Mississippi State University’s interim President Charles Lee is expected to be announced today as the permanent president in a press conference at the Hunter Henry Center at 11 a.m.
“Lee met with the State College Board Thursday morning,” Pam Smith, IHL assistant commissioner, said. “The board made an executive decision and will announce it at the press conference.”
Smith said the reason for not going any further Thursday with the announcement is that “it is too important not to announce it on the MSU campus. We are bound to make this announcement Friday morning and not before.”
Smith also said Lee was the only candidate who met with the board Thursday.
Other sources have revealed that Lee would be named president by the end of the week but refused to give any official confirmation. A press release was e-mailed to leaders on campus Thursday following the IHL board meeting in Jackson.
It reads: “At a meeting today, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning took action on the search for the next president of Mississippi State University. Following the meeting, Commissioner Tom Layzell announced that a formal press conference will be held tomorrow, Jan. 17, at 11 a.m. at the Hunter Henry Center at MSU. At the press conference, the board will share the outcome of today’s meeting which is a major announcement concerning the status of the search.”
State Rep. Steve Holland (D-Tupelo), who is chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Universities and Colleges, said Thursday: “The rumor is-tomorrow. Tomorrow we will find out all of this for sure.”
Holland, a long-time supporter of Lee, said he hopes that Lee will be named president and has gotten that same response from co-workers, but nothing is official. At one time, Holland had gathered a petition signed by more than 60 legislators in support of Lee.
“I know the board met today but I don’t know the specifics-no one seems to know for sure,” Holland said.
The search committee met Thursday in Jackson after the regular meeting of the College Board. After the executive session ended, Lee was asked if he would be named president, and he declined to give any information concerning that matter.
Other staff members on campus attended the meeting in Jackson today anticipating a formal announcement of the president. An anonymous source said one campus leader was in Jackson for Lee’s appointment as MSU president.
Parker Wiseman, Student Association president, Dr. Walter Diehl, chairman of the Faculty Senate, and Dr. Linda Pote, vice chairman of the Faculty Senate, all went to the board meeting in Jackson Thursday.
Lee, a native of North Carolina, assumed the duties of interim president at MSU in January 2002. He agreed to serve until a permanent successor for Malcom Portera was named.
At the time of Lee’s appointment as interim, he was serving as the vice president at Mississippi State for Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine and had been for two years. Previously Lee had spent five years, from 1978 to 1983, as Mississippi State’s dean of Forest Resources and associate director of the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment.
The College Board developed a list of finalists for the MSU presidency this past summer, and Lee was not on the list as a finalist. Lee said he has gotten strong support for the past year to consider the position.
In a career spanning over 35 years, Lee has served as a professor, department head, dean and interim president..