DAVID MILLER

STARKVILLE — Talk about a case of the Mondays.

An early a.m. news release from Mississippi State University announced Director of Athletics Greg Byrne will take the same position at the University of Arizona.

Byrne, who will be announced Wednesday in Tucson, Ariz., informed the athletic department staff Monday morning but spoke to head football coach Dan Mullen prior to the meeting. Mullen said Byrne was “emotional” during that conversation.

Through a prepared release through the school, Byrne, who will be on board in Starkville until April, said he had a “heavy heart” letting everyone affiliated with Mississippi State know of his departure.

No decision has been made about a replacement.

“As we have discussed many times, intercollegiate athletics is a very emotional industry,” his release read. “It is why all of us are so invested in this business, whether it is as administrators, coaches, student-athletes, or fans. We all have strong feelings about what happens here. My emotions today range from the highest highs to the lowest lows. While I am excited about a new opportunity, I am heartbroken to be leaving a lot of friends.”

Nevertheless, Byrne takes over an Arizona job that will give him roughly $12 million more in athletics budget to work with each season. But Byrne, who originally came to MSU as the director of the Bulldog Club, said the move West was largely a family decision.

Byrne grew up in Eugene, Ore., where his father, current Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne, was the University of Oregon athletic director from 1983-92. Greg Byrne also worked at the Oregon as a fundraiser for the Duck Club.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.

DISPATCH STAFF

After less than two full years, Mississippi State University Athletic Director Greg Byrne is leaving to become athletic director at the University of Arizona, Mississippi State officials said this morning.

“Greg Byrne has informed me that he will leave Mississippi State to accept the athletic director’s job at the University of Arizona,” MSU President Mark Keenum said in an e-mail sent to news outlets. “A Wednesday press conference has been scheduled in Tucson to make that announcement.

“Personally, I am saddened by this news because of the deep affection that Rhonda and I have for Greg and Regina. I am professionally disappointed because of my respect and appreciation for the outstanding job he has done here.”

In the statement, Keenum said he “made every effort to convince Greg to remain in Starkville, including offering a generous package of financial incentives, but as he conveyed to me, his decision was driven by family considerations more than financial compensation. They have an opportunity to be in a place where they have roots and deep connections.”

Byrne’s tenure began July 1, 2008, after then-President Robert “Doc” Foglesong hired him to replace Larry Templeton, who had been MSU athletic director since 1987. Byrne was previously MSU associate athletic director for development and external affairs, and had worked in the athletic departments of Oregon State and Kentucky.

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TIM PRATT

The chain link fence next to Mississippi State University’s Colvard Student Union is lined with posters from all over the world.

Some feature images of smokestacks and mushroom clouds, while others address climate change, AIDS, health care and child labor, among other topics. They are part of the Good 50×70 project, an international competition that called on artists to address any one of a number of social issues on a 50-by-70-centimeter poster.

Of the more than 4,000 submissions, Good 50×70 judges chose a poster created by Mississippi State University graphic design professor Jude Landry to be one of 210 featured in a traveling display. The posters were put on display at Mississippi State Feb. 24 and will be taken down late Wednesday or early Thursday, Landry said. The show already has been displayed all over Europe and the U.S.

Landry’s poster reads “Child Labor Isn’t Working.” Below, in small print, it reads “Children need an education, not a job. Help stop child labor.” The poster also features images common in the workplace, like a wrench, a gear, scissors and a clock.

“I was interested in picking something I hadn’t really thought about much before, something that would be new to me,” Landry said of his decision to address child labor. “I hadn’t really thought about child labor before because it’s not really an issue here. It’s not really something I encounter in my day-to-day life, but it is a problem, so I thought it would be something interesting to do and I wanted to choose a category that was different from most of the rest.”

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TIM PRATT

PEARL RIVER — The Smith John Justice Center is a place where juveniles on the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians’ Neshoba County reservation are sent when they run afoul of the law.

By this spring, youth offenders at the facility in Pearl River will spend time learning the farming techniques of their elders and, hopefully, develop responsibility and job skills for the future, Director of Court Services Daniel Mittan said.

The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is working with the Environmental Collaborative Office at Mississippi State University and the U.S. Justice Department to build a traditional Choctaw garden at the Smith John facility. Choctaw elders will work with the 13- to 17-year-old offenders housed at the facility to plant a garden featuring corn, beans and squash, which is known as the “three sisters,” Mittan said.

Plans also are in the works to begin building community gardens next year in each of the reservation’s eight communities, Mittan said, with youth and elders working together on a new plot of land annually. A greenhouse also is in the works, though it is still in the planning stages, he said.

Mississippi State’s Environmental Collaborative Office is assisting with technical advice and planning for the project, ECO Director Jeremiah Dumas said. A $700,000 U.S. Justice Department grant will help fund the endeavor, Mittan said.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JACKSON — Some of Mississippi’s public universities have started tuition assistance programs aimed at keeping students in school despite growing education costs.

Among the programs outlined in a report released this week by the state College Board is one at Mississippi State University that pays the base tuition costs not covered by a student’s financial aid. The Mississippi State Promise Program will assist eligible freshmen or community college transfers.

MSU plans to raise private donations to fund the program and use part of the money that comes from tuition increases that go into effect this fall.

“Through this program, we’re making a promise to Mississippi students who need our help: We’re going to make up the difference,” MSU President Mark Keenum said in a news release.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.

GARTHIA ELENA BURNETT

Students in the Culinary Arts Institute at Mississippi University for Women said they were excited about a new partnership with Mississippi State, offering a degree in culinology.

“I think it’s cool,” said April Jackson of Greenville, a junior culinary arts major, as she worked Thursday in the Columbus university’s Culinary Arts Institute’s kitchen. Jackson hopes the partnership will mean the opportunity for more classes and additional funding to expand Mississippi University for Women’s current culinary arts facilities.

On Thursday, Mississippi State announced a joint degree program in culinology. The degree would blend courses from MSU’s food science, nutrition and health promotion department, which provides academic preparation for careers in food science, nutrition and health education; and MUW’s nationally recognized Culinary Arts Institute, which focuses on food preparation techniques, menu development and business skills.

A culinology emphasis, explained Chef Erich H. Ogle, interim director of MUW’s Culinary Arts Institute, focuses on food technology as well as culinary arts.

“It basically prepares students for work with your major food companies in research and development,” said Ogle, noting a handful of MUW students already were working toward a culinology certificate.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.

Lots to read in the SCEI report released by MSU a few days ago. (PDF of the report available here.)

What are your thoughts? SOme things seem like common sense. Some- like a few of the degree program cutbacks- seem a little over the top.

Too little, too late? Just enough?

MSU UNIVERSITY RELATIONS

STARKVILLE — Building on many decades of neighborly relations, Mississippi State and Mississippi University for Women signed a memorandum of agreement Thursday [Feb. 18] that allows students to earn both an MSU bachelor’s degree and an MUW nursing degree.

The two universities also formally moved ahead with a joint culinology degree, which was approved Thursday by the Board of Trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning, at its regular monthly meeting.

Through the memorandum signed by MSU President Mark E. Keenum and MUW President Claudia A. Limbert, the Golden Triangle-area schools agreed to develop a process to enable MSU students enrolled in a specially designed pre-nursing curriculum–and accepted into MUW’s nursing program–to simultaneously earn bachelor of sciences degrees in Starkville and Columbus, respectively.

“All students who opt to enter the new interdisciplinary pre-nursing track at Mississippi State and satisfy the requirements of the MUW bachelor of science in nursing program will hold degrees from both institutions,” Keenum explained.

He said the agreement presents new opportunities for students enrolled at each school and creates programming strengths through collaboration.

“This agreement will benefit students who are interested in completing pre-nursing requirements at Mississippi State and the nursing program at MUW,” said MSU Interim Provost Glenn Steele. MSU has about 200 students enrolled in its pre-nursing program, he added.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.

DISPATCH STAFF REPORT

The state College Board has directed Mississippi State University and Mississippi University for Women to explore consolidating operations, a move that MUW’s president says “is not a merger,” and would end with The W remaining a stand-alone institution.

The state College Board and university presidents are meeting in Jackson today.

The two schools will name coordinators to “develop functional teams from the two universities to review the operations. We will carefully and deliberately examine all possibilities before taking any action,” MUW President Claudia Limbert said.

In a separate statement, MSU President Mark Keenum said that the arrangement “simply involves one university helping another during extraordinary times.”

“IHL Commissioner Hank Bounds and IHL Board members asked us to reach out to a sister institution, and we have agreed to do that,” Keenum said. “It is my hope that sharing back-office resources will achieve efficiencies and allow MUW to continue to play a vital role in the higher education system in our state.”

After several months of work, a Mississippi State committee released a series of its own cost-cutting proposals Wednesday, which included combining the College of Forest Resources and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and merging or realigning other academic departments with similar missions.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.

DAVID MILLER

STARKVILLE — What could have been a spectacular night, with a national television audience watching the Mississippi State men’s basketball team bid for an upset of No. 2 Kentucky, turned ugly Tuesday.

Mississippi State’s image suffered a black eye when unruly fans threw bottles of water onto the court at Humphrey Coliseum after Kentucky rallied to beat the Bulldogs 81-75 in overtime.

Mississippi State Director of Athletics Greg Byrne isn’t happy about it.

Neither is university president Dr. Mark Keenum.

Byrne and Keenum addressed MSU students and fans through Byrne’s weekly “Thursday with Greg Byrne” column about the incidents that took place during and the events leading up to the ESPN-televised game.

Objecting to fouls that were called during the game, some MSU fans their disgust by throwing objects onto the court.

Then, there was the incident of Kentucky forward DeMarcus Cousins receiving harassing phone calls and text messages from MSU students and fans after the freshman’s cell phone number was made public.

Against Ole Miss last week, there was a fracas in the stands that resulted in several Rebels fans being pelted with drinks while trying to escape to the concourse.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.