Mississippi Animal Abuse is Only a Slap on the Wrist

By: Dina Halligan

Mississippi Animal Abuse is Only a Slap on the Wrist

Big blue eyes, fluffy thick fur, and a wagging tongue hanging out. As the saying goes dogs are mans best friend. So who would ever want to hurt a dog, let alone any animal?

“Do you see this face? Look at this darling face,” says Terri Rue who adopted her pet dog Apollo from the Oxford Lafayette Humane Society. “I don’t know how anyone could be abuse something that is this darn cute!”

According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) website, A New Jersey study found that in 88 percent of families where there had been physical abuse of children, there were also records of animal abuse.

Animal abusers that are convicted can be found on multiple websites such as pet-abuse.com where anyone can find local and nation wide animal abusers.

According to pet-abuse.com in 2006 a Columbus veterinarian, Samuel Wilcox, was fined for misdemeanor animal cruelty chargers. Former employees of Wilcox testified that they saw him repeatedly kick an Australian shepherd after it bit Wilcox on the hand.

“I think that this information should be public,” says Rue. “I have a right to know who these sick people are and I don’t want them around my furry baby.”

“Our animal control officer keeps file of people who have surrendered animals to us and their name is on our computer system,” says Riki Roederer a kennel attendant at the Oxford Lafayette Humane Society.

“We do make everyone who adopts from us go through an application process. It’s a front and back page that tells us a little bit more about them and about how the animal will be taken care of,” says Roederer.

“Most of the time you can tell if an application is filled out kind of sketchy,” says Roederer. “We can tell if the people seem like they aren’t very good pet owners, and we’ll check into that before we let them adopt from us.”

While researching the public information of convicted animal abusers on ASPCA.org and pet-abuse.com it is clear that not many people get serious sentences when they are convicted of animal abuse. Most convicted abusers get a fine of a few 100 dollars and that’s it.

“In Mississippi animal cruelty and abuse is only a fine, basically a slap on the wrist. They were working on making it a felony but they only have made it so far to where the second offense is a felony,” says Roderer.

Cara Horn is an intern at the Oxford Lafayette Humane Society and thinks that this punishment isn’t even hard enough.

“I think that the punishment should be harder,” says Horn. “I see too many animals come into and out of the shelter, these animals need a loving caring home.”

According to pet-abuse.com there are only four states without felony provisions for cruelty to animals and Mississippi is one of them. In the state of Mississippi the maximum amount of jail time is six months; compared to the states of Alabama and Louisiana where the maximum amount of jail time for a convicted animal abuser is ten years

“I personally would lock them away forever depending on what their abuse was, however any abuse period is not okay,” says Roderer.

Unethical conduct in public schools

Side entrance of Lafayette High directing the level of grounds

By: Kelton Brooks

Administrative staff employed in the Oxford School District must strictly abide by the Mississippi Educator code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct policy.

This policy discretely elucidates any ethical and unethical conduct that faculty and staff must be aware of during the hiring process.

According to the Mississippi Code of Ethics policy, “Ethical conduct is any conduct which promotes the health, safety, welfare, discipline and morals of students and colleagues.

“Unethical conduct is any conduct that impairs the license holder’s ability to function in his/her employment position or a pattern of behavior that is detrimental to the health, safety, welfare, discipline, or morals of students and colleagues.” http://www.jackson.k12.ms.us/teachers/mde_educator_ethics_conduct.pdf

In Greenville, MS, a former high school football coach, Dwight Bowling, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on Aug. 16 for molestation charges against teenage boys, according to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.

The boys were between the ages of 13 and 18.

The officials who worked the case said that the 13-year-old boy who was with Bowling at the time of his arrest accused him of improper touching.

Bowling accounted for eight Mississippi sexual offense statues, according to Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) http://www.rainn.org/files/reportingdatabase/Mississippi/MississippiStatueofLimitations.pdf

Five of the sexual charges Bowling was charged for, had no limitations on prosecutions.

This means that if a victim was assaulted 20 years ago, his or her sex offender could still be charged on any day.

