Imagine sitting in your home one day, and there’s a knock at the door. You answer, and the person on your front steps shows you a legal contract stating you now own your neighbor’s house.
Stunned, you ask about the mortgage, taxes, whether the neighbor is OK losing his house.
To each, the answer is, “I don’t know.”
You ask, “What if I don’t want the house?” The person answers, “Too bad,” hands you a key and walks away.
This seems an appropriate analogy for what state Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, did Tuesday to Mississippi State University and the Mississippi University for Women. With all eyes on a bill that would have moved the residential Mississippi School for Mathematics and Sciences from The W to MSU, DeBar offered a last-minute substitution bill that would merge the universities – transferring assets and control of MUW to the Southeastern Conference behemoth across the river.
The bill sailed through the Education and Appropriations committees, despite presidents from both universities having little to no warning it was coming. DeBar evidently had not even consulted the Institutions of Higher Education, which oversees Mississippi’s eight public universities, and IHL doesn’t seem to support the legislation.
Sure, both the Senate and House must approve DeBar’s bill before the governor can sign it into law, but the proverbial cart is rolling recklessly ahead of the horse at this point.
Where is the feasibility study showing this can even work? MSU President Mark Keenum’s statement Tuesday on the bill seems to ask the same question.
What about facilities? Faculty? Programs? Campus culture? How much money will the state pitch in to ensure the merger’s success?
If DeBar has that information, he clearly didn’t obtain it by communicating with the universities.
Having dodged multiple attempts by The Dispatch to reach him and not having made any other public statements on the bill, DeBar seems comfortable not sharing his motivations with the public either.
Emotions aside, a feasibility study could very well show a merger working better than the status quo. Or not. But such a study would take time, active participation from the stakeholders and a transparent process that produces a detailed plan and timeline.
Hidden agendas and guerilla-style lawmaking is irresponsible, as is foisting onto MSU, without due diligence, a 100-acre university with 2,200 students, a $50 million annual budget and dozens of aging historical buildings.
If this bill becomes law this session, the merging process, even executed in good faith, won’t go as smoothly as it could. Why put MSU or MUW in that position, or IHL for that matter?
Even if this bill fails, it leaves open questions about The W’s future. Whatever the school’s future, we urge legislators to do this right – through planning, transparency and engaging stakeholders. That way, even if the resulting pill is hard to swallow, we’ll all know exactly what medicine we’re taking.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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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 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
