Ask most anyone who knew Mike Aune what he was like and they’ll probably tell you two things: that he loved life, and he loved all the people in his.         "Mike was the most incredibly dynamic and enthusiastic guy," said John Gutierrez, professor of foreign language education at the University of Mississippi Croft Institute…

OXFORD, Miss – A $200 million capital campaign, designed to continue the momentum generated by the University of Mississippi in the last decade, was formally launched in a public announcement Saturday morning. MomentUM: A Campaign for The University of Mississippi has already attracted $160.7 million in private gifts from individuals, corporations and foundations. During the…

  OXFORD, Miss. – Thanks to the generosity of alumni Ed and Becky Meek, the University of Mississippi plans to ask the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning to approve the creation of a new School of Journalism, Marketing-Communications and Technology. The new school will focus on the future of journalism and…

OXFORD, Miss. – Entrepreneur Russell French has pledged $25,000 to seed The 512 Ole Miss First Scholarship at the University of Mississippi. French, a New Albany native, is an alumnus of UM’s hotel restaurant management program. He owns 208 restaurant in Oxford, which he opened in 2002. He also recently purchased the Oliver-Britt House, one…

            OXFORD, Miss. – John Hodges, a published fiction writer enrolled in the University of Mississippi’s acclaimed master of fine arts in creative writing program, has been awarded a $3,000 scholarship by the university’s MFA committee.             Philanthropist Jim Barksdale funded the scholarship as part of his support for the creative writing program.             “I…

OXFORD, Miss. – Thirteen top students from across the country have been chosen as 2007 Croft Scholars by the Croft Institute for International Studies at the University of Mississippi. The scholars each receive $32,000 for four years of undergraduate study. The Croft Institute was created in 1997 through a $60 million gift by the Joseph…

Eli Manning, BankPlus and the Friends of Children’s Hospital have joined forces to raise money for the new Eli Manning Children’s Clinics at the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.  The inaugural fund raising event in this five-year $2.5 million campaign was held on June 23,…

OXFORD, Miss. – Cellular South, one of Mississippi’s largest companies, continues its legacy of giving with a $30,000 contribution to the University of Mississippi School of Business Administration. The gift is part of the Jackson-based wireless communications company’s commitment to providing annual scholarships to all public universities. Half the $30,000 goes toward the Cellular South…

OXFORD, Miss. – Two distinguished Mississippians with national reputations – one a journalist, the other a lawyer – have been named inaugural fellows at the new Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at the University of Mississippi. The honorees are Curtis Wilkie, holder of the Kelly G. Cook Chair of Journalism at UM, and…