Ex-teacher and music minister John Langworthy was charged Sept.7 for sexual crimes in the Jackson and Clinton area that he committed in the 1980s, according to the Mississippi Link.

Langworthy was charged with eight counts of sexual gratification of lust and six counts of fondling children.

He had sexual relations with at least five boys between the ages of eight and 12 years old.

“Every year I have an authoritative figure to address the Code of Ethics policy to my staff,” said Michael Martin, Principal at Oxford High School.

“I’ve been here for about four and a half years and there haven’t been any accusations of improper conduct,” Martin said.

Martin was reluctant to go into detail about the protocol of the policy if a teacher or staff member was accused of charges of sexual relations, but he later said that anything that is deemed unethical is listed in the Code of Ethics policy.

According to Standard 4, Educator/Student relationship of the Ethics policy, an educator should always maintain a professional relationship with all students, both in and outside the classroom.

“The only way we allow texting between students and teachers is if a coach sends a mass text to his team about sports preferences or if a teacher solely speaks on school matters,” said Patrick Robinson, Principal of Lafayette High School.

This conduct is unethical if “soliciting, encouraging, participating or initiating inappropriate written, verbal, electronic, physical or romantic relationship with a student,” occurs, according to Standard 4.2 number 6.

This detail is emphasized in example number 10 of ethical conduct, “electronic communication such as texting.”

Robinson is strongly against the use of profanity and/or sexual language which he reiterated many times.

“I simply do not condone it, I take great offense to it,” Robinson said.

Standard 1.2 number 3 under Professional Conduct reads, “Inappropriate language on school grounds or any school-related activity” is considered unethical.

Due to the rising factor of social networking, the Code of Ethics policy was revised in January 2011.

“I encourage my staff not to “friend” current students on Facebook, if the student has graduated, that is beyond my control” Robinson said.

Robinson did go on to say that “If an action such as this is discovered, the law has to investigate and I must follow proper procedure of the ethics policy.”

Standard 4.2 example number 11, “invitation to social networking.”

Robinson has been an administrator in the Mississippi school system for 21 years, but this is his first year at Lafayette High.

Prior to relocating to the Oxford School District, he was in the Jackson School District when he did recall an occurrence between a teacher and student.

However, Robinson refused to go into further detail about the matter.

“To my knowledge, there has been no incident of such a case here, and I plan to keep it that way.”

Advanced Reporting- Meghan Hutchinson

Meghan Hutchinson

November 8, 2011

Advanced Reporting 377

How to Appeal a Parking Ticket, Is it Worth the Hassle?

The ongoing gossip and buzz that has been going on since late August is the frustration of lack of parking spots on the Ole Miss campus.

Students and faculty were well aware of the fact that this year’s incoming freshmen class was the biggest it has ever been in Ole Miss history. And a bigger university means more cars, less parking spots, and more tickets being distributed.

In early September of this year, the Daily Mississippian the University of Mississippi’s school newspaper ran an article on how the university parking services over-sold commuter decals. This caused uproar with students who have to park in commuter parking.

With a lack of parking, many students and faculty have no choice but to park in un-designated spots around campus. The result, people are receiving parking tickets left and right.

“Students and faculty have the right to appeal parking tickets if they wish to” said Parking Services Director Linda Christian.

Many students and faculty want to know about the process of how to appeal a parking ticket.

According to the University of Mississippi website, Students and faculty are entitled to a hearing before a Board of Appeals. Students are to be heard by the Student Board of Appeals, and faculty is to be heard by the Faculty/Staff Board of Appeals.

“I have been ticketed for no reason at all,” said Shane Pierotti, a student at Ole Miss.

“I have gone about to try to appeal my parking tickets but it has never been successful. I feel like it is almost pointless to try to appeal a ticket”.

“I am trying to appeal a ticket that I got for no reason, but I have no evidence to back me up, that says otherwise”.

According to the university traffic appeals procedure, students can make an appeal in person or in writing. When making an oral appeal, the student is to appear before the board with the subject ticket and their University of Mississippi student ID.

