The Robert Holland Faculty Senate of Mississippi State University discussed potential budget cuts and tuition increases as well as future campus construction projects during their meeting on Friday, Jan. 13.
President Mark Keenum said he spoke with new leaders in Jackson and the state budget is at the top of the agenda. Currently, the state is experiencing a $500 million shortfall from funds not available this session that were available last session, and there is less money received from the state today per student than 10 years ago.
“We’re doing a whole lot more with a whole lot less,” Keenum said. “It’s quite evident.”
For fiscal year 2013, a 3.4 percent cut was proposed for the Mississippi Institution of Higher Learning (IHL), and a 2.6 percent cut was submitted by Gov. Haley Barbour, even though IHL has taken budget cuts for the past three years in a row, Keenum said. MSU’s total appropriations are one-third higher than what the university actually received during a shortfall over a five-year period, and enrollment experienced a 46 percent increase over that time period.
“We are at 70 percent of the tuition of our peers (in the SEC). We’re a very good bargain for our students and their parents,” Keenum said. “Students don’t come here to get a cheap education; they come here to get a quality Mississippi State education.”
Keenum said MSU could be forced to raise tuition if MSU does not receive additional funds from legislature. However, the tuition will be conditioned on legislative support and, if the state helps, there will be no increase. Keenum maintained that a high-quality program cannot exist with diminishing state support.
“Our university is one of the best investments for the state,” he said. “One of my highest priorities for this campus is that we don’t let the quality of this institution deteriorate.”
Keenum was optimistic despite the grim financial outlook.
“We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, can we sustain it?” he said. “We’ve got big gaps to fill.”
Jerry Gilbert, MSU provost and executive vice president, spoke of the status of campus construction projects, including the recent delay in the Aiken Village remodeling project, as well as the construction plans for the new classroom building on campus.
The Aiken Village project has been delayed until fall 2014 as developers decide what mix of apartments are needed to serve international, merit and graduate students on campus, he said.
“We had a plan that was tentative, and we decided not to implement that plan because we were not comfortable with it,” Gilbert said, adding that he and Keenum believed it best to take time and get the project right instead of rushing through and not meeting the needs of the students.  
An underlying cause of the delay is the sudden price jump of the demolition project, he said. Originally, it was slated to cost approximately $14 million, but due to further asbestos testing, the actual project is now valued at approximately $26 million.
Gilbert said questions surrounding the construction of the new building include how the space is going to be allocated and how large the classrooms will be in relation to current classroom sizes.
Up-to-date, state-of-the-art technology and classroom essentials like seating will be a part of the planning process, but MSU officials want to be frugal while getting the best materials, he said.
“We want the biggest bang for our buck out of it,” Gilbert said.
Julia Hodges, associate vice president for administrative services and member of the planning committee, said changes have been made and submitted to the campus architect so that visualizations could be made regarding the layout of the building, which will then be discussed by the planning committee. More classrooms and study space for students have been suggested, as opposed to a mixture that includes student support offices.
“The classroom building is moving much more toward being a classroom-only building,” she said.