Mississippi State University

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105 Mill Street
Starkville, MS 39759-3468
(662) 325-2545
www.msstate.edu/

The Setting

Mississippi State University forms part of a cohesive town-university community with the growing agricultural-commercial-industrial town of Starkville. Located in the eastern part of north-central Mississippi, it is 125 miles northeast of Jackson and 23 miles west of Columbus; it is served by Highways 82,12 and 25 and by feeder air service through the Golden Triangle Regional Airport 14 miles east. Away from urban complexities, the community enjoys many intellectual, cultural, and recreational advantages: the MSU-Starkville Civic Symphony and Chorus; the Starkville Community Theater; the University Lyceum series, bringing professional musical, dramatic, and artistic groups and performers to the campus; the Speakers Forum lecture series; art exhibits, plays, and recitals by local and visiting artists; public radio and public television programs through the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television; performances by popular musical groups of regional and national celebrity; frequent intercollegiate athletic events in modern facilities; and a variety of recreational opportunities on playing fields and courts, in neighboring forests, fields, and lakes, and along the nearby Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
The University

Mississippi State University is a comprehensive, doctoral-degree-granting university offering to a diverse and capable student body a wide range of opportunities and challenges for learning and growth; to the world of knowledge, vigorous and expanding contributions in research, discovery, and application; and to the State and its people in every region, a variety of expert services. Mississippi State University is designated as a Doctoral/Extensive institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. It is representative of the American Land-Grant tradition and distinctive in its own character and spirit, born of its Mississippi heritage and the vision and loyal perseverance of those who have labored in its development. Mississippi State University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097; telephone (404) 679-4501) to award baccalaureate, master’s, specialist, and doctoral degrees.

An able faculty, drawn from the best institutions in all parts of the nation, strive earnestly to demonstrate excellence in teaching, while producing in their specialized studies scholarly books, articles, and conference papers that gain respect for themselves, the University, and the state. Thus they ensure for their students instruction that is in immediate touch with current knowledge and thought. A body of energetic researchers, both faculty and other, assisted by an effective research administration, places Mississippi State among the first one hundred universities in the nation in research and development in the sciences and engineering. The University’s service agencies are similarly distinguished, earning the respect and support of their varied constituencies throughout the state, as well as in other states and in foreign countries.

The History

The University began as The Agricultural and Mechanical College of the State of Mississippi, one of the national Land-Grant Colleges established after Congress had passed the Morrill Act in 1862. It was created by the Mississippi Legislature on February 28, 1878, to fulfill the mission of offering training in “agriculture, horticulture and the mechanical arts . . . without excluding other scientific and classical studies, including military tactics.” The College received its first students in the fall of 1880 in the presidency of General Stephen D. Lee. In 1887 Congress passed the Hatch Act, which provided for the establishment of the Agricultural Experiment Station in 1888. Two other pieces of federal legislation provided funds for extending the mission of the College: in 1914, the Smith-Lever Act called for “instruction in practical agriculture and home economics to persons not attendant or resident,” thus creating the state-wide effort which led to Extension offices in every county in the State; and, in 1917, the Smith-Hughes Act provided for the training of teachers in vocational education.

By 1932, when the Legislature renamed the College as Mississippi State College, it consisted of the Agricultural Experiment Station (1887), the College of Engineering (1902), the College of Agriculture (1903), the School of Industrial Pedagogy (1909), the School of General Science (1911), the College of Business and Industry (1915), the Mississippi Agricultural Extension Service (1915), and the Division of Continuing Education, (1919). Further, in 1926 the College had received its first accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

By 1958, when the Legislature again renamed the College, as Mississippi State University, the Office of Graduate Studies had been organized (1936), doctoral degree programs had begun (1951), the School of Forest Resources had been established (1954), and the College of Arts and Sciences had been created (1956).

The College of Architecture admitted its first students in 1973. The College of Veterinary Medicine admitted its first class in 1977, and the School of Accountancy was established in 1979.
Purposes

Purposes. As a Land-Grant institution, Mississippi State University is dedicated to the three broad purposes already mentioned—learning, research, and service: learning, on-campus and off-campus, to enhance the intellectual, cultural, social, and professional development of its students; research, both to extend the present limits of knowledge and to bring deeper insight, understanding, and usefulness to existing knowledge; and service, to apply knowledge and the fruits of research to the lives of people.