If faculty and staff want to go about making an appeal to the Faculty/Staff Appeal Board, they have to follow the same guidelines. When making an oral appeal to the Faculty/Staff Appeals Board, the person is to appear before the board with the copy of the subject ticket and their University of Mississippi employee ID.

Students can pick up can pick up a written appeal form in the Office of the Dean of Students in the Student Union Building Room 401.

Faculty and staff, and also students can pick up a written appeal at University Police Departments Parking Services Office in Kinard Hall between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. weekdays. Students must submit their written appeal with the subject ticket attached to it to the Office of the Dean of Students or University Police Department Parking Services Office by noon of the court date specified on the ticket.

Each person who files an appeal has the right to go in front of a board and provide evidence, answer questions, and be able to question witnesses. A university police officer will be present and be there in case of need of clarification.

Whatever decision either the Student Board of Appeals comes up with or the Faculty/Staff board of appeals comes up with is to be final. Students will be billed to their bursar accounts and will have to pay the fine within 30 days. And faculty/staff will have the ticket amount deducted from their payroll.

During fall and spring semester of 2010 the University Parking Services issued 3265 parking decals to faculty and staff, and 13,045 parking decals to students.

In the fall semester of 2010 University Parking Services gave out 16250 parking citations. In the spring semester of 2010 University Parking Services gave out 17403 parking citations.

“We don’t see many people come and appeal their parking tickets” said Christian.

“When people do come to appeal parking tickets, it ends up being a big hassle. Most of the time people don’t have a valid excuse or all the right material with them. People usually just eventually pay the fine and their tickets are off their bursar accounts”.

So in the long run, going through the process of trying to appeal a parking ticket is a hassle. The best way to avoid a parking ticket is to park where you are designated to park. Yes, you might have to walk a little extra, but you are saving money in the long run.

Sources:

Shane Pierotti: 901-268-2151

Linda Christian: 662-915-7235

http://www.olemiss.edu/police/parkingservices.html

Landscaping, and Universities in Mississippi -- Jackson Boyd

Jackson Boyd

                                    Landscaping, and Universities in Mississippi

            When deciding on a University to attend following high school people look at certain qualities of a school that attract them in various ways. Some may choose a school for the academic quality it may possess, for the area in which that school is located, for sports, for partying, or maybe just because their parents tell them where to go. All these reasons may be true for many, but does a school’s appearance, as in its landscaping, play a role in a future student’s commitment to a particular Institution?

            There is a lot of work and money that go into the landscaping and appearance of a University. While focusing on three major universities in Mississippi; Ole Miss, Mississippi State University, and Delta State University, I found out that a student usually makes a decision to attend a certain college after the first fifteen seconds he or she steps on that certain campus.

            The University of Mississippi has notoriously been known to have one of the most beautiful campuses nation-wide. The school was ranked “Most Beautiful Campus” by a national magazine survey. The Clarion Ledger reported the “Most Beautiful Campus” ranking came from Newsweek/Daily Best. According to www.thebestcolleges.org, The University of Mississippi ranked 28^th most beautiful university. It is in a class with such institutions as Harvard, Hawaii, Elon, Stanford, Sewanee, Notre Dame and many other prestigious schools.

            Various awards that the Ole Miss landscape has received include: “Best Tailgating,” by Tailgater Monthly, “Most Beautiful,” by Newsweek, “One of America’s Most Beautiful Campuses,” by The Best Colleges, “MS Urban Forest Council’s Annual Scenic Communities Award – 2008,” and “Professional Grounds Maintenance Society Greenstar Award for Best Maintained University –2002.”

            The Ole Miss Landscaping crew is comprised of 34 full time employees. These men and women spend twenty hours a year on plant I.D. training, as well as twenty to fifty hours a year on safety and operational training.

 The staff plants close to 20,000 seasonal color plants per year; 10,000 tulip bulbs and 10,000 daffodils in any given year.

