Contact: Sammy McDavid
Mississippi State University's student affairs vice president goes to Oxford in July for a special international gathering. Oxford, England, that is.
Roy H. Ruby recently was invited by Oxford University's International Round Table on Education Policy to participate in a July 20-25 assembly on the role of residential colleges.
Round-table director Don Robertson said Ruby is "among a select group" of officials invited on the basis "of their leadership contributions to education." First held in 1989, the annual event mixes educational representatives with government officials from the U.S., Great Britain and its Commonwealth countries and leaders of international corporations, he added.
Ruby, a Belzoni native who has led the student affairs division since 1985, said the Oxford Round Table "is not a conference in the conventional sense.
"Rather, it is a unique forum that gives participants the opportunity to discuss educational policy over a five-day period in a collegial, 'think tank' atmosphere," he said.
This year's discussion centers on the impact of residential colleges--those providing campus housing and related services--in personalizing the delivery of higher education and humanizing the educational process.
Ruby observed that residential colleges are predominant in Mississippi higher education.
"Naturally, I'm biased," he added, "but I genuinely feel our community and senior college campuses help create learning and instructional environments that allow students to maximize their educational experience. This, in turn, has a powerful effect on the positive development of student-faculty relationships, as well as on student recruitment and retention."
Mississippi State's student affairs division includes admissions, housing and residence life, student support services, cultural diversity, orientation, and intramurals, among other areas.
Ruby, who holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Mississippi State and a doctorate from the University of Mississippi, began working on the Starkville campus in 1964 as program director of the student union. He went on to hold a progression of administrative posts, including associate dean for student development, dean for student administrative services and director of the university's Jackson branch at the Universities Center, among others.