Part of the hardy snatched from Ole Miss party, study finds

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Ole Miss has dropped a notch — good news for some — but is still a party place, according to a survey released Monday.

A New York company known for testing and educational services, The Princeton Review surveyed 122,000 students across the country and ranked the University of Mississippi the third top party school.

Princeton Review’s Top 20

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1. Penn State University

2. University of Florida

3. University of Mississippi

4. University of Georgia

5. Ohio University

6. West Virginia University

7. University of Texas

8. University of Wisconsin

9. Florida State University

10. UC-Santa Barbara

11. University of Colorado

12. University of Iowa

13. Union College

14. Indiana University

15. DePauw University

16. University of Tennessee

17. Sewanee

18. University of North Dakota

19. Tulane University

20. Arizona State University

Ole Miss, based in Oxford, was ranked second in 2007 and 2008, before dropping one place this year.

“I really don’t have any idea what they base that on, but it seems like for the last two or three years we’ve been in the Top 10,” said Bobby Bailess, a Vicksburg attorney and graduate of Ole Miss where, as an undergraduate, he played football. “I really don’t know what to make of that.”

The school of more than 17,000 students lagged behind Penn State University and the University of Florida, and beat out the University of Georgia and Ohio University in the survey’s Top 5.

Parties are plentiful, said one student from Vicksburg. “It is a big deal, but it’s not the only game in town, it’s not the only thing to do,” said Colin Reid, a senior international studies and Spanish major. “I know some people who were attracted to the school because of that, because it has a reputation of being fun and having a lot of things to do.”

Former Chancellor Robert Khayat, who was not particularly impressed with the survey’s implications, worked to emphasize academics and, specifically, to promote more personal responsibility among students. In 2006, the university started a campaign called Changing the Culture, which aimed to shift away from activities such as binge drinking. With the culture change came new campus alcohol regulations, including separate student IDs for minors, mandatory alcohol education for new students and allowing and regulating alcohol on campus. But Reid said the booze rules are a little hazy.

The University of Mississippi campus has some ground in Oxford and some in Lafayette County — city law differs from county law, and the rules also change inside residence halls and school buildings.

“Different sections of campus have different alcohol regulations and no one knows which is which,” Reid said. “It’s impossible to enforce because no one knows where the lines are drawn.”

Tailgating and post-game celebrations are often times for parties. In football, the Rebels have won three national championships, six Southeastern Conference titles and are a preseason Top 10 pick for a national championship this year.

But Diane Emfinger, the girls basketball coach at Warren Central Junior High School, doesn’t really see why extracurricular activities have been enough to push Ole Miss to Princeton Review’s Top 3 spot. “I’ve been to football games at many of the other campuses and Ole Miss doesn’t party any more than they do,” she said.

The survey was part of The Princeton Review’s annual guide called “The Best 371 Colleges,” all of which have “great academics,” said author Robert Franek.

The company has also ranked the University of Mississippi a Best Southeastern College, No. 1 for “Lots of Hard Liquor,” No. 2 for “Major Frat and Sorority Scene,” No. 4 for “Students Study the Least” and No. 12 for “Best College Newspaper.” Others include No. 14 for “Little Race/Class Interaction,” No. 17 for “Dorms Like Dungeons,” No. 18 for “Most Conservative Students” and No. 20 for “Lots of Beer.”

“Each year this company that’s not associated with Princeton University puts out a report based on anecdotal and qualitative reports and it gets attention, so whatever I read in there I take with a grain of salt,” said Thomas Reardon, the assistant vice chancellor for student affairs.

He prefers to point out the school’s Rhodes and Truman scholars, the 74 percent acceptance rate of 2007 medical students and the fact that every Ole Miss honors program graduate got a job offer within five years. “That’s where I choose to put my emphasis,” he said.

Vicksburg’s new city attorney, Lee Davis Thames Jr., a 1996 graduate of the university’s law school, also focused on the school’s more studious reputation.

“They’ve got a really good academia,” he said, “and I would like to think that the academia was the reason for kids going to Ole Miss, not the partying.”

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Contact Andrea Vasquez at avasquez@vicksburgpost.com