Monday night staff and faculty were first to be introduced to the State of the Future Campaign at the Hunter Henry Center. The public launch will take place Saturday at the Homecoming football game.
State of the Future is MSU’s second capital campaign. The first campaign was run in the ’90s and raised about $143 million. It was the biggest campaign Mississippi had ever seen up to that time, said Joe Farris, director of University Relations.
The MSU Foundation is heading up the event, but will take hundreds of participants are needed to carry out the goals of the campaign, said President Charles Lee.
“State of the Future will help Mississippi State accelerate its momentum in the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research and outreach, and will be the catalyst for a brighter future for the people of our state,” Lee said. “The campaign will make the university stronger, but the ultimate beneficiaries will be those we serve.”
The new campaign will last for seven years, which is the national standard for campaigns like this one, Farris said.
Alumni, private donors and volunteers have worked for three years to launch the public phase of the campaign, he added.
Farris said the campaign’s goals are directed to four areas of the university. These areas include endowed scholarships and fellowships, endowed faculty positions, new and renovated facilities and educational programs.
Lee said students and people associated with the university should know that not all of the gifts will be used immediately, because some will go toward areas that may not see the effects of the campaign for several years.
“There is some part of State of the Future that will prove beneficial for almost every area of campus,” said Amy Cagle, director of communications for the MSU Foundation.
The State of the Future campaign is designed to raise money for the benefit of certain facilities of the university, said Fund for Excellence director Laura Kitchens. The detailed goals of the campaign will be withheld until the Homecoming football game Saturday.
“Everything will be announced on Saturday,” she said.
Starkville Mayor Mack Rutledge has even named Saturday “State of the Future Day” in honor of this event, Kitchens added.
As for the activities that will be going on before the game Saturday, Kitchens said the campaign festivities will be big. The celebration will be 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday at the amphitheater and will include inflatable games for children and many booths from campus organizations.
During the game, fans will be introduced to the campaign through a fanimation show before the game. The Foundation has worked with USA Marketing, a corporation based in Oakland, Calif., to plan the fanimation event.
“We wanted to usher in the public phase of the State of the Future campaign in a very exciting, unique way – one that would involve participation from the entire Bulldog family, and fanimation seemed to definitely fit the bill,” Cagle said.