Maroon MEMO: Employee News (Mississippi State University)

Mississippi State President Mark E. Keenum (left to right) visits with Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann before a campus forum last week. During his visit, Hosemann encouraged students to register to vote and then to cast their ballots in November. For additional information about voting and elections, visit www.sos.ms.gov/vote. PHOTO: Logan Kirkland | Public Affairs

Faculty invited this week to learn about writing for The Conversation
Mississippi State's eight colleges are holding informational sessions on Wednesday and Thursday for faculty interested in learning more about writing for the commentary and analysis website, The Conversation. See listing below for your college’s time and also for the open session for any interested faculty to attend on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Room 1405, first floor of Mitchell Memorial Library.

Association of Retired Faculty fall meeting next week
The Mississippi State University Association of Retired Faculty will hold its fall meeting on Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. in Parker Ballroom of the Hunter Henry Center. Campus Master Planner Roger Baker will give an update on the university master plan. Learn more about ARF at http://lib.msstate.edu/arf or contact Joe Farris at joe.farris@pres.msstate.edu.

Engaged learning focus of fall workshops
The Center for Community-Engaged Learning at Mississippi State is partnering with the Center for Teaching and Learning to offer several workshops in October and November on engaged learning. The series kicks off on Tuesday with a "Reflective Writing" presentation by Carmen Wilder, the interim associate director of Student Leadership and Community Engagement. You can register for any or all of these workshops at www.ctl.msstate.edu/events.

Reminder: University policy addresses employee political activity
With political campaigning for Congress and other races currently underway, Mississippi State's Office of General Counsel offers the following reminder of the university’s policy on political activities. There are several guidelines that employees of the university should keep in mind when engaging in any form of political activity. The Office of General Counsel encourages each employee to review this policy in its entirety to make certain you are fully aware of your rights and responsibilities.

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.

Commissioner of Higher Education Alfred Rankins Jr. visits campus on listening tour
Mississippi Commissioner of Higher Education Alfred Rankins Jr. visited both Mississippi State University campuses last week as part of his statewide listening tour. During a public forum Mitchell Memorial Library, Rankins discussed his goals as commissioner, which include raising educational attainment in Mississippi, raising the profile of each institution and making sure the state’s universities maintain high levels of accessibility and quality.

Money magazine again names MSU best in state
Mississippi State is ranked the best university in Mississippi in Money magazine’s “Best College in Every State” 2018 listing. The magazine is a publication of Time Inc. “With the steady enrollment growth we’ve seen recently, it’s clear our students and their families see tremendous value in an education from Mississippi State,” MSU President Mark E. Keenum said. “Tuition at Mississippi State is far lower than that of our peer research universities and among smaller regional institutions."

Vahedifard outlines a risk framework to consider how natural hazards cascade
A Mississippi State endowed faculty member says that while the U.S. is seeing a spike in the occurrence of natural hazards, such as wildfire and drought, increased impacts are being felt around the world from events that compound on one another, causing a cascading effect. Farshid Vahedifard is joining with his civil engineering research colleagues from across the country to highlight how a chain of events, such as wildfires, landslides and mudslides, cascade like a series of toppling dominoes and lead to catastrophic disasters.