There is approximately 172 acres of Bermuda, 419 acres of turf, 120 acres of common Bermuda, 40 acres of zoysia, and 15 acres of turf type tall fescue on campus.

 There are roughly 4000 trees inventoried in the central area of the main campus, and 200 more are planted each year.

 2, 312 metal bollards (poles) line the campus with 15,944 linear ft (three miles) of chain between the bollards.

The average waste collected in the Grove following home games equals out to be about 200 cubic yards, or around ten tons.

It takes somewhere around 100-150 hours to clean the Grove following the home football games.  

Following the last home football game of the season, the Grove is over-seeded with turf type tall fescue. It usually takes around 4,500 pounds of seed to complete this job.

A survey was taken a few years back between the states of Mississippi and South Carolina to see how much schools in this region were spending on their landscaping services.

Ole Miss spent $1,089 per acre, which averaged out to be $1,089,000 for the year. This total seems to be high, but it was actually one of the lowest in the state of MS that was surveyed.

Southern Mississippi is comprised of around 240 acres, and their total landscaping cost, according to the survey is $640,233 a year.

Mississippi State University has roughly 1200 acres. They pay a staggering $2,074,536 per year for landscaping.

When Jeff McManus, Director of Landscaping at Ole Miss was asked if the accolades and awards that the school has received for its outstanding landscape work motivates he and his crew to go that extra mile he said, “I believe the “wow Factor to a college campus created by landscaping is extremely important. If a perspective college student has not made a decision on where he/she is going, studies show they decide within the first 15 minutes of their college visit. Wow, that is a big deal. The study also said that the way the buildings look, the cleanliness of the grounds, and the landscape were top factors in making college choices.”

As previously stated, Mississippi State University spends around two million dollars on landscaping materials, labor, etc., a year for 1200 acres of land. This amount almost doubles the amount the University of Mississippi spends.

Robert Rice is the Director of Landscaping at Mississippi State. When asked if he thinks that a University’s landscaping can be a determining factor in a person’s decision to attend the school he said,

“I absolutely do think that a well maintained university landscape can and does make a major impact on a student’s decision to go to a particular school. I know that Jeff McManus there at Ole Miss aggress that us landscapers are definitely in the ‘recruiting business’.”

Rice went on to talk about how Mississippi State currently had 25 fulltime employees and about 15 “seasonal” workers to maintain the 1200 acres of land.

Southern Mississippi declined to comment.

Ali Harper, a freshman at the University of Mississippi said that she was torn between a handful of schools when going through the rigorous college selection process. Alabama, Tennessee, Ole Miss all topped her list.

Harper said, “I would have to say that the way Ole Miss looks when you drive in really gives you a welcoming feeling. It is clean and inviting, which was one of the big reasons why I am where I am when it comes to colleges.

Sources: 1) http://nems360.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Ole+Miss+ranked+-Most+Beautiful-+campus+by+national+magazine+survey-%20&id=15295294&instance=home_news_1st_left

2) http://www.thebestcolleges.org/most-beautiful-campuses/

3) http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/landscape/money.html

4) Jeff McManus, Ole Miss Landscaping Director (662) 915-1846

5) Rob Rice, Mississippi State Landscaping Director (662) 325-1541

6) Alexandra Harper, Ole Miss Student (615) 483-6448

“Living in poverty,” What does it mean?

By: Jennifer Wilson

7 billion. That is the current number of humans living on our planet, according to United Nations demographers. That number is an estimate from one organization, of course; but the Census Bureau also stated that although they believe the number is a little off, it is definitely close.

At least 1.4 billion of those people are living in poverty.

That statistic is according to a 2008 study released from the World Bank. It also says that a person is living in poverty if he or she makes less than $1.25 a day, which is $456.25 for an entire year. That is the international poverty line as defined by the World Bank; different countries define poverty at different amounts.

In the United States, the Department of Health and Human Services issues poverty guidelines each year. In 2010, the Poverty Guidelines stated that a person is considered to be living in poverty if he or she makes less than $10, 830 a year. That means an American citizen can make $10, 373.75 more than a citizen of Somalia, yet still be considered poor.

