Super Bulldog Weekend
This year’s Super Bulldog Weekend is poised to be the best Super Bulldog Weekend since my enrollment at MSU.
Many years alumni have bypassed Homecoming in favor of the weekend as a family get-a-away. The MSU Alumni Association, led by Jimmy Abraham (the beloved former student affairs administrator), has taken a lead in making the weekend a memorable event from start to finish.
Late last year, this columnist lamented the uneventfulness of Homecoming. I am elated at the prospect that Homecoming 2006 will be as good as this year’s Super Bulldog Weekend. The weekend begins with a cookout on the historic Drill Field on Friday and continues into Saturday with the traditional class reunions, barbecue cook-offs, the spring football scrimmage and a chance to watch the nationally ranked Diamond Dawgs.
IHL
During the presidential search, many people vented their frustration against IHL Commissioner Thomas Meredith.
Depending on who you listened to, he was either trying to cement his newfound authority as commissioner or attempting to relegate MSU to being the University of Mississippi at Starkville. I tend to agree with the former, as I have found out over the years that Ole Miss partisans are more focused on bettering their alma mater more so than ruining ours, with the exception being in athletics.
This power shift came about with a historic non-legislative shift of constitutional authority where the IHL Board willfully yielded some of their powers to the newly-hired commissioner, who helped craft the model.
While I certainly applaud the commissioner for wanting to convert the job from a non-entity to an influential one, I would have to wonder if the “model university system” is back on the table. Among a lot of old school rank-and-file Bulldogs, this is where the weariness of the commissioner and the IHL come from.
Years ago, while Meredith was an IHL administrator, there was a plan on the table to shift many social sciences to the University of Mississippi in an attempt to emphasize specialization and the “model university system.”
The thought was that MSU was best in the fields of engineering and agriculture while the University of Mississippi was more of a liberal arts school.
The most notable shifts would have been sociology and political science. The problem at the time was many bystanders and consultants viewed our programs as equal or greatly better in those areas, and the idea was scrapped.
The de-emphasization of liberal arts at MSU would be a disaster not only for enrollment but for our academic reputation as it flies in the face of the comprehensive university model. Many future professionals in areas like law, journalism and medicine would be dissuaded from attending MSU. Many arguments against the commissioner have been fanatical, but I would hope the “model university system” will not be revived with the newfound powers of the IHL commissioner.
The Lees
Next week, Charles and Pat Lee will walk across the Drill Field one last time before retiring to Virginia. Years ago, when I was just a high school student receiving a scholarship at a MSU banquet, I met the Lees and came to greatly admire them. Their love for students is unmatched as they always sought input and took steps to uplift the Student Association. They will be missed by the student body.