Hordes of visitors flocked to the University of Mississippi on Saturday, April 13, to peruse the booths that lined the Circle, Galtney-Lott Plaza and the Union Plaza in honor of the third annual Mississippi Day. The festivities lasted from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Since its conception in 2022, Mississippi Day has been a free and open-to-the-public celebration of many different aspects of UM. From her spot at the welcome tent providing drinks and maps for guests, Amy Schumacher-Rutherford, an instructor in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, shared the collective purpose of Mississippi Day.
“Mississippi Day is an occasion for people to see the different entities throughout the university, and it’s a chance to speak with people and hopefully convince them to come here,” she Schumacher-Rutherford said.
Emerson Morris, a freshman majoring in public policy leadership, echoed this sentiment.
“Mississippi Day is a really great event for the Oxford community because it gives all of these smaller organizations a chance to show what they’re doing and the impact that they’re making on the student body,” Morris said. “Being able to show the community what we’re doing and give them the resources to learn how to do this thing is I think what Mississippi Day is all about.”
Morris manned the Speaking Center tent at Mississippi Day along with junior pharmacy major Ray Goodwin, who talked about what the tent had to offer to visitors.
“We’re having people come and give impromptu speeches,” Goodwin said. “We have a couple of prompts, and we have this methodology devised by Dr. Moore, our director. We just have people answer the question and give a little bit of a speech.”
The event was also beneficial for students such as freshman general studies major Georgia Peterson, who is undecided about her major and attended the event with her grandparents.
“My grandparents are here for my sorority’s parent weekend, and they’ve never been here, so I’m really glad they’re having it when they are able to be here,” Peterson said. “I like walking around and looking. I’m an undecided major, so it’s interesting to get to see the different schools and get to talk to them, which I think is probably my favorite thing because it gives me an idea of what I want to do.”
Many other booths and tents provided educational opportunities for guests. At the sociology and anthropology table, Director for the Center of Archaeological Research and Associate Professor of Anthropology Jesse Tune showcased the different types of animals that would have been hunted in Mississippi during the Ice Age.
The nursing booth displayed mannequins demonstrating various medical procedures, while the economics booth featured a game designed to encourage participants to gauge their risk-taking tendencies. The Writing and Rhetoric Center’s table rewarded children and other participants with candy for completing their storytelling dice game, mad libs and other word games.
Like many other booths, the art booth was geared mostly toward kids, according to Tori Saenz, a senior double majoring in fine art and mechanical engineering.
“Kids love art,” Saenz said. “We have coloring pages, we have a button-making machine where they can make their own buttons or use a pattern, we have a spin-art machine and we also have all the information necessary for anyone actually interested in joining the art department. We have all of the class information, as well as ways to sign up for an outreach program, and information on a tour that we’re doing later today.”
The music booth also beckoned crowds of children and other guests with its attractions.
“This morning, we had our choral group doing boomwhackers on trash cans,” Nancy Maria Balach, chair of the Department of Music, said. “We also did a yoga session for people to breathe and meditate, and then we had a petting zoo with instruments. Our percussion group was just here doing some really choreographed percussion stuff, and they just picked it up and took it in front of the union to share it over there. Those are the things we’ve been offering in the music tent today.”
The Sarah Isom Center for Gender Studies’ tent drew visitors in with the promise of activities and prizes, explained Assistant Professor of Gender Studies Pip Gordon.
“We are playing with sand in order to teach lessons about intersectionality,” Gordon said. “As the students pick different colors that they like and mix and match them, we use it as a way to help them understand the different ways in which our identities end up being formed through the concept of intersectionality from gender studies. That is what our project here is, but we also have the best swag in the Grove and the Circle for all of Mississippi Day.”
While the hospitality management booth offered no such prizes, visitors flocked to their booth to enjoy the food samples handed out by junior hospitality management major Emma Delahoussaye and the others running the booth.
“This section of the hospitality management booth is serving our barbecue sundaes,” Delahoussaye said. “This is our third year doing this. It kind of exemplifies our Lenoir Dining side of the hospitality management program and food service. Serving food is always a plus. We’re looking just to give people some food and good times as well as promote nutrition and hospitality management.”
Also featured amongst tables run by different university departments, were tables advertising various campus organizations and programs. Wyatt Webster, a sophomore Air Force ROTC cadet talked about the things happening at the Air Force ROTC table.
“We’re just trying to spread the word about our program,” Webster said. “A lot of juniors are coming up to us interested in scholarships and careers afterwards which we can provide them with. We also have a flight simulator here, so we’ve gotten a lot of younger kids interested in flying, and that’s really what today is all about, spreading the word of what we do and the opportunities that we give for people.”
Like the Air Force ROTC’s flight simulator, many of the other booths provided demonstrative attractions. The mechanical engineering table contained a model of an internal combustion engine hooked up to an electric motor, while the geological engineering table sported a model of the ocean’s currents and showed how the different water types interact with each other. Harrison Roth, a senior majoring in physics, highlighted the various offerings of the physics and astronomy table.
“We have freeze-dried marshmallows using liquid nitrogen,” Roth said. “We have various demos to demonstrate electricity and magnetism, and classical mechanics and acoustics. We’re just trying to spread science to everybody.”
The freeze-dried marshmallows were enjoyed by many guests, including sophomore psychology major Jillian Badeaux and her family, whom she brought to Mississippi Day with her.
“I came to Mississippi Day last year,” Badeaux said. “I really enjoyed it, so I brought them along with me this time because I thought they’d like seeing everything. I love the cultural section with all the different flag games and different food, and I just like seeing a lot of my friends and professors.”
Oxford native Pam Starling also shared her enjoyment of Mississippi Day.
“It’s a beautiful day, and it’s fun to get to learn about all these cool things the university does that you don’t even know is going on behind the buildings,” Starling said. “The kids are loving all the science experiments and all the fun hands-on things to do.”
Emma Bieker, a freshman majoring in public policy leadership, also had a great Mississippi Day experience.
“I’m having so much fun,” Bieker said. “I got a stuffed dog, and I got stickers and a pen and I got to talk to a lot of people. I like seeing all the tents and all the people being happy about their majors and what they’re involved in. It’s so fun to just see the students starting to get connected even before they get here.”
