Mississippi State University’s S.P.A.R.K. has been paused indefinitely due to unclear federal compliance concerns and possible changes to the state law, according to a statement posted to their Instagram account.

On March 28, the S.P.A.R.K., Students Paving a Road to Knowledge, Instagram account posted an update on the future of the program.

“Due to the lack of clarity regarding compliance requirements related to recent federal activities,” Dee Stegall, the assistant director of operations and outreach for MSU’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions and advisor for the S.P.A.R.K. program, wrote, “this program has been paused.”

S.P.A.R.K. is a summer leadership conference that provides underrepresented rising high school seniors with career and education options for life after high school. In February, the term “underrepresented” was removed from the website’s mission statement, likely to comply with a “Dear Colleague Letter” U.S. universities, including MSU, received from the U.S. Department of Education.

“Clearly, there is immense value in S.P.A.R.K., as so many personal experiences can attest…” Stegall wrote in the original Instagram post. “Additionally, we are concerned about future funding from federal agencies and state appropriations, as well as the likely impact on university operations.”

However, nearly an hour after it was posted on Friday, the account deleted the post, leaving the future of S.P.A.R.K. ambiguous and causing confusion among students and faculty alike.

Stegall declined to be interviewed for this article; however, Tuesday morning, April 1, the S.P.A.R.K. Instagram posted a revised statement similar to the one posted on Friday. Most of the comments express confusion about what part of S.P.A.R.K. is not in compliance with federal policy.

Students involved in leading S.P.A.R.K., known as crew leaders, were told after spring break that the 2025 program was canceled. On March 18, Stegall shared with the crew leaders that he had received a phone call the week before that S.P.A.R.K. would not happen this summer.

“It was a big bomb drop, basically because these are our jobs,” said Zamiya Warner, who was chosen as the 2025 S.P.A.R.K. director. “This is something that people plan their summers around, so it was really fast and all of a sudden we just didn’t have S.P.A.R.K. anymore and they put everything on hold indefinitely.”

Warner, a junior kinesiology major, said that before the rumors of the DEI policies affecting S.P.A.R.K. spread, changes were already being made to the summer program. According to Warner, a few weeks before the official S.P.A.R.K. cancellation, Stegall told Warner that a S.P.A.R.K. committee called “Options Other than College” was being removed from the program.

“They were going to try to pivot S.P.A.R.K. into more of a marketing-type recruitment event,” Warner said. “We would have been just gearing them toward getting ready for Mississippi State instead of getting ready for life after senior year.”

Warner was concerned that this proposal would distract from the main purpose of S.P.A.R.K., which is to provide students with a variety of options for life after high school. These options include private colleges, public colleges, junior colleges, the military, entrepreneurship and opportunities offshore.

Warner said she wanted to clarify that Stegall and the S.P.A.R.K. advisors are very supportive of the program and have offered their support to the affected summer staff.

“They, like all of us, aren’t getting the answers either,” Warner said.

Since the announcement of S.P.A.R.K.’s indefinite pause, many students, especially crew leaders, are frustrated with the amount of information that has been provided to them concerning the program. Jaden Joiner, a junior business information systems major and S.P.A.R.K.’s 2024 co-director of outreach, has been frustrated with the program’s ambiguous answers.

“It is one thing to have a conversation,” Joiner said, “but to not have that conversation and be put in a revolving door from administrator to administrator, hearing the same answers; it kind of gives us a lack of hope.”

Joiner continued, saying that the lack of communication from the university has affected any attempted planning for this summer, simply because without administrative answers, the new university’s new DEI policies are unclear and difficult to navigate.

“Let’s say we do come up with an alternate planning for this conference, if we do something, they may say that’s a violation,” Joiner said. “We don’t know what we’re working with, and nobody’s working with us.”

Just over 100 miles away from Starkville, the University of Mississippi is still set to have its Mississippi Outreach to Scholastic Talent, or MOST, program this summer. This program serves the same mission of giving underrepresented high school seniors a leadership conference where they can explore their options after high school. In fact, many students, like Mitzi Bass, a 2024 S.P.A.R.K. crew leader, attended both S.P.A.R.K. and MOST when they were high school seniors.

This leaves many students confused about why UM can keep its program, but MSU is discontinuing a similar one.

Individuals passionate about keeping S.P.A.R.K. this summer have launched a campaign to get MSU President Mark Keenum to answer essential questions to cut through the lack of information surrounding S.P.A.R.K.’s cancellation. Parents and students have been calling and emailing Keenum’s office and the offices of several other administrators to gain attention for their cause. Several email templates have been organized for the campaign.

“Programs like MOST at the University of Mississippi continue without disruption, yet SPARK—an equally important program—has been canceled,” one of the templates reads. “I am requesting clarification on why SPARK was treated differently, as well as a clearer explanation of the specific compliance issues at play.”

Joiner said it was disheartening to watch Keenum’s behavior towards other organizations outside of S.P.A.R.K. For example, last week, he visited the Roadrunners in Montgomery Hall.

“He told [the Roadrunners] that we can come to him with anything,” Joiner said, a member of Roadrunners himself. “Being that we’re in the exact same office, I feel like [S.P.A.R.K.] should have the exact same support.”

S.P.A.R.K. has a lot of impact on high school students every year. On Monday, the university welcomed students from the Jackson Public School District to attend a preview day. Unlike in other years when crew leaders would use this preview day to recruit for S.P.A.R.K. and make connections before the program, many of the students from the Jackson Public School District were left wondering what happened to the program. Joiner said that the cancellation of S.P.A.R.K. is limiting their opportunities for learning about and investing in a life after high school, especially to low-income students. In fact, the entire three-day conference was completely free, with housing and dining included.

“S.P.A.R.K. impacts students in multiple areas throughout Mississippi,” said Zion Davis, the 2025 S.P.A.R.K. co-director of programming. “Not just students who are in Starkville, but students that might never get the opportunity to even come on a college campus, ever.”

MSU did not respond to the Reflector’s requests for comments about the S.P.A.R.K. program.