OXFORD, Miss. – To help mark 30 years of examining,
reflecting upon and celebrating Southern culture, Michelle
Hyver Oakes has pledged $30,000 to the Center for the Study
of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.
Oakes, who recently became chair of the center’s advisory
committee, said she feels strong ties to both the center
and Ole Miss.
“The center’s work over the past 30 years has been
remarkable,” she said. “I’m honored to chair its advisory
committee and help champion its mission and activities.”
She also hopes her gift will inspire others to give.
“It’s important to financially support the organizations we
believe in, and I believe in the center,” Oakes said. “I
hope my commitment will be the first of many new gifts to
the center made by its friends and supporters. Our
collective donations will enable its continued vitality and
growth.”
The gift is part of the university’s MomentUM campaign, a
four-year initiative to raise $200 million. MomentUM, which
ends in December 2008, already has raised more than $160
million for scholarships, graduate fellowships, faculty
support, a basketball practice facility, residential
colleges and a new law school on the Oxford campus. Also in
the plan is a cancer center at the UM Medical Center in
Jackson.
Oakes’ gift is designated as unrestricted, which allows
CSSC interim director Ted Ownby and others who best
understand the center’s needs to decide how and when the
money is to be used.
“Friends of the center nurture and sustain it,” Ownby said.
“We are so grateful to Michelle Hyver Oakes for this
generous gift. She has put her support in us and entrusted
us with continuing to educate others about Southern
culture. Gifts like this help us fund important projects
such as The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and other
outreach programs, including conferences and publications.
“With these funds, we also aim to improve financial support
for graduate students and create of a research fund for
center faculty. I’m awed by this gift, and I appreciate the
symmetry of the amount to honor the center’s 30th
anniversary.”
Private gifts have also helped fund scholarships and
documentary photography exhibitions, establish the Southern
Media Archive and host weekly Brown Bag Lunch and Lecture
Series.
A native of New Orleans, Oakes earned a bachelor’s degree
in biology from UM and her MBA from Tulane University. She
and her husband, Michael Oakes, reside in Charleston, S.C.
The center celebrates its 30th anniversary this week with
lectures by Cynthia Tucker, Pulitzer Prize-winning
editorial page editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
and Julia Reed, Vogue magazine editor and author of “Queen
of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena,” and
other events.
For more information, go to
http://www.olemiss.edu/cgi-bin/news2000/display.pl?id=6576&mode=full.
For more information about giving to the center, contact
Ted Smith at tjsmith@olemiss.edu or 662-915-5946.