Jackson Jambalaya

Nothing will change. That “degree” will still be useless.

You know, this whole thing with JSU is nothing short of comical. They just don't seem to know what to do. They are attracted to fluff rather than substance. They don's see the big picture. Kinda reminds you of the City of Jackson, don't it?

He has shown that he is an empty suit, has failed to instill any confidence or support from the community, has no plan outside the board's will, and is completely beholden to the board for his advancement. In other words,
HE'S PERFECT. Who needs a search.

They don't search for JSU presidents. They just select. Congrats Prez!

The IHL Board said it did not conduct a nationwide search. Did it conduct any search whatsoever? It's choice may prove to be the best ever, but why did it want to dispose of this decision asap? No doubt it was an embarrassing situation given the Board's poor handling of hiring Bennett in the first place. Best wishes to the new JSU president, another scandal of ineptitude swept under the carpet - again.

Well, as long as he doesn't solicit prostitutes, misspend university funds, or suggest consolidating the state's HBCUs, he might have a shot at a long tenure.

Well hell! What more do you expect from the gods at IHL?

Well hell! What more do you expect from the gods at IHL?

Maybe the disgraced former president can get together with the disgraced former fair coordinator and create a job related to both of their recreational experiences.

JSU is the only university in Mississippi to earn two consecutive "Apple Distinguished School" distinctions

SU is one of only two universities in Mississippi with a comprehensive meteorology undergraduate level degree program. Diverse Issues in Higher Education ranked JSU as among the top universities in the United States for producing African Americans with bachelor's degrees in education, biology, and physical science

Past alumni include a former security of education for a republican president, Jane Ellen McAllister, First black woman in U.S. to receive doctorate in education,

Carolyn B. Howard, PhD 1981 University of Mississippi Medical Center PhD Class of 1995, JSU Cancer and Metabolism Researcher & Biology professor (2004–present)
Earlexia M. Norwood, MD 1984 Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine MD Class of 1988 and West Bloomfield Hospital Family Medicine Service Chief (2013-present)
Jacqueline J. Stevens, PhD 1984 University of California, Santa Barbara PhD Class of 1994, JSU Canciogenesis Researcher & Biology professor (2001–present) [47]
John Edison Foster, PhD 1991 University of Michigan Professor and Physicist (2006–present) [48]
Justin L. Rice, PhD 2006 Louisiana Technical University PhD Class of 2013 and DSCOVR GDS Lead at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (2013–present) [49]
Kamron Robinson, MS 2015 Morehouse School of Medicine MD Class of 2021 & 2018 HBCU Competitive Scholar [50]
Devin Stewart, DMD 2015 University of Mississippi Medical Center DMD Class of 2019 and Dentist at SmileBuilders, Inc. [51]
William Kayitare 2017 University of California, Berkeley Chevron-Xenel Ph.D. Gateway Fellow [52]
Chidalu Utojiuba 2018 Jonathan Friendship Foundation Founder

JSU degree is only useless if the person doing the interview is a KKK member.

What's useless is the IHL. I don't know the new president at JSU, but I know the search at Ole Miss was a sham and an embarrassment. The JSU comments are uncalled for, IHL makes these picks, not the university.

What's the difference between this President and the recently selected (IHL search committee member) Ole Miss President?

2:38 "former security of education" ????

The "search" process is designed to identify candidates who fit certain announced criteria regarding academic credentials, experience, administrative ability, and progressive vision. These criteria have little or nothing to do with the board's REAL criteria for a JSU president. That is why they have simply decided to just ignore the sham "search" process in selecting the presidents of JSU. They don't even bother to pretend anymore. Too much trouble. Too much alumni and community involvement. It's meaningless anyway. The IHL has always been adversarial to JSU, at least they're being honest about it!

In his last several months as interim president Hudson has shown that he, like Bynum who apprenticed at MVSU, is no threat to the status quo. That's all the IHL is looking for. No need for a search. A criminal background check will suffice.

Will or would it truly matter whomever they put in there. Maybe they should low bid it like road work or such.

The bracketed numbers show you just clipped that from Wikipedia. Didn't even take the time to edit it.

and what exactly is a security of education?

Smart move by the IHL. Why go through all that search drama when they already know who they will select anyway? Going through all those resumes, biographies, academic credentials, recommendations, professional publications,
not to mention the interviews and alumni input just for show. To Hell with it. This board don't need all that. Yes Sir or No Sir. That's the test.
Skip the drama.

Don't laugh MSU.

