Danielle Bean

Jour 271

10/4/12

Word Count:

UNIVERSITY, Miss. -  After 50 years of the University of Mississippi being integrated, distinguished members of the University’s administration came together to recall the events that impacted the University in different ways.

            The discussion panel entitled, “Ole Miss After The Crisis: An Assessment of Racial Progress” was the one of many events that were a part of the “The University of Mississippi: Opening the Closed Society” that helped celebrated the 50^th year event of James Meredith being allowed to enroll at the University of Mississippi.

Panelists included the moderator, David Sansing, Donald Cole, Valeria Ross and Gerald Walton. Cole, who was once expelled from the University of Mississippi for taking part in a civil rights demonstrations, came back to become an assistant to the Chancellor. Ross, who attended the university in 1990, is also a leading figure in racial reconciliation on campus. Walton, who played a constructive role at Ole Miss as a young professor in 1962, later rose to become provost before his retirement. Sansing, the emeritus professor of history and author of the sesquicentennial history, “The University of Mississippi,” was the moderator.

            “The student body has seen a lot of change. It has been slow, hard, and difficult,” said Walton in reflecting on the progress of the university throughout the years.

            The stories that were told from the panelists were about how the University of Mississippi has changed throughout the years and still is changing.

            “The University has always attracted students, good students, students with promise,” said Cole, “but at the time I wanted to fix the university, the town, and the state to make people more comfortable here”.

            “I’m excited and I commend Mr. Meredith on what he did for African-American students. And to hear what Dr. Cole and Mrs. Ross said at these events, makes me more proud to be an African American student here,” said Breanne Griffin, a sophomore biology major.

            Walton and many others agree that “the university still has a long way to go but we have made some magnificent moves in the right direction”.