Mississippi University for Women

Mississippi University for Women (MUW or "The W") is a coeducational public university in Columbus, Mississippi. It was formerly the Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls and later the Mississippi State College for Women. Men have been admitted to MUW since 1982 and now make up about 20% of the student body.

Mississippi University for Women
Other name
The W
Former names
Mississippi State College for Women
Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls
Columbus Female Institute
MottoA Tradition of Excellence for Women and Men
TypePublic Space-Grant university
Established1884
Academic affiliation
SACS
AASCU
Endowment$43.8 million (July 2017)
PresidentNora Roberts Miller
ProvostDr. Scott Tollison
Academic staff
208 (Fall 2017)[1]
Administrative staff
201 (Fall 2017)[1]
Students2,789 (Fall 2017)[1]
Location
Columbus
,
Mississippi
,
United States

33°29′35″N 88°25′7″W
CampusRural
ColorsW (dark) blue and Welty (light) blue
         
NicknameOwls
Sporting affiliations
USCAA and NCAA Division III
MascotOdy the Owl
Websitehttp://www.muw.edu

History

Upon its establishment in 1884, Mississippi University for Women became the first public women's college in the United States. Then formally titled the Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls, the institution was created by an act of the Mississippi Legislature on March 12, 1884, for the dual purposes of providing a liberal arts education for women and preparing them for employment.[2] The first session began October 22, 1885, with an enrollment of approximately 250 students on a campus formerly occupied by the Columbus Female Institute, a private college founded in 1847. Richard Jones was selected by the State Institutions of Higher Learning board of trustees as the university's first president.

The name of the institution changed to Mississippi State College for Women in 1920 to reflect an emphasis on collegiate, rather than vocational, education.

In 1966, three local women from Hunt High School became the first black undergraduates at MUW. They lived off campus, as the dormitories remained segregated until 1968. At the same time, three teachers from Hunt became the first graduate students at the school. The students were known collectively as The Fabulous Six.[3][4]

In 1971 Mississippi State College for Women won the intercollegiate women's basketball national championship (the third ever held).[5]

In 1974 the name was changed to the Mississippi University for Women to reflect the expanded academic programs, including graduate studies. All other Mississippi state colleges were also designated universities at this time.

In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan that the nursing school's single-sex admissions policies were in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Following this decision, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning ordered the university to change its policies to allow the admission of qualified males into all university programs. In 1988, the Board of Trustees reaffirmed the mission of MUW as an institution providing quality academic programs for all qualified students, with emphasis on distinctive opportunities for women.

In a 1997 article in Innovative Higher Education, the journalist Dale Thorn describes MUW's successful attempt to avoid a merger with another institution and to remain a separate entity.[6]

In 2009, President Dr. Claudia Limbert announced the possibility of changing the university's name to "Reneau University". The Mississippi State legislature did not approve the change.[7]

As of 2018, U.S. News & World Report ranked The W 11th as a best value among public Southern regional universities and tied at 20th among best public regional universities in the South. The W also appeared in U.S. News’ Best Colleges for Veterans in Southern regional universities at No. 40.

On February 1, 2019, Nora Roberts Miller, was inaugurated as the first alumna president of Mississippi University for Women.[8] She was named the 15th president on September 15, 2018 by the State Institutions of Higher Learning board of trustees.[9]

Notable alumni

Notable MUW alumni include:

gollark: Basically, you can set a setting to make it not boot from disks by default, then make a program which loads the code off the disk as if it is booting as normal but is really logging the code on the disk somewhere.
gollark: I could still get around that with 1337 h4xx.
gollark: I could probably get around that with enough work.
gollark: Either way, the real-world credit card system... honestly seems woefully insecure and the only reason it works most of the time is the law and people being somewhat trustworthy.
gollark: I think you either need physical presence of the card or some numbers on it.

See also

References
  1. "MUW 2017-18 Fact Book" (PDF). Mississippi University for Women Institutional Research and Assessment. February 15, 2016. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  2. Pieschel, Bridget Smith. "The History of Mississippi University for Women". HistoryNow. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  3. "Barbara Turner Bankhead and Laverne Greene Leech". Retrieved December 11, 2018.
  4. "Desegregation 2016: 50th Anniversary of the Desegregation of The W". Retrieved December 11, 2018.
  5. "Pre-NCAA Statistical Leaders and AIAW Results" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved 31 Oct 2012.
  6. "Dale Thorn, When a Trial Threatens to Merge Small Universities: The Role of Litigation Public Relations in a Federal Desegregation Case, Vol 22, No. 2 (February 1997), pp. 101-115". academic.research.microsoft.com. Archived from the original on May 17, 2014. Retrieved May 17, 2014. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. "MUW name change: Research sheds new light on Reneau's history". Cdispatch.com. July 11, 2009. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
  8. "MUW installs first graduate as president". The Clarion Ledger.
  9. "Trustees name Nora Miller named 15th president of MUW". The Clarion Ledger.
  10. "CNN/AllPolitics.com - Election 2000 - The Democratic National Convention". Archived from the original on December 22, 2006.
  12. "Racial Desegregation - History - Those Who Dared - MUW". www.muw.edu. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
  13. "Hall of Fame Inventor Profile, Elizabeth Lee Hazen". Archived from the original on March 15, 2009.
  14. "Valerie Jaudon on artnet".
  15. "Chief Justice Lenore Prather Supreme Court of Mississippi".
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