The New Year brings many changes for Mississippi State
University in our leadership and around campus.
First of all, our new president, Mark Keenum, has now
taken the reins after a period of chaos and limbo for the presidency.
Dan Mullen, our new head football coach, is inheriting a football
team that is going to be working hard to avoid another losing season.
Both of these men are in similar situations. They will need
to bring a sense of stability and hard work to move the university
forward. They both face similar decisions about who to hire and
recruit.
While we can’t predict the future, we feel optimistic about our
president and our coach. As we’ve expressed before, Keenum has
set high goals for his tenure and plans on staying here for more
than a couple of years. He has also shown a sense of transparency
and has been around Mississippi State before. The question for
Keenum is going to be what sort of staff he plans to form in order
to reach full potential.
Mullen just took an offense to the National Championship.
What more could we ask for in a new head coach? We hope his
experience will bring good recruits to the table and an effective
coaching staff. He seems very energetic and enthusiastic, which
should go a long way. He has also done an excellent job of juggling
his duties here and at the University of Florida.
On a slightly less serious note, MSU has now placed free-use
bicycles around campus to help students, many of whom already
use bicycles, get across campus. While the idea is good, several
of us have seen vandalized bikes around, and we are only a week
into the semester. Last semester, associate dean of students Thomas
Bourgeois said GPS chips might be looked into if theft becomes
a problem. We think such an investment would be a good idea.
There also needs to be some type of accountability for those who
choose to ride the bikes.
Finally, another aspect of a new MSU is our new logos and symbols,
including a renovated Bully. The new artwork, which can be
viewed on MSU’s Web site, is an attempt to modernize the university,
but we stubbornly like the old better. In light of a bulldog that
is now reminiscent of Georgia’s adrenaline-pumped mascot, the
classic, walking Bully was just better and more sophisticated.
We see little reason to change these logos, and we hope no letterhead
is going to go to waste. That might contradict our plan to
go green with the new bikes.
But in the areas that matter most, the New Year holds promising.
The Reflector editorial board is made up of opinion editor Matt
Watson, news editor Patrick Young, assistant news editor Josh Starr,
sports editor Brandon Wright, entertainment editor Bailey Singletary,
photo editor Bud Sorey, copy editors Aubra Whitten and Carl Smith,
online editor Adam Kazery, managing editor Kyle Wrather and editor
in chief Erin Kourkounis.