A former Noxubee County deputy will spend one day in prison after a federal judge said Tuesday that the jailed woman he had sex with for years “wasn’t really a victim.”
District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III also gave Vance Phillips a $2,500 fine and eight months’ home detention that will enable him to continue his job with the ambulance service, go to church and see a doctor if he needs to.
The judge described the inmate — who accused Phillips and others of sexual abuse in a lawsuit — as a willing participant who exchanged sexual favors for contraband.
In both Mississippi and federal prisons, it is a crime for an officer to bring in contraband. It is also a felony to have sex with any inmate. Under state law, a convicted officer faces up to five years in prison; under federal law, that maximum is 15 years.
District Attorney Scott Colom, whose office handles criminal cases in Noxubee County, chose to pass his 2020 investigation on to federal prosecutors because of worries about getting a fair jury in such a small county.
It would take two years for a grand jury to indict Phillips and former Sheriff Terry Grassaree.
Instead of being charged with a sex crime, he faced federal bribery charges. In this case, the bribes were exchanging sexual favors and photographs for bringing contraband, including tobacco and cellphones, into the Noxubee County Jail.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Purdie said the jailed woman spent four years behind bars, from 2015 to 2019, for a homicide she didn’t commit and did what she had to do in order to survive. No officer was charged with bringing contraband into the jail, but she was.
In her victim impact statement read to the court, Elizabeth Layne Reed said she felt she had to give people what they wanted to avoid further punishment.
She said she was “heavily impacted” by what Phillips and his then-boss, Grassaree, did to her.
“I feel guilty for his family members who didn’t know what was going on, but I don’t feel guilty about Vance Phillips who knowingly did what he did,” she wrote. “Women and men are supposed to be protected while they are incarcerated.”
She said the abuse has created “trust issues” in her relationship with her husband.
She also said she prays that people who sexually abuse those behind bars are held accountable and that she hopes other victims “will use their voice and come forward” to help “stop the abuse that happens every day” behind bars.
Public Defender Princess Abby said Phillips was an officer who dreamed of becoming a state trooper. “Now that dream is out the window,” she said.
She argued for four months’ house detention, saying Phillips was an otherwise respected member of his community who played the drums for his church band and had no previous criminal history.
She said what happened was “outside his normal behavior” and that he is now married with three sons.
But Jordan noted that what happened was far from a one-time indiscretion. Instead, he said, Phillips had sex with the inmate for years.
He called what the then-deputy did “a considerable breach of public trust.”
But in sentencing Phillips, the judge also blamed the jailed woman and said, “It would be different if she was raped.”
In her 2020 lawsuit, Reed said that multiple deputies and Grassaree touched her sexually as well as demanded nude photographs from her contraband cellphone. Noxubee County settled that lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.
The judge noted that Phillips is currently working a 60-hour-week job and that he didn’t want to disturb that.
He said a stack of character letters said “glowing” things about Phillips, but he noted that many barely knew about the crime. One writer called the former deputy a “fall guy,” but Jordan said that wasn’t true because Phillips wasn’t the last deputy to have sex with the jailed woman.
Grassaree faces sentencing on Wednesday. He has already pleaded guilty to lying to an FBI agent on July 13, 2020, about making Reed take and share nude photos and videos in exchange for favorable treatment, which included making her a trusted inmate, also known as a trusty.
Jordan said the federal sentencing guidelines put Phillips’ prison time at between 8 and 14 months. The judge said the guidelines on Grassaree’s sentence are even less.
As Phillips walked out of the courtroom wearing a jeweled silver cross necklace, he told reporters, “I just want to thank God I’m not going to jail.”
Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart, in full equestrian attire, share a golf cart at the Paris Olympics equestrian dressage competition on August 3. (Photo by: Rolf Vennenbernd//AP Images
This was February of 2014. A group of us, including Malcolm White, were sitting in the Oyster Bar at Hal and Mal’s in downtown Jackson just past 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night. Snoop Dogg, the famous rapper and oft-times cannabis proponent, was supposed to have gone on stage at 9 in the big room, but had yet to arrive.
Malcolm’s cellphone rang. He answered. I heard only one side of a two-sided conversation between Mal and Snoop’s road manager.
Rick Cleveland
“Yeah,” Mal said. “We’re just sitting here waiting….”
Mal raised his eyebrows, held up his phone, pointed at it, and listened for a few seconds.
“Yeah, we got a big crowd here, over 900 folks, and they’re getting a little anxious…”
The fact is, a few angry folks had already approached Mal asking for their money back.
