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Eagle


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Coast Engineering
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This is from the Sun Herald.  If USM gets blocked from offering additional programs because other universities can use our facilities to deliver their degrees we are sunk.

Isn't Jackson State getting an Engineering program under the Ayers settlement?

Who do we contact to stop this?


MSU has engineering to offer to USM

By MELISSA M. SCALLAN
mmscallan@sunherald.com

GULFPORT --

When the University of Southern Mississippi opens another campus in Harrison County, students likely will be learning engineering from a school further north.

Robert Foglesong, president of Mississippi State University, told the Sun Herald on Tuesday he believes State definitely has something to offer when new USM campus opens, even if it is years down the road.

Officials with the state College Board repeatedly have stressed the new campus will belong to USM. But if the university needs assistance with some programs, it will reach out to other schools in an arrangement most commonly referred to as a university center.

Foglesong said engineering is the most logical role for State to fill because the university's program is so well known.

"It would be an engineering adjunct to what we already have," he said. "We have the expertise to help them out, but the IHL will decide ultimately how to construct what goes on down here relative to academics, but I would think our contribution would be an engineering school."

Foglesong said he believes the university-center approach could work on the Coast, and that's what he's heard the USM campus will be.

"It remains to be seen, but I think it's a reasonable idea," he said. "One of the reasons I say that is because the population is growing down here, and there's a demand down here.

"More and more, we're finding students who are place-bound and can continue going to school, but only if it's within a reasonable distance from where they live."

Foglesong said no one from USM or the College Board has spoken to him about providing engineering classes.

"We actually have looked at ourselves," he said. "We have got a study going on right now that when we're asked, what is a logical way ahead relative to an engineering presence down here on the Coast."

Foglesong was hired as MSU president in April 2006, and he was in South Mississippi to recruit students, which is one of his major goals.

The number of students from South Mississippi and overall has been stagnant for the past few years, Foglesong said. But that's something he'd like to change. His plan is for managed enrollment growth, and his goal is to add 400 students each year.

The MSU president spends lots of time at high schools and community colleges talking to students about the importance of going to college and State's assets.

"There's really a competitive environment out there," he said. "Just because Mississippi State has had people come in the past doesn't mean they'll continue coming. We compete with a lot of other schools, not just in-state, but out-of-state too."



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Anonymous

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Does anyone remember the debate over creating the "dual campus" concept in 1999-2000?  Does anyone recall the basic strategy behind it?  While everybody is singing Tiny's praises, does anyone remember the price certain people paid to get that designation?  Does anyone now care to stand up to OLD MISS and MSU as others did?  This is the first step toward a university center and away from a USM presence on the coast.  Anyone out there care?  Anyone want to recount the history of USM's efforts to serve the coast AGAINST all odds and roadblocks thrown up in USM's way in the laste 1990s?  Including the pillars of the Hattiesburg community who thought it would just take business and money out of the BURGH?  History teaches some interesting lessons.  Let's think now . . .

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Anonymous

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Who do WE contact to stop this?  If we had a real president the past five years who had some clout with Meredith, the Board, and state reps this wouldn't happen.  But Shelby destroyed whatever goodwill once existed, and Fogelsong is stepping into that gap.  Of course other universities will establish a presence on the Coast, much like Tulane did a few years ago.  Nothing will stop it.  In fact, it will be presented to us within the next year or two as something that is a "win-win" for everyone, and Saunders will approve of it too, even as she makes sure that certain programs remain firmly under USM control.  From a student/Gulf Coast perspective, I think the university center idea is a good one.
-Angeline

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Eagle


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A University Center is a great idea, but let's do it right.

It becomes UM-Gulfport, USM is UM-Hattiesburg, State is UM-Starkville, Old Myth is UM-Oxford, etc.

The new stadium can be a domed stadium built on the Coast as a multi purpose center that seats 100,000.  With one Division I football team in the state UM-Gulfport becomes the powerhouse of the SEC.

No more rivals.

If that is carried further in 10 years the Hattiesburg and Gulfport campusus become the main campuses due to demographics and Starkville and Oxford are left in the dust.

Now we know why that will never happen.  Must maintain the Grove.

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Coast Resident


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Eagle wrote:

This is from the Sun Herald.  If USM gets blocked from offering additional programs because other universities can use our facilities to deliver their degrees we are sunk.

Isn't Jackson State getting an Engineering program under the Ayers settlement?

Who do we contact to stop this?

Do not try to stop this encourage it!

 

Eagle, you are looking at this all wrong. The best thing that could happen for USM is to have MSU offer the courses needed for an engineering degree on the coast under a center type arrangement. Why would this be good for USM?

Because the only courses MSU would be offering are those engineering courses for which they are accredited to present. The non-engineering courses like English, History, and other such non-engineering courses that are needed to earn a degree would be provided by USM. Thus what in affect happens is that a student who might otherwise have gone to MSU for all their course work (or have gone to a Junior College for the first two years) will now stay on the coast and USM will have the opportunity to help provide a substantial part of their education. This will mean more students taking classes from USM than otherwise would have happen. The students diploma when they graduate with a degree in engineering may say MSU, but they will have attended USM.

 

I have no idea how the enrollment numbers will be dealt with, but knowing how the universities operate, I would guess both will count the student as enrolled at their university. This is an issue for greater minds than mine as I do not really care.

 

I doubt anybody knows down the road what this means for alumni associations and how a student who earned a degree from one university on another universitys campus if/will donate and to whom. But that is not the real importance in this. What matters most is that there will likely be many students, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, who will now have an opportunity to continue working and/or live at home and thus be able to pursue an education that they otherwise could not have. It is a plus for USM and for MSU and for the coast and for the whole state. It is a win-win for everyone for real!

 

By the way, MSU has been offering engineering courses on the coast for years out at the NASAStennisSpaceCenter in Han****County through what is known as the Center for Higher Learning (CHL). The CHL is managed and operated by USM. The only thing about the CHL courses is that you have to be employed out at Stennis to have the opportunity to take advantage of these courses because they are on a NASA center.

The bottom line is that this makes sense for so many reasons other than those I have given that I can not think of any logical argument against this that will stand up to scrutiny. Get out of the us vs them mentality and think of what is best for Mississippis residents. They are after all the ones paying for all of this.





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Anonymous

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Eagle wrote:


Isn't Jackson State getting an Engineering program under the Ayers settlement?

A few short years ago Jackson State was given a doctoral program in psychology which made it the 3rd or 4th psych Ph.D. program in the state. Strange, but true.



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