The close margins between the two leading candidates in the 2024 election are reflected here on our campus — like nearly other place in the country. While this election season is soon to conclude, the ideas and circumstances that influence it will still prevail long after.
This polarized environment also brings to light the significant presence of a conservative student base at the University of Mississippi. Student opinion will obviously waiver depending on who you talk to, but there is a silent majority on campus.
No matter which way you turn it, there is a strong conservative group of students enrolled here. Occasionally, they choose to flex their strength in numbers. These students don’t always feel the need to commentate, advocate or politic, but when they do, the optics are not the most appealing.
In fact, I believe that when they choose to mobilize or show face, it’s for the sake of spectacle. The chants that break out in Vaught Hemingway, “f–k Joe Biden,” that have broken out in years past or the more infamous moment this past May when a large counter-protest crowd formed in opposition of a relatively few students are just a couple of examples.
Nearly half of our attendees are out-of-state students that migrate here for a number of reasons including impressive programs, athletics, greek life and … the very real presence of a conservative-culture that is not terribly common at most flagship universities. I mean, think of the top university in each state, it’s more than likely liberal-leaning. This isn’t the case here.
What is interesting about all this is that many of these students represent little about the University of Mississippi itself. Rather, they represent the more infamous “Ole Miss.”
While the University of Mississippi does a lot from the public relations and administrative side to distance itself from this culture, the truth remains that many students and alumni alike view Ole Miss as a vacuum where politically incorrect and problematic ideas and notions thrive. Like the saying goes, you graduate from the University of Mississippi but never from Ole Miss.
Despite this, there are many groups on campus that pride themselves in true discourse, debate and conversation revolving around politics in a respectful manner. Among these groups are the College Democrats, College Republicans, UM GOP, NAACP and Black Student Union.
Beyond this, I’m not sure enough students get out and vote here on campus. This year will be different, though. National trends show that this will be the election decided by the absentee ballot.
Over 45 million absentee ballots have already been cast, and, while we do not have the numbers for Lafayette County yet, there’s a reason to believe that it will report numbers in line with nationwide trends. This week, it was reported that 208,000 absentee ballots were cast in Mississippi during this election season — a figure that would be over 16% of the total votes cast in 2020.
Honestly, though, for every student passionate about politics or an issue or topic, there are two apathetic students who prefer to “not get political.” And it can be hard to place blame on them.
Mississippi has voted red for three decades straight. That fact alone is discouraging to students because they feel as though their civic duty results in little to no change. Still, voting advocacy groups on campus and in the region have continually stressed the importance of voting in down- the-page races in every county. These races are the ones that determine how the city functions on an institutional level and addresses issues that every student faces, like housing.
Justice Rose is the opinion editor. He is a senior journalism major from Madison, Miss.
