Mississippi University for Women

One of our Texas Tech graduate students, Rebecca Oldham, recently visited Mississippi for a family graduation and was able to photograph two campuses. The present entry will feature Mississippi University for Women (sometimes referred to as "The W") and a future entry will cover Mississippi State University. The two institutions are located near each other in the northern part of the state, near its eastern border, with The W in Columbus and MSU in Starkville.

If you click on the image to enlarge it, you'll notice the last line of the university sign reads, "A Tradition of Excellence for Women and Men." According to the Wikipedia page on Mississippi University for Women, the school in 1884 "became the first public women's college in the United States." The school's single-sex policy for a state institution was found unconstitutional in the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case of Mississippi University for Women vs. Hogan, in which a man was granted admission to the nursing school. The case helped pave the way for a decision 14 years later in U.S. vs. Virginia, in which the state-sponsored Virginia Military Institute was opened to women.* As regards Mississippi University for Women, men now comprise nearly 20% of the student body.

---
*I have edited this part to correct a previous error.