Looking north on Serenade Drive

Front Campus of 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 percent of the student body.

History

Upon its establishment in 1884, Mississippi University for Women became the first public women's college in the United States. Then formally called the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls (II&C), 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 white women and preparing them for employment.^[2] The II&C was located in Columbus on a campus formerly occupied by the Columbus Female Institute, a private college founded in 1847. The II&C's first session began on October 22, 1885,^[2] with an enrollment of approximately 250 students. Dr. Richard Watson Jones was selected by the State Institutions of Higher Learning board of trustees as the university's first president. President Jones also taught physics and chemistry at the Institute, and he was joined that first year by 17 additional faculty members.^[2]

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 men 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]

In March 2019, the women's basketball team won the USCAA National Championship after defeating the University of Maine – Fort Kent.^[10]

Notable alumni

Notable MUW alumni include:

• Tina Renee Johns Benkiser, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, 2003–2009
• Dorothy Vredenburgh Bush, secretary of the Democratic National Committee (1944–1989) and the youngest person and first woman to be elected as an officer of either the Democratic or Republican party^[11]
• Kay Beevers Cobb, Mississippi Supreme Court Justice, retired
• Chris Fryar, musician, drummer of Zac Brown Band
• Susan Golden, National Academy of Sciences member and Professor of Molecular Biology at University of California, San Diego
• Laverne Greene-Leech, one of three African-American students to desegregate Mississippi State College for Women (now MUW) in 1966^[12]
• Elizabeth Lee Hazen, co-discoverer of nystatin^[13]
• Valerie Jaudon, artist^[14]
• Lenore Prather, first female Mississippi Supreme Court Justice^[15]
• Toni Seawright, first African-American Miss Mississippi (1987) and 4th runner-up to Miss America that same year
• Doris Taylor, scientist known for achievements in stem cell research
• Eudora Welty, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
• Elizabeth H. West, librarian, first woman to head the Texas State Library, first librarian of Texas Tech University, co-founder and first President of the Southwestern Library Association
• Blanche Colton Williams, author and first editor of the O. Henry Prize Stories
• Linkie Marais, TV Chef and finalist from Food Network Star Season 8^[16]