“Snoop is just now leaving McComb, you say? He’s bringing a crowd? Oh boy…”
Mal listened some more, his expression becoming more than a little incredulous.
“Two hundred chicken wings! Man, it’s going on 10:30 on a Tuesday night in Jackson, Mississippi. We’ll have plenty to drink, some snacks, but there’s not gonna be 200 chicken wings. Y’all, come on…”
‘The star of the Paris games’
This was the promotion poster for Snoop Dogg’s 2014 visit to Hal & Mal’s.
About 90 minutes later Snoop showed up with a busload of family and friends in tow. He went on just before midnight. He rapped and danced around the stage for 90 minutes. The sold-out crowd, dancing and singing along, loved him.
That was just a decade ago, so I called my good friend Malcolm this morning and we reminisced about that night. I asked him: “Ten years ago, did you have Snoop Dogg hosting the 2024 Olympics in Paris on your bingo card?”
“No,” Mal answered. “I did not.”
Neither did I.
But here he is night after night on our TV screens. With apologies to Simone Biles, perhaps the most athletic human being ever, Snoop Dogg has become the centerpiece of these Olympics. As an Associated Press report put it: “Snoop, 52, has become the star of the Paris Games, ascending to new heights with several memorable moments. He’s carried the Olympic torch, captivated the audience as NBC’s primetime correspondent, swam with Michael Phelps, attended the U.S. women’s soccer game with Megan Rapinoe, danced with Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles, and cheered on Caeleb Dressel alongside the swimmer’s wife and son.”
NBC reportedly is paying Snoop $500,000 a day, plus expenses. He’s come a long way since that Tuesday night gig at Hal and Mal’s 10 years ago.
Malcolm White Credit: Rogelio V. Solis, AP
“I’m pretty sure we got the family discount,” Mal says.
Some readers might wonder why Snoop, a California native already quite famous in 2014, was at Hal and Mal’s on a Tuesday night. Here’s the scoop, directly from Malcolm in his book “The Artful Evolution of Hal & Mal’s,” published by University Press in 2018: “We have hosted thousands of great artists and presented many memorable shows, but I get asked about Snoop Dogg more than almost anybody else. Calvin Broadus, Jr. (AKA Snoop Dogg) was born in 1971 in Long Beach, Cal., but his father Vernell Varnado, is from Magnolia, and his mother was born Beverly Tate in McComb. When he visits his people in southwest Mississippi, he delights us by dropping in at Hal & Mal’s, thrilling the sellout crowds and causing the stay-at-homes to marvel that he is playing our place.”
Arden Barnett
Arden Barnett, of Ardenland productions, booked the show and has booked Snoop for other Mississippi venues. Says Barnett, “He’s just as he appears. He has always been great, always as nice as can be, just about the nicest guy in the world.”
That niceness comes across the TV screen and also in person.
Archie Manning and his sons count Snoop as a pal. Manning met Snoop years and years ago when both participated in a celebrity flag football game at the Super Bowl. Snoop has appeared on the Manning’s ESPN Monday night football broadcast and has done a Corona beer commercial with Eli Manning.
“Snoop says he wants to be my fourth son,” Manning said last week. “He calls me Daddy Dogg. He’s a huge sports fan.
Snoop sent Manning a taped video greeting recently on the occasion of Manning’s 75th birthday. Eli Manning talked about the birthday video during his Jackson visit last week for his induction into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. “It was pretty cool, about what you’d expect,” Eli said. “Put it this way: I don’t think all that smoke was coming from any blown out candles.”
The University of Mississippi Medical Center in April laid off seven specially trained medical providers who transport children and babies in need of critical care from hospitals around the state to Jackson.
The cuts brought the total number of staff on the pediatric and neonatal transport teams from 21 to 14.
UMMC officials said the reduction was the result of a routine evaluation looking for operational efficiencies.
The transport teams offer timely, hospital-level care in a specialized ambulance for critically sick or injured children and babies. The teams are made up of specially certified paramedics, nurses and nurse practitioners, and the ambulances house more equipment and medicines than regular ambulances – “more than … most rural hospitals have,” according to a January 2023 UMMC press release highlighting a pediatric transport team member.
The teams can also provide care in a hospital’s emergency room before transporting the patient to Jackson.
Prior to the layoffs, the Mississippi Center for Emergency Services, which oversees the transport teams, housed one pediatric critical care ambulance and one neonatal critical care ambulance. Two of each provider plus a driver would go on each ambulance to respond to each call.
