The Daily Mississippian had two pieces today regarding Chancellor Robert Khayat's letter on University letterhead in support of Dickie Scruggs.

In a news article, there was this interesting nugget . . .

Many members of the university community are remaining silent about Chancellor Robert Khayat's decision to write his letter requesting leniency for Richard "Dickie" Scruggs on the official university letterhead, though Executive Assistant to the Chancellor Andrew Mullins said Wednesday that using the letterhead to write his own personal letter to Judge Neal Biggers was a mistake.

"I shouldn't have written it on the letterhead," Mullins said. "I ask professors to not write their personal opinions to legislators on university letterhead because it appears that it is the university's position. I broke my own rules by using the university letterhead to write a personal letter."

The old "It's my secretary's fault" line . . . Ouch.

In an editorial, the DM cites an entire collegiate community unwilling to talk about Khayat's letter based on fear of repraisal.

That so many members of the university community apparently feel unable to speak their minds about such an important issue indicates that such freedom is valued by neither the administration nor by certain members of the faculty. Rather than American progress, this situation smacks strongly of old-time corrupt Mississippi politics.

From the YP perspective, good for the DM.