This brings up the question, what exactly does “living in poverty” mean?

Dictionary.com defines poverty as “the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor.” Do all people who are living in poverty fit into this definition?

“My family falls just above the poverty line with my income,” said Timothy Moore, a former student of Ole Miss and a current Airman in the United States Air Force.

“We have 2 cars, a 2- story house, 2 computers, 2 televisions, an Xbox, a Wii, cable, high speed internet, and 2 smart phones with data plans,” he said.

Moore and his family are close to being poor, according to Mississippi and national guidelines. But he makes just enough to escape being defined as living in poverty.

“Now, all that being said, I'm poor. I live paycheck to paycheck and couldn't afford to take my wife on a date even if I had the time. But I lack nothing I need to survive and I even can afford some luxuries for my family,” Moore said.

Records from the Census Bureau show that 21 percent of Mississippi residents are currently living below the poverty line. That is the highest amount of any state in America. Another record from the same organization shows that 32 percent of Oxford residents are living in poverty.

Yet just because a person is defined as poor by the Census Bureau, does that mean that they are hungry, cold, sick or are living without basic human needs?

A study published in July of this year by the Heritage Foundation revealed some eye- opening statistics. The researchers provided data from the 2005 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, which is conducted by the Department of Energy, to give a look into the living conditions of America’s poor.

The survey shows that out of all Americans defined as poor, 98 percent have a television and 65 percent have more than one television. Also, 65 percent of poor people have a DVD player and 22 percent have more than one. Over 30 percent of Americans living in poverty have one video game system and 38 percent have a personal computer.

The same study shows that all of those items are also kept in decently sized houses that are in good condition. The average person classified as poor lives in a 3-bedroom home with more than one bathroom, a porch, and a garage.

Also, around 70 percent of households deemed poor have no problem paying all of their “essential expenses.” That includes rent, medical bills and utilities.

The study concludes by stating, “Exaggeration and misinformation about poverty obscure the nature, extent, and causes of real material deprivation, thereby hampering the development of well-targeted, effective programs to reduce the problem.”

Casey Hendricks is a former Ole Miss law student who has done extensive research on this topic. She agrees that there is a disconnect between the percentage of Americans defined as poor and the amount of people who should be classified in that way.

“Yes, Mississippi is the poorest state in America,” she said.


“But compared to people in other countries, starving to death, with no clothes or shelter, many of us are like millionaires. I wish more people recognized this.”

Ole Miss law professor Deborah Bell retains a different view, and believes poverty is a relative term. Living in poverty, she said, depends on the area and society in which a person exists.

“I would define poverty as the inability to afford what one's society deems basic necessities of life,” Bell said.

“In the US, I would say that includes habitable housing, adequate medical care, safe daycare for children, a functioning vehicle, and access to educational opportunities, as well as food, shelter, and clothing,” she said.


Bell believes that just because a poor family may have some nice things, that does not always mean that they have everything they need for survival.

“There are low-income families who have decent housing, food, and clothing, but who are unable to afford medical care for the adults in the family or safe daycare for their children. They are living in poverty."

Word Count: 868

Sources:
Deborah Bell, Professor of Law, dbell@olemiss.edu
Timothy Moore, United States Air Force Airman, 662-801-7942
Casey Hendricks, Former law student at Ole Miss, 662-640-2286

http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/10poverty.shtml
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/07/what-is-poverty#_ftn12
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/28/2854840.html
http://www.globalissues.org/article/4/poverty-around-the-world#WorldBanksPovertyEstimatesRevised

Deborah Bell on "What is poverty?"

Nutt Feeling Pressure

As the 2011 Ole Miss Rebels football season comes to a close, many questions will carry on into the off-season. The Rebel football team must win their final four games of the regular season to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2009. Those games will include traveling to play the Kentucky Wildcats, at home versus Louisiana Tech and the number one ranked team in the country in LSU and finally traveling to Starkville to face the Bulldogs of Mississippi State.

