Keith Gaskin is still waiting for state Sen. Dennis DeBar to return his calls.
In the meantime, the Columbus mayor said citizens concerned about the future of Mississippi University for Women should be “up in arms” and “demanding transparency” from the Senate Education Committee chair.
DeBar, R-Leakesville, authored a bill last month that would relocate the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science to Mississippi State University. On Tuesday, the deadline for bills to clear their committees, he offered a substitution bill to transfer control of MUW to MSU and rename the Columbus campus “The W at Mississippi State University.”
The bill breezed through the Education and Appropriations committees and is headed for a full Senate vote.
In Gaskin’s twice monthly press conference Wednesday at City Hall, he called DeBar’s last-minute substitution “disappointing” and “disingenuous.”
“Since he’s from Leakesville and I’m from Columbus, I might have a little more information about MUW, MSMS and Mississippi State,” Gaskin said, noting he had worked stints at each of the three institutions before becoming mayor.
Add Gaskin to the growing list of stakeholders who didn’t see DeBar’s substitute bill coming.
MUW President Nora Miller told The Dispatch on Tuesday she had no warning, and a prepared statement from MSU President Mark Keenum said he only learned of the change Tuesday morning.
Keenum’s statement also said MSU leaders had not proposed or initiated the bill, adding, “our leadership team has many questions and concerns that must be explored.”
The state Institutions of Higher Learning, which oversee Mississippi’s eight public universities, didn’t get much of a heads-up either, Director of Communications John Sewell told The Dispatch on Wednesday. What’s more, he said, IHL doesn’t back the legislation.
“We are committed to supporting eight universities,” Sewell said. “We’ve not been involved in any conversations around it or any background studies in relation to the language of the bill. … Right now, our position is just to watch the legislation and work with lawmakers (so they) understand the value of having eight public universities.”
DeBar has not returned multiple calls, voicemails or texts from Dispatch reporters since last week, including several more attempts to contact him Tuesday and Wednesday.
An unsure future for The W
If the merger bill becomes law, Trip Hairston, president for the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors, has concerns.
Though he doesn’t support the bill, he believes the Senate is “sincere” about wanting to keep a college campus in Columbus, even if it’s a MSU satellite. He also believes MSU would honor that intent.
“It’s my understanding that Mississippi State is approaching this with a lot of reluctance for a lot of reasons,” Hairston said Wednesday. “(For one) I think they want to be benevolent to another institution.”
But that benevolence could fade over time, if legislative intent is forgotten, costs to maintain The W’s aging facilities rise and enrollment there stays flat or continues to decline, he said. W enrollment stood at just more than 2,200 in fall 2023, ranking it seventh among the state’s public universities.
Hairston’s biggest fear: a failed merger leaving a 100-plus-acre swath in the middle of Columbus fallen to blight, littered with unused and dilapidated buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“I believe any institution that would absorb it … their intent (would be) to be a good steward,” Hairston said. “… But any way you turn, we’d be completely dependent upon the will and pleasure of that other institution and IHL. … On the local level, it does give us some angst, and it should.
“We’ve got to start thinking about what that future looks like,” he added.
Gaskin shares Hairston’s concerns and said he sees no benefit in The W merging with MSU.
“How do you know that it’s going to stay? How do you know once Mississippi State takes it over that they are going to be able to viably maintain that campus … and that there will be (a viable number of) students here?” he asked. “Once MUW is handed to MSU, there are no guarantees. … What is the guarantee that MSU will make this campus a priority?”
Gaskin also wondered aloud whether this proposed merger was a “trial balloon” for others to come.
A proposed Senate bill that would have shuttered three public universities by 2026 died Tuesday in the Universities and Colleges Committee.
But Gaskin posited the remaining two of the three universities with the lowest enrollment — Delta State and Mississippi Valley State — may not be safe.
A W merger with MSU could lead to Delta State merging with Ole Miss or MVSU merging with Jackson State, he said.
In any case, Gaskin doesn’t believe DeBar’s bill is the rogue legislation some have made it out to be.
“This innocent, ‘These things haven’t been talked about behind the scenes for a while,’ I don’t buy.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
