Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--The 2004-05 Factbook of Mississippi State University is being recognized as the best of its kind in the Southeast and beyond.
The 83-page, spiral-bound compendium of current information about the 127-year-old land-grant institution received the first-place award at the recent annual meeting of the Southern Association for Institutional Research. The 8½-by-11-inch notebook is produced by MSU's Office of Institutional Research.
The award represents two in a row for director Gary Pike and others in the Allen Hall-based office. Last year, their online version--www.msstate.edu/dept/oir--received SAIR's Best Electronic Factbook Award.
SAIR is the umbrella professional organization representing nearly 20 state institutional research associations, with membership including public and private institutions of higher learning in states from Maryland to Arizona and Oklahoma to Florida. The Mississippi association includes 18 community and senior college campuses, as well as the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning office in Jackson.
Starting with "Quick Glance," the MSU book's eight major sections cover more than 70 specific topic areas. The sections include organization charts, enrollment, faculty, student characteristics, and resources, among others.