University of Mississippi

The University of Mississippi, commonly known as Ole Miss, is a public research university adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, with a medical center in Jackson. The university is Mississippi's oldest public university and its second largest university by enrollment.[4]

Chartered by the Mississippi Legislature on February 24, 1844, the university admitted its first 80 students four years later. It operated as a Confederate hospital during the Civil War and narrowly avoided destruction by Ulysses S. Grant's forces. A race riot erupted on campus in 1962 during the civil rights movement, when segregationists tried to prevent the enrollment of African American James Meredith. The university has since taken measures to improve its image. The university is closely associated with writer William Faulkner and owns and manages his former home Rowan Oak, located in Oxford. Rowan Oak and two other sites on campus—Barnard Observatory and the Lyceum–The Circle Historic District—are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The University of Mississippi is classified as "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It is one of 33 institutions participating in the National Sea Grant Program and participates in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. Its research efforts include the National Center for Physics Acoustics, National Center for Natural Products Research, and the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research. Its federally contracted marijuana facility is the only Food and Drug Administration–approved cannabis research center. The university also operates interdisciplinary institutes such as the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Its athletic teams compete as the Ole Miss Rebels in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Southeastern Conference, Division I.