newsletterJOINT

...It’s an opportunity that’s unlikely to come again – at least not in the immediate future.
...The University of Southern Mississippi soon will be building a new campus on a 1,700-acre
site in Harrison County near Interstate 10. And University of Mississippi Chancellor Robert
Khayat sees an opportunity at the sister university campus: an R&D center for all the state’s
research universities.
...“I would build a university center and I would have it managed by USM but I would have
Mississippi State and Ole Miss and Jackson State, for sure, bringing their special programs,” he
said during an interview in May.
...Khayat has been a proponent of the university-center concept since 1995. It’s one of the first
things he began discussing when he took the job in Oxford.
...“Everybody understands that Hattiesburg south is Southern Miss territory,” Khayat said. “But
Ole Miss, State, Jackson State all have wonderful things to bring to the table that Southern doesn’
t do and they have wonderful things to bring to the table that we don’t do.”
...A campus with a center where the state’s four research universities could combine brainpower
would be a major economic engine for South Mississippi. The synergistic expertise could turn the
site into an innovation powerhouse.
...Each university has its own strength and they are not interested in duplicating each other. As
Khayat put it, USM has staked out polymers, MSU engineering and Ole Miss pharmaceuticals
and acoustics. Jackson State, the only urban university in the state, has its own unique portfolio.
...“We’re going to collaborate. That’s a big issue. We’re all committed to that,” Khayat said.
...Khayat is not the only one seeing the potential.
...Not long after the board made the decision on the site, Robert Foglesong, president of
Mississippi State University, told The Sun Herald he believes a university-center approach could
work on the coast. He said MSU’s strength is engineering, and that’s what it would bring to the
table.
...“We have the expertise to help them out, but the IHL will decide ultimately how to construct
what goes on down here relative to academics, but I would think our contribution would be an
engineering school,” he said.
...“The idea is that we all have things that we can bring to any community, and the Gulf Coast
offers and opportunity for us to galvanize those relationships,” said Alice Clark, vice chancellor
for research and sponsored programs for the University of Mississippi.
...That the campus will be something different has already been brought up by at least one USM
official. Jay Grimes, former USM provost, told The Sun Herald the it still must be decided what
they want. But he added: “We don’t want another Hattiesburg campus.”
...The universities do have a long track record of working together. Two of the research
universities work together as part of the Center for Higher Learning and University Research,
and all the state’s research universities are part of the Mississippi Research Consortium.
...So what now?
...“We would work with Tom Meredith, the commissioner of higher education. We would have
conversations that involve the four research universities – State, Jackson State, Southern and Ole
Miss, and the Medical Center, probably,” said Khayat.
...“What we would do, is we would pursue a conversation with the four research universities and
the commissioner and the board leadership about this university centers concept, because we
think it has lots of merit,” Khayat said.
...“It’s just a matter of people keeping the rivalries to the athletics field and trying to bring the
academic strengths together. And the deal is, just provide the services needed on the coast that
we can afford to provide,” said Khayat.
...“But I do think the universities centers idea is a great concept.” – Tcp

July 2007