This guy was named interim president the same day the former president, Bynum resigned. The same day. That's how long it took the college board to find the president for JSU. One Day. Maybe not that long. Maybe a few minutes. Searches for president sometime takes months. One day. These guys are either very very good or...

2:38- All I see are accolades that tout black achievement. This is the number one problem with HBCUs. They do not want to become part of the whole fabric of America. While blacks in the past have died for the right to attend and flourish in ALL schools, places like JSU want to keep the “separate but equal” mantra. Which is it? Integration or not?

As far as the quality of education, it’s pretty poor. JSU is NOT a competitive university on the national scale (neither is ANY school in MS for that matter). Sure, you can graduate from JSU and go on to a success career, but I believe students that attend JSU are really selling themselves short by sheltering their education at a HBCU. Want to compete? Then get out there and DO IT!

“Security of Education”...would this be a newly formed Biden position?

Before you beat up on HBCUs just know that those schools never denied a person entrance because of their race.

Students who go to HBCU don’t sell themselves short. I am amazed at people who will put down a school like JSU when the former coach of Ole Miss who just got elected to Congress doesn’t even know the three branches of government. Really...this dude spent all this time on white college campuses and never learned the three branches of government, but gets elected to Congress and y’all have the never to criticize students at JSU....please.

9:14 - You're not familiar with Ayers, are you? JSU was, in fact, cited by the courts for recruiting Russians and other 'white appearing' prospects, in order to (they thought) circumvent the court's mandate to add white folk to its student population.

Meanwhile, 'dudes' like you refer to 'white college campuses'. Take a look at the racial mix of every public college in this state, and rank them according to the data and see which three are at the bottom of the 'mix' concept, then come back later for another post.

The notion of 'This Is Us', 'This Is Ours', 'These Schools Are Our Legacy'...is what perpetuates racial unrest, bitterness, hatred and segregation.

I have taken classes at JSU and at other Mississippi colleges, both public and private, so I'm no expert but I do have some experience here. The place was clearly divided into three camps.

The administration didn't care if students got a good education or not. As long as enrollment was up and the money kept coming in, they were good. The only thing they really got excited about was the mega-dollars that rolled in at an amazing rate (compared to other campuses I've been on) from big corporations who wanted to show their community spirit by donating to an HBCU.

The students (again not all but for the most part) wanted the paper saying they had graduated without having to go to the trouble of getting the education. Not that you don't find that on any campus in MS, but cheating on assignments and tests at JSU was the norm, so much so that the professors acknowledged it and didn't care. I'm not saying you don't have good kids there or ones who learn a lot, but IF you want an education at JSU and not just a rubber stamp, you have to get it on your own as no one else cares. A level of effort that would see a student fail out of Ole Miss or Southern will graduate you from JSU no problem. Think of JSU as the thirteenth through sixteenth grades of JPS and you've got the picture.

As for the professors, everyone knows about H-1 Visas and how they are highly sought after and how the US places a cap on the number issued every year. There is an exception for professors working at institutions of higher learning, because those are not capped. These guys (for the most part) get a J-1 or an H-1 to get themselves and their families into the country and only want to stay at JSU long enough to build enough material and experience to be able to hire on at a legitimate school somewhere else.

It was funny how every one of my professors video recorded themselves teaching every class at JSU even if all the students were there (this was pre-Covid), because like star athletes they need impressive highlight reels to be recruited by someone else. They would like for the students to learn and care, but they're not going to get worked up trying to educate a bunch of lazy Americans who take what they have for granted.

Basically, that's the "System" at JSU and if you're surprised that the administration hasn't changed, don't be. They have their system and it isn't changing because NO ONE that is actually involved wants it to.

5:53 Actually what Ayers demonstrated was the difficulty HBCU schools have with "recruiting" white students when they have little resources and only duplicate the programs already established and well funded at the predominantly white universities. Ironically when Ayers was filed JSU and Alcorn had about half their faculties were white or non-black. Although Ayers was originally filed to get equal treatment and adequate funding it ended ultimately about integration. How do the HBCU schools integrate when whites won't go there? They did everything they could do to recruit white students to programs better funded at the white universities. That's why the Ayers judgment included money and new programs for the HBCU 3. They still don't get the adequate funding and are still duplicated at the other universities so white students still chose not to attend. Some HBCU schools like Tennessee State chose to simply allow white students to go to school free of charge to meet lawsuit quotas. They took these extreme measures not to "circumvent" the Court's order but to comply with the mandates and get the funding tied to it. But when a president decides to expand possibly attractive programs at the HBCU, such as engineering at JSU, to attract more diverse students they are chided for wasting money and threatened with dismissal.
The failure to "integrate" student bodies at HBCU's has never been the fault
of the HBCU. They were open to everyone when a black student would be killed for daring to take a seat at the historically white universities.
The term HBCU simply denotes a historic fact and calling a university historically white denotes only a historic fact. No schools are segregated. If you chose to attend either you can without trouble. It's a matter of choice. Black people chose to integrate, Whites did not.

