The Chapel at Ole Miss
For many years, University of Mississippi students, faculty, staff, and alumni have been interested in religious life on campus. A number of people have served as director of religious life, including Malcomb Guess, Will Campbell, Linda Ramey, Mary McClain, Polly Williams, and Nolan Shepard. Others have worked with student religious organizations as a part of their duties. However, interest in religious life grew stronger and stronger, and students, faculty, staff, and alumni wanted a chapel.
In 1975, students chose the chapel as their charitable project and, with the help of alumni, raised $12,000 for a Chapel Fund. In 1976, Chancellor Porter L. Fortune, Jr., appointed a committee to develop plans for an Ole Miss chapel. Chancellor Fortune charged the committee with recommending the type of chapel desired and possible sites for its location.
The committee expressed a desire to build a “traditional chapel” that would be centrally located and defined its principal function as a “setting for interdenominational worship services and rooms for prayer, meditation, Bible study, small discussion groups, counseling, and weddings.”