A former employee says both teams were “already strapped” to respond to the calls that came in before the teams were reduced and combined into one.
Further reducing their ability to respond to these calls, the employee said, “is a real disservice to the children of Mississippi.” The person spoke to Mississippi Today on the condition of anonymity out of career concerns.
UMMC did not answer questions from Mississippi Today specifically about how the decision to cut the teams was made or address what kind of impact it will have on children in need of this care in remote areas of the state.
“Medical Center units routinely evaluate their operational models to identify efficiencies. A thorough review of our transport programs revealed that we could redesign models for some teams and continue to fulfill responsibilities,” said Patrice Guilfoyle, a spokesperson for UMMC, in an emailed statement. “Appropriate allocation of resources allows for investment in more areas that address the needs of Mississippians.”
After the layoffs, however, there is one truck for both teams, and one pediatric and one neonatal provider total to respond to calls.
Neighboring Arkansas – which also has one children’s hospital in the state – has a similarly modeled transport team. It is cross trained for both pediatric and neonatal transports, according to a spokesperson with Arkansas Children’s.
“All Angel One transports are staffed by a nurse and respiratory therapist with support from medical control, an intensive care specialist from our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or Pediatric Intensive Care Unit who can provide specialized guidance,” spokesperson Hilary DeMillo said.
UMMC’s chief financial officer said in May that the medical center is experiencing “very strong revenues” for both May and the year to date. In April, she also reported revenues of $177 million, or $16 million over budget.
“I do expect this year to be even better than this,” she said of future financial projections.
Transport volume numbers for the months of May and June – the two months following the layoffs – were at their lowest in a 12-month period for the pediatric transport team, according to records obtained by Mississippi Today through a public records request. The numbers for the neonatal team in May and June did not see a noticeable decrease.
Marc Rolph, executive director of communications and marketing for UMMC, said there was a two-week staff training period in May that “temporarily limited our operational capabilities.”
Rolph did not answer why the numbers were lower in June or how they compared to the same months’ numbers in previous years.
Mississippi Today also requested the number of missed calls – or requests for transports that came in and were not fulfilled – for a 12-month period beginning in June 2023. UMMC responded to the request that there were no such records.
University of Mississippi Medical Center’s monthly pediatric and neonatal team transport numbers. The teams were reduced in April of 2024.
Most Mississippi hospitals contacted by Mississippi Today declined to weigh in on the impact of the changes.
UMMC has the state’s only children’s hospital and the highest level neonatal intensive care unit and trauma center.
The hospital’s transport teams are voluntarily accredited by the Commission on the Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems and have been since July of 2015, according to Jan Eichel, the associate executive director of the organization.
The accreditation standards require two critical care providers per vehicle.
“It’s not uncommon to have a cross-trained team” like the new combined pediatric and neonatal transport teams at UMMC, she said. “They should be very proud that they are adhering to the highest standards in patient care and safety.”
Editor’s note: Kate Royals, Mississippi Today’s community health editor since January 2022, worked as a writer/editor for UMMC’s Office of Communications from November 2018 through August 2020, writing press releases and features about the medical center’s schools of dentistry and nursing.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has sent out long-awaited payments to minority farmers and others in need of aid, but some say it’s not enough to offset years of discrimination.
The department issued more than $2.2 billion in payments to more than 43,000 farmers across the country in the last week of July, with much of that money going to farmers in the Mississippi River delta states. That includes 1,265 farmers from Louisiana, over 13,000 in Mississippi, and 11,000 in Alabama.
“I am excited about this money being disbursed. I’m thankful for the people who already received these settlements and I’m waiting on ours,” said Johnson Gaston, who said she has yet to receive an official letter from the USDA.
“It would mean justice for my family,” she said.
The money aims to address a history of discriminatory lending practices by the USDA against Black and other minority farmers. A study shows that over the 20th century, Black farmers lost over $320 billion in land, partly due to that discrimination.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said the Biden Administration hopes the money will help thousands stay on the farm.
“This financial assistance is not compensation for anyone’s loss or the pain endured, but it is an acknowledgement by the department,” he said at a White House press briefing on July 31.
Farmers have been waiting on this kind of money for years. An initial round of payments stalled after white farmers and banks sued over the first version of the program in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. The plan had a provision that set aside $4 billion for socially disadvantaged farmers, meaning those who had faced racial or ethnic discrimination.
