The all-out effort to ensure that Mark Keenum, chief of staff for Senator Thad Cochran, is selected as MSU’s next president is reminiscent of two great political happenings that affected MSU: the election of John C. Stennis to the U.S. Senate and the creation of the school of veterinary medicine.
These two events are hallmarks in the psyche of many Bulldogs who believe our alumni base is slipping into a state of apathy with advocacy.
Judge Stennis, as he was affectionately called, was a former national MSU Alumni Association president and county jurist who decided to seek the Senate seat of Theodore Bilbo, who died after being re-elected. Bilbo, known for his confrontational style, was the antithesis of the courtly Southern gentleman that Stennis personified.
Oral history says Stennis used contacts he cultivated as national president to catapult him into office as the first graduate of Mississippi A&M to serve in the U.S. Senate. From his election in 1947 to his retirement in 1989, Stennis remained a loyal Bulldog, much like Trent Lott is a loyal Rebel today. This was a watershed event in the history of MSU using its muscle to accomplish political goals.
A second event was the creation of the school of veterinary medicine at MSU. As the bill was being considered in the Mississippi Legislature, many knew the vote would be a nail-biter. The bill was brought up for a vote and lost by less than a handful of votes.
Again, the Alumni Association was called to action. Leaders of the university and alumni groups rallied the rank and filed troops to action in an effort reminiscent of the AARP effort to defeat private accounts for social security. After the Bulldog faithful lit up the Capitol switchboard with calls and mail, the measure came up for reconsideration with only two people voting against it.
Although the effort to promote Keenum as the next president is largely void of the masses of the Bulldog rank and file, it will go down as an event where certain factions were called to action. His supporters mostly include Jackson and Washington D.C. politicos, elected officials from both parties, agriculture advocates, lovers of federal appropriations and business types. His supporters, buoyed by his overwhelming support from the campus advisory committee in the last search, are ready for battle.
Some of his prominent supporters have surnames like Mize and Miskelly, but notably quiet in this selection is the group some like to pejoratively call the “Cigar Boys.” These people have surnames like Seal and Holliman. As with most universities, there is a running perception that the “Cigar Boys” control the selection process, either directly or through board members. It’s not clear who they support, or if they are even exerting any influence on the selection.
Many in the Keenum camp are acting autonomously from each other. His most visible supporter, Sid Salter of The Clarion-Ledger, has waged war on the secretive selection through his column and an almost daily onslaught of posts on his blog. Most likely within the next month, the College Board will be flooded with calls, e-mails and postal mail weighing in on the selection. If I were a betting man, I would bet the supporters will run 8-2 in support of Keenum. If these entities united, their effort would almost rival that of the two aforementioned campaigns.
Spectators are wondering whether Commissioner Tom Meredith and the IHL Board will yield to the groundswell of support or not choose Keenum to avoid the appearance of bowing to outside influences.
The outcome remains to be seen, but in this commissioner-board governance model, it’s hard to say who will have the last laugh.