Great post, 7:36. Obviously written from experience. I'm flabbergasted that it was approved for publication.

7:36 Bullshit. I have attended JSU and Ole Miss have degrees from both and I can cite cases of students who do nothing but party and suck up mom and dad's money at UM just as you can talk about trifling students at JSU. But I don't generalize about either school when too many students are busting their asses at both institutions to get an education. At JSU I met many tenured professors and other instructors who had been there for years and are committed to the long term. Same at UM. No two schools are alike and I'm sure if you would compare UM to Delta State or MSU to USM or William Carey to Millsaps you will find differences. Compare UM to Vanderbilt or LSU to Texas A&M if you want to get a fight. But why? They are all accredited and provide a valuable service. Unless you have another agenda...

Gasp 7:36 You mean there is a university that would try to increase their enrollment just to get more money??? My God!

The new president graduated from JSU then successfully attend Ole Miss, graduated from law school and passed the bar. There are a number of people who graduate every year from JSU and attend graduate school, medical school, and law school at non HBCUs. To imply that JSU is not a quality school says something about Ole Miss and all those other school that JSU graduates successfully attend.

8:43 I knew the guy had to have some damn impressive academic credentials to be selected without a search and in one day. Hell, he passed the bar.

8:43 - I can't stand it when people don't understand how to use the past tense or plurals. Please brush up.

Nobody has asked the most important question of the day: Did Deion Sanders approve the appointment? Coach Sanders is the new head of JSU, regardless of what anybody else says. The new president has the title & will take up a lot of space, but everybody knows who is already running things.

@8:06 - Nice dissertation. Only problem with it is that the courts disagreed with you and summarily took JSU to the woodshed.

When the courts order you to develop (and implement) a strategy to increase white enrollment and you start running ads in Russian journals, don't look for the courts to smile upon your strategy.

By the way, professor, when and where was this time and place that "a black student would be killed for daring to take a seat at the historically white universities"? You made that up just like Espy made up his claim of being chased into the streets by a white teacher wielding a fire extinguisher. But, both comments would make great press in northern states.

4:19 I assume you are somehow referring to the Ayers settlement. If so, please stop spreading false information. The Court never took JSU or the Black Plaintiffs to any "woodshed". In fact the Court and the Justice Department agreed with the Plaintiff's assertion that the HBCU's were underfunded and lacked facility support based on racial makeup. The IHL's treatment of JSU which is located in Mississippi's prime position made the argument obvious. It was also obvious that the situation resulted in a dual system which so poorly funded the HBCU that they needed an infusion of financial support to make their programs competitive with the other historically white institutions. The IHL entered a settlement calling for payment of public and private cash to the HBCU's which was tied to their ability to attract other race students so that the state would not be
funding a "dual" system. In fact the court's have found that JSU and others have made "good faith" efforts to attract "other race" students but could not force white students to attend. What the hell "woodshed" are you talking about? You, not Espy made that up.

As for black students taking their lives in their hands if they attempted to integrate the segregated historically white university... I can only believe you are from a foreign country or have never bothered to observe history prior to 1970. Don't ask James Meredith or the family of Kinard (deceased). Ask them why they needed the protection of armed troops to enroll.
Ask any black person over the age of 60 if they would dare to go to Ole Miss or USM in the 1960's or prior. Ask them why not? It's a silly question, so maybe you shouldn't.

I did not intend to drag this out, but you demand correction.

4:32 - While attempting to rewrite history, you should actually try revisiting it. JSU is still stinging from that woodshed visit.

4:32; While you dance around the issue of HBCU desegregation, and choose to discuss funding, the point was made that JSU (and others in the plaintiff class) were not only court-ordered to increase non African-American enrollment (as a condition of receiving the millions they sought), they were indeed admonished for not having done so.

And their 'end around' effort to meet the court's demands by recruiting non-blacks (even) from countries like Nigeria (of all places), whose citizens were classified as non-African-American (while black), was pointed out by the court. Clearly the Plaintiff schools (HBCUs) had neither desire nor intention to integrate whites into their programs. And you will find the word 'admonish' mentioned more than once.

https://casetext.com/case/ayers-v-musgrove-2