A provision in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 repealed that debt relief and replaced it with $3.1 billion for economically distressed farmers. Most of that money has already been doled out, Vilsack said.
The other component was the $2.2 billion for farmers who faced any type of discrimination by the USDA before 2021, not just racial. Black and brown farmers who were already expecting aid money had to fill out a new application and explain how they faced discriminated. That led some of them to sue the USDA.
Angie Provost and her husband June, who farm sugar cane in Louisiana’s Iberia Parish, helped push for the original legislation as they struggled to get loans in the past – due, they said, to discrimination from their local USDA offices.
“As [June] took over the farm, there have been numerous hurdles for him to cross that sort of harken back to the days of Jim Crow contract leasing and indentured servitude,” Angie Provost said.
Provost and her husband are also suing the USDA separately. She said USDA could have made the application process easier and less stressful for them.
The Johnson family of central Mississippi – from left to right, Albert Johnson Jr., Herman Johnson, Albert Johnson Sr., Charlene Johnson Gatson, Linda Johnson and Flora Johnson Hayes – sought federal aid after facing decades of discrimination. Credit: CrImani Khayyam/Ag & Water Desk
Many farmers in Louisiana had trouble with the long application and with gathering proof they had been discriminated against, according to Ebony Woodruff, director of the Southern University Law Center Agricultural Law Institute for Underserved and Underrepresented Communities.
“Remember, a lot of this stuff happened decades ago, and in a place like Louisiana, we have hurricanes coming through, houses are destroyed, people didn’t have the paperwork to supplement their applications,” she said.
The USDA said it has tried to make it easier for farmers to get records from the agency to help them get proof.
“The problem is now that you have put the burden back on the farmer to prove the discrimination,” said Woodruff.
Monica Rainge, USDA Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, said the question of discrimination on the application was left open-ended on purpose.
“This was not an adversarial thing,” said Rainge. “It was really up to the producer to tell his or her own story about how they experienced discrimination.”
Now that the funding has gone out, Woodruff said the USDA should keep trying to fix equity issues affecting Black farmers. She wants to see more transparency from the agency, and for those who discriminated against loan applicants to be removed from those positions.
“The discrimination that’s happening in these local county committee offices is still occurring in 2024,” she said.
She added that her institute has lobbied the USDA to make its loans process easier for producers. Rainge said the USDA shortened the application from 29 pages to 13 and has also invested in more assistance for producers interacting with their local USDA offices.
“This program is a one-time payment, and we recognize that further investment will be needed to continue to level the playing field for farmers,” Rainge said.
OXFORD — Mississippi lawmakers weaken the power of Black voters by drawing state Supreme Court districts that make it difficult for them to elect a justice, an attorney representing several citizens and public officials from the Delta told a federal judge Monday.
But during opening arguments of a redistricting trial, an attorney representing state officials told U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock in Oxford that Black citizens have repeatedly selected their preferred candidates to the state’s highest court.
Mississippi law establishes three distinct Supreme Court districts, commonly referred to as the Northern, Central and Southern districts. Voters elect three judges from each of these districts to make up the nine-member court. These districts have not been redrawn since 1987.
The main district at issue in the case is the Central District, which comprises many parts of the majority-Black Delta and the majority-Black Jackson metro area. Currently, two white justices, Kenny Griffis and James Kitchens, and one Black justice, Leslie King, represent the district.
The lawsuit was filed in April 2022 by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Mississippi, the Southern Poverty Law Center and private law firms on behalf of a group of Black Mississippians including state Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, and Ty Pinkins, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate.
Ari Savitzky is an attorney for the plaintiffs. He told Aycock that expert testimony throughout the trial will show that Black candidates face steep odds getting elected to the court. He believes a new Black-majority district could be drawn to remedy that hurdle.
“This is an important case, your honor,” Savitzky said. “It matters tremendously for Black voters, and the state of Mississippi. It matters to the future of this state where the next generation of lawyers and leaders will be able to see themselves in the highest offices and whether they’ll have a path to get there.”
All four Black Mississippians who have served on the Supreme Court were first appointed to the post by governors and then later won election to the post as incumbents. All four have represented the Central District.
In 2020, Court of Appeals Judge Latrice Westbrooks attempted to become the first Black Mississippi to be elected to the Supreme Court before first being appointed by a governor. She lost a close election to Griffis, who was running for the post for the first time after being appointed to a vacant slot on the court by then-Gov. Phil Bryant.
