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Constituency groups have their say with Keenum |
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Thursday, 13 November 2008 |
By SHOSHANA BRACKETT
and KELLY DANIELS
Starkville Daily News
During a string of meetings Wednesday with Mississippi State’s various constituency groups, the man who is now the university’s 19th president promised to be aggressive in moving the university forward.
One particular area Dr. Mark Keenum said he would be aggressive in pursuing was funding.
“We’re going to be aggressive. I’m going to be aggressive in securing funds for this school,” he said.
“I know a thing or two about how to get money,” he said.
Keenum said he also will use the knowledge he has gained and relationships he has cultivated to benefit MSU.
Wednesday, Keenum met with faculty, staff, students, alumni, MSU Foundation board members, administrators, Bulldog Club board members, community leaders and others in meetings scheduled from 8 a.m to 5 p.m.
With his wife, Rhonda, by his side, Keenum started each meeting with an opening statement giving background on his credentials and expressing his excitement at the possibility of leading MSU. Each session also included a time for members of the audience, both present in the room and linked from the university research and extension centers and Meridian campus, to voice their questions.
Keenum stressed his lifelong ties to the university where he received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.
“It’s a great honor and a privilege for us ... to be back here at Mississippi State University,” he said.
Keenum said he started his life in Starkville, living for two years in campus housing with his parents before a series of moves across the state. Later, he and his wife spent some time in Starkville before heading to Washington, D.C.
“This truly is my home,” he said of Starkville.
Keenum also expressed excitement at the possibility of leading the university that has played a large role in his life.
“Everything that I am today, everything I will be, I can tie it back here to this university ...,” Keenum said.
“I have such a strong sense of obligation to this university,” he continued.
In outlining his priorities for the university, Keenum stressed that he will listen to all the constituencies in determining the best decisions for the university.
“I want to hear from you. Your thoughts, your vision, your input,” he said.
“If anybody wants to come see me, all you’ve got to do is ask,” he told staff.
He also listed increases in salaries for faculty and staff as a top priority as the university works to increase its national and international image and reputation.
Salary increases, however, require funding, and in response to budget questions, Keenum said he will focus on the four income sources of the university: State, federal, tuition and gifts.
“Whatever the budget situation looks like, that’s going to be my ‘A’ No. 1 priority,” he said.
The university has two choices in budget cut situations, to either cut back and eliminate programs and positions or to expand and grow and reap the benefits of increased tuition gains through increased enrollment, he said.
Keenum also listed a plan to continue increasing student enrollment, setting a goal of 25 percent growth by 2015 to 22,000 students.
As the university continues to grow, Keenum said MSU’s current standing as a Tier 3 university in national rankings is not acceptable, noting he will work to bring MSU to the level of a Tier 1 school.
“I want this university to be the first choice for our students, our staff, our faculty and our administrators,” he said. “I never want Mississippi State University to be anybody’s Plan B...we’re better than that.”
As for his leadership style, Keenum said he focuses on teamwork and delegation, making sure administrators know their responsibilities and then letting them do their jobs.
Keenum also answered questions regarding infrastructure needs, campus safety, graduate programs, land-grant status, veterans and diversity.
Meeting students
Keenum, who taught an annual course at MSU for 16 years, said he plans to get back into the classroom. Teaching was something he enjoyed, Keenum said, addressing the students.
“I wanted to share the experience with students that I was enjoying in Washington and talk about how someone’s idea becomes a law,” he said. “I really have a passion for interaction with the students and sharing experiences with them.”
During the session, many students and student leaders had questions for Keenum, mainly having to do with openness.
When asked about the openness of his relationship with the students and the MSU Faculty Senate, Keenum said he genuinely wanted the senate members’ input and suggestions.
“My style will be one of inclusiveness, openness and transparency,” he said, adding that he and his wife plan to be very active on campus.
“I would like to look at opportunities to have forums with the students, not just in the classroom setting.”
