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Rod Paige, a Mississippi native, lifetime educator and the first Black person to serve as U.S. education secretary, died Tuesday at his home in Texas.

His family announced his death in a statement but did not share the cause. Paige was 92.

Paige’s career in education spanned departments and titles, from teacher to football coach to superintendent of the Houston Independent School District in Texas. In 2001, President George W. Bush tapped Paige to serve as the seventh secretary of education. 

Over the next four years, Paige led the rollout of Bush’s signature No Child Left Behind Act, which mandated standardized testing and sanctions for schools that failed to meet benchmarks, aiming to close the academic gap between students from different backgrounds. The policy was modeled on Paige’s work in Houston. 

“Rod was a leader and a friend,” Bush said in a statement. “Unsatisfied with the status quo, he challenged what we called ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations.’ Rod worked hard to make sure that where a child was born didn’t determine whether they could succeed in school and beyond. He devoted his life to America’s young people and made a difference.”

The son of two educators, Roderick Raynor Paige was born in 1933 in Monticello, a small town in Lawrence County in south Mississippi. He received a bachelor’s degree from Jackson State University, and after a stint in the U.S. Navy and in high school and junior college coaching positions, he returned to the university as head coach.

He moved to Houston in the 1970s to serve as the head football coach and athletic director at Texas Southern University, but pivoted to the classroom in the 1980s. He went on to establish the university’s Center for Excellence in Urban Education and served as dean of the college of education from 1984 to 1994. 

In 1994, he was selected as superintendent of Houston Independent School District, which was then one of the largest school districts in the country. 

His work there — more rigorous standards for student outcomes, teacher incentive pay and an expanded charter school sector — led to higher student test scores and garnered the attention of Bush.

Paige would return to Jackson in 2016 to briefly serve as interim president of Jackson State University.

“I am a Jacksonian, and I am interested in JSU being the greatest it can be,” Paige said at the time. 

The university shared a statement Tuesday mourning Paige’s passing and underscoring his “enduring impact.” 

“Dr. Paige’s leadership, integrity, and belief in the power of learning left a lasting mark on every institution he touched,” said Jackson Mayor John Horhn in a statement. “The City of Jackson extends heartfelt condolences to his devoted wife, Stephanie, and to the Paige family. We are grateful for Dr. Paige’s legacy and for the example he set as a son of Mississippi.”

The full Senate has voted to confirm President Donald Trump’s appointments of two state Supreme Court justices for federal judgeships for Mississippi.

Mississippi Supreme Court Justices Robert Chamberlin and James Maxwell will fill vacant federal judgeships in northern Mississippi. On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted 51-46 to confirm Chamberlin, of Hernando, and Maxwell, of Oxford, to the federal judiciary.

Mississippi Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith applauded the confirmations.

“Bobby Chamberlin and Jimmy Maxwell are dedicated public servants who have served Mississippi well for decades,” Wicker said in a statement. “… They have upheld the Constitution, exercised sound judgement and lived with integrity.”

Hyde-Smith praised both jurists’ records on the state high court and said she believes they will serve the federal Northern District of Mississippi well.

Trump nominated Chamberlin and Maxwell to the federal posts in August, but their initial confirmation by the Senate Judiciary Committee was held up for months by a North Carolina senator over a dispute over federal recognition of an indigenous group in his state as a tribe.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis had said he was blocking a committee vote on Mississippi nominations by Trump over negotiations with Wicker to recognize the Lumbee people as a Native American tribe in legislation before the Senate Armed Services Committee, of which Wicker is chairman.

The Lumbee is a group of indigenous people in North Carolina that has been seeking federal recognition as a tribe for over a century. But other federally recognized tribes have opposed this effort.

Language granting federal recognition of the tribe had been added to the House version of the Pentagon’s annual spending bill, but was not included in the Senate’s version, which Wicker oversees.

In November, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held a hearing on the Lumbee Fairness Act, legislation now being pushed by Tillis and other North Carolina lawmakers, and Tillis dropped his blockage of a committee vote on Chamberlin and Maxwell. Trump has also endorsed recognition of the Lumbee as a tribe.