The three Supreme Court districts also are used to elect the three-member Public Service and Transportation commissions.
Special Assistant Attorney General Rex Shannon III is an attorney representing the state officials. He argued that the plaintiffs’ case is weakened since voters in the Central District elected Willie Simmons to the Transportation Commission and DeKeither Stamps to the Public Service Commission. Both officials are Black.
“Plaintiffs first have to prove that the Central District lines abridge their right to vote,” Shannon said. “None of the plaintiffs allege they’re being denied a right to vote.”
Demographers, political candidates and political scientists are expected to testify at the non-jury trial, which is expected to last around 10 days. It’s unclear when Judge Aycock would issue a final ruling. After her ruling, an aggrieved party could appeal to the New Orleans-based U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Health insurance costs will increase an average of $480 annually or 160% for Mississippians on the Affordable Care Act marketplace health insurance exchange in 2026 unless Congress takes action to extend federal subsidies.
The enhanced subsidies that were enacted during COVID-19 and extended through the federal Inflation Reduction Act are scheduled to end starting in 2026 unless they are renewed by Congress. The enhanced subsidies have led to large increases in marketplace participation in Southern states such as Mississippi.
According to a report by KFF, a national non-profit that focuses on health care issues, there are 280,000, mostly low-income Mississippians receiving health insurance through the marketplace exchange. The vast majority of those fit into income categories that receive federal subsidies to help pay for the cost of health insurance. And most of those on the exchange in Mississippians fall below 150% of the federal poverty level (income of $22,590 a year or lower for an individual) and can receive insurance with little or no monthly premiums. The low-income policyholders, though, still pay deductibles and out of pocket expenses.
If the enhanced subsidies expire, smaller subsidies would still be available through the Affordable Care Act for low income people who have health insurance policies through the marketplace. But many middle income people garnering insurance through the ACA exchange would no longer qualify for any subsidies to help pay their costs.
The November outcome of the 2024 presidential election and congressional races across the country could determine whether the subsidies are renewed.
KFF speculates that if Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, wins election this November she would attempt to extend the enhanced subsidies that were enacted as part of legislation championed by outgoing President Joe Biden.
It is not clear what action Trump would take on the enhanced subsidies if elected, but during his first term he is credited for action that harmed marketplace participation. The Center for American Progress said the Trump administration reduced outreach effort designed to let people know about the marketplace and reduced the time period to sign up for marketplace policies. Plus, he attempted to repeal the ACA. During his current campaign, Trump at times has spoken about wanting to improve the ACA and at other times talked about repealing it. He has offered no specifics, according to a KFF analysis.
“If the enhanced subsidies expire, almost all ACA Marketplace enrollees will experience steep increases in premium payments in 2026. However, the subsidies come at a steep cost to taxpayers,” the KFF study said.
The enhanced subsidies have reduced premiums nationwide by an average of 44%. But to renew and expand them for 10 years would cost $335 billion, the Congressional Budget Office estimates.
The KFF study — Inflation Reduction Act Health Insurance Subsidies: What is Their Impact and What Would Happen if They Expire – estimates that nationwide 21.4 million people receive health insurance through the exchange and 19.7 million of those people receive the enhanced subsidies. Because of legislation passed during Biden’s tenure, people earning less than 150% of the federal poverty level pay little or no monthly premiums. If the enhanced subsidies go away, KFF estimates premium costs will be $780 annually for low-income Mississippians.
The KFF study said the subsidies are having the most impact in Southern states.
The study said, “At least 10% of the population is enrolled in ACA Marketplace plans throughout all congressional districts in Florida and South Carolina, along with most in Texas, Georgia, and Utah. In Florida, there are nine congressional districts where at least 20% of the population is enrolled in a marketplace plan.”
The marketplace exchange is most impactful in states that have not expanded Medicaid to provide health care for the working poor. Only 10 states have not expanded Medicaid, including Texas, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina and West Virginia in the South.
According to an NBC report, the five states that had the largest increases in marketplace participation between 2020 and 2024, which covers the time of the enhanced subsidies, are all Southern states that have not expanded Medicaid.
They are:
Texas, 195% increase
Mississippi, 172%
Georgia, 165%
Tennessee, 160%
South Carolina, 154%
With the exception of Georgia, all are states that Trump won in 2020 during his unsuccessful reelection effort.
Low-income people earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level (about $20,700 for an individual) can obtain coverage through Medicaid in states that have expanded Medicaid instead of having to rely on the marketplace plans.