A major obstacle head coach Houston Nutt will have to endure at the beginning of the off-season, if not sooner, is the fact that his job is in major jeopardy. Nutt has an overall record of 24-22 with Ole Miss. That number doesn’t seem concerning, but if you look at the Rebels season last season and this season, the records are significantly different. Nutt’s record as head coach since the 2009 football campaign is 6-14. More importantly, Nutt has 11 straight Southeastern Conference (SEC) football games, which has never happened before since Ole Miss started playing football in the SEC in 1932.

Senior defensive tackle Justin Smith talked about the coaching rumors.




“I’ve heard rumors, but you really can’t pay attention to them,” Smith said. “I don’t really take much I hear at face value. I’m not sure if coaching is the issue, but I’m not sure that it’s not. It’s just really hard to say.”

Smith was one of the first players recruited by Nutt when Nutt arrived at Ole Miss and is one of the only players that have been coached by Nutt for all four years while at Ole Miss. He feels he’s seen a difference this year compared to others.

“I think there’s been some difference this year from the previous three seasons,” Smith said. “After last season the coaches felt that there was a sense of entitlement and lack of leadership. There was a sense that some of us were spoiled. So, they’ve been a little tougher on us this year.”

Smith said that the coaches continue to preach the same principles after a 2-6 start as they did before the season began.

“It’s another opportunity to go out and get a W,” Smith said. “We’re over the moral victories and coming close. We want a win. We need a win.”

But the question still remains: does Nutt have enough tricks in the bag to salvage a disappointing season? If the season isn’t salvaged, will he kept his job based mostly on his early success at Ole Miss? Success, in which, a lot of fans around Ole Miss feel was in due part because of Ed Orgeron, the previous head coach before Nutt.

Orgeron was fired after his third season of coaching the Rebels. His ability to motivate and recruit captured some fans, but his lack of wins or close “moral victories” eventually was a key reason for him getting fired. Orgeron held a record of 12-27 while coaching at Ole Miss, which is glaringly worse than that of Nutt.


But, as stated early, the problem some fans have had with Nutt recently are his last two seasons, which were heavily players he recruited, not Orgeron. During the “Orgeron Era,” Orgeron was notorious for being a great recruiter and evaluator of talent. Orgeron was even featured in Bruce Feldman’s book Meat Market. Orgeron’s aggressive tactics won high caliber players over. One of Orgeron’s more popular recruiting sayings came when he was a five star caliber player in Joe McKnight, “His tape is better than Reggie's (Reggie Bush, former USC running back and now Miami Dolphin running back) high school tape. If he comes to Oxford, we'll change the bricks on Manning Way to McKnight Way."

One reason Nutt’s performance had dropped over the past couple of years deals with players that have either been kicked off the Ole Miss team or transferred because of playing time. Highly recruited players: Pat Patterson, Tig Barksdale, Clarence Jackson, Tony Grimes, Rodney Scott and Brandon Sanders are a few players that made it to campus, played and eventually were kicked off the team for breaking team rules.

“We’ve lost a lot of players because they’ve got into trouble,” Smith said. “In the long run, that really starts to hurt a team.”

Blake Embry, an unbiased fan of football and none Ole Miss fan, weighed in about the Ole Miss coaching situation. Embry played college baseball at Mississippi College and understands athletics.

Embry felt the biggest problem with the Rebels right now was “lack of talent” and a shift of veteran players to that of younger guys having to take more leadership roles.

“The last two years Ole Miss hasn’t had that good base of players like they had two years ago,” Embry said. “ In my opinion, I feel Nutt should deserve one more year. Yeah, it’s a struggle this year but maybe next year could be a different story.”

Embry gave Nutt’s coaching performance so far of the 2011 season a C. “The reason I don’t go lower is because they have a lot of younger players. They’re having to deal with a lot of young and that’s tough.”

But like others, Embry is a fan of college football and he realizes “most Ole Miss fans don’t want to hear excuses.”

And he was highly alarmed when players on the football staff had “doubt” in their responses about Nutt.

