Mississippi State University has many new faces this year, including newly appointed Mississippi State University police chief Vance Rice.
     MSU police chief Vance Rice grew up in Fayetteville, Mississippi, and moved to Vicksburg in summer of 1985, and began practicing law enforcement in 1989. Rice said he has enjoyed being police chief so far. “This has been a great experience so far”, Rice said. “Everyone has really welcomed me.” Rice said he feels that the MSU police department has done a great job building the basic building blocks for enforcing university rules. “The foundation is there, it just needs tweaks and fine tuning.”
 Rice said since he is still fairly new to the job, he is still evaluating what he thinks needs to be done in the department. “I’m still assessing and learning, some things may be better now than I could make them,” Rice said.
Rice  said adding the canine dogs will improve the safety for MSU. “The Canines will be good for MSU for added protection and can help throughout the region”, Rice said. Rice said one of the dogs will even be used to detect bombs and could possibly help save the lives of young children in schools. “One of the canines will be a bomb dog, so if there is a bomb detected in a school, for example, and a bomb dog from MSU is shown on the scene, parents will have a warm fuzzy feeling about MSU because we protected their child.” Rice said he believes he has many great qualities that will make him a great police chief. “I like to believe I’m fair, understanding, slow to anger, I try not to let small things bother me”, Rice said. “You can only do the best you can.”
Mandy Netadj, assistant director at the MSU police department and assistant to Rice, said Rice is very nice and not afraid to speak his mind. “He is very personable and friendly, but he is also not afraid to stand up for what’s right”, Netadj said. Netadj said the thing she likes about Rice the most is the fact that he seems to really trust the people he works with. “He is very trustworthy, he seems to trust me and my staff, he values he receives our knowledge and respects and appreciates our input”, Netadj said. Netadj said she feels Rice is going to be a great addition to the department and represent the university in a positive way. “I believe that Chief Rice is going to be a really great asset to the department and he is going to represent his people and the university very well”, Netadj said.
Haley Griffin, part time dispatcher at the MSU police department, said Rice seems to be very excited about his position and eager to make changes. “Chief Rice seems very enthusiastic about his job”, Griffin said. “I think he’s going to make some very good changes.”