ELIZABETH CRISP @ Clarion Ledger

Higher education leaders assured a room packed Thursday with supporters of Mississippi’s historically black universities that there is little support for a merger of the three schools.

“Based on private conversations that we’ve had with members of the Legislature as well as many public comments that we’ve seen by members of the Legislature, we have assumed that the merger idea is dead on arrival in this Capitol, and there is no reason for us to discuss it,” state College Board President Scott Ross said during a Senate committee hearing.

“And we haven’t.”

Hundreds of students and alumni from Alcorn, Mississippi Valley State and Jackson State descended on the Capitol for the system’s budget hearing – hoping to find out their institutions’ fate.

Dressed head-to-toe in purple and gold, Alcorn State alum James Stubbs said he was happy to hear higher education leaders say that they do not believe the merger has a shot.