Fulfilling these purposes is the chief work of the large number of educational units that make up the total university, including, among others, the academic departments, schools, and colleges; Continuing Education; the Mississippi State University Extension Service, and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

The quality of the faculty, staff, and administrators ensures the high quality of the instruction, research, and service provided. The quality of the University’s programs ensures that its students receive a well-designed and comprehensive education that will assist them to lead constructive lives and achieve their personal and professional goals.

From its beginnings, Mississippi State University has been known as “The People’s University”; through its state-wide efforts, it keeps that character. The main campus in Starkville is augmented by a degree-granting center in Meridian and a program center at the Stennis Space Center, a Master of Science degree in Engineering at the Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, 10 branch stations of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, and offices of the MSU Extension Service in almost every county of the state. The University thus makes available degree and non-degree courses, programs, and services to all citizens, regardless of race, age, sex, or economic condition.

The University Today

Mississippi State University now comprises the following academic units: the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences including the school of Human Sciences; the College of Architecture; the College of Arts and Sciences; the College of Business and Industry including the School of Accountancy; the Division of Continuing Education; the College of Education; the College of Engineering including the Swalm School of Chemical Engineering; the College of Forest Resources; the Office of Graduate Studies, and the College of Veterinary Medicine. In addition, the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, operating 10 branch stations throughout the State, conducts research in a variety of areas and assists in the University’s teaching and service functions. Finally, the Mississippi State University Extension Service offers programs and services to the people of the State through campus and county offices and personnel. Supporting the academic and educational programs of the total University are the Mitchell Memorial Library and branch libraries.

Within the framework of the University, several units perform specialized teaching, research, or service activities. Among these are the Shackouls Honors College, the Biological and Physical Sciences Research Institute, the Division of Business Research, the Bureau of Educational Research and Evaluation, the Engineering and Industrial Research Station, the Food Science Institute, the Institute for the Humanities, the Research Center at the John C. Stennis Space Center, the Diagnostic Instrumentation and Analysis Laboratory, the GeoResources Institute, the Social Science Research Center, the Cobb Institute of Archaeology, Engineering Services, the Division of Business Services, the Raspet Flight Research Laboratory, the Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational-Technical Education, the A. B. McKay Food and Enology Laboratory, the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Institutional Effectiveness, the John C. Stennis Institute of Government, the Forest Products Utilization Laboratory, the Engineering Research Center, the Southern Forest Experiment Station, the Division of Plant Industry, the State Seed Testing Laboratory, the State Chemical Laboratory, the BollWeevil Research Laboratory, the South Central Poultry Research Laboratory, the Community/Economic Development Center, the Center for Environmental Studies, the Center for Robotics, Automation and Artificial Intelligence, the Research Services Biosafety Office, Electron Microscope Center, Hazardous Waste Office, Laboratory Animal Veterinarian, Radiological Safety Office, the University-Industry Chemical Research Center, the Research and Training Center for Blindness and Low Vision, the Mississippi Quarterly, the Center for International Security and Strategic Studies, and the Center for International Programs.

Mississippi State University operates an off-campus, degree-granting center in Meridian where both undergraduate and graduate programs are offered and a program center at the Stennis Space Center. In cooperation with the U. S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, the College of Engineering offers the Master of Science degree to qualified students in Vicksburg. At the request of the U.S. Navy, the College of Education offers the Master of Science degree in Counseling at the U.S. Naval Base in Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico.

The Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning has designated Mississippi State University as a comprehensive, doctoral degree-granting university. These designations, in concert with the University’s original Land-Grant mission, make Mississippi State University a major contributor to the educational system of the State. For over a century, the State has benefitted from the University and its graduates, most of whom have remained in Mississippi and aided the State’s economic, social, and educational development. Through its membership in such organizations as the Southern Regional Education Board, the American Council on Education, and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, Mississippi State University is justly recognized for its educational and technological contributions to the national and international communities. The commitment of faculty, administrators, and staff personnel is to continue the high quality of teaching, research, and service to Mississippi and her people and to people beyond the borders of this State and nation.