A motion to reconsider a Senate bill proposing a feasibility study for Mississippi University for Women and the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science appears to already be losing steam.

Monday is the deadline for the Senate to hear the bill again on the floor, but District 6 Sen. Chad McMahan, R-Guntown, who moved for reconsideration of SB 2715 after the bill originally failed Wednesday, told The Dispatch he would rather it not be heard again.

“The chair and I have spoken about it,” he said, referring to District 43 Sen. Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, who authored the bill and chairs the chamber’s Education Committee. “I’ve also spoken to (MUW President Nora) Miller as well as (Mississippi State University President) Dr. (Mark) Keenum, and they’ve answered my questions. My recommendation to the chair was not to bring it back up for a motion to reconsider. … It’s up to the chairman though.”

Originally authored in February as a bill to relocate MSMS from The W campus to MSU, DeBar passed a substitute bill through the Senate March 5 that would transfer control of MUW to MSU. The substitute breezed through the Education and Appropriation committees.

DeBar abandoned the university merger bill on the floor Wednesday, asking his colleagues to instead pass an amendment for the feasibility study. A narrow majority of senators shot that effort down.

McMahan told The Dispatch on Thursday he had brought up the motion in case there were continuing conversations to be had about a possible study. His subsequent conversations with MUW leadership, he said, included questions about enrollment and tuition as well as facility improvements on the campus.

He said his questions stemmed from his position as a member on the education committee, his support of public education and his desire to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars.

“I’m proud of the work that they’re doing at the math and science school,” McMahan said. “I’m equally proud of what they’re doing at The W. I just want to be sure that the taxpayers are going to get a good return on their investment that we’re making in those campuses.”

‘They’re damning us from the start’

In an email Miller sent “the campus community” Thursday, she notes the legislature has not appropriated funds to invest in MSMS facilities since the residential high school was founded in 1988. A feasibility study, she wrote, would further delay those efforts.

MSMS has requested roughly $90 million in state appropriations for dorm and administrative building upgrades.

Miller told The Dispatch she explained to McMahan how the prospective feasibility study would be damaging to both the university and MSMS.

“I shared with him, for one thing, that the timing of this was very bad for us and for MSMS because this is the time of year when students are making decisions about where they’re going to go,” she said. “And so having any uncertainty like this will hurt us, and it will hurt MSMS’s enrollment also. It’s kind of like if this passes, and they do this feasibility study, they’re damning us from the start.”

It would also be redundant, Miller said.

On Tuesday, the Senate passed SB 2725 to create The Mississippi University System Efficiency Task Force which would examine the efficiency and effectiveness of the state’s public universities in light of the impending enrollment cliff.

Miller said the task force would achieve the same results as the study proposed by the bill but from a fairer perspective.

“It would be done the same way at all institutions, and it will not duplicate efforts,” she said. “I also told him they don’t need a bill to have PEER (Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review) do a report. The legislation isn’t really even necessary.”

DeBar told the Senate on Wednesday that leadership from MSU and MUW were not aware of the amendment to create the study. Neither university was aware in advance of the original bill proposal to relocate MSMS to MSU in Starkville either.

Miller said Thursday the only conversation she’s had with DeBar concerning the bill was during a meeting with him and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann after the committee substitute proposing a merger of the two schools was introduced.

DeBar has not responded to calls and texts from The Dispatch since Feb. 26.

‘We’re all sick and tired of talking about it’

Dist. 17 Sen. Chuck Younger, R-Lowndes County, was one of the 27 senators to reject the bill Wednesday, and he said he’d vote no again if it came back to the floor.

“I just wanted to do away with all of it,” he said. “In fairness to Senator DeBar, he was making a study committee out of it, but I still just wanted it dead. We’re all sick and tired of talking about it, and they can do a study committee without having to pass the damn bill for it. That’s called hearings.”

Younger said he was unaware of the motion to reconsider the bill until McMahan informed him Thursday morning that someone had requested he raise the motion.

“It should die. I hope that it dies,” Younger said. “The W and MSMS have been getting a bad rap on all of this, and it’s really not fair to either one of them because we have not been appropriating enough money (to them).”

Miller said the bill has cast a shadow over efforts The W has made to address issues like facilities and enrollment numbers.

The university began using a new customer relation management system to strengthen communications between its office of admission and prospective students. Volunteer alumni are also being trained to help with recruitment. The university is requesting $7.1 million from the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning to renovate the historic Jones Hall dormitory. Renovations to other facilities are already underway.

“We’re just hoping that we can get beyond this,” she said. “We’ve got recruitment efforts going on both here and with MSMS. We’ve got construction projects that we’re ready to go out to bid on and other projects that are about to take place. Holding this up, and not addressing the facility needs that MSMS has right now, just puts it another year of delay.”

McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.