With Sen. Thad Cochran, Gov. Haley Barbour, congressmen, faculty, alumni and students looking on, Mark E. Keenum was formally invested Friday as Mississippi State University’s 19th President.
At noon, members of the state legislature and U.S. Congress, representatives of community colleges from across the state, faculty, alumni and Student Association officers began the procession across the Drill Field from Swalm Hall into Lee Hall.
During the ceremony, Student Association President Blake Jeeter read a letter from former President George W. Bush congratulating Keenum on his investiture.
Friday was a day of big announcements which included changes to the budget and echoing his goal to to reach 22,000 students by 2015 and culminated with Keenum unveiling of the new StatePride initiative.
Barbour lauded Keenum’s qualifications, noted the close relationship he and Keenum have and listed some challenges MSU’s new president will have to face.
“[Keenum] has been a close personal friend and colleague for the past 20 years,” Barbour said. “But let’s not kid ourselves, Mark Keenum is going to have a tough time in the coming years.”
Earlier this year, Barbour announced a 5 percent budget cut for education, and MSU is already bracing in anticipation for more.
Keenum said the specter of more possible budget cuts remained present even on the day of his investiture.
With questions about how more budget cuts may affect tuition and academic programs, Keenum said the threat of budget cuts is on everyone’s mind.
“The state budget is looking at tax revenue continuing to decline,” he said. “At our IHL meeting, we spent most of the time talking about how we could be more efficient.”
In July, anticipating the upcoming loss of revenue Keenum said he looked for way to trim the fat and be more efficient.
“I asked all of my vice presidents and deans to prepare their budgets as though they would only be getting 95 percent of the budget,” he said. “But now, we’re looking at the likelihood that we’re going to have to continue further cuts.”
Keenum said loss of funding is not easy, but most of the cuts affect about 121 positions that, for the most part, the university chooses not to fill. About one quarter of those was on the faculty level.
“The prospect of cutting another 3 percent is not very good, but we will do it,” he said.
On that note, Keenum announced his new Innovations and Efficiencies Committee. The committee is composed of members from the vice president and President of the Faculty Senate to the Student Association President. It will be charged with trying to find new ways to cut back expenditures.
“It is a very inclusive group, to sit down and have a soul searching of our university,” he said. “Everything will be on the table, all of our academic programs. Because as we look toward the prospects of another 10 percent cut and then another 20 percent in the following years, we’re going to look for efficiencies at every corner.”
Students can expect to hear quite a bit of discussion about tuition, if not changes to it, in the following budget talks; yet Keenum has said he is not willing to compromise the quality education MSU offers.
Keenum saved one final announcement – the StatePride initiative. Keenum said this is a unique partnership between the MSU foundation and the MSU athletic department.
“Our goal will be to raise $100 million over a four year period in support of scholarships, faculty development and retention and the library,” he said. “We will raise scholarships that help to attract to Mississippi State the most academically talented students. We will provide other scholarships that help us recruit good students who have leadership potential.”
The investiture was not sobered by the prospects of budget shortfalls, as it was apparent that one of MSU’s own had come home. Keenum began his career at MSU and then worked as Sen. Thad Cochran’s chief of staff for several years until working in the Bush administration.
Cochran said this was not only a very special day for himself and his close friend Keenum, but also for MSU. He said Keenum will do more and dream more for the betterment of Mississippi education.
“Of all of my visits to Mississippi State University, this one will be the most memorable,” he said.

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Blake McCollum

Keenum stands with wife Rhonda during investiture ceremony.