Residential Colleges Featured in Ole Miss Fundraising
Posted by R. J. O’Hara for the Collegiate Way
21 October 2007 (collegiateway.org) — A news report by Errol Castens in today’s Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal tells us that the planned residential college system at the University of Mississippi (“Ole Miss†to its alumni and friends) will feature prominently in the university’s current capital campaign. “The campaign reflects the reality that state funding for higher education has shrunk while university costs and capital investments in research, academic, athletic and support facilities and programs have increased greatly,†Castens writes. “‘Private funding will provide the margin of excellence we are relentlessly pursuing,’ [UM Chancellor Robert] Khayat said. ‘Our alumni and friends are happy to invest in the university and continue our momentum.’
One of the most revolutionary developments in the works for the state’s flagship university is a plan for residential colleges, where students and faculty live, dine and socialize in the same cluster of buildings in which they go to class—a concept pioneered by Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. Ole Miss plans to open its first two residential colleges in fall 2009 and spring 2010, respectively, near the northeast corner of the campus.
