A $10 million donation from an MSU alumnus and his wife will allow for the creation of an Honors College at Mississippi State, which will provide more programs, classes and faculty for Honors students.
The effort to create the Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College included a long process of matching up alumni to give to MSU, Honors Program director Nancy McCarley said.
“It’s probably been in the works for about a year,” she said.
The donation came from Bobby Shackouls, an alumnus of engineering, who has been giving to the college of engineering for years, and his wife, Judy, McCarley said.
“It wasn’t really until last fall that we had an inkling of who the donors might be,” she added.
Vice president for external affairs Dennis Prescott, who was involved in securing the donation for the Honors College, said he has known the Shackouls for some time
“Since we’ve known each other for a while, it was a very conversational progression of things,” he said.
The Shackouls really identified with the ideas and the vision for instituting the Honors College, Prescott said.
“They agree that this will enhance the university’s ability to draw high-achieving students,” he said.
The funding that their endowment will make available will provide study abroad programs, speakers and faculty for Honors students that would not be available otherwise, Prescott said.
“When the endowment is fully funded, it will provide approximately $400,000,” he said.
Former university president Charles Lee was very involved in the process of procuring the endowment and saw the establishment of the Honors College as his last task before leaving, executive assistant to the president Ruth Prescott said.
“He saw how an enhanced Honors program at Mississippi State could help achieve his vision of keeping the best and brightest of Mississippi at home to go to school,” she said.
When these students go to school out of state, chances are that will not be coming back, Ruth Prescott said.
Upon hearing about the donation, Lee wanted to turn his black tie retirement gala into an announcement of the endowment, but the Shackouls were not be able to attend, so he decided to make the donation the focus of his retirement reception last week, Ruth Prescott said.
“The timing worked,” she said.
President Lee had a passion for educating the sons and daughters of the state of Mississippi, Ruth Prescott added.
“The university is currently holding a $400 million capital campaign,” Dennis Prescott said. “This [endowment] pushed the total over $300 million, and we still have two and a half years to go.”