Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A major gift to Mississippi State from a Florida couple will establish a guest lecture series designed to enhance one of the region's oldest and largest honors programs.
University alumnus Lamar Conerly and his wife Tracy of Destin have committed $150,000 for a special university lectureship. To be named for Lamar Conerly, the visiting speaker sequence will enable the University Honors Program to greatly expand its relationships with leaders in a variety of academic professions and career fields.
Now in its 37th year, the UHP provides focused, personalized academic experiences for talented students in all fields of study at Mississippi State. A charter member of the Southern Regional Honors Council, it has gained national recognition because of its size and structure.
Though involving more than 1,000 students, honors classes typically are limited to approximately 20 participants. Top faculty members selected to lead the classes provide individualized instruction that constantly challenges the students to achieve their maximum potential.
Lamar Conerly, a 1971 accounting/pre-law graduate, is a practicing attorney and President/Owner of the law office of Lamar A. Conerly, P.A. Long active in university affairs, he served as national MSU Alumni Association president in 1999 and was named an Alumni Fellow of the College of Business and Industry in 2004.
"The Conerly Honors Lecture Series will become a premier lecture series at Mississippi State," said Dennis A. Prescott, vice president for external affairs. "It will provide students, faculty and other interested members of the Golden Triangle community with continuing opportunities to interact with professional men and women of pre-eminent character and accomplishment."
The Conerlys' gift is among the latest additions to the university's capital campaign that seeks to raise $400 million in private support for the university by 2009. Since counting for "State of the Future: The Mississippi State Campaign" began in July 2001, the highly organized effort has received nearly $277 million in private gifts.
Prescott said the University Honors Program will get another boost later this year when its offices and meeting rooms move into S. Bryce Griffis Residence Hall. Now under construction adjacent to the Roy Ruby Residence Hall that opened last summer, Griffis Hall--named for the major MSU benefactor and former state College Board member from Starkville--is scheduled for completion in August.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For additional information on the Conerly Lecture Series, contact Mr. Prescott at (662) 325-9306 or dprescott@exaffairs.msstate.edu.