Maxwell earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Mississippi. Former Gov. Haley Barbour in February of 2009 appointed Maxwell to the state Court of Appeals. 

Maxwell was elected to the post in 2010 and reelected in 2014. 

Former Gov. Phil Bryant appointed him to the state Supreme Court in January 2016. He was later elected to an eight-year term in November of 2016 and reelected in 2024.

Maxwell said his prior experience as a federal prosecutor and growing up with an attorney for a father helped make him qualified to become a federal judge. 

Chamberlin earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Mississippi. He first served as a state circuit court judge for 12 years in the 17th Circuit District. In 2016, he was elected to an open seat on the state Supreme Court and reelected in 2024. 

Before becoming a judge, Chamberlin was a member of the state Senate for five years, representing DeSoto County. 

Chamberlin, at the hearing, said his role as a state circuit court judge has prepared him to preside over a federal courtroom because he’s previously had to “run a docket” in a state court. 

Chamberlin and Maxwell will replace U.S. District Judges Michael Mills and Sharion Aycock, both of whom decided to take senior status in recent years. 

Chamberlin and Maxwell were reelected to eight-year terms on the state high court in 2024. Gov. Tate Reeves will appoint people to serve on the state court until special elections in November 2026.

Editor’s note: Jitoria Hunter, chief of staff at Converge, Mississippi’s Title X family planning grantee, reflects on the recent opening of an  in-person reproductive health clinic at the Jackson Medical Mall. The article is part of Mississippi Today Ideas’ ongoing effort to publish thoughtful guest essays.

I grew up in Greenville, in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, where family and community are everything.

Access to care was often determined by distance and circumstance. I watched some of my neighbors, friends and family go without the health services they needed because they could not afford them or because those services were never close enough to reach.

I saw how that lack of access held people back from living fully and reaching their potential. Those early experiences are why this work is deeply personal to me.

Across the Deep South, reproductive and sexual health care remains under constant threat. What happens here often sets the tone for the rest of the country. In Mississippi, our communities have carried that weight for generations, working against systems that make something as basic as care feel out of reach.

Still, we continue to move forward, creating new possibilities for what access can look like because our people deserve more than what history has offered us.

Opening a reproductive health clinic inside the Jackson Medical Mall felt intentional. The mall, once a neglected shopping center in a Black neighborhood, was brought back to life through Dr. Aaron Shirley’s vision of turning a forgotten space into one that could serve people again. The Jackson Medical Mall is part of the continuing legacy of expanding health care access in Mississippi by Dr. Shirley, who died in 2014.

That transformation reminds us that health care belongs in the heart of the community. Our clinic continues that commitment by creating a place where people can receive high-quality care close to home.

When we put out the call to Jackson residents, they made it clear that access also means choice. They wanted the same trusted, patient-centered care available through telehealth, but in a place they could walk into and experience in person.

That honesty from the community shaped what came next. In our new clinic inside the Jackson Medical Mall, we have created a space built in direct response to what people told us they needed most, care that feels personal, close and consistent. 

Patients will find both free and low-cost services that include wellness exams, testing and treatment for STIs, contraceptive counseling, pregnancy testing and preconception care.

We also offer resources such as the over-the-counter contraception Opill, prenatal vitamins and a community wellness pantry that will rotate based on local needs. Patients can also receive one-on-one support with scheduling appointments, enrolling in insurance programs like Mississippi’s Medicaid Family Planning Waiver, and connecting to other reproductive wellness resources.

This work honors the people and communities that raised me and reflects a continued commitment to the belief that everyone deserves access to care that is respectful, compassionate and rooted in trust.

I have witnessed the beauty of the people in Jackson and the power of what community can build together.

The opening of GetPersonal by Converge represents more than a new clinic.

It is a reflection of what can happen when care is shaped by the people it is meant to serve and grounded in the belief that every Mississippian deserves the best of what health care can be. 

Bio: Jitoria Hunter has spent more than a decade advancing sexual and reproductive health across the South. She is Mississippi educated, earning her bachelor of Public Health from MUW and her master of Healthcare Administration from Belhaven University. Hunter serves as chief of staff at Converge, where she helps guide strategy and keeps the organization moving in alignment with its mission to expand access to sexual and reproductive health care across the Deep South. She stays grounded through the life she shares with her husband Trenton and their son Tahj, who connect her to the purpose behind the work she leads.

