{"id":62906,"date":"2015-03-02T09:10:29","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T15:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/?p=62906"},"modified":"2015-03-02T09:10:29","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T15:10:29","slug":"university-presidents-call-for-increased-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/2015\/03\/university-presidents-call-for-increased-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"University presidents call for increased funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mississippi\u2019s Institutions of Higher Learning released a joint letter to newspaper outlets statewide last week\u00a0from the presidents and chancellor\u00a0<\/span>of <\/span>the <\/span>eight public universities in the state, urging the state legislature to consider the significance of securing government funding for Mississippi higher education in the coming years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge legislators to take this moment in history to invest strategically in Mississippi\u2019s universities, which will allow our state to reap the benefits of that investment for years to come,\u201d stated the letter.<\/p>\n

Those represented in the public statement were: President William N. LaForge, Delta State University; President Alfred Rankins Jr., Alcorn State University; President Carolyn W. Meyers, Jackson State University; President Mark E. Keenum, Mississippi State University; President Jim Borsig, Mississippi University for Women; President William B. Bynum Jr., Mississippi Valley State University; Chancellor Daniel W. Jones, University of Mississippi; and President Rodney D. Bennett, University of Southern Mississippi.<\/p>\n

LaForge, who stands strong behind the letter\u2019s message, indicated that a commitment to educational funding would help the state tackle many of its most pressing issues. One of these challenges is providing competitive salaries and salary increases to university faculty and staff.<\/p>\n

Through a unified approach, the eight leaders are seeking a five percent budget increase across the board, which would amount to a $36 million upturn. This boost would make a large dent in the salary deficiency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe letter was a concerted effort to communicate <\/span>to <\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>legislat<\/span>ors<\/span>\u00a0our strong support so we can provide pay raises for our employ<\/span>ees<\/span>,\u201d said LaForge. \u201cThat not only is a priority we\u2019ve been working on for months at Delta State, but it\u2019s a priority across the system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

LaForge said there are several reasons Mississippi\u2019s educational institutions are in dire need of salary increases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t had a salary increase at Delta State for five years, and Mississippi Valley State University hasn\u2019t had one in seven years. It\u2019s time,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re way behind our peer institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The salary lag is being compared with other colleges and universities in the southeastern region. In order for Mississippi schools to stay competitive, LaForge said raises are a necessity to <\/span>recruit <\/span>and keep faculty and staff in the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnless we\u2019re able to bring the faculty\/staff salaries up, we\u2019re going to continue to hurt when it comes to recruitment and retention of faculty and staff,\u201d he said. \u201cThe five percent increase would help us get to <\/span>within\u00a0<\/span>50 percent of\u00a0<\/span>our peer institutions<\/span>. We still won\u2019t be where we need to be, but it\u2019s a good first step. <\/span>We need our legislators t<\/span>o <\/span>provide this much needed support for our employees.”<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the letter, Mississippi Public Universities are doing their part \u2014 enrolling 94,000 students in an academic year and awarding more than 16,000 degrees, which represents a 10.9 percent increase over the past five years.<\/p>\n

Leaders from across Mississippi\u2019s higher education institutions remain steadfast that a bright future for the state lie\u2019s heavily in the legislature\u2019s investment in education.<\/p>\n

Learn more about Mississippi Public Universities at http:\/\/www.mississippi.edu<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mississippi\u2019s Institutions of Higher Learning released a joint letter to newspaper outlets statewide last week\u00a0from the presidents and chancellor\u00a0of the eight public universities in the state, urging the state legislature…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":62909,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,296],"tags":[753,756,206,1423,1125],"class_list":["post-62906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-academics","category-facultystaff","tag-budget","tag-faculty-and-staff","tag-ihl","tag-president","tag-salary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62906"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62911,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62906\/revisions\/62911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}