In the wake of budget cuts coming from the Miss. legislature, President Mark Keenum announced the new StatePride initiative at his investiture Friday. StatePride, which has the short-term goal of raising student enrollment and scholarship funds, will attempt to offset the sting from MSU’s tighter budget in the coming years.
Contrary to various reports from local media, StatePride is a short term initiative with the immediate goals of raising $100 million dollars over the next four years for the purpose of scholarships, faculty support – in the form of endowed professorships and endowed chairs – and improvements to the library.
Sheri Pape, lead staff member handling the marketing and public relations for StatePride, said this distinction has not been made clear. She said the initiative should not be called a campaign nor a capital campaign which would take the place of MSU’s current fundraising, but instead, the fundraiser will work with existing efforts.
“StatePride is not a full-fledged fundraising campaign, but a short-term fundraising goal,” Pape said. “It’s all semantics in the fundraising world, but we want to make sure the correct information is put out there.”
The immediate goals outlined by the initiative are to increase support of the library system and raise enrollment to 22,000 by 2015. To accomplish this, StatePride will provide students with an increase in scholarships awarded.
It also calls for more need-based scholarships. The initiative will also provide endowed professorships, fellowships and chairs for incoming and existing faculty.
Unique to this project, and unprecedented in university history, is the cooperation between the MSU Foundation and the athletic department. Keenum said he spoke to department leaders and they agreed to provide $750,000 per year over the next 15 years in matching funds for scholarships, faculty support and the library system.
“We’re going to take $500,000 of that $750,000 [supplied by the athletic department], and allocate it toward scholarships over and above what we have today,” he said. “I have worked with our MSU Foundation also, and they’re going to match that amount. So over the next 15 years, we’re going to have one million dollars for scholarships over and above what we already have.”
Providing the same standard and quality of education in this hurting economy is a major concern for MSU’s new president. Facing possible 20 percent budget cuts, Keenum said a large piece of the funds from the new program will go toward the faculty.
“I’m going to allocate $250,000 of the money matched by the athletic department for faculty support,” he said. “This will help us recruit the best faculty to be endowed with a professorship, fellowship or even a chair in a particular department. The endowment allows the professors to have more resources to do their job more effectively. So it’s a good tool for recruitment and retention.”
Another major aim for this initiative is to increase funds and support for the library. What the library does with the funds it has is remarkable, but it needs increased support, Keenum said.
“Our library is the heart of our campus,” he said. “I want to strengthen our library with new volumes, collections and resources. I also want it to be part of the Association of Research Libraries, and this puts it on the path toward that.”
A portion of the money from StatePride will be used on campus for infrastructure and various programs, but the majority will go toward the goal of increasing available scholarship money toward reaching 22,000 students by 2015.
“Not all of the money will go to prospective or incoming students; any donation to any scholarship fund will be counted toward the end goal, which includes all of our current scholarship funds and endowments,” Pape said. “However, there will be an emphasis on scholarships for incoming freshman and transfer students in order to grow enrollment.”
The program began in January with Keenum’s arrival; since that time the initiative has already raised $20 million from donors to the university.
Student affairs will be responsible for coordinating the funds. The deadline is Dec. 31, 2012.
Students seemed to welcome the idea of the initiative, with one common concern being the lack of residence hall space and the ever-present need for more parking.
Sophomore chemical engineering major Eric Merkle said there may be long-term problems.
“It’s a great idea on the whole, but the lack of dorm space could be a potential issue,” he said.
Junior communication major Chad Walters said he thinks it will be good for the university.
“Well, I think it sounds like a good idea, but I hope the campus infrastructure can handle 22,000 students by then. They’re starting to make progress on that front, though,” he said.