The Maddox Foundation has renewed its support for Mississippi Today’s year-end fundraising efforts and has increased its annual matching grant to $30,000 for the 2025 campaign, the nonprofit news organization announced Tuesday.

The gift continues a long partnership between the foundation and Mississippi Today, one that has helped the newsroom unlock significant community support for independent journalism in Mississippi.

The renewed challenge grant will match all reader contributions made through Dec. 31, helping Mississippi Today galvanize donor participation and secure additional funds from national programs such as NewsMatch. The increased amount reflects the foundation’s ongoing belief in the newsroom’s mission to provide reporting that strengthens civic engagement across Mississippi.

“Mississippi Today continues to serve our state with courage and clarity,” said Robin Hurdle of the Maddox Foundation. “Pope Leo wrote, ‘Whenever a journalist is silenced, the democratic soul of a nation is weakened.’ Mississippi Today is an invaluable resource for letting people know what is really happening in our state. We are honored to play a small role in supporting that work, and we are thrilled that the newsroom has been able to take our challenge grant and turn it into something bigger.”

Mississippi Today CEO Mary Margaret White expressed gratitude to the foundation for its trust, generosity and commitment to a stronger, more informed Mississippi through support of local news. 

“This match makes an enormous difference in our ability to grow reader support and expand our public service journalism into 2026, when we will celebrate our 10-year anniversary,” White said. “The Maddox Foundation has been a key supporter of so many high-impact organizations in our state, and we are proud to be counted among that number.”

About the Maddox Foundation

Maddox Foundation was founded by Dan Maddox in 1968. He and his wife, Margaret Maddox, had a commitment to young people, a love of nature and a vision for making their corner of the world a better place. They chose Robin Hurdle to continue their legacy, which lives on through the current work of the Foundation. Maddox Foundation, located in Hernando, Mississippi, has made many signature investment grants. These investments include establishing and funding the new Dan Maddox YMCA in Hernando, Mississippi, collaborating with the Emmett Till Interpretive Center to create awareness for the story of Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley, establishing the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, funding the education director position and various exhibits at the Grammy Museum Mississippi, renovating and supporting the Margaret Maddox Family YMCA, putting an internet-connected computer in every public classroom in Mississippi and creating innovative places for children to learn and play.

About Mississippi Today

Founded in 2016 as a statehouse watchdog, Mississippi Today began with a focus on Capitol coverage and has since expanded into one of the most comprehensive newsrooms in the state. Today, our reporting spans politics, education, public health, justice, the environment, equity, sports and culture, with every story grounded in the belief that free, nonpartisan journalism is the antidote to apathy and the cornerstone of accountability.

Backed by a team of the state’s leading journalists, business minds and innovators, Mississippi Today has earned national recognition from the Institute for Nonprofit News, the American Journalism Project, the Knight Foundation and the Online News Association as a model of newsroom innovation and public service journalism.

Now the largest newsroom in Mississippi, Mississippi Today is the state’s flagship nonprofit news source — informing communities, holding power to account and meeting the information needs of Mississippians across the state.

How to support this work

Through Dec. 31, every contribution to Mississippi Today will be matched up to $30,000, thanks to the generous support of the Maddox Foundation. Gifts can be made here.

The Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board is starting the process of revoking the charter of SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy. State officials say the Canton school has a day’s worth of money on hand. 

The school, which opened in August 2023 and is located in the metro area north of Jackson, will undergo a corrective action plan after its leaders meet with members of the authorizer board. The school can salvage its charter by proving it’s financially sound.

The school “continues to fail to comply with applicable laws, regulations and the terms of the charter contract based on the framework,” authorizer board Chair Candace Hunt read from the motion to start the revocation process.

It was the only charter school with “material weaknesses” tied to late financial reporting, according to an audit by Letitia Johnson, bureau director of the Mississippi Department of Education Office of School Financial Services. The school had turned in its most recent audit 23 days late, which does not meet the standard set by the authorizer board.

“This is a really big issue,” said board member Erin Meyer. It’s an issue, she said, because school boards “are not holding themselves accountable.”