People earning less than 100% of the federal poverty level cannot obtain coverage through the marketplace and have no other option for health insurance in states, such as Mississippi, that have not expanded Medicaid.
Both Medicaid expansion and the marketplace are components of the Affordable Care Act.
Patricia Roberts Harris Credit: U.S. Postal Service
Patricia Roberts Harris began serving as secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under President Jimmy Carter after serving for two years as secretary of Housing and Urban Development. It was one of many firsts for Harris.
She became involved in the civil rights movement while attending Howard University, taking part in a sit-in. She was the first Black woman to serve in the presidential cabinet and the first Black woman to enter the presidential line of succession.
When someone questioned her ability to represent the underclass, she shot back, “You do not seem to understand who I am. I am a Black woman, the daughter of a Pullman (railroad) car waiter. I am a Black woman who even eight years ago could not buy a house in parts of the District of Columbia. I didn’t start out as a member of a prestigious law firm, but as a woman who needed a scholarship to go to school. If you think I have forgotten that, you are wrong.”
The University of Mississippi is in the midst of restructuring its Division of Diversity and Community Engagement as other universities across the state have already made changes to their diversity, equity and inclusion offices, potentially in an effort to ward off a legislative ban.
Earlier this year, the head of Mississippi State University’s diversity division gave a presentation to faculty on the restructuring that was announced last fall. As of July 1, the University of Southern Mississippi’s renamed “Office of Community and Belonging” will serve a broader audience, a spokesperson confirmed.
Delta State University did not to refill its DEI coordinator after the position was vacated last year, according to a statement. The job was eliminated during the recent budget cuts.
At all three institutions, the universities told Mississippi Today the changes did not come with a reduction to any programs, scholarships or initiatives that aim to support the enrollment, retention and employment of students and faculty from historically marginalized groups such as racial minorities, veterans, first-generation and low-income students. In higher education, DEI traditionally refers to a range of administrative efforts to comply with civil rights laws and foster a sense of on-campus belonging among those populations.
At Ole Miss, it’s unclear if the university’s restructuring of the division will result in a reduction to any of the efforts the university announced in its ambitious “Pathways to Equity” plan three years ago.
“University leaders are working to determine the best way to align our resources to focus on what matters for educational attainment and student success,” a spokesperson, Jacob Batte, wrote in an email to Mississippi Today. “We anticipate some changes will be forthcoming, but the internal review is not completed.”
Across the country, conservative legislation has caused universities to shutter such offices, reassign or fire employees, and end scholarships andprograms aimed at supporting marginalized students.Fourteen states have passed laws banning or restricting DEI practices of some kind, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Just last week, the University of Alabama System announced its campuses would close offices and reassign staffin response to a law banning DEI offices, programming and training in state agencies, AL.com reported.
The changes at Mississippi’s universities have come without a legislative mandate. Mississippi lawmakers have nominally banned the teaching of critical race theory, but the Republican-controlled Legislature has not put the kibosh on funding for DEI initiatives. Earlier this year, Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, introduced a bill that would have done so, but it died in a House committee.
Universities in Arkansas and South Carolina also preemptively reorganized their DEI offices, according to Inside Higher Ed. In both states, lawmakers have not passed a ban. The University of Missouri at Columbia announced a similar move earlier this week.
In Mississippi, the state’s loudest advocate for a DEI ban, State Auditor Shad White, focused much of his speech at the Neshoba County Fair this week on DEI. He has used his office to audit DEI programs at the eight public universities, including his alma mater, Ole Miss. In interviews and on social media, White has repeatedly warned about the “dangers of DEI,” saying it teaches college students “that we have to discriminate against some people because of the color of their skin.”
Last year, White’s office determined the eight universities have spent at least $23 million in state and institutional funds since 2019 on a range of DEI programs, including affinity groups for minority students, programming like International Student Month, and staff members to support students who are veterans.
The bulk of DEI spending occurred at Mississippi’s five predominantly white institutions, with the three historically Black institutions having little programs or initiatives to report. Alcorn State University reported scholarships for non-Black students as DEI spending.
Changes across the system
Mississippi Today asked every university in Mississippi about possible changes to their DEI programs, including if there has been a reduction in any related programs or jobs.
At some schools, it’s unclear what changes, if any, have occurred. Mississippi Valley State University did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did Alcorn State, which listed an Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion on the state auditor’s report. The university’s website now lists an Office of Educational Equity and Inclusion, but a spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
In response to questions from Mississippi Today, a Jackson State University spokesperson responded “I have no new info to share with you.”
