University of Mississippi Celebrates 175 Years

The University of Mississippi celebrated 175 years on Monday in front of the historic Lyceum on campus.

Following the event, everyone was invited to share refreshments.

The Mississippi Legislature chartered the university on Feb. 24, 1844, and classes began four years later on Nov. 6, 1848.

When Mississippi’s flagship university opened its doors on Nov. 6, 1848, with four faculty members and 80 students, it was poised to be the state’s premier institution of higher learning.

Now, 175 years later and as the campus welcomes its largest freshman class to date, it has become so much more than that, university leaders and campus members say.

Students and members of university leadership including Boyce, Provost Noel Wilkin and Kathryn McKee, director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, led the campus in recounting the history of the university and highlighting its future.

Staff report