The value of university history
Recently in a Public Policy Leadership class taught by visiting professors Bill and Rita Bender, we had a class discussion about how students view Ole Miss, and how few students know about its history.
Many of the students here have learned Ole Miss’ master narrative, the half-truth, rather than the whole truth. The history of Ole Miss that many students know is not one that they have read or been taught in a classroom, but an oral one that they have learned from elders and peers.
My good friend and fellow classmate suggested that every student during their first year at the university should take a required class that teaches history of the University of Mississippi.
I want to expand on this. We are one of few schools that do not have some type of University 101 class that every student at the school has to take in order to graduate. This class should include not only the basics of simple things about the campus and how to be successful here, but also an in-depth look into the history of Ole Miss. These classes should not be large, but small enough to have serious discussions about the history of the university and how we got where we are today.
When everyone is educated about the true Ole Miss history, I think we will find that everyone will not simply be arguing “it is tradition” when discrepancies arise, but rather solid arguments.
Many of the students at Ole Miss are not from Mississippi and therefore may not understand why we do the things we do, and how we are still fighting our past. For students from both inside and outside Mississippi alike our thinking is formed by where we are from, our parents, and our friends. The University of Mississippi has a very rich history and has had many obstacles to battle, and is still battling.
For example, it is little known among the students at the University of Mississippi that Medgar Evers was the first black male to apply, why Ole Miss is in Oxford, or about the riots in 1962 surrounding the admittance of James Meredith.
Books like “The Band Played Dixie: Race and the Liberal Conscience at Ole Miss,” by Nadine Cohodas, should be required reading along with an examination of past Ole Miss yearbooks and other original documents from Ole Miss’ past.
The University of Mississippi and the state of Mississippi have a rich and complicated history that not every student understands, and it is time we recognize it and educate.
- Login to post comments