Though USM renamed its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion last month, its mission remains unchanged, according a statement from the university.
“The Southern Miss family is comprised of many first-generation students and graduates, and that is something we are very proud of,” Eddie Holloway, a senior associate provost who helped lead the restructuring, said in a statement. “Ensuring these, and all students at Southern Miss, have opportunities to learn, lead and excel, remains a key priority for our institution.”
Last November, Mississippi State University announced a new organizational structure for its Division for Access, Diversity and Inclusion, as well as a new name. It is now called the Division of Access, Opportunity and Success. This effort got underway in 2020 in an effort to lessen disparate outcomes that a taskforce found among first-generational, low-income and racial minority students at the university.
Alongside the renaming, the university moved programs aimed at low-income, housing insecure and first-generation students under the Office of Access and Success, according to a presentation the division’s vice president, Ra’Sheda Boddie-Forbes, gave to the faculty senate earlier this year.
Boddie-Forbes told the faculty senate it’s not a secret that DEI has come under attack but that it was important for Mississippi State to continue the work of trying to help students from all backgrounds earn a degree. She said she had spoken with President Mark Keenum about how to protect and expand efforts to support the university’s marginalized students.
“When we think about how we deepen that work at the institution, one of the things that we know we can do is think about the nomenclature associated with the work,” she said, according to a recording of the meeting. “So, how does our work become more grounded in the fact that we’re doing work around ‘access,’ we’re doing work around ‘opportunity,’ and we’re doing work around ‘success?’ So that’s what we decided to do.”
In a statement, Sid Salter, MSU’s vice president for strategic communications, said the restructuring did not result in the loss of any programs, initiatives, scholarships or jobs but that the university’s offerings are “constantly evaluated and are subject to change as the needs of our students evolve.”
“MSU’s Division of Access, Opportunity and Success exists with the express mission of providing programming and assistance to students to help them be successful in obtaining a college degree,” Salter wrote. “Our students come from many diverse backgrounds – some are first-generation college students, some are from the foster system, some are disabled, some are veterans, some have economic challenges – and the list goes on.”
Delta State University, according to a university webpage, started developing diversity initiatives in 2007. DEI programs, which have not been reduced, are now run through student affairs, according to an email from a spokesperson.
A spokesperson for Mississippi University for Women, which does not appear to have a DEI office, said the university had not made any changes.
‘An example for the nation and the world’
At Ole Miss, the division in question was founded in 2017 as a hub for various diversity initiatives the university had developed over the years.
But its primary responsibility was implementing the university’s ambitious “Pathways to Equity” plan that committed the campus to three, five-year goals: Create more capacity for equity on campus, cultivate a diverse community and foster an inclusive climate. Each administrative school was charged with creating its own DEI goals.
The university hoped the plan could be an inspiration to other institutions.
“By taking this responsibility seriously and plotting a principled and measurable path forward, we also can play a role in setting an example for the nation and the world,” Provost Noel Wilkin said in a 2021 press release.
Ole Miss has achieved some of the plan’s specific goals, such as commemorating the 60th anniversary of the university’s integration. The number of Black faculty at the university has increased but still comprises a small portion of the more than 600 faculty, according to IHL and federal data.
On other goals, progress has been a struggle. Since the plan was announced, the number of Black students on campus has steadily fallen, according to IHL data of on-campus headcount enrollment. In 2023, Ole Miss enrolled 2,156 Black students — several hundred less than it did in 2013.
Many Mississippi higher ed officials support DEI
This trend is not unique to Ole Miss. The IHL system enrolls fewer Black students than it used to while white enrollment remains roughly the same, though the root cause of this trend is likely complex.
Still, higher education officials in Mississippi continue to say diversity is an important part of their campuses. As of January last year, the governing board of Mississippi’s eight universities evaluates the college presidents, whom the board has the power to hire and fire, based in part on how well they promote “campus diversity.”
The Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees’ policies and bylaws also includes a diversity statement, last issued in 2013, that reads in part, “Institutions of higher learning have a moral and educational responsibility to ensure that talent is developed in all our citizens, and that our universities, individually and collectively, are strengthened by diversity in student bodies, faculties, administration, and in all areas offering employment opportunities, including construction, financing and consulting.”
When IHL held its annual diversity awards earlier this year, the trustee who presented the awards, Steven Cunningham, a radiologist who attended Jackson State University, thanked the presidents for supporting diversity on their campuses.
