In 2001, the university received over 46,000 deliveries from worldwide vendors. Each piece of furniture and equipment on campus had to pass through the Receiving and Property Control Center before it made it to campus.
The Receiving Center does many jobs that students unknowingly depend on.
The center delivers all equipment and supplies ordered by the university to the correct campus department.
When a piece of furniture or equipment has been damaged, the Receiving Center determines the future of that object.
If the item is deemed usable, the Receiving and Property Control Center offers the item back to the Mississippi State University campus.
If the campus has no use for the item, the Receiving and Property Control Center offers the item to public organizations. They donate items to public schools, police stations, fire stations and any other state funded organizations.
However, if the item is unfit for further use, it follows a direct path to the landfill. The fate of every broken item lies in the hands of those working with the Receiving and Property Control Center. The Receiving and Property Control Center employs 11 full-time workers and five student employees. These employees take care of transporting the broken items to their designated places and also deliver the equipment and supplies from the freight-carrying trucks.
The Receiving and Property Control Center must record and maintain a database of every piece of equipment delivered to the school if it has a monetary amount above $500. The center also delivers items to five different agencies: MSU, Mafes, MSU Extension Service, Forest and Wildlife Research Service and Mississippi State Chemical Laboratories.
“One of our goals as a department is to act as a liason between the departments who use the equipment and the office of the state auditor,” Scott Alexander, MSU property officer, said.
The legislature separately funds each of these; therefore, the Receiving and Property Control Center has to individually report additions and deletions of equipment for each organization once a month.
“Right now, we have over 65,000 items valued at over $150 million, and that’s just equipment,” Sharon Hamlin, MSU property officer, said.
Yearly audits, which help determine future funding, are submitted to the Institutions of Higher Learning.
The Receiving Center also conducts periodic auctions every 18 to 24 months. The auctions help bring better prices for the items, many of which are vehicles.
“It is the university’s responsibility, especially during economic slowdowns, to safeguard the equipment currently in our possession so that the legislature, and the taxpayers of Mississippi, feel comfortable funding MSU in the future,” Alexander said.