Jones, Bjork recognized by NCAA with diversity awards

Published 10:20 am Thursday, July 9, 2015

OXFORD (AP) – The NCAA has chosen University of Mississippi Chancellor Emeritus Dan Jones and the school’s athletic director Ross Bjork as its first honorees for a new diversity award.

The organization announced the award on Wednesday as part of an initiative to honor people who are “working to support the interests of ethnic minorities and other underrepresented populations.”

The NCAA said both men were selected because they are “part of the university’s efforts to modernize and add historical context to cultural symbols on the Mississippi campus.”

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Jones has created plans to add a vice chancellor-level position for diversity and inclusion and to rename a street on campus called Confederate Drive. The athletics department has named a space in the athletics facility after the first two black football players at the school.