STARKVILLE — Mississippi State University is changing the name of the Holmes Center, pending approval by the state board of trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning.

Holmes Cultural Diversity Center will now be known as the Holmes Center for Student Success, focusing on “comprehensively supporting all students,” the university announced in a Friday press release.

The change comes as the university aligns with a Dear Colleague letter sent to the university from the U.S. Department of Education earlier this month.

“Mississippi State has long been a practitioner of student success as a model of how we operate,” MSU President Mark E. Keenum said in the release. “Our goal has been and will remain to equip our students – all of our students – with a high-quality education that will afford them a better and more productive life. This structure reflects who we are and who we’ve been at this university.”

In the Dear Colleague letter, sent to all educational institutions receiving federal funding, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said the DOE began assessing universities’ compliance Friday. The letter specifically demanded all educational institutions receiving federal funds “cease illegal use of race” in admissions, hiring, compensation, promotion, scholarships, prizes, sanctions and discipline.

If policies and practices do not comply with the department’s directive, universities like Mississippi State and Mississippi University for Women could lose federal funding.

The Holmes Center was named after Dr. Richard Holmes – the first Black student to enroll at the university in 1965. In 1991, MSU renamed the university’s Multicultural Center to include Holmes, honoring his campus achievements and medical career.

“I think the most erroneous conclusion that one could draw from what’s going on in the country and the state right now is that we’re going to somehow forget who Richard Holmes was and what he did, and that’s just not true,” Vice President for Strategic Communications and Director of Public Affairs Sid Salter told The Dispatch on Thursday. “But we are going to make our student success efforts comply with federal and state law. And as the Dear Colleague letter suggests, we will make sure that the benefits that extend to our minority students extend to all students.”

The Holmes Center falls under the university’s Division of Access, Opportunity and Success, formerly known as the Office of Access, Diversity and Inclusion. That division was renamed in 2023, though there were no changes to the departments or programs at that time, the division’s Vice President Ra’Sheda Boddie-Forbes told The Dispatch in September.

“Changing the name and focus of the Holmes Center is one of a series of strategies that reflects a comprehensive approach to our student success efforts,” Boddie-Forbes said in the release. “As we await additional guidance from multiple branches of government, we are evaluating new organizational structures that are better fits for how we intend to operate moving forward.”

The release emphasizes that the rebranded center will meet the “diverse needs of the entire student body.” This includes specialized programs for first-generation students, limited-income students, students from the foster care system and others.

Programs will include resources, mentorship and guidance, along with expanded resources like career readiness initiatives, experiential learning opportunities and students success workshops and exercises, the release said.

Salter said the university’s review of its compliance to the Dear Colleague letter is “ongoing.” He also anticipated further direction on diversity, equity and inclusion coming from the state legislature following the end of the legislative session in April, which he said may impact programming at the center in the future.

“As Dr. Keenum has consistently said on all of these issues, it’s a mistake to look at these types of issues and see these simply as matters of race,” Salter said. “Our programming is directed at helping veterans, helping students who come out of the foster system, first generation students, students that have any disabilities that require additional assistance – whether those are physical or learning disabilities. … These programs reach out to a myriad of students who have legitimate needs, and our interest lies in the overall success of all of our students.”