December 2025

The year 2025 has been extraordinary for the University of Mississippi, marked by unprecedented achievements that reflect the dedication, excellence and spirit of our entire community.

From our thriving students to our robust endowment to our historic athletic accomplishments, it has been a championship year. I hope you enjoy this issue’s retrospective look at the moments that made it shine.

As we welcome 2026, we're grateful for your continued support of the university and inspired by the potential that lies ahead.

Best wishes for a joyful holiday season. Hotty Toddy!

Glenn F. Boyce

Chancellor

Ole Miss won its first-ever College Football Playoff game against Tulane on Dec. 20! The game set an attendance record at Vaught-Hemingway, drawing 68,251 people. The Rebels will advance to the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 1.

This year, quarterback Trinidad Chambliss won the 2025 C Spire Conerly Trophy, and two players were first-round NFL draft selections: Walter Nolen and Jaxson Dart, who carries on our legacy with the New York Giants.

These achievements energize our community, strengthen the local economy and deepen the championship culture that permeates our entire campus. This is Hotty Toddy.

The university once again set a record for total enrollment in fall 2025, with 28,405 students across seven campuses. The achievement reflects commitment to student success, strong demand for the university’s academic programs and value and the unbeatable appeal of our spirited student experience. We’re also retaining students at a rate of 87%, significantly higher than the most recent national average.

Our growth fuels opportunities, and we remain committed to sustaining excellence. That’s why we are proud that for the 15th consecutive year, we’ve been ranked among the Top 100 public colleges and universities in U.S. News & World Report and the only Mississippi school highlighted in the Princeton Review’s List of Best Colleges for 2026.

Our students demonstrated extraordinary dedication to service throughout 2025, raising $280,424 in the RebelTHON dance-a-thon to support a cardiac nursing station at Children's of Mississippi. The amount raised brought the fundraiser’s all-time total to an impressive $2.3 million since its founding 14 years ago.

Inspired and engaged, students rolled up their sleeves to lend a hand in Big Event service projects across the Lafayette-Oxford-University Community. Meanwhile, in Jackson, dentistry professionals-in-training volunteered to provide care to 600 Mississippians during the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s 9th Annual Dental Mission Week.

Our students demonstrate curiosity, drive and a thirst for excellence.

In 2025, we celebrated the university’s 20th Truman Scholar, junior Yasmine Ware, and 5th Marshall Scholar, senior Sophia Toner. These distinguished achievements will pave the way for their graduate education and launch careers related to governance, policy and leadership.  

Additionally, senior Edward Hunter was named an at-large presidential fellow as part of the Presidential Fellows Program, and junior Emerson Morris received the Newman Civic Fellowship, which recognizes her potential for public leadership and community work.

This year, thanks to the unwavering support of our community, our endowment topped $1 billion – a historic milestone that places us among a highly select group of higher education institutions. Private support soared to $215.6M in FY25, a 28% increase over last year’s record. The support touched all corners of our campus, from our most robust building projects to efforts that make an outsized impact on our students’ lives.

The milestone reflects our incredible momentum across research, academics and athletics. Advancing the achievement was the completion of Now & Ever: The Campaign for Ole Miss, which raised $1.75B as the most extensive campaign in Mississippi history.

In March, both our women’s and men’s basketball teams advanced to the Sweet 16. The success has rolled into the 2025-2026 season, with women’s basketball reaching a historic milestone – achieving 10 wins after just 11 games – with a victory over South Carolina State on December 14.

We also celebrated a final, throwback game in the C.M. "Tad" Smith Coliseum, or “Tad Pad,” as the university prepares to demolish the building to allow campus infrastructure improvements.  

This year, we marked 10 years of distinction as an “R1: Doctoral University – Very High Research Spending and Doctorate Production”— the highest possible classification in the Carnegie system. The designation reflects the talent and work of our research community and our ongoing commitment to advancing knowledge and addressing global challenges.

Our students joined research efforts, too. One example is in the Gulf Scholars Program, where they’ll address some of the Gulf South's most pressing environmental and social issues.

Two special birthdays marked our legacy of research excellence: the 125th anniversary of the School of Engineering, Mississippi’s first engineering program, and 30 years of international leadership in botanical science at the National Center for Natural Products Research.

As the state’s only academic medical center, the University of Mississippi Medical Center launched a $125 million campaign, It’s About Time, to help build a new, world-class cancer facility and boost efforts to secure a National Cancer Institute designation. A $25 million commitment from John and Sandy Black, the single largest gift in UMMC history, launched fundraising efforts in January.

The launch coincides with UMMC’s 70th anniversary – that’s 70 years of providing quality care for Mississippi’s people and forging a legacy of pioneering innovation in transplant surgery, heart disease research and more.

The Ole Miss softball team made history by winning its first-ever super regional game and advancing to the Women’s College World Series. The team ultimately finished as one of the top five teams in the SEC in the national rankings and broke nearly every single-season offensive record in program history.

On campus, we celebrated the completion of a 1,300-seat-capacity, state-of-the-art softball facility.

The university and Oxford share strong cultural ties. This year, university projects developed audio tours of Rowan Oak, digitized Faulkner’s library and receiving funding for a photo documentary project about Greenfield Farm, which was once Faulkner’s mule farm and is now being transformed into a writers’ residency.

The Bruce Levingston Rowan Oak Endowed Fund spearheaded a conservation and preservation fund dedicated to protecting and restoring Rowan Oak, beginning with the restoration of the Faulkner family’s piano.

Additionally, our Blues Archive celebrated its 40th birthday. It’s one of the largest resources of its kind in the world, with 400,000+ artifacts.

This year, our expanded GROVE Well-being programming included a Student Wellness Fair with health screenings, food samples, giveaways and hands-on activities. Our active students logged 647,000 visits to Campus Recreation facilities. And, as of this year, our mental health first aid training program has trained nearly 1,400 community members.

Students and staff organized resources to support the community. Our newly renovated Career Closet provides free professional attire for students who are attending career fairs and interviews. And Grove Grocery, the UM Food Pantry, addresses campus hunger by providing nutritious food to students and employees facing food insecurity.

Our Class of 2025 had more than 6,200 graduates and candidates, including over 5,200 graduates on the Oxford and regional campuses and almost 1,000 at UMMC. We exceed the most recent national averages with record-setting six- and four-year graduation rates of 71.7% and 61.8%, respectively, demonstrating our commitment to supporting all students and preparing graduates who thrive.  

At graduation, NFL star and Ole Miss alumnus A.J. Brown delivered an inspiring convocation address, challenging our graduates to use their Ole Miss education to carve a meaningful path:

"You're stepping into a new season. You're holding the ball. Ole Miss gave you the playbook. Now it's your job to call the plays and lead the drive."

THE OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR