The Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees unanimously voted to name USDA Undersecretary Mark Keenum as the preferred Mississippi State University presidential candidate Wednesday.
Open interviews with Keenum and various campus constituency groups have been scheduled for next Wednesday. Following the day-long interview sessions, the Board of Trustees will vote either to name Keenum as the next MSU president or to continue the presidential search process.
In a statement issued following the announcement, Keenum said he is looking forward to addressing the MSU campus during the interview sessions.
“My wife Rhonda and I, along with our children … look forward to our campus visit next week to share with the Bulldog family our commitment and dedication to the place we still call home,” Keenum said. “We also want to convey tremendous thanks to all of those who have held us close in prayer and thought – especially to the legions of alumni who have been constant sources of encouragement and inspiration during this process.”
IHL Board of Trustees President Amy Whitten said the campus interview sessions would provide rich dialogue that the board will use to determine Keenum’s future as the next permanent MSU president.
“Every constituency group is provided an open opportunity to question the candidate. Confidential evaluation forms [will be provided] for every person in every session,” she said. “Those are compiled and given back to the board. I think that it is one of the most important parts of the process – to put the candidate in the middle of his or her proposed family to see how that goes.”
Scott Ross, IHL Board of Trustees vice president and Board Search Committee chairman, said he believes Keenum represents the traits various campus constituencies delivered to the BSC during the late-April listening day.
“[Keenum] loves MSU, has a desire to be there, has the qualifications for the job and has the ability to stay for a long time,” he said.
Ross said he believes Keenum would give MSU the stability many of its students, faculty and alumni demand.
“I think that the campus is looking for stability, having been through a fair number of presidents in a short time,” he said. “We have the expectation when we hire a president, they’re going to be around for a while.”
IHL board members have yet to announce either the number of final candidates from which the board picked Keenum, or the number of interviews conducted the day Keenum was named as the preferred candidate.
On Wednesday, The Wichita Eagle reported Wichita State University Provost Gary Miller withdrew his name from the presidential search.
Ross said the BSC conducted first-round interviews with every candidate the campus search advisory group recommended to the board.
“We had a diverse group of applicants and a number of highly qualified individuals. Different people had different reasons to bring Keenum forward,” he said. “We followed our process as stated from the very beginning to the letter. He went through the process and made it through the process the right way.”
Keenum holds a bachelor’s, master’s and a doctoral degree in agricultural economics, all completed at MSU.
In 1988, Keenum joined the faculty of the MSU department of agricultural economics as an assistant professor.
One year later, Keenum joined Sen. Thad Cochran’s Washington, D.C., staff, serving as legislative assistant for agriculture and natural resources.
During Keenum’s tenure on Cochran’s staff, Keenum served as an agricultural economics adjunct professor at MSU, teaching a class on agricultural legislation.
Keenum was named Cochran’s chief of staff in 1996 and served in the position for 10 years. He served as one of Cochran’s main advisers, was responsible for managing all of the administrative and legislative functions of Cochran’s Washington, D.C., office and his three Mississippi offices and had direct oversight of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations.
On Dec. 20, 2006, Keenum was sworn in as USDA Undersecretary. He provides leadership and oversight for the Farm Service Agency, the Risk Management Agency and the Foreign Agricultural Service. The agencies employ over 16,500 people at more than 2,300 offices nationwide and 98 locations around the world.