The school has $24,000 of cash on hand, according to the audit. The authorizer board recommends that charter schools have between 30 to 60 days of cash. 

Leaders of SR1 (Scientific Research), the Ridgeland-based organization that operates the school, disputed the audit findings. School business manager Iraiz Gonzaga sent Mississippi Today a screenshot of the school’s November bank statement from Trustmark, which showed a $171,079 balance.

Authorizer board members also criticized the school for projecting a 300 student enrollment for 2027, which would be an increase in 197 students from its current enrollment of 103. The school had already amended its enrollment target for the past year’s financial paperwork.

If the Mississippi Board of Education finds SR1 didn’t meet its enrollment target, the school could lose funding. Funding is tied to enrollment, and can be taken back by the Education Department in future budget allocations.

“They have not met their enrollment target since they’ve been operational,” authorizer board Executive Director Lisa Karmacharya said. “This is not just about the (performance) framework. These are continuing concerns around enrollment.”

In 2023, just months after the school opened, state officials considered pulling its charter because it had enrolled 15 students instead of the 150 students in kindergarten and first grade projected to attend in the school’s approved charter application. 

On Monday, Karmacharya also raised concerns that enrollment dropped from 23 students in first grade to 16 in second grade the next school year. Overall enrollment rose from 12 students in 2023-24 to 84 in 2024-25. 

“So what that says to me is potentially they’re not staying,” Karmacharya said. “You want your kiddos to matriculate through and stay over time.”

The school introduces courses in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) at the elementary level. Its curriculum was set up to be informed by “the latest in neuroscience, psychology, and other fields,” embracing principles of “biophilic design” and “neuroarchitecture.”

SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy is not the only school in Mississippi that officials say is in financial trouble. In November, the state Department of Education voted to take over the Okolona Municipal Separate School District for the second time in 15 years. District officials couldn’t make the school system’s November payroll.

But leadership for the Canton charter school denied that they are unable to pay staff like Okolona schools. 

Gonzaga, the school’s business manager, challenged the inability to fact check claims made during the authorizer board’s discussion about the motion. The Mississippi Charter Authorizer Board allows school representatives to make speeches during a designated public comment period, but does not allow representatives to fact check claims during debates surrounding votes.

“SR1 CPSA remains committed to transparency, academic excellence, and respectful collaboration,” Gonzaga said.

Editor’s note: SR1 has previously advertised on Mississippi Today’s website. Advertisers do not influence Mississippi Today’s editorial decisions.

Ole Miss will play host to Tulane in a first round college football playoffs game on Dec. 20 and some pundits already proclaim it the biggest, most important sports event to ever take place on Mississippi soil.

It’s huge, no doubt, and millions around the globe will watch on TV. The stakes are enormous. Win that one – and Ole Miss is a heavy favorite to do just that – and the Rebels then will play Georgia in the second round, which this year is the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Eve. Ole Miss would not be favored in that one, but the Rebels led Georgia midway through the fourth quarter on Oct. 18 at Athens. An upset could happen. Win that one and Ole Miss will be two victories away from a national championship – the proverbial pot at the end of the rainbow.

But we are getting far, far ahead of ourselves. Let’s get back to the original case in point: Will the Tulane-Ole Miss playoff game indeed be the biggest, most important sporting event in Mississippi history?

That’s a good question. We don’t have any real bowl games in the Magnolia State. The Egg Bowl, which got its unofficial name for just that reason, is pretty much our biggest sports event of the year, every year. We don’t have much in the way of professional sports. The NCAA never holds any of its championships in Mississippi.

Twenty-six years ago, the late, great George Bryan brought golf’s U.S. Women’s Open – the most important tournament in women’s golf – to West Point. I still can’t believe Bryan pulled it off, but he did. Hall of Famer Juli Inkster won it and more than 120,000 fans attended. Millions more around the world watched on TV. 

That was huge – probably the most important sports event of the past century in Mississippi.

But there was one bigger still, although there is nobody alive who would remember it. John L. Sullivan, were he alive, would surely argue that the biggest sports event in Mississippi history took place on July 8, 1889. Trust me, you would not want to argue with John L.

