Authors name UM ‘most appealing’ in U.S.

by Wally Northway

Published: July 20,2010

Tags: education, higher education, media

OXFORD — The University of Mississippi (UM) has been named “most appealing” college in an article in the “Chronicle of Higher Education.”

In an article examining “Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?” authors Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus placed Ole Miss at the top of their list of 11 colleges they think are doing their job well. They wrote that of all the flagship colleges they have visited, they found Ole Miss “the most appealing.”

“This sentence certainly got my attention, and not just because I know it to be a true statement,” said UM chancellor Dan Jones. “These respected authors spent several years visiting colleges and universities, including MIT, Notre Dame, Arizona State University, the University of Colorado at Boulder and others. But they found Ole Miss the most appealing.”

The article is adapted from Hacker and Dreifus’ book, “Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids – and What We Can Do About It,” which is being published Aug. 3 by Henry Holt/Times Books.

“Ole Miss is a university where reconciliation and civility are at the heart of the educational mission,” the authors write. “Much of the transformation has been the work of Robert Khayat, who retired from the chancellorship in 2009. In his 14 years there, he raised academic standards, tripled African-American enrollment and banned Confederate flags from athletic events.”

Hacker and Dreifus also praised UM for its Center for the Study of Southern Culture, which focuses on the art, literature, music and food of the region – black and white – and the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College.

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