“Like the rest of the world, ̫ӳ faces the evolving challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. From the White House to the Mississippi State Capitol to our campuses, these challenges are real and daunting. Since ̫ӳ first engaged in assessment of impacts of the coronavirus and planning for operational changes by our leadership team, the one constant has been that there are no constants.
“Information is changing and taking on different nuances on an almost hourly basis. With guidance from federal and state leaders, from global and national medical and epidemiological advisors, and from our own capable students, faculty, and staff, ̫ӳ’s leadership team has taken this evolving information and is developing a measured and nuanced response. Yet make no mistake, this is a new and unprecedented challenge playing out on a massive scale.
“Working closely with the leaders of the other seven state universities toward a coordinated response from Mississippi’s Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL), we expect to issue detailed operational guidelines to our students, faculty and staff Sunday afternoon.
“I want to thank ̫ӳ faculty and staff members, our students and their families, for their extraordinary dedication, patience, and commitment during these trying times. I humbly ask for your continued support as we move forward.
“We have two core goals in our university response – first, to safeguard the health of our students, faculty and staff, and second, to continue to provide a rigorous and appropriate academic experience for our students that keeps them on their paths. I am guided by those goals and I ask that you do all in your power to share and advance them. In that way, together, ̫ӳ will weather this event as we have weathered many others in our long and storied history.
“Winston Churchill once said: ‘Without courage, all other virtues lose their meaning.’ But in another setting, at another time, Churchill offered this observation: ‘We make a living by what we get. But we make a life by what we give.’
“This certainly is a time for giving; kindness, understanding, and decency should be extended to one another. Please do your part to make that so within our beloved ̫ӳ family.”
May God bless each of you,
Dr. Mark E. Keenum, President, ̫ӳ