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VIDEO: Ole Miss the Beautiful, How to Create the Nation's Prettiest Campus
Springtime brings flowers across campus. (Photo/Allie Ashley)
From its elaborate tailgating setups in the Grove during football season to its top academic programs, the University of Mississippi is known for many things. Yet perhaps nothing is better known than Ole Miss’s nationally recognized campus beauty.
According to USA Today’s 10 Best, the University of Mississippi was rated #1 in the category of Best Beautiful College Campus in 2016, and many Ole Miss students agree.
“I am not surprised at all by this rating. Our campus is beautiful, and I enjoy it every day,” Draven Johnston, a senior from Panama City Beach, Florida, said. For Johnston, the beauty of the campus was one of the main reasons she chose Ole Miss.
Johnston is not alone. For many people, the first time they set foot on the Ole Miss campus is when they realize they want to be a Rebel.
“I knew I wanted to come to this school when I came for my first visit, and I just knew it, just by how clean and beautiful the campus was,” New Jersey student Mia Tomasella said.
While students enjoy the beauty of campus, they may not know just how much time and effort goes into keeping the university beautiful.
According to the assistant superintendent of Landscaping Services, Nathan Lazinsky, five different crews work together from around 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. to keep the campus neat and well-designed. Two mowing crews divide campus into north and south sides for mowing, edging, trimming and blowing during the summer growing season.
A small trash crew picks up loose trash and dumps all the trash cans on campus. Then, a detail crew handles all the planting, seasonal color installments, pruning, fertilization and plant maintenance. And finally, a spray crew controls the weeds and insects in the turfs and shrubbery.
For their diligent work, the landscaping services at Ole Miss have won five national championships. Lazinsky said that despite the challenges landscaping brings, the work can be very rewarding.
“We never know if a student from here will become the next president or create a cure for cancer, but we believe that we could have a small part in that by making this the most beautiful campus and recruiting that student to attend Ole Miss. They might have it narrowed down to two schools and decide to attend here because they felt comfortable on campus and loved the way it looked,” Lazinsky said.
Senior student Alexis Mcalpin also believes the first encounter with campus is crucial to attracting potential students.
“This is the first thing that we get to show off to them is how beautiful our campus is and how beautiful it is to be able to walk around with your friends and go sit in the grove, throw a frisbee, study, or whatever you want to do. This is the first thing they get to really experience through us, and I think it’s a very important part for our campus to be ranked as one of the 10 most beautiful campuses.”
Story contributed by Ariyl Onstott (ariylceleste@outlook.com), Huntington Maddrey (ghmaddre@go.olemiss.edu), Julia Martinez (jamarti7@go.olemiss.edu), Ana Martinez (amartin6@go.olemiss.edu), and Alexandria Paton (ajpaton@go.olemiss.edu).
| Sat, Aug 31 |  | vs Furman | W, 76-0 |
| Sat, Sep 7 |  | vs Middle Tennessee | W, 52-3 |
| Sat, Sep 14 |  | @ Wake Forest | W, 40-6 |
| Sat, Sep 21 |  | vs Georgia Southern | W, 52-13 |
| Sat, Sep 28 |  | vs Kentucky | L, 20-17 |
| Sat, Oct 5 |  | @ South Carolina | W, 27-3 |
| Sat, Oct 12 |  | vs LSU | L, 29-26 (2 OT) |
| Sat, Oct 26 |  | vs Oklahoma | W, 26-14 |
| Sat, Nov 2 |  | @ Arkansas | W, 63-35 |
| Sat, Nov 16 |  | vs Georgia | W, 28-10 |
| Sat, Nov 23 |  | @ Florida | L, 24-17 |
| Sat, Nov 30 |  | vs Mississippi State | 2:30 PM ABC |
Debbie Crenshaw
March 7, 2017 at 8:46 pm
I came to Ole Miss because it offered a BA degree in Latin which was rare for an institution of higher learning. I fell in love with the campus, friendly people, the great town of Oxford, and homelike ambience.
I have visited twice within the last 3 years and was astonished at how Oxford and OM have changed for the better. Older edifices were replaced with new buildings, and the once exclusive locally owned establishments policy of the city of Oxford had changed to allow quality, trendy but everlasting, restaurants and shops to appear. Oxford is my 2nd home and besides where I now live in Texas, is the only other place I would live. I don’t see with my right eye and Oxford affords easy ways to get around.