To the best students in America: Welcome back!
We’re ready for a great year of in-person classes, a slate of exciting athletic seasons, and of course, our highly celebrated and well-known Ole Miss traditions — especially second-to-none tailgating in the Grove, the “Holy Grail” for college football.
Whether you are a first-year student exploring campus for the first time or a senior with a few classes left to tackle, I guarantee Oxford will always remain your home away from home. The best communities are defined by friendship, mutual respect, understanding, and kindness — and Oxford does this better than all the rest.
What makes Ole Miss the flagship university is that our community fosters respect toward one another across a wide spectrum of perspectives different from our own. We do this by embracing a welcoming environment where we are kind to our neighbors, and understand that we all face and overcome challenges in our own ways. Keep this in mind in conversations with your friends, family, classmates, professors, and others in your lives.
As always, make personal wellness a priority by maintaining a balanced lifestyle. Build good habits by visiting the South Campus Recreation Center or the Turner Center regularly to maintain or improve your fitness. If you find yourself overextended or overwhelmed and feel the need to talk to someone about your physical or mental health, visit the wellness center or reach out to a faculty member, academic advisor, or the staff in the University Counseling Center.
Ole Miss offers many resources to benefit your academics and launch your professional careers: make an appointment with the Writing Center for help in writing your first research paper or your senior honors thesis; learn how to use next-level technology at the IDEAlab with weekly workshops to sharpen your presentations; stop by the Department of Student Housing’s Academic Resource Center to enrich your first-year experience; or, network with the Career Center to support your journey from college student to successful professional.
To stay connected with campus life, be sure to read “The Powder Blue” student newsletter, which appears in your Ole Miss Gmail account weekly, and follow @OleMissStudentServices on Instagram and Twitter to learn how the university supports you and your needs.
While we’re eager to put the past challenging year behind us, we recognize that our community and our country are still adapting to the effects of COVID-19 including the recent variants. The good news is that each of us, as members of our campus community, can do our part to promote a healthy community — please, get vaccinated. The sooner we all take this step, the sooner that we will be able to put the pandemic behind us.
College is an amazing time in which you will work hard and play hard. There is no time like the present to be yourself, focus on your studies, and get involved. Together, let’s make this year the most tremendous year yet for our campus.
Hotty Toddy!
Glenn F. Boyce
Chancellor
