New USM Campus Not on Agenda of College Board: Several Sites Being Researched

By Melissa M. Scallan, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

Jan. 16–The state College Board likely won’t decide Wednesday on a location for a new campus for the University of Southern Mississippi, higher education officials said last week.

The board is holding its monthly meeting in Jackson, but a decision about the land isn’t on the agenda.

Tom Meredith, state commissioner of higher education, said last month he hoped to present board members with land options at the January meeting, but officials still are looking at property and doing research.

Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the Gulf Park campus in Long Beach, but in June the board said the campus will be rebuilt. But members also said they would look for 125 to 150 acres of land to build another campus to handle the population growth expected on the Coast in future years.

Robert Bass is in charge of the USM restoration efforts along the Coast, and he said Friday he has “more than a few sites” to look at before the board can make a decision.

“We’ve got a lot of sites, and it’s going to take longer to develop the information to give to the board,” he said. “We’re having to look at a number of factors on each site. They may get a brief update on where we are in the process.”

That update would be given in closed session because it involves a land transaction, Bass said.

Since the decision about Long Beach was announced, rumors have been rampant about where the land would be and whether it would be donated or purchased. There also has been speculation about whether the campus would belong to USM or if several universities would participate and offer classes and degrees under a “university center” concept.

But Meredith has been adamant that the new campus will belong to USM.

“Our board has been consistent, and I’ve been consistent in saying how it’s going to operate,” he said last month. “It will be a USM campus. Period.”

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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