Mississippi is finally leading the nation in one category-cuts in higher education funding. According to an April 16 Clarion-Ledger article, the Legislature has cut 5.5 percent off the higher education budget last year-more than five times the national average. Mississippi State students, faculty and staff have been dealing with the inconvenience of cuts in the form of tuition hikes, fewer and more crowded classes for the students and no raises in 4 years for the faculty and staff. (Fortunately, new buildings are paid for by state bonds, so the construction boom will continue on campus.)
The interesting thing is that despite all the budget cuts and tuition hikes, MSU is experiencing record enrollment. The demand for higher education in Mississippi is at an all-time high.
The demand is easy to explain, too. These days, employers expect a bachelor’s degree as a given. Mississippi is a poor state so the only option for many families is state-subsidized higher education.
But every time the bloodletting starts, higher education gets farther out of reach for a few more families because tuition hikes keep a few more students out of school.
The chief concern for current students is that eventually the cuts are going to seriously affect the quality of an MSU education.
However, according to College of Engineering Dean A. Wayne Bennett, the sky isn’t falling yet. He reports that alumni donations have increased over the past several years, which have helped offset cuts in the operations budgets.
Bennett did acknowledge that “salary compression”-new faculty getting paid more than current faculty because the amount of a competitive hiring salary goes up every year-has caused morale problems among current faculty members.
Poultry science department head Wallace Morgan doesn’t have quite the same problems. Since his department is small, he hasn’t needed to hire new faculty in 3 years. However, MSU’s poultry science department is one of the best in the country. Keeping its prestigious reputation means paying professors top dollar. Fortunately, like the College of Engineering, strong outside support has enabled Poultry Science to retain its faculty and recruit top students as well.
Morgan himself has a unique perspective on the budget cuts. He grew up in Starkville and has been teaching here since 1980. While he says that the last 4 years have been, financially speaking, the roughest during his tenure at MSU, he also said, “Attitudes are good. The (MSU) administration has done a good job.” (in dealing with the cuts)
Wallace’s outlook seems to be the rule on campus. None of the faculty or students that I spoke to were overly pessimistic.
While the cuts look like they will continue for at least another year, MSU students, faculty and staff should be commended for succeeding despite adversity. Regardless of what happens with Mississippi’s troubled economy, good things are happening around here.