The Ole Miss athletics program recently broke off social responsibility and engagement into its own department, with AD Keith Carter promoting Senior Associate AD Dr. Jennifer Saxon to lead the new unit. On the latest "SBJ Unpacks: The Road Ahead" podcast, Saxon joined our Andrew Levin to discuss how the department will enrich the lives of student-athletes, coaches and staff on-campus.
On the new department's goals:
Saxon: We had historically worked in the space of career development, so what’s going to happen to them after they graduate from the University of Mississippi? Community engagement, diversity and inclusion: That’s always been at the forefront of the work we’ve done at the University of Mississippi (as well), and then personal-leadership advancement. We now recognize that we need to break those things down into two separate areas.
On whether she believes that there will be pushback in a state as historically conservative as Mississippi:
Saxon: We are being very intentional in working with the university’s overall diversity and community-engagement arm and taking the lead of our chancellor and our interim vice-chair in that area. I think that the university summit that we’re holding this week on Friday, which is the rollout of our overall diversity plan and the equity-in-action plans … will be super helpful. That’s what makes where we live great. We always can have differing opinions. I think what we’re trying to work in the space is that, at the end of the day, respect everyone’s position, their thoughts. We can always agree to disagree, and we’re not in the space of making people do anything.
On working with young athletes during a tumultuous election cycle:
Saxon: I would say our deal was much more about voter education, presenting all majority sides and then working with our political-science area. We have a plethora of amazing majors here on our campus, so we’re not in the business of taking a stance. It is much more about how do we ensure that our student-athletes understand that this is their constitutional right and that we encourage you to use these resources that are available on our campuses? At the end of the day, we want them to understand where they are, what our history has been and, then, it’s their choice, at the end of the day, whether or not they engage.