On a brutally hot summer day in Richburg, a tiny community just south of Hattiesburg, Sullivan fought Jake Kilrain for the world heavyweight boxing championship. Adding to its historical importance, the fight was the last world championship bare-knuckle fight. Sullivan – the son of Irish immigrants famously known as “The Boston Strongboy” – punished Kilrain, a New Yorker, for 75 rounds before knocking him out.

The fight was the lead story in the next day’s New York Times. The story began: “Never, during even a Presidential election, has there been so much excitement as there is now, even when the brutal exhibition is over and it is known that John L. Sullivan was successful and that 75 rounds were necessary to knock out Jake Kilrain.”

Clearly, this is some serious Mississippi history here, and here’s the deal: The fight was not supposed to take place in Mississippi. No, bare-knuckle fighting had been outlawed in all 38 states at the time. The fight was supposed to have taken place in New Orleans, but Louisiana’s governor threatened to call in the state militia to prevent the fight from taking place. Enter one C.W. Rich, a wealthy lumberman and namesake of Richburg, who owned 30,000 acres and a large sawmill. Rich invited the entire fight party to his land, and they came by the thousands on trains.

We could argue for days which is bigger: an NCAA championships playoff football game, the biggest women’s golf tournament in the world or the last bare-knuckles championship fight. Better to call it a draw, which is what Kilrain offered to do after 44 rounds when Sullivan, who was knocking back whiskey between rounds, began vomiting. Sullivan declined the offer and promptly knocked Kilrain down with a blow to the ribs to end the 45th round.

So let’s not argue. Better to relive as best we can what happened more than 136 years ago in an otherwise sleepy south Mississippi community. Some snippets:

• Mississippi Gov. Robert Lowry dispatched 25 armed men to the state line to stop the trains from crossing the state line. The trains plowed through, and no shots were fired. The county sheriff also tried to stop the fight at the site. But Bat Masterson, the legendary western gunfighter, gambler and sometimes lawman, not only refereed the fight but brandished his own firearms to dissuade the local lawman.
• Bleachers, hastily constructed from Rich’s freshly cut pine, provided the seating for more than 3,000 spectators. The heat, which reportedly reached 106 degrees, caused resin to seep from the pine and more than a few spectators reportedly lost the backsides of their clothing to the sap. It was so hot that spectators paid the then-exorbitant cost of 25 cents for a ladle of water.
• The fight was a perfect illustration of why bare-knuckle fighting had been banned. By the 34th round, both fighters were drenched in blood and sweat. Kilrain’s nose was broken, his lips split, and one eye was swollen shut. Sullivan’s fists suffered the consequences and reportedly were swollen to twice their normal size. He had a black eye and bled from one of his ears.
• During the 75th round, a doctor told Kilrain’s cornermen their fighter would likely die if the fight continued. When Kilrain stumbled out to the center of the ring for the 76th round, they threw in the bloody sponge, signaling the end to the last world championship bare-knuckle fight. Sullivan was carried away on the shoulders of his adoring fans, while Kilrain reportedly wept like a child. Both were later arrested, but penalties were minimal.

We shall see what fate awaits the Tulane Green Wave and the Ole Miss Rebels on Dec. 20. There are likely to be some tears, but hopefully no arrests.

While telling the Legislature how the Mississippi Opioid Settlement Advisory Council recommends spending state lawsuit money, Council Chair and Attorney General Lynn Fitch said she and the other committee members would be reviewing their internal processes and may change how they oversee hundreds of millions of dollars. 

It’s one of the first times Fitch has publicly acknowledged there may be better ways for Mississippi to manage the money it’s won in the national opioid lawsuits, cases that charged some of the country’s biggest companies with contributing to a public health crisis that’s killed over 10,000 Mississippians since 2000. 

The Attorney General’s office sent an email addressed to Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker of the House Jason White late Friday afternoon with two attachments: a finalized list of applications seeking to spend some of the state’s opioid settlement money, and a letter authored by Fitch to the Legislature.

The list, a reflection of the council’s work soliciting and scoring project applications looking to address Mississippi’s addiction crisis, tiers the 127 applications into five categories. The council recommended about $40 million of grant funding in the highest priority category and about $41 million for applications in the second highest group. 

Fitch’s letter summarizes the recommendation list and adds additional messages the council agreed to tell the Legislature. Toward the end of it, she acknowledges that she and the other members may need additional help to make sure funds are spent appropriately. 

“As we prepare for the second round of applications, the Council will be reviewing its process and may determine the need to utilize services to assist in evaluation of applications, tracking of public funds, and others to ensure that the Legislature’s priorities for accountability, transparency, and public involvement are fulfilled,” she wrote.

The Legislature created the council last spring to recommend how lawmakers should spend most of Mississippi’s opioid settlement money and appointed Fitch’s office to lead the effort. Lawmakers gave council members about five months to create application materials, review completed proposals and assess how well they believe applicant organizations will address the addiction epidemic.

The council completed these tasks in that time period, but the process was filled with a variety of issues that concerned overdose prevention advocates both on and outside of the council. From missing application materials in the summer to conflicts of interests and grading discrepancies in the fall, Mississippi Today reported on challenges that led overdose prevention advocates to worry whether the funds would help those who struggle with addiction. 

In the past, Fitch has often responded to the newsroom asking questions about these concerns without proposals to address them. When Mississippi Today asked her about the council conflicts of interest in November, her Chief of Staff Michelle Williams wrote back that the members are state leaders at addressing addiction and are positioned well to address the public health crisis. 

Her idea in the letter to seek out additional services echoes fellow council member James Moore’s message at a meeting last week. Just before the members left, he asked the committee to consider reaching out to groups with expertise in helping states manage opioid settlement funds in the future.

Also in the letter, Fitch said the state has just over $90 million in opioid settlement money that must be spent to address addiction. There’s an additional roughly $15 million in state coffers that her office and the Legislature allow lawmakers to spend the same as any public money.

The setup for those $15 million mirrors the one Fitch created for the settlement money sent to Misississippi’s cities and counties. Elected leaders can spend the money on addressing addiction but don’t have to. A September Mississippi Today investigation found that most of the settlement money local governments were spending went to general expenses rather than addressing addiction — a big reason why the state has spent less money to fight the public health crisis than any other state in the country. 

When Mississippi Today has asked Fitch why she allowed Mississippi to spend large chunks of the settlement funds for purposes other than addiction, her office has said the lawsuits allow for some of the money to repay past government expenses fighting the opioid epidemic. 

State lawmakers are expected to consider the advisory council’s recommendations in the 2026 regular legislative session.

In a rare show of bipartisan cooperation, Mississippi’s congressional delegation has sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer with concerns that new regulations implemented by the European Union will harm the state’s forestry industry. 

The delegation wrote that the E.U. regulations “introduce substantial uncertainty” for the forestry industry and risk “further depressing already strained log and wood-product markets, harming rural communities that depend on healthy, functioning timber economies.”

While the delegation’s letter primarily focused on the state’s $15-billion a year forestry industry, the regulations apply to other agricultural products, such as cattle and soybeans. 

In 2023, the E.U. revised its timber supply chain regulations to curb deforestation, clearing trees and converting forest land to another use, such as agriculture. The new regulations, which will start to be implemented on Dec. 30, require companies importing wood and certain agricultural products to certify that their products were not produced on recently deforested land.

The delegation said this is an infringement on “American private property rights.”

Casey Anderson, executive director of the Mississippi Forestry Association, says that as a consequence of the new regulations, some producers are being asked to sign contracts by traders saying that they will not convert the land. Landowners are pushing back at their ability to decide how best to use the land they own.

“The E.U. is trying to dictate how we do things in the U.S.,” said Anderson. 

In a social media post, Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson wrote, “We can never allow foreign interests and globalists to dictate the use of our land and natural resources here in Mississippi.”

Anderson points out that most producers in the U.S. practice sustainable forestry. And in the delegation’s letter, they highlighted that the E.U. considers the U.S. to have “negligible or insignificant levels of deforestation.” 

Mississippi and much of the South’s forestry industry has struggled in recent decades and is facing low prices. 

“It can really do a lot of harm if it goes through,” said Anderson of the new regulations.

STARKVILLE — Since transferring to Mississippi State University from Itawamba Community College in 2022, the cost of parking on campus has always been an issue for Madeline Comer. 

