PACCAR, a recognized leader in truck design and manufacturing, endowed $2 million to the engineering department in a ceremony Friday morning.
Interim MSU President Vance Watson said an occasion like this is a special time for the university.
“The gift is going to help us to move forward to become the most respected land grant university,” he said. “Once we get an endowment like this, it should encourage the opportunity for other internationally known companies to partner with us.”
PACCAR plant manager Lex Lemmers said the grant funds would be used to establish the new PACCAR chair in the engineering college.
“The presence of an excellent teaching university helped bring PACCAR to northern Mississippi,” he said. “The area was chosen because of the excellent reputation of Mississippi State University.”
Bagley College of Engineering dean Sarah Rajala said the kind of support that PACCAR has given to create a chair is extremely important.
“It’s a fairly broad impact for the future,” she said. “I look forward to a strong partnership in the future as we move forward.”
Construction of a new plant in Lowndes County is going forward, Lemmers said. PACCAR’s new facility will manufacture 12.9 liter and 9.2 liter diesel engines.
“We are satisfied with our decision to move to northern Mississippi,” he said. “It will be one of the most modern plants in the world.”
This will have an immediate impact on the area, and students will be better prepared for the fast-paced world they will enter into, he said.
“We need thinkers and innovators who are not afraid to push the envelope and who are not afraid to fail,” Lemmers said. “We see these characteristics within Mississippi State.”
Assistant plant manager Lance Walters said the plant is in the construction phase right now and will have committed 500 jobs to people by the year 2012.
“I think that this shows the beginning of a long relationship that we will have with the CAVS Center and the university as well,” he said.
Bennett Evans, development director for Bagley College of Engineering, said chairs are created by endowments and they serve two purposes.
“The funding can go to a supplementary chair-holding salary or the earnings can go to research which the chair holder is conducting,” he said.
Normally the chair holder will hold the position for a five-year renewable term or it can go to another faculty member, Evans said.
“This helps to attract faculty from other universities and also can help retain current faculty members and place them in a chair,” he said. “When you have good leadership in place, it helps you to recruit the best and brightest students and faculty to the department.”
The fact it is an endowment means that it goes on forever, Watson said.
“It provides incentives to attract the very best department heads and provides funding for student research projects within the department,” he said.
Matthew Bell, MSU Formula Society of Automotive Engineer member, said this is really going to help SAE.
“We are directly going to have access to the money which will help us have a good start each year,” Bell said.
The car has to be cheap, reliable and easy to maintain, he said.
“It’s capable of doing 0 to 60 miles per hour in four seconds, and it can compete against the top-end super cars,” Bell said.