Maroon MEMO: Employee News (Mississippi State University)

The American flag flies proudly over the Drill Field at Mississippi State. The university will be closed on Monday for Independence Day. PHOTO: Megan Bean | Public Affairs

DAFVM Spotlight Employee: Jesica Redd
Jesica Redd has a passion for educating and working with children. The Mississippi State University Extension Service helps her turn her passion into a profession as the program assistant for the Early Years Network at Southwest Community College in Pike County. “My responsibilities allow me to provide excellent customer service and program assistance to people in the community who need great resources, training classes and high quality child care,” she said.

DAFVM Spotlight Employee: Patty Swearingen
Extension is a family thing for Patty Swearingen. Like her mother who served as an Extension agent, Patty pursued a career with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. She is an Extension agent and the county coordinator in Lauderdale County. She provides educational programs in family and consumer education, 4-H youth development, and enterprise and community resource development.

SEC visiting faculty travel grant applications sought
The Southeastern Conference Visiting Faculty Travel Grant Program is intended to enhance faculty collaboration that stimulates scholarly initiatives between SEC universities. Mississippi State University can select a maximum of eight faculty members to receive 2016-2017 travel grants of $1,250 each for transportation, room, board, etc., to use for travel to another SEC campus. Assistant, associate and full professors are eligible.

Don't take a break from volunteering this summer
The Maroon Volunteer Center at Mississippi State details a number of volunteer opportunities for the campus community on its website and in its newsletter this week, including Service DAWGS Day site leaders, a profile of the West Point-Clay County Animal Shelter, Maroon Edition Habitat for Humanity, MVNU2MSU, mentoring opportunities, Starkville Community Market, and more.

University announces 2016-17 Lyceum Series lineup
A Sept. 28 concert by Mississippi native and soul-blues artist Zac Harmon will kick off Mississippi State’s 2016-17 Lyceum Series season. Season ticket renewals for patrons wishing to retain the same seats as last year will take place through July 1. New season tickets go on sale July 5-22. Coordinated by the MSU Performing Arts Committee, annual Lyceum programs are designed to expose residents of campus and surrounding communities to national and international artists in dance, music and theatre.

Volunteers needed for MVNU2MSU
Move-In Day is a very important day in the life of a first-time freshman. Mississippi State faculty and staff members are invited to join Housing and Residence Life on Aug. 6 to help welcome the incoming class of 2020 to the university. "Please consider partnering with us on this special day to give our students a warm welcome to the Bulldog family," said Avent VanHorn, marketing and communications coordinator for student housing.

SMART modifying shuttle routes for summer
Starkville-MSU Area Rapid Transit (SMART) is modifying several routes through Aug. 11. However, the Boardtown North, Boardtown South, Highway 12 Express, Old Main Express, and the Golden Triangle Regional Airport Express will continue to operate as usual during the summer.

Institutional Repository now accepting submissions
The new MSU Institutional Repository is now online and accepting submissions. The repository -- available at http://ir.library.msstate.edu -- is a central digital archive for collecting, organizing, preserving, and sharing Mississippi State's history, intellectual and scholarly creations, and research data.

Policy reminders from University Health Services
University Health Services at Mississippi State reminds the campus community of several important policies for its patients to keep in mind when seeking treatment, parking, refilling a prescription, privacy and more.

The Office of Public Affairs provides Maroon MEMO as a general information
resource for Mississippi State University employees.

Web links are subject to change. Submit news, questions or comments to Jim Laird.

Benko named senior associate AD for finance
Jared Benko, a nine-year veteran of business operations in the Southeastern Conference, has been named senior associate athletics director for finance at Mississippi State, Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin announced last week. Benko, who begins July 11, replaces Duncan McKenzie, who is retiring after 28 years of dedicated service to MSU Athletics.

Reese selected as an ASEE Fellow
A Bagley College of Engineering member joined the ranks of the country’s most esteemed engineering educators during a June 27 ceremony. Donna Reese, department head and professor in computer engineering, has been selected as a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). She becomes the first honoree to represent the Computer Science and Engineering department and the sixth Bagley College faculty member to be named to ASEE’s Academy of Fellows.

Middleton, Shaffer contribute to book
Two Mississippi State faculty members helped lead a literary effort examining the basis and scope of racial identity as an American social structure. Stephen Middleton, professor of history and director for African American Studies at MSU, along with associate professor of English and African American Studies Donald Shaffer, served on the editing team for “The Construction of Whiteness: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Race Formation and the Meaning of a White Identity.”

International program connects Extension to China
Expanding Mississippi agriculture requires getting to know potential markets, and a group of Mississippi State University Extension agents is seeing one of the largest in the world firsthand. A tour of Shanghai, Beijing and the Shandong Province is the last in a three-step international trade training program. Susan Seal, assistant professor of international agricultural and Extension education at MSU, said the program has three primary objectives.