Mississippi Mergers Update

The president of Mississippi State University said recently that he does not expect approval for a merger with the Mississippi University for Women. President Mark Keenum suggests that there isn't the political support in the state legislature for any of the university mergers proposed by Governor Haley Barbour.

While House Universities and Colleges Committee Chairman Kelvin Buck calls the merger proposal out-of-the question, his Senate counterpart suggested otherwise. Senator Doug Davis calls early decisions premature, and said that he was "not prepared to say a merger is dead in the water." Davis said that he wants to know how the state universities plan to cope with budget cuts of 12 to 15 percent, and suggested that enhanced efficiencies cannot bear the brunt of these types of cuts, and that other options must be considered.