Mississippi State University's Safe Return Task Force recently developed a comprehensive health and safety return plan for students and faculty returning to school for the upcoming fall semester amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The university has also launched the "Cowbell Well" initiative, which encourages seven wellness behaviors: wearing a face covering, cleaning hands often, observing physical distancing, staying home if you feel sick, sanitizing surfaces, practicing self-care and completing daily screenings.

Movin’ You to MSU, the university’s annual residence hall move-in time, will take place from Aug. 10 to Aug. 15. College View residents will check-in from Aug. 14 to Aug. 16 at their scheduled move-in date and time. Students may check-in directly at their residence halls from Aug. 10 to Aug. 15 at specific dates and times the Department of Housing and Residence Life sets. For more information, visit housing.msstate.edu/future-residents/moving-in, call 662-325-3555 or email [email protected].

All students and families will go through a health screening before arriving at residence halls to unload their belongings. The university will implement contactless check-in. Volunteers on site will provide directions and manage elevator occupancy but will not help move students’ possessions into their rooms, a release from MSU says.

Volunteers can sign up in groups or individually and will receive free T-shirts. All volunteers must wear face coverings inside university buildings and outside whenever maintaining physical distancing of 6 feet is not possible. Anyone needing face coverings can contact the Department of Housing and Residence Life at 662-325-3555 or email [email protected].

For more information on MSU's Cowbell Well initiative, visit msstate.edu/cowbellwell. The university's academic and event calendars are available at msstate.edu/calendars.

JSU Development Foundation Donates to Terry L. Woodward Endowed Scholarship

The Jackson State University Development Foundation recently donated $17,000 for the Terry L. Woodward Endowed Scholarship, with a matching donation from the university’s Title III program that brought the total amount to $34,400.

The scholarship's namesake, the late Terry L. Woodard, was the 17th president of the JSU National Alumni Association. After retiring from his tenure with the organization, Woodard became a board member of the JSU Development Foundation and served as its treasurer.

JSU will use the scholarship to pay for tuition, textbooks, supplies and other fees for eligible students. All scholarships are part of a student’s financial aid package, and the university will credit them toward current charges on the student’s account.

To be eligible for the scholarship, students must be a full-time student enrolled in the university, maintain a 3.0 GPA and demonstrate a financial need.

For more information, visit jsums.edu.

USM Receives Collection of Century-old Campaign Memorabilia

Retired Hattiesburg ophthalmologist John Pendergrass recently donated a century-old collection of buttons, posters, flyers, bumper stickers and other local, state and national political campaign memorabilia to the University of Southern Mississippi's University Archives and Special Collections. The collection includes more than 1,000 items, a release from USM says.

Among the collection are buttons for figures such as Anselm McLaurin, the last Confederate veteran to serve as a Mississippi governor, as well as promotional materials and products from the “Know Mississippi Better Train,” which made summer trips across the United States to promote the state from 1925 to 1948. The collection also includes decades worth of political campaign mailers.

Pendergrass began collecting the items after he joined the American Political Items Collectors organization in 1977. He previously donated 400 items from his collection focusing on former President Dwight Eisenhower to USM in 1984. Pendergrass also founded the Hattiesburg Track Club and gifted that organization’s records to USM Special Collections.

For information about USM Special Collections, visit http://www.lib.usm.edu/spcol/.