Newly named Mississippi State University President Mark Keenum addressed various constituency groups Wednesday during a daylong series of interviews at the Hunter Henry Alumni Center. Institutions of Higher Learning board members and campus officials were also present for the various sessions, which were set up separately for faculty, students, the public and MSU Foundation members.
Keenum spent much of his time during the sessions outlining his plans for the future, which include starting a Phi Beta Kappa chapter and increasing student enrollment.
“Yes, we’re 17,824 students, but we can be more than that,” Keenum said. “Growing our student enrollment … generates revenue, [helping] us have more money for our salaries for our faculty and our staff.”
He said faculty and staff salaries would be among his top priorities.
“[When] we look at the salaries that our faculty make and look at their peer universities in the Southern university group, we’re woefully below the average,” he said. “We owe it to them to at least pay them at the average of their peers. I’d like to see us surpass that.”
Keenum said he is not happy MSU is ranked as a tier three university in the U.S. News and World Report’s annual ranking of colleges and universities.
“We’re going to be a tier one university,” he said. “It’s going to take a commitment, team work and working together. I can’t do it all by myself, but that commitment, drive and that passion is what we’re going to bring to this school.”
Keenum fielded questions from the various groups, including one from Student Association President Braxton Coombs.
After the student session, Coombs said it is good to see Keenum believes he will have a good working relationship with faculty.
“That’s one of the most important things,” Coombs said. “I think that he’s going into it knowing that he doesn’t have all the answers, but he’s the type of person who’s willing to listen.”
Coombs said he thinks Keenum’s knowledge of the university will help him succeed as president.
“He has a vision of where we need to go and the most important thing is having that long-term vision; he’s got it,” Coombs said.
Oscar Miskelly, chief executive officer of Miskelly Furniture, asked Keenum about agriculture and how he plans to use his international connections with the university.
“It was very encouraging to me that he could make a difference in the world as far as feeding people, as far as serving the world through Mississippi State,” he said. “I thought that was really the bottom line – serving this nation from right here in Starkville and Mississippi State.”
The question was raised during the MSU Foundation session of why Keenum was selected.
IHL Board President Amy Whitten said Keenum was picked to provide stability for the university.
“I’ve been on the board now eight years, and it’s time for Mississippi State to have a good, stable president who is very well versed in relationship building and the understanding of stakeholders around the table,” Whitten said.
Keenum completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural economics before joining the MSU faculty in 1984. He received his Ph.D in 1988 and focused his research on the marketing and economics of aquaculture, specialty crops and forestry. He also taught an annual course on agricultural legislative policy and served as an adjunct professor at MSU.