A fundraising campaign for a University of Mississippi student has passed $100,000 since a doorbell video from Oxford, Mississippi, spread online. The GiveSendGo page “Stand with Lauren,” started by Tom Hennessey, supports Lauren Mayfield, whom the campaign and several news outlets identify as one of the young women recorded outside an apartment shared by Black students. As of 14 November 2026, it had raised $103,178 toward a $125,000 goal.
The clip is timestamped on the evening of 6 November 2026. A Ring camera outside an off-campus apartment captured three white women walking past the door of three Black freshmen at Ole Miss. Two stepped toward the camera, beat their chests, and made monkey-like noises and gestures. A third woman walked by without doing the same. The university later confirmed that the women in the footage are its students. Family members of the residents have said the group lives upstairs in the same building.
Jakiyra Metcalf, one of the roommates — also spelled Jakirya in some reports — posted the recording on TikTok the next day, where it quickly passed 12 million views. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Shawnboda Mead told the campus the behavior was “deeply troubling, hurtful, and unacceptable” and did not reflect the university’s values. Officials opened an investigation and warned against spreading unverified names after one student was wrongly identified online. The university has not publicly named those involved or announced any disciplinary outcome.
The three residents — Metcalf, Victoria Johnson, and Kaiyden Caldwell — told CBS Mornings that they went outside after watching the footage and asked the group to explain. They said Alaina Kunes, the first woman visible in the clip, apologized. On 10 November, Kunes released a statement saying she had been “unaware of their race,” calling her actions “insensitive, inappropriate, and deeply harmful,” and asking the women to forgive her. People close to her told NBC News that she had withdrawn from the university. She also said her family had received harassment and death threats.
Later news reports, and the fundraising appeal itself, identify the second woman as Lauren Mayfield. The university has not confirmed that identification, and some earlier reports left her unnamed. According to Johnson and Metcalf, that second woman did not apologize when they confronted the group and kept making the gestures after Kunes had said she was sorry. “It was like a slap in the face,” Johnson told CBS. Mayfield has not issued a public apology.
Hennessey’s campaign describes the episode as a “juvenile stunt” and argues that Mayfield assaulted no one, broke no law, and should not be forced into what he calls a scripted apology. The money, he writes, is meant to cover lost income or other costs so that she does not “fold” under pressure. He also says he reserves the right to end the campaign if she “disavows our support and bends the knee.” Supporters call the backlash cancel culture. Critics say such gestures aimed at Black students are not a harmless joke, and that a six-figure fundraiser conditioned on her refusing to apologize rewards the conduct. Whether she is connected to the fundraiser, or will accept the money, is not independently clear. The university’s investigation is still under way. The three residents have said they plan to remain at Ole Miss.
