Nonprofit Mississippi News Several alumni of the University of Mississippi, and Confederate Heritage groups, are asking legislator leadership to support bills to prevent the university’s Confederate monument from being moved ahead of the March 3 deadline. The University’s Chancellor Glenn Boyce and Athletics Director Keith Carter, along with the chief fundraising officers on campus, support a student-formed plan that would move the monument, which measures 30 feet, from the campus center to an off-campus graveyard, where Confederate soldiers are buried. A January vote by the Institutions of Higher Learning’s 12-member board of trustees could have approved or denied plans to relocate the monument. However, several legislators filed bills this session that would ban public entities from moving war monuments. According to sources close to many college board members, they hope that the Legislature will address the issue in the 2020 session. On Monday, however, legislative leaders informed Mississippi Today that the monument bills wouldn’t be considered before tomorrow’s deadline. This would effectively end their lives. House Rules Chair Jerry Turner (R-Baldwyn) said that two monument bills before his committee hadn’t been a priority so far but that he would review them before Tuesday night. He said that they were not a priority right now and added, “I doubt seriously” that he will take them up. Turner also stated that he would not decide before further study of the bills. He said, “Wait to see what happens tomorrow.” Mississippi Today was informed Monday morning by Rep. Tom Weathersby (R-Florence), that he would not take up monument bills in his House Public Property Committee. Weathersby stated that they don’t have much chance of being brought up unless the Senate sends something. “They are likely dead.” Weathersby stated that three similar Senate bills had been filed. However, all three were double-referred, which is a common legislative strategy to kill legislation. To remain alive, these bills would have to be passed through two committees by Tuesday’s deadline. The Senate Public Property Committee must approve one of these bills. It is headed by Senator Angela Turner-Ford (D-West Point), who is also the current chairperson of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus. Johnny Morgan, an ex-state senator and brother to Chip Morgan, wrote an email asking dozens of his friends and associates to contact legislators to ask them to push the monument bills through the committee. Morgan sent an email to dozens of friends and associates on Friday asking them to call legislators and ask that they pass the monument bills. The email also shared language promoted by pro-Confederate groups via social media. Morgan spoke out against “certain groups that want to change the history” in a Monday morning phone interview. Morgan said that there is nothing you can do to change history. It’s something that some people know, while others don’t. I believe the monuments to World War II and World War I, as well as the war between the countries and the Gulf War are all worthy of recognition. These people risk their lives for these causes. It is absurd to erase all of that.” Confederate heritage groups, including the Our State Flag Foundation (and Make Ole Miss Great Again Inc.), posted similar language to Morgan’s email and asked for support to call legislators. The university’s student senate and faculty senate passed a measure in February and March 2019 that requested the monument be moved to an on-campus cemetery where Confederate soldiers were buried. It is hidden from the main roads and in an obscure corner of campus. Opponents of the move have argued that wider opinions on campus and among alumni were not considered in the decision to move it. However, chief officials from the UM Foundation and Alumni Association support the relocation. In December, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History approved the university’s relocation plans unanimously. The relocation went stale in January, when the Institutions for Higher Learning board, which has the final say on the matter, pulled the proposal from its agenda. Tommy Duff, an IHL board member who gave $26 million to the university for its STEM building, pulled the item from its agenda. He stated that he wanted a “full report” from the university about the university’s efforts to contextualize the symbols that are associated with the Confederacy and other problematic leaders from Mississippi’s history. Boyce, the UM’s chancellor, stated that he would try to satisfy the IHL board’s request for more information after removing the item from the agenda. Boyce must first submit the proposal to IHL board for consideration before the IHL board will consider it again. Boyce must submit the proposal to the IHL board for consideration.