The University of Mississippi is an institution of higher education just like any of the 629 public four-year universities in the United States. Because of the university's location, the school faces criticism and publicity for its unconscious efforts and decisions to uphold its Southern heritage. Although there have been attempts to modernize the school, "Ole Miss" still retains the image of the Old South. The decisions and actions of supporters of school traditions weigh heavily on the inability of universities to progress. There is a difference in the meaning of some symbols based on a person's understanding, genetic makeup, cultural background, and race. Although the university maintains its traditional ways of learning and functioning, society somehow demands a change. “. The University of Mississippi upholds a traditional way of life within the name "Ole Miss" and other symbols of racial segregation, Confederacy, and white superiority. The University of Mississippi will be considered inferior to other universities because of its allegiance to “Ole Miss” and support of Southern traditions. The traditions of the University should be addressed or changed, otherwise the traditions of the University will continually maintain an “open wound”. In order to support the South's "Southern identity," the use of symbols as a tradition at the University of Mississippi preserves a lifestyle interchangeable with white identity. “Ole Miss” “Ole Miss” is the school many students hope to attend while others plan to attend the University of Mississippi. The difference between the University of Mississippi and Ole Miss is well described by Frank E. Everett Jr. "Here is a valid distinction between the University and Ole Miss...... half of the document ...... n archetype connected to the slave past while mocking a post-slavery African American and Ole Miss represents the name the slaves called the plantation owner's wives. These symbols were simply kept around to keep the Old South feeling alive. Works Cited Brundage , W. Fitzhugh, Inc ebrary and ebrary Psychology and Social Work Collection. 2005. The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Newman, Joshua I. 2007. Army of Whiteness. ?Colonel Reb and the cultural and corporate symbolism of Sporting South. Journal of Sport and Social Issues 31 (4): 315-39.W. Fitzhugh Brundage, "Introduction, No Act But Memory" in Where These Memories Grow: History , memory and identity of the south, ed. W. Fitzhugh Brundage. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), pp. 1 -28.