We visited the University of Mississippi and experienced the emotional power of a campus tour. Plus, our reporters across the country are covering pro-Palestine protests on campuses.

‘They could just see themselves there.’

Hi there, it’s Kayleigh Skinner. The Dispatch is delayed because my colleague Colleen Murphy and I were traveling across Mississippi last week. We visited our Local Network partner Mississippi Today, and spent a few days driving across the state and visiting a few colleges our reporter Molly Minta covers. 

We spent a slightly damp spring morning touring the University of Mississippi’s campus which, full disclosure, is also my alma mater. After the tour we all agreed on one thing: it was an idyllic college campus. Food trucks lined high traffic locations. Students were lining up outside of the union to get free airbrushed hats and snow cones. Flower beds were blooming, and little robots skittered across sidewalks delivering meals to students (this amused us more than it probably should have).

It reminded me of a quote from Senquez Golson, a football player who graduated from the school who in 2019 said "If you don't want to go to Ole Miss, don't take a visit.” 

During the tour, I thought a lot about how I might perceive a campus — any campus — as a prospective student. At 17 or 18, what should you be paying attention to as you’re touring a school? It led me to some interesting conversations with people who think about this for a living.

Often, students with the means and opportunity to do so are choosing a college — a six-figure decision with lifelong implications — based on a visit and how that time on a campus made them feel. 

Families should “not just rely on publications and word of mouth, but actually get out there and set foot on campus,” said Robert Rummerfield. A former admissions officer at Johns Hopkins University, Rummerfield launched College Visits in 1991 and works with school groups to set up college tours across the country.

“It's hard to even put a description on it, but sometimes they get on a school (campus) and they could just see themselves there.”

Families can do more than a standard admission tour if they know what they’re interested in, according to Janice Caine, founder of Custom College Visits. Her company works with families to coordinate every aspect of college tours, from scheduling admissions tours to setting up meetings with faculty in specific departments a student might be interested in.

It’s important to ask questions about things like campus safety, and class sizes, or what mental health services are offered, if at all. Caine pushes families to ask these kinds of questions to come away with a better understanding of what life would be like for their prospective student.

“The college (tour) guide isn't necessarily going to tell you what they don't like about campus, right?” Caine said. “So we constantly urge them to talk to as many people on campus as they can.”

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Covering student protests around the country

Our reporters have been covering the growing number of pro-Palestine protests and encampments taking root on college campuses across the country.

Students have called on their universities to divest from weapons manufacturers supplying Israel in its strikes on Gaza. In Pittsburgh, students are also demanding “full disclosure of all university investments in the Israeli apartheid regime,” Emma Folts reported at our partner PublicSource.

More than 500 students walked out of class and two-dozen students were arrested at the University of Texas at Austin on Wednesday, with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott voicing support for the arrests, reported our Sneha Dey at The Texas Tribune.

Also in Texas, about 150 students gathered at the University of Texas at Arlington in protest of the ongoing war and in support of other student activists, writes Shomial Ahmad, our reporter at The Fort Worth Report. (That’s right, we’ve added a reporter in Fort Worth! Shomial is the newest member of our Local Network and our fourth reporter in Texas.)

We’ll continue to cover this issue, and are always looking ways to shed light rather than heat. Have ideas? Email me: [email protected].

Elsewhere on Open Campus

From North Carolina: Brianna Atkinson at our partner WUNC has been reporting on the University of North Carolina System’s moved toward a ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion offices. The Board of Governors are set to vote on the move next month. Here’s the language of what they’re expected to repeal.

North Carolina would join a growing number of states with such bans on its college campuses. Faculty in the UNC system say they feel blindsided by the move, which advanced through a committee vote with little public notice and no discussion.

From Cleveland: Cleveland State University President Laura Bloomberg says the university is “at a point of reckoning,” as it faces a budget deficit and is offering buyouts to to faculty and staff.

Amy Morona at our partner Signal Cleveland wisely noted that the outcome matters for more than just the university’s bottom line. The university employs more than 1,700 full-time workers who live in Cleveland and drive the economy. Plus, the university estimates about 85% of its graduates stay in the region after graduation.

From Mississippi: Our partners at Mississippi Today are looking for input on coverage of the state’s community colleges. Weigh in here.

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