Posted by BEN BEAUMONT – If there’s one thing we’re not short on at the Clinton School, it’s sports fans. Many of our students come from across the Southeast and the nation, and they all bring their allegiances with them. They’ve attended NCAA division I schools like Arkansas, Auburn, Notre Dame, Penn State, Arizona State, Southern Mississippi and Mississippi and come from major cities like Philadelphia, New York, Anaheim and Denver. So when we came across this column quoting a Clinton School student on sports, it wasn’t surprising. Constance Alexander attended the Delta Grassroots Caucus Conference at the Clinton Center at the end of January and wrote about her experience. Here’s an excerpt:
“Still a long way to go”
By Constance Alexander
Upon discovering I was from Murray, the first person I met at the annual conference of the Mississippi Delta Grassroots Caucus beamed with enthusiasm. “I’ve gone to schools all over,” she declared, “and I have to tell you that the most student-centered, friendly campus I’ve ever been to is Murray State.”
The woman, Martha Black, earned a graduate degree in Special Education at MSU in the mid-1980’s and she is still singing its praises. Others at the gathering in Little Rock, Arkansas, also chimed in with comments about our town and the university, mentioning the recent basketball game broadcast on ESPN.
“Racers, right?” asked one young man, a graduate student at University of Arkansas/Clinton School of Public Service. “What a great game!”
The scope of the January 30-31 conference stretched beyond Murray to include Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, parts of Alabama, west Tennessee, western Kentucky, southeast Missouri and southern Illinois. The focus was economic development, and the jam-packed agenda addressed issues and challenges facing the Delta region today and in the future.
Speakers and panelists included corporate executives and Washington, D.C., operatives, as well as elected officials, university administrators, community organizers and program officers from a range of non-profits. The common ground they share is the stark reality that the Mississippi Delta region has a poverty rate fifty-five per cent higher than the rest of the nation, a plight as dire and entrenched as that of Appalachia.
UPDATE: We’ve learned that the unnamed Clinton School student is none other than Jay Thompson of State College, Penn., and Penn State University. Go Joe-Pa.
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