some of Mississippi’s most esteemed college presidents were internal hires, like Aubrey Lucas, who was president of Delta State before he led USM.

What makes the difference, Crawford said, is proper vetting. In Mississippi and across the country, university presidents are among the best-paid public officials. 

“What you’re trying to do as a board is find the best person, and whatever means you can use to come up with that is what you oughta use,” he said. 

John Sewell, IHL’s spokesperson, wrote in an email that the board’s goal is to find the right person for the position who can be prepared to lead on day one. 

“Decisions of the Board are always made in the best interest of the institution,” he wrote. 

IHL has not released a timeline for the Alcorn State search. At the listening sessions, Alfred Rankins, the commissioner and former Alcorn State president, said the board would decide what kind of search to conduct after hearing the community’s feedback. 

When trustees meet for IHL’s regular board meeting later this week, they could likely discuss how to proceed during the executive session. Typically following the listening sessions, the board hires a headhunting firm and convenes a search committee of students, faculty, staff and alumni. 

But even if IHL decides to conduct a national search, the board can change its mind. 

IHL is constitutionally empowered to hire the university presidents, and board policies give trustees the authority to cut a search short at any time. That’s what happened in 2022, when IHL suspended its search to hire USM’s interim president, Joe Paul, after he received support during the listening sessions. 

Paul’s appointment was largely applauded by faculty — including ones who had criticized IHL for empaneling a search committee with no rank-and-file faculty voices. 

But at Jackson State University, IHL’s decision to name its deputy commissioner, Marcus Thompson, as president last year despite conducting a full-fledged national search drew ire. 

At Alcorn State, Rankins, who was serving as deputy commissioner and had been acting president of Mississippi Valley State University, was an internal hire when he was appointed in 2014. 

The following year, Cook came to Alcorn State to be Rankins’ chief of staff. Till then, Cook, an alumnus and one of Alcorn State’s best-ever football players, had spent his career working in various administrative levels in Jefferson and Claiborne county schools. 

In 2018, Cook was promoted to interim vice president for student affairs, a position that came with a $20,000 pay bump. That same year, after Rankins became the IHL commissioner, Cook served on the advisory committee for IHL’s search for Rankins’ replacement. 

In 2019, Cook was named vice president of student affairs permanently. He also oversaw enrollment management. Total enrollment at Alcorn State has fallen from 3,523 in fall 2019 to 2,894 in fall 2023, according to IHL and federal data. 

Like Rankins, Cook is a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, which may have more college presidents than any historically Black fraternity in the nation. 

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