“In this current environment of nationwide, orchestrated assaults against DEI programs by organizations such as the Claremont Institute and others like it, you guys continue to foster representative communities on your campuses, and I just want to thank you for your courage and your leadership in that endeavor, so thank you so much guys,” Cunningham said. “Those thoughts are mine and mine alone, and I approve that message.”
The Claremont Institute is a conservative think-tank based in California with ties to former President Donald Trump that has helped to lead the movement against DEI programs, according to the New York Times.
In a sit-down video recorded last fall, Keenum discussed Mississippi State’s diversity programming with Salter.
The president said he was passionate about and defensive of the work Mississippi State does to support marginalized students. Keenum added that the total bans on DEI programs in states like Texas and Florida came from a place of misunderstanding.
“Because of the perception that there’s a ‘woke indoctrination,’ they’re missing the fact that these programs are here to help students succeed that come to us with different backgrounds,” Keenum said. “And that’s what we’re about here at Mississippi State.”
“What I heard you say and what I’ve heard Ra’Sheda say as she talks about reorganizing her division is access opportunity and student success,” Salter responded. “And those are all goals nobody can argue with.”
Spring 2024 preliminary state test results reported to districts across the state were scored incorrectly according to the Mississippi Department of Education, leading the agency to end a contract with the company responsible for the error.
School districts across the state were left scrambling to re-assess the corrected data, which they use to make determinations about everything from graduation requirements to instructional strategies for the 2024-25 school year, which for some districts has already begun. Some students ended up meeting graduation requirements and graduating in the summertime.
The majority of initial data was incorrect due to erroneous scoring by the Northwest Evaluation Association — the Oregon-based company the state contracted with to provide and process the tests. In a July 18 meeting, the State Board of Education voted to sever their contract with the company, which the state has been working with since 2015. The Mississippi Academic Assessment Program measures student achievement in English Language Arts, mathematics, science and U.S. history.
The average yearly contract with the company has been $8,161,518.84.
“We were not aware that there was any type of error when we initially received the files from the vendor, but we were concerned,” Paula Vanderford, chief accountability officer for MDE, said.
At the state level, the dip in proficiency scores raised eyebrows, but MDE staff was unable to identify anything that would confirm the scores were inaccurate.
The results were then shared with school districts. Many districts reported knowing that something was wrong as soon as the scores were returned to them, because of their ability to look at individual student performance.
“The word I kept using was unexpected,” said Ryan Kuykendall, chief accountability officer for DeSoto County Public Schools, the largest public school district in the state. “We do a lot of assessments throughout the year to track student progress and adjust our instruction, so the hope is that when the state assessment comes back you sort of know where the students are. So, the results were unexpected.”
The data was released to school districts on June 17. By July 2, after communication with districts about their concerns, the state confirmed that the data was erroneous and that they would be receiving a new batch of data.
This put a squeeze on central offices across the state, who had to process the test results for a second time, in a fraction of the time.
“It was extra work. There’s no way to deny that. The way I viewed it and tried to get across to our department is that we’re just after the correct results. Whatever the correct results are, are what we need,” Kuykendall said. “But I can’t pretend that it didn’t make our administrative schedule very difficult and tight.”
MDE identified the error, but it had to rely on the vendor to fix the programming error that led to the erroneous scoring and provide the state with correct data.
Though a different vendor processes the 5th and 8th grade science, biology and U.S. History MAAP assessments, all state test results were processed again to ensure accuracy, State Superintendent of Education Lance Evans said.
MDE was unable to provide details about the severance of its contract with NWEA, but awarded an emergency contract to Data Recognition Corp. for the upcoming school year. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, of which NWEA is a division, will continue to be the provider for the state’s alternative assessments.
“In short, faulty item parameters used in our scoring process resulted in incorrect achievement level thresholds, which determine how students perform on an assessment,” Simona Beattie, communications director for NWEA, said in an email. “While we are disappointed in the decision made by the Mississippi State Department of Education to terminate our contract…we understand the state’s frustration and are focusing on our continued work with MDE to provide its alternative state assessments.”
Statewide, the Mississippi Department of Education has been notified of 12 students across seven districts who became eligible to graduate after the assessments were rescored, and graduated this summer. None of the scoring changes resulted in those students passing the tests — Mississippi students who score well enough on subject area tests can graduate if their class scores are high enough.
UPDATE 8/2/24: This story has been updated to correct the date the data was released to school districts.
