Higher education forum to examine MSU impact

Contact: Sammy McDavid

A continuing series of public programs spotlighting state higher education institutions will focus Oct. 23 on Mississippi State University.

"The People's University: A Work in Progress" is the theme for the 6:30 p.m. public forum at the Butler-Williams Alumni Center auditorium on the Starkville campus. A reception will follow the two-hour assembly.

Designed primarily for faculty, administrators and all others affiliated with the institution, the program will include discussions of Mississippi State's history, evolution as an educational institution and expanding impact on the state, nation and world.

Known as "Access to Higher Education: Conversations with University Faculty and Community Leaders," the series is sponsored by the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning and the Mississippi Humanities Council.

The humanities council is an independent, nonpartisan, non-political organization funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and private donations. Its stated primary objective "is to shed light, not heat, on the public policy issues of today by examining the larger value questions involved through the use of philosophy, literature, history, and other disciplines in the humanities."

Other "Access to Higher Education" programs have been or will be held on the seven other state university campuses.

The Mississippi State presentations will be made by veteran history professor Roy V. Scott; William A. Person, associate dean of the Graduate School; and Amy Tuck of Maben, secretary of the Mississippi Senate and a Mississippi State alumna.

President Donald Zacharias will serve as respondent and foreign languages professor Robert E. Wolverton Sr. will be the moderator.

A question-and-answer session will follow the presentations.

For additional information about the program, telephone (601) 325-3742.