Last spring, Comer got a $50 parking ticket because her license plates weren’t registered properly with the university’s parking services, she said. Comer, a junior studying graphic design, called to dispute the ticket. 

For weeks, she couldn’t reach anyone on staff, she said. Two weeks after the first ticket, she received another $50 ticket for the same issue. She was afraid of racking up other parking citations that might result in progressively higher fines and a “boot” or wheel clamp. 

The citations would have strained her monthly budget as she juggles rent, art supplies for classes, groceries and other bills. 

After weeks of back and forth, parking services dropped the ticket. Comer felt relieved.

Then in July, university officials announced a major parking overhaul that included restructuring campus zones, revamping prices and implementing new tier systems to purchase parking permits. 

Comer knew parking fees would be even more of a problem. But she lucked up. 

She bought a $225 annual commuter parking permit after waiting nearly four hours in an online lottery to apply for her pass, unlike many of her peers, who ended up on a lottery waitlist or getting a pricier permit outside of their desired spot. The annual parking permits can cost up to $650. 

Her parking spot is in G3, a lot near Humphrey Coliseum, where the Bulldogs’ basketball teams play. But Comer’s parking spot is nowhere near the majority of her classes in Hunter Hall. She lives 15 minutes from campus, outside of Starkville, and commutes four times a week. 

Weekly costs for gas are now adding up, Comer said.

“It’s just a lot for my bank account to handle,” she said. “Not to mention the rent, groceries and art supplies I also pay for out of pocket.” 

Comer, who is paying for college on her own, works multiple part-time jobs. She is a house cleaner for Airbnb, a barista at a coffee shop and has taken on multiple side hustles as a freelancer, selling her art and designs online. 

Covering unexpected college costs

Mississippi undergraduates leave university with an average of $29,000 of federal loan debt, according to a 2021 report from the Institute of College Access & Success.

The rising cost of in-state tuition over the past few decades, along with additional costs of campus meal plans, textbooks and class supplies, laboratory fees, transportation and off-campus housing have made attending university expensive. 

At Mississippi State, tuition has increased slightly in each of the past four years, including a nearly 4% rise from $9,815 in 2023-2024 to $10,202 in 2024-2025 academic year, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. 

On-campus housing starts at $8,456, and meal plans are $5,808 a year — a total of $24,000 for a full academic year. For out-of-state students, costs can soar up to $42,000 a year. 

While the cost for books and supplies have steadied over the past year, the cost of food and housing for students living on and off campus has steadily increased year to year. Data from NCES shows nearly a 5% increase in food and housing expenses and a 4% increase in other expenses between 2023-2025. 

Mississippi State officials said its new parking system allows students to pay less for a permit with guaranteed space, while other universities in the state do the opposite.

“The inherent value of our permit is significantly higher than that of our peers,” Sid Salter, a university spokesman, said in an email.

By comparison, parking permits at the University of Southern Mississippi are $167 for students and $414 for reserved spaces, according to the university’s parking and transit services website. At the University of Mississippi, parking permits for students are $395 for the 2025-2026 academic year. 

But for some students at Mississippi State, the price change for campus parking is just another cost to their already lean budgets.

Kenneth McGowan, senior studying computer engineering, said college students can quickly tally hundreds or up to $1,000 a semester in unexpected expenses. He felt blindsided by the price changes to parking, tuition and dining plans upon returning to campus this semester. He said he had to come up with more than $3,000 extra to get through the year.

McGowan isn’t alone. Nationwide, students reported some level of surprise with the full cost of attending college, including but not limited to tuition and other directly billable expenses, according to survey results from Inside Higher Ed’s Student Voice report. At least a quarter of students have trouble budgeting as a result, according to the report. 

In another set of findings in Inside Higher Ed’s report, 36% of students said an unexpected expense of $1,000, or even less, could threaten their ability to stay enrolled. Another 22% said the same of an expense between $1,001 and $2,500. 

The College Board estimates that indirect expenses can make up 40%–50% of the annual cost for undergraduates. The average full-time undergraduate spends $1,240 per year on books and supplies, according to the College Board report. An estimated 91% of American colleges fail to tell students the full cost of their college education, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. 