MSU student Whitney Holliday asked what Keenum would suggest for increasing the competitiveness of curriculums in MSU classrooms.
Keenum said that curriculum changes would increase a student’s competitiveness so much as keeping up with the latest technology and bringing to campus academic achievement organizations such as a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.
“We’re the only school in the SEC (Southeastern Conference) that does not have a Phi Beta Kappa chapter,” he said, adding that Holliday and her peers will be gone when the chapter is running successfully at the university.
“It’s not right. It’s not fair.”
In addition, Keenum promised to create more programs that would provide more opportunities for studying abroad.
“I want to see us having more involvement, more exposure, more opportunities for students in our nation’s capital, in our congressional offices, serving in our executive branch,” he said. “When I was a young person, I didn’t know a lot of opportunities that were out there.”
Student Association Vice President Braxton Stowe asked Keenum what he would do to increase diversity among the MSU faculty and student body.
“Thirteen percent of the faculty here are racial minorities. Only 34 are African-American,” Keenum said, adding that the university could do better.
Incentives provided to deans of MSU colleges was one suggestion Keenum had for the racial gap.
Of the 17,800 students at MSU, 20 percent are African-American, he continued.
“I think it’s important that we do a better job of reaching out to our African-American enrollment,” Keenum said.
Keenum does not want to just increase minority enrollment, but enrollment overall.
“I want to see us grow, by the year 2015, somewhere in the neighborhood of 22,000,” he said, adding that the pool of graduating high school seniors in Mississippi will have gone down by 7 percent.
Texas, Virginia, Georgia, however, are seeing an increase in high school graduates.
“We’re going to be competing beyond the borders of just Mississippi to grow our student body,” he said.
Erin Kourkounis, editor in chief of the MSU campus newspaper, The Reflector, asked Keenum what he thought his role, if president, would be with the campus media.
“I’m going to have a very open relationship with this campus newspaper,” said Keenum, adding that his first interview, when selected, will be with Carl Smith, the news editor for The Reflector.
“I’m very familiar with it, its history, its prestige, the awards that you’ve received over the years,” he said.
After the meeting, Smith said that from the time former president for MSU Robert H. “Doc” Foglesong was named president, his relationship with the campus media was almost nonexistent.
“I have the first full interview with Keenum when all this is over, so this is quite a change from what we’ve had,” he said.
MSU Student Association President Braxton Coombs said he thinks Keenum would be a great leader.
Coombs, who is particularly interested in the MSU president’s interaction with the students, said Keenum did a great job during the sessions Wednesday.
“I think he is going to provide the stability we need as a university,” he said.
Alumni and community leaders weigh in
In the presence of several Starkville city officials, Keenum said he wants a close relationship with Starkville leaders that would stimulate opportunities for economic development.
Keenum summed up his ideas of campus-community relations with the statement, “If it’s good for the city, it’s good for the campus. If it’s good for the campus, it’s good for the city.”
When asked by one leader where he saw the
university five years from now, Keenum said that he hoped the university would move in a positive direction in enrollment, due to an intense public relations effort.
By increasing revenue from alumni and rising student enrollment, faculty salaries could reap the benefits.
Amanda Edwards, realtor for Prudential Starkville Properties, had a comment instead of a question.
Asking to see some emotion from the president, Edwards said that she would like the president to bring emotion back to Mississippi State and the way that it is run.
“Our town, landscape, our buildings here — it’s all part of what we acknowledge our home here at the university,” she said.
Her plea for emotion drew tears from Keenum’s wife, Rhonda.
Marty Wiseman, director of the John C. Stennis Institute of Government at MSU, said after the session that he expects Keenum be a great president.
“We haven’t had anything quite like this,” he said.
When asked what he thought of Keenum’s statements about the community, Mayor Dan Camp said, “I thought he was fine. I think his wife is tremendous.”
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Last Updated ( Friday, 14 November 2008 )
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