“You hope to hear your players are saying we’re being put in the best position to win,” Embry said. “It’s kind of scary when a player would say that. Makes me wonder if Houston still has control of the locker room and this team or is it starting to swing the other way.”

The season isn’t over yet. That is a fact. Ole Miss could win out or lose out. But these next four games seem to becoming more and more critical for Nutt, his staff and the future of the Ole Miss football program.

Statistics about international students at Ole Miss since 1993

By Gjoko Dungevski

Jour 377

Instructor: D. Jackson

Wordcount: 750

Since 1995 the number of international undergraduate students has dropped in half but the number of international graduate students keeps growing, according to the Office of International Students annual reports.

The Asian student population dominates throughout each school year, dating back since 1993 until now; second is Europe followed by Africa, Latin America, Middle East, North America and Oceania. India is the leading country of origin.

The Asian student population dominates not only at Ole Miss but also throughout the U.S., said Jean Robinson, assistant director at the Office of International Programs.

The Higher Education Research Institute confirms this statement. The Asian student population has been on a stable increase ever since 1971.

“People who have the means to pursue higher education at this point and more than what can be handled in their countries so they have to look elsewhere,” Robinson said.

Not only they come for the higher education but also because they have families who live here in the U.S. or have friends who have been, or are currently enrolled, at the university. They find the community interesting and welcoming and perceive the environment less threatening compared to where they come from, said Donna Chappel, administrative coordinator at the Office of International Programs.

An interesting fact about these numbers is that in the history of international students at Ole Miss, there was only one student from Australia in 1998.

One reason might be the distance but more importantly “Australia struggles to attract students as well, which is why we don’t see many Australian students here,” said Jean Robinson.

But the numbers of international students at UM hasn’t been always constant.

During the school year 1993-94, Ole Miss had a total number of 631 international students. This number gradually declined and inclined throughout the years. Currently there are 581 international students at UM.

The biggest decline was during the 1998-’99 school year when the numbers dropped 14.4%. From a total number of 507 international students in ’97-98, the following year this number went down to 434.

The decline in numbers is a result of multiple factors, say experts in the reports.

Some of these factors include lower cost alternatives in home countries, the continued strength of the U.S. dollar, difficulties obtaining visas, increased tuition fees and even perceptions that U.S. is unwelcoming for international students, according to the ’04-06 annual reports.

Visa regulations have tightened even more since the Patriot Act in 2001, which is another reason why the number of international students has either decreased or stayed stable from 2000 until 2006.

According to Jean Robinson, the tight visa regulations just slowed down the process of obtaining a visa for international students.

Robinson said that she didn’t encounter issues from students such as visa denials. She said that delays of visa issuance caused students to come at a later date, or semester, instead of when they intended to.

“The problems are more like ‘I can’t come now, I’m still waiting. Can I come in spring or fall?’” said Robinson.

For undergraduate students, for instance, these delays do not represent a big problem because all they need to do is update their admissions status.

But for graduate students, depending on the department they are applying at, it’s a bit different. In general though, some of the departments tend to allow students to be able to defer their assistantships, said Robinson.

“It’s not in the interest of the United States to keep good students out. They work diligently to get them here,” said Donna Chappel.

Ever since the university launched recruitment campaign in 2002, however, UM has seen some incline in the numbers, the reports show.

The biggest increase, however, was during the 2008-09 school year when the numbers increased 14.9%. From 490 international students during ’07-08, in ‘08-09 this number went up to 563.

“International students make a significant economic and social contribution to the University, not only to students but to faculty as well,” said Tayla Burns, international programs advisor.

On average 60%, throughout the years, receive support for their studies from personal/family sources, show the reports.

Those of the students, however, who cannot afford to support their own studies, seek funding from other agencies, from the public or private sector.

Other sources include support from a home university/government, U.S. college or university, international organizations, U.S. government, private U.S./foreign businesses etc.

Tayla Burns talks about the recruitment campaign and how UM is willing to attract more international students.

Go to: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-20Op-5W8c