Most likely Sanitation Engineering.
I ran across an article a while back and wish I would have kept it. It was outlining how most of these list are "paid for", as in the cities, universities, businesses, etc. "paid" the creator of the list to be included on their list.
It basically boiled down to who bought their way on a list. Sounds familiar with and a recurring theme in Oxford. The reason you see Oxford and Ole Miss on these list is simply because they "told" others that they were the best small city in America and they were the most beautiful campus in America. Simple as that. They started with this narrative and didn't stop until others started saying it for them. Now they simply recirculate what others have said. If you google "most beautiful campuses in America", you will get NUMEROUS lists, most that don't have Ole Miss on them. They simply took the one who said they were the most beautiful and ran with it.
We could do the same, but for the most part don't. We did come up with Mississippi's college town, which has actually brought some notoriety. But we limited ourselves to the state of Mississippi with it. I guess it's a start. We also did "This is our State" regarding athletics, and put up the billboards to prove it. Problem with that is you have to actually back it up with results that show up on a scoreboard. Saying your're the most beautiful campus is not kept up with on a scoreboard, so you don't have to back anything up. Think about when we started using the term "StarkVegas". We started using it and kept saying it and now it's said pretty much every time we are shown on TV. It all started because we started saying it and kept saying it.
Same thing OM and Oxford did. Simple as that.
Speaking of monikers has anyone put up a Starkvegas sign yet? If I was a restaurant owner I'd put on up because you know it will get lots of visitors who want to take pictures with it. And while they are there they can eat some of my famous deep fried corndogs.***
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...de2af6ed16.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...83cb9d1779.jpg
http://recoverycampus.com/wp-content...04_4RH6514.jpg
Picture may be smaller, but ours is better. Looks more like a quaint town with a square than a campus. Anyway...eat shit, webels.
Nearly every one of MSU's buildings have had a face lift/renovation in the last 15 years. All their buildings, unless they are brand new, look like crap.
The dorms at Ole Miss are nasty. My son would go to the MSU and Ole Miss tennis camps a few years back. MSU's dorms were very nice and clean. His room at Ole Miss had boogers on the walls.
I'm not familiar with the school or the town. Only been there once, and that was at night for a game so I didn't see much. I just remember the stadium was beyond junky in the concourse (if that's what you want to call it).
From the aerial picture ... I assume the "grove" is that bunch of trees near the center of the picture, below the football stadium. Where is the town and square? I assume they're in the picture because the OP mentioned them. All I see are a few buildings but nothing that looks like a town.