The following is Mississippi State University’s statement issued Feb. 19 on Facebook regarding the Aerospace Engineering Department.
“MSU issues statement on Aerospace Engineering program
Mississippi State University Provost Judith L. Bonner, MSU’s James W. Bagley College of Engineering Dean Jason M. Keith, and MSU Department of Aerospace Engineering Head Davy M. Belk issued the following joint statement:
“The future of the MSU Department of Aerospace Engineering is bright, sound, and one that our students and their families can rely upon. MSU values the opinions and input of our faculty members and actively seeks dialogue on ways to proactively improve our programs. But the university has a responsibility to protect our academic programs from misinformation and disinformation designed to advance personal agendas rather than fair criticism and comment.
“For decades, Mississippi State University’s Aerospace Engineering program has been part of the university’s incredible legacy of accomplishment in this discipline recognized by the scientific community that includes public partners such as NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense and private industry partners such as Boeing, Lockheed and Honda. That legacy has been and will continue to be student-centered.
“Recent social media posts and dialogue have made patently misleading, irresponsible and inflammatory claims that the future of MSU’s Aerospace Engineering Department is in jeopardy. Further, some of the social media dialogue makes the claim that should disgruntled employees retire or leave MSU, the department won’t be able to effectively function without them.
“Those claims are simply not true and serve only to frighten and mislead students and their families.
“Here are the facts:
 Undergraduate and graduate enrollment in Aerospace Engineering at MSU has increased between 2012 and 2017 (from 209 to 362 undergraduate, from 20 to 59 in the master’s program and from 20 to 37 in the doctoral program). Degree production has likewise increased over that period, particularly at the master’s level.
 Faculty numbers are improving. A tenure-track faculty vacancy is being reviewed by a search committee and at the recommendation of an elected search committee at the college level, the department is interviewing two additional faculty candidates who will be eligible for positions funded at the college level.
 The departmental budget has increased from $1.44 million in FY 2012 to $1.69 million in FY2018. National Science Foundation data shows that research expenditures in the department have increased from $3.7 million in FY 2014 to $4.8 million in FY 2016.
 MSU President Mark E. Keenum and MSU Provost Judith L. Bonner each committed $100,000 from their respective budgets toward improving equipment and conditions in the Patterson Engineering Laboratories after a tour of those facilities. In addition, the administration has provided funding for an additional staff position to supervise laboratory activities. Dr. Keenum has also committed the university resources necessary to procure a new wind tunnel and necessary ancillary equipment to meet the needs of the department. Departmental, college and university administration leadership recognize the value of Aerospace Engineering and remain firmly committed to the long-term future growth and development of the department.
“Since 1935, the Department of Aerospace Engineering has been one of Mississippi State University’s most established and revered engineering programs in the nation and a cornerstone of MSU’s Bagley College of Engineering. MSU Aerospace Engineering students leave our fully accredited undergraduate program prepared to enter the workforce as qualified aerospace engineers or to enter any accredited engineering graduate school to pursue advanced study.
“Affiliations with MSU entities like the High Performance Computing Collaboratory (HPC2), also offer our Aerospace Engineering students tremendous opportunities. The HPC2’s cross-disciplinary approach enabled the merging of technologies from grid generation, solution algorithms, parallel processing, and scientific visualization to make this achievement possible.
“Aerospace Engineering faculty and students have also been an integral part of the founding and development of the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Research Center. MSU was awarded a NSF Engineering Research Center for Computational Field Simulation in 1990, and the unit successfully graduated from the NSF program in 2001. The ERC, the forerunner of today’s HPC2, will continue to help businesses and researchers tackle tough questions. It will use its powerful computers for a variety of projects that include computational fluid dynamics, remote sensing, computational physics, aerospace design, and automotive research.
“MSU Aerospace Engineering students likewise enjoy the assets of the Raspet Flight Research Laboratory, which has a long and distinguished history of producing significant advances in manned and unmanned flight, working with companies around the world, and providing hands-on experience for our undergraduate and grad students, Part of the Bagley College of Engineering, Raspet was established in 1948. 
“Since that time it has grown and expanded to include two state-of-the-art facilities and research endeavors with government and private industry including the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Lockheed Aircraft Corp., Honda Research and Development, and NASA.'”