Britt Herrin
250 posts
ONCE UPON A TIME - A GREAT, SMALL, STATE UNIVERSITY
When I got to Ole Miss in 1977, there were 8,000 students. We were mostly Mississippians and West Tennesseans. (Memphis, Tennessee, the Capitol of North Mississippi, is just 85 miles away.) We also had a few Tex-asses, as we called them. They had a bit of an attitude but, they were good Southerners.
Today, Ole Miss has 23,000 students. We have somewhere around 45% of out of State students. We let over 90% of all applicants into the University. We have more student cars than we have parking spaces. Only Freshmen are guaranteed a dorm room on campus. All the rest of the students are pushed into Oxford and the County. The University has busted open at the seams. Oxford is all but ruined, from the small, pretty town I once knew.
Ole Miss used to be like a small town. By your second year you knew a whole bunch of people on campus. This sign was in several places on campus into the 1980's. If you walked by a professor, you spoke. If you walked by a fellow student, you at least nodded at each other. You acknowledged another human being. Ole Miss was a small, Southern, special place. We were all in it together. I think most all the students were glad to be here.
Somewhere, in the last 40 plus years, "Bigger is BETTER" won out. Bigger is NOT better. Most of the things that made Ole Miss special are gone.
This sign helped me, a somewhat shy, little fish in a big pond, feel a little more welcome. It helped me to grow up. It taught me to treat people like they are actually human beings.
I mourn for all we have lost.
Hey Ole Miss, bring these signs BACK! Most students are not terribly outgoing. Most don't feel like they are part of Ole Miss. Freshman especially, need this sign. Friendliness can be taught, and it can be caught, from one person to another. Bring this tradition BACK! This would be well worth doing! HOTTY TODDY!
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