Youre Invited to Take a Closer Look at Southern Miss

Consider this note an open invitation. It's your invitation to take a closer look at Southern Miss over the next few months, whether you are a prospective student or family member, current student, faculty or staff member, alum or fan. Beginning tomorrow, an advertising campaign throughout south Mississippi and on social media will feature some of the best Southern Miss has to offer—its top students, its groundbreaking research, its successful alumni. It will remind those who know Southern Miss well of its amazing achievements. It will introduce those same achievements to those who are not familiar with the successes of the university.

So, why take a closer look?

I trust that many of you familiar with The University of Southern Mississippi have over the years been met with surprise when you have communicated an impressive fact about our university. Often, the response is disbelief—“really?”—or confusion that what amazing accomplishment you are mentioning could have occurred at Southern Miss. No, Southern Miss is not perfect, but I trust that the more you learn about Southern Miss, the more it impresses you. The truth is if you don't know a great deal about Southern Miss, or if you whiz by our Hattiesburg or Gulf Park campuses on Highway 49 or 90, you are missing a great deal. 

Beginning Thursday you will notice advertisements in a variety of mass media outlets throughout Hattiesburg. Also Thursday, we will begin the campaign with a day of social media dedicated to our amazing students, faculty, staff and alumni, using the hashtag #CloserLookUSM. Related tweets and posts will continue periodically over the next few months. From there, the campaign will expand north toward Jackson and south toward the Mississippi Gulf Coast, east and west.

While I won't reveal everything we have planned, here is a sneak peek. A series of advertisements will feature student Brandon Hersey, who was the only Truman Scholar from a Mississippi university in 2013. We are quite proud of Brandon—the Truman Scholarship is named for former president Harry Truman and honors the brightest, most outstanding young leaders in the country.

TV commercial

 

Billboard

Hattiesburg American ad

It's important to note that this campaign will feature the real achievements of real Southern Miss faculty, staff, students and alumni. The facts may surprise some because they've simply underestimated Southern Miss. Of course, we won't necessarily be offended; it won't be the first time that's happened. We'll politely smile, do our thing, and surprise them again—this time in the laboratories or classrooms, and on the playing fields the next.

Thank you in advance for taking a closer look at Southern Miss over the next few months. We anticipate you'll like what you find.

Southern Miss to the Top!