Mississippi State University President Mark Keenum  reacted to President Donald Trump’s Presidential Executive Orders on Immigration –”protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States”–yesterday.  
President Keenum addressed the international students, faculty and staff who are affected by the Presidential Executive Orders in his statement that was released. 
“MSU is taking appropriate steps to support and assist our international students, faculty, staff and researchers as these issues evolve,” Keenum said. “We expect more clarity to come as these issues are more fully considered.”
Keenum said MSU administration is monitoring the effect of the order to see how the community will be impacted.
Regardless of the order, Keenum said MSU’s core values will not change.
“As I have stated on numerous occasions, MSU’s core values of diversity, inclusion, tolerance, and safety for all – regardless their country of origin – do not waver or change,” Keenum said.
Sid Salter, chief communications officer and director of public affairs, said about 10 percent of international students will be affected by the order. Out of the, approximately, 800 international students at MSU, 80 students are from one of the seven countries specifically referenced in the Presidential Executive Orders – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Salter said the university is unsure how the order will specifically affect students and faculty at the moment but are trying to understand the ramifications and impact the order will make.
“I think it’s rather early in the process, we’re monitoring the situation through the information available through the State Department and we’re also, like everyone else, watching the challenges to the law that are playing out in the courts,” Salter said.
The university will continue to focus on the actions they are able to take in the Starkville community by providing counseling to any of those affected. 
Salter said the university wants to help each person in every way possible. 
“More than anything else, we want to help and support those in the MSU community who are impacted by this,” Salter said.
International students bring in around $65 million to the state of Mississippi through public and private institutes of higher learning, according to the Federal Government. Salter said MSU accounts for over half of the funded research at institutes of higher learning in Mississippi.
Salter said although MSU is currently unsure how many faculty are from the seven affected countries, MSU will continue with their core values.
“Mississippi State has a commitment to helping everyone here feel valued and safe and to know that they matter,” Salter said. “Of course, we’re going to do everything possible as a university, to reiterate those core values and to help people through what is for many, a situation that causes them a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety. Our values are the same as they were yesterday, last week, last year.”
Aside from President Keenum and Salter, MSU students have also reacted to the Presidential Executive Order by initiating a vigil scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Junction on MSU’s campus. 
The vigil, named “Beacon of Light: Vigil For Refugees, Immigrants and Muslims,” was created by Anna Walker, a second-year veterinary Medicine Student. The vigil is sponsored by the Religious Diversity Organization.
Walker said she thinks it is important to bring  light to national issues in the local community as well to show support to those affected.
“I think it is pretty easy for people to see the news and imagine that the only people being affected are people in these big cities where they are getting a lot of media coverage but obviously we have a rich community here because of the university,” Walker said. “We have a lot of immigrants and students that are studying here from other countries so I thought it would be a very important message for us to show them that.”
Walker said there will be multiple people speaking at the vigil including representatives from Mississippi American Civil Liberties Union, No Lost Generation, Mississippi Institute of Peace and others. Walkers said they are asking participants to bring candles and signs to support those affected by the order.
“I hope to show the people affected, from the seven countries as well as muslims and immigrants from other locations, that they are welcome here and that we will fight to ensure that they are welcome in the U.S.,” Walker said.
Walker said she is working on calling senators and congressmen to tell them of her disapproval of the presidential order and encourages others to do the same. 
“We should be speaking up against these things,” Walker said. “They matter in Mississippi just as much as they matter in other cities.”