I found this article in the Oxford Intelligencer, published the day Mississippi's secession convention voted to take the state out of the Union - January 9, 1861:

"Lone Star Flags
The boys out at the University are unanimously and intensely secession in spirit, and in the last day or two have raised, over each of the dormitories, the lone-star flag of Mississippi. They have, over the new dormitory, a flag with seven stars, and the motto - Animis opibusque parati - 'Ready, heart and hand.' The seven stars are intended to represent the seven states which have already, at the ballot box, expressed their purpose to be free of the North. The University boys are of the number of those, who are willing to accept 'Death but never dishonor.'