We have experienced a number of defining moments in our university’s 160-year history. From the day we opened our doors in 1848, our very first defining moment, we began growing from a small liberal arts college into a highly respected comprehensive university. The first step in becoming a four-campus enterprise with 15 schools occurred in 1854, when the School of Law accepted its first class of students.

The selection of each of our 25 Rhodes Scholars was a defining moment not only in their lives but also in that of the university. In athletics, a defining moment came when our football team beat Maryland in 1952. Another university milestone was reached in 1962, when James Meredith was admitted.

The openings of our Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics, Lott Leadership Institute, Croft Institute for International Studies and Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation were all defining moments. Being chosen to shelter a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in 2000, as well as placing the millionth book in our library were milestones. There are many more.

Such historic events are infrequent, and rarely do several take place in a single semester. But fall 2008 brought several defining moments.

First, the presidential debate drew the world’s attention to Ole Miss. For the first time since 1962, hundreds of national and international media representatives came to campus. Most had only heard or read about Ole Miss, but all of them were impressed by the beauty of our campus, the energy and mental acuity of our diverse student population, the warmth of our hospitality and the quality of support services provided by our staff. Along with staff associated with the political parties and the Commission on Presidential Debates, reporters and producers left with an updated perception and glowing praise for Ole Miss, Oxford and Mississippi. Debate week was clearly a defining moment.

The second historic moment took place only a day later when our football team beat the Florida Gators on their home field, an accomplishment achieved by no other team during the Gators’ regular season. The excitement that began that Saturday in “the Swamp” under the leadership of new head coach Houston Nutt culminated in our football team’s trip to the Cotton Bowl. We are now nationally competitive in all our sports programs, achieving one of the seven goals we adopted in 1995.

The third historic moment of fall 2008 occurred on October 4, when our national Alumni Association inaugurated Rose Jackson Flenorl, a 1979 graduate from Clarksdale (now Memphis), as its first African-American president.

Finally, on November 29, Shadrack “Shad” White was named a Rhodes Scholar, an academic distinction shared by some of the world’s great leaders and intellectuals of the past century. That Saturday, White became the 25th University of Mississippi student to win the Rhodes and the first to receive both Rhodes and Truman scholarships.

I hope all of you who love our university will feel a sense of warmth and achievement—of progress and positive change—and a renewed commitment to Ole Miss as a result of this year’s defining moments.