To make up for extra college related expenses, McGowan spends his free time with gigs including food pickup and delivery for GrubHub, UberEats and Door Dash. He also picked up another job as a FANgineer, working for catering and event services during Mississippi State football games. 

“The whole thing, it’s just kind of frustrating,” McGowan said of unexpected expenses. 

McGowan said he bought a $225 parking pass for the year. It was another hit in his budget, but he considers himself lucky. He parks his car near Sanderson Center, the student recreation hub, which is near the heart of campus. His engineering classes in McCain Hall are another 10-15 minute walk across campus. 

Eli Rowell, a senior studying graphic design, paid $650 for a North Garage parking permit. He was shut out of the lottery process once the university ran out of his preferred parking lot spot: G3, near Howell Hall. 

Rowell works part time as a bartender at Harvey’s restaurant in Starkville to pay for college. He received a scholarship when he transferred from Hinds Community College, but he is paying out of pocket for his next three semesters.

Mississippi State does a “decent job” of breaking down costs for attending the university, Rowell said. But research and transparency from university scholarship and financial aid offices are just as important, he said. 

“Education should be accessible to more people,” Rowell said. “Understanding where your money is going is important. The more information you have about costs, the better you are able to navigate your college experience.” 

McGowan said he wishes the university would be more transparent about price changes. He said he doesn’t know anyone in his friend group who had to pay less due to the changes made at Mississippi State. 

“I just don’t understand the reason or purpose behind it,” McGowan said of increased costs. “MSU used to be affordable.” 

Mississippi State officials said they’ve worked to modernize and improve the parking system to accommodate population growth and changing campus infrastructure. The changes were also to reduce heavy traffic, enhance pedestrian and cyclist safety, and increase usage of existing parking spaces. 

“The plan has worked as it was designed to work,” Salter said. 

This year, MSU sold parking permits on a tiered system, with different prices assigned to parking zones based on proximity to campus and desirability. The most convenient spots at the heart of campus, aside from North Garage, cost $375 for residents and $275 for commuters. Permits for North Garage, located at the center of campus, cost $650. 

For commuters, parking breaks down into four tiers, with the lowest level costing $100 to park on the outskirts of campus. Resident parking breaks down into three tiers, with the lowest level costing $150. 

Mississippi State officials were aware of the criticism from students, faculty and residents, including several petitions calling for the resignation of Jeremiah Dumas, executive director of parking services. 

“Parking is a hot-button topic, so such unfair criticism is neither unexpected nor unusual,” Salter said. “The university will continue to work and adjust as necessary to fix issues, but there are none we plan to address. Things are functioning smoothly.”  

It is unclear how much the university profits off of campus parking, but the revenue is used to cover the cost of parking operations, which is more than $2 million, Salter said. It costs an average of $5 million a year to maintain the parking lots and roads on campus, Salter said. 

‘Spending every penny’ to pay for college

Mississippi State offers resources for students who need short-term loans, food security resources, temporary housing assistance and access to devices such as laptops. The university also helps students find on-campus and part-time employment. 

When Comer moved to Starkville, she opted to not buy a parking pass. It was expensive. To save money, she walked 40 minutes from her apartment to classes, trudging along with her portfolio and art supplies. 

“It wasn’t much  fun in the heat and heavy rain. But I made it work,” Comer said. 

She tried taking public transportation, but a bad experience left her not wanting to ride the bus. During Comer’s first year, she was dropped off at a random location on campus and had to find her way back on her own. 

She worked multiple shifts waitressing at a local sports bar to save up for a car.  

Comer doesn’t want to slam her university; she enjoys attending Mississippi State. But she said as someone who is “spending every penny” to put herself through college, speaking up on behalf of other students can make a difference for future students. 

“Parking may seem small to some people,” Comer said, “but it’s just these little costs that make it really hard and often feel like, if you don’t have money, college isn’t for you.” 

Newly elected state Sen. Johnny DuPree is no stranger to state politics. He was longtime mayor of Hattiesburg and is a former Democratic nominee for governor. He outlines issues he’ll tackle in his new job, and vows to keep his constituents informed of what’s happening at the Capitol.