The University of Southern Mississippi is charting a bright future for its Mississippi Gulf Coast operations with a new organizational framework and vision statement.
According to a Friday letter from Rodney Bennett, the university’s president since 2013, the detailed plan to advance coastal operations – which have been in place for 73 years – will solidify the university’s position “as the education and research leader on the Mississippi Gulf Coast … for not only the next 73 years, but the next 110 years.”
The refreshed vision statement positions the university as the “national leader addressing issues relevant to people in coastal and maritime settings,” wrote Bennett, and three educational pillars will support this goal:
• Pillar one is understanding the ocean and coasts, and this pillar encompasses ocean and coastal ecosystems from the coastline to the surface and to the water’s deepest depths.
• Pillar two is improving coastal resilience, and this pillar encompasses sustainable community development in the face of hazardous weather events, shifting climate conditions and associated impacts.
• Pillar three is supporting the blue economy, and this pillar encompasses the economic conditions and opportunities unique to businesses, industries and government services that derive economic benefit from ocean and coastal resources.
“As we shift to the implementation of these pillars, our next steps will be to enhance the distinctiveness of academic programs and to create a sustainable model for academic programming within our existing resource realities,” wrote Bennett. “The work will not only position our Gulf Park campus in Long Beach to serve as a hub for academic instruction in key fields, but it will also enhance our work to elevate innovation and research across the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast … from east to west.”
The university will create several leadership positions to head the new coastal effort, and all coastal operations will be led by a senior associate vice president for coastal operations.
“The search process for this new position will begin immediately with the goal of identifying a successful candidate as soon as possible,” wrote Bennett. “This position will be part of the university’s Senior Leadership Team and will be responsible for overall planning, coordination and implementation of our coastal operations and initiatives.”
Additionally, two new associate vice president positions – one in academic affairs and one in research – will manage coast-based functions for those areas.
Coast-based academic programs will be realigned under three academic schools, and those programs will be led by a coast-based faculty director.
“Those schools will house programs in the fields of business and professional studies, ocean science and engineering, and policy development and humanities, among other areas,” wrote Bennett.
He added that the university’s focus will be on “strengthening existing programs that support local, regional, national and international demand … and on the development of innovative new academic programs to meet the evolving needs of the coastal maritime sector.”
Examples of new or expanded programs include ocean engineering, logistics, hydrography, cybersecurity, policy analysis and a Master of Business Administration degree concentration focused on the blue economy.
“Academic programs that are the specific to the strategic goals of our coastal operations but are currently located in Hattiesburg – like our marine biology program – will be relocated to the coast,” wrote Bennett. “In addition, some programs that no longer have high demand for in-person instruction on the coast may be converted to fully online formats, delivered on the coast in executive or hybrid formats or relocated to the Hattiesburg campus.”
In addition to the Gulf Park campus, the university has major operations at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs, the Marine Research Center located at the Port of Gulfport, the John C. Stennis Space Center in Hancock County and at multiple other coastal sites.
The university started offering classes in Biloxi in 1947.
For more information on the realignment and “Charting our Coastal Future” plan, visit http://bit.ly/usmcoast.
