Board of Trustees approves new academic units, contracts and real-estate deals; elects vice president

The Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Public Universities on Jan. 16, 2025 approved a slate of academic program actions, contracts and property transactions and elected a new vice president for the remainder of the current term.

Board members voted to establish a new College of Integrative Studies and associated Data Science Academic Institute at Mississippi State University, approve a Career Horizon Center grant-funded by the U.S. Department of Education Rehabilitation Services Administration, and authorize new degree programs including a Master of Applied Science in Organizational Leadership at Mississippi State and a Master of Education in Multiple Exceptionality at Mississippi University for Women.

Why it matters: the approvals create an institutional structure to incubate interdisciplinary programs, commit grant-funded and institutional resources, and authorize several multi-year procurement and real-estate transactions that affect campuses across the state.

Mississippi State University Mississippi State won board approval to create a College of Integrative Studies intended to incubate interdisciplinary degree pathways and to host the Data Science Academic Institute. The board packet said the five-year implementation will rely on approximately $1,800,000 in new funds within a larger $8,500,000 planning envelope; no new faculty hires were planned and four new staff positions were identified to operate the unit.

MSU also received approval to create a 30-credit-hour Master of Applied Science in Organizational Leadership, a program described by staff as targeting working adults, military personnel and Bachelor of Applied Science graduates. Board materials cited national employment projections and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics median-wage data used in the program justification.

Career Horizon Center (MSU) The board approved MSU’s…