Maroon MEMO: Employee News (Mississippi State University)

Salvador Bartera, an Italy native and assistant professor in MSU's Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures, gives a lesson on cooking authentic pasta as part of his Italy's Food (and) Culture First Year Experience class. The First-Year Experience program at MSU allows first-year students to earn one hour of course credit by choosing from a list of seminar topics ranging from a wide variety of disciplines. PHOTO: Megan Bean | Public Affairs

Revitalizing Africatown: Faculty, students honored for creativity, preserving past
Mississippi State landscape architecture students and faculty are being recognized for their role in the design of recreational areas within historic Africatown, Alabama. Development of the Mobile County site, where the last African individuals in the Atlantic slave trade landed in 1866 on the schooner Clotilda, has seen a resurgence since the ship’s discovery earlier this year in Mobile Bay. Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the town’s infrastructure. Students enrolled in both MSU urban design and planting design courses have, for the past two years, conceptualized plans for the Africatown Connections Blueway and for landscaping at the site’s community center.

CAVS receives $3 million grant to support Army ground mobility research
Backed by a $3.08 million grant from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Mississippi State University will support the Army’s ground mobility research in several key areas. Led by MSU’s Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, the project addresses areas such as remote sensing on autonomous vehicles, additive manufacturing, human performance and modeling and simulation development powered by the university’s High Performance Computing Collaboratory. The research will be among the first to utilize the Proving Ground, a 50-acre property recently acquired by CAVS to advance the center’s off-road autonomous vehicle research.

National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision to host White Cane Awareness Day
Mississippi State’s National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision is celebrating White Cane Awareness Day Tuesday and is inviting members of the university and local community to a range of activities on the Drill Field. The MSU sorority Delta Gamma, which supports the philanthropy Service for Sight, has partnered with NRTC to lead the obstacle course, which participants will complete with simulator glasses or blindfolds. In case of rain, the event will move to the first floor of the Colvard Student Union.

Tuesday deadline for teaching excellence awards
Mississippi State University faculty who are interested in submitting applications for the 2020 Grisham Master Teacher Award, the Alumni Association Early Career Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award or the Alumni Association Graduate and/or Professional Teaching Excellence Award have until Tuesday to do so. All current full-time faculty members at MSU with the required years of service, regardless of rank, are eligible to apply for these awards.

Faculty athletics representative application deadline
After 15 years of service as Mississippi State University's faculty athletics representative, Steve Turner will be stepping away from the role in 2020. A search for a new FAR is now underway. The deadline to apply is Wednesday. Chief Communications Officer Sid Salter is chairing the FAR search committee. Committee members are Bracky Brett, executive senior associate athletic director; Ann Carr, executive senior associate athletic director; John Cohen, director of athletics; Randy Follett, president, Robert Holland Faculty Senate; Regina Hyatt, vice president for student affairs; Brandon Jolly, associate general counsel; David Shaw, provost and executive vice president, and MaKayla Waldner, student-athlete representative.

MSU Extension hosts Breakfast on the Farm
School groups and families will soon have a chance to tour a dairy farm and learn where their food comes from. Hosted by the Mississippi State University Extension Service and the MSU Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, Breakfast on the Farm is designed to promote an appreciation of the state’s dairy industry and feature educational activities for all ages. School groups can tour the MSU Bearden Dairy Research Center Thursday and Friday. Families and the public can visit the facility Saturday. The event will last from 9 a.m. to noon each day.

Smoke-free policy enhances healthy environment
Mississippi State University is a smoke-free campus. Official policy prohibits the use of any combustible or vapor products anywhere on campus property including university buildings, university grounds, university vehicles, parking areas and sidewalks. The smoke-free campus policy is part of the university's commitment to creating a healthy environment for all members of the campus community. Use of cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, pipes, hookah or other similar devices are prohibited by this policy.

Policy addresses employee political activity
With political campaigning for local and statewide 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.

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Brown elected president of international society
A Mississippi State University faculty member is the new 2020-21 president of the International Society of Protistologists. Matthew Brown, associate professor of biological sciences, will serve the organization that is devoted to research on single-celled eukaryotes, or protists. It promotes the presentation and discussion of new or important facts and problems in protistology, and works to provide resources for the advancement of this field of science.

MSU Dining's Doss named to Aramark 2019 Ring of Stars class
Annie Doss, food service associate at the Marketplace at Perry on the Mississippi State campus, joins 200 of Aramark’s outstanding team members from around the world being named to the company’s 2019 Ring of Stars class. Doss, selected for her work at the Marketplace at Perry, has worked for MSU Dining Services/Aramark 11 years and is known for her kindness, her ability to make students feel welcome, and speed and efficiency in customer service. “Ms. Annie treats every single person with respect, exudes warmth, and takes care of the students,” said MSU Vice President for Student Affairs Regina Hyatt.

Foreman uncovering Mississippi’s ‘Hidden History’
A new faculty member at Mississippi State University is unearthing secrets of the Deep South in his newest book in his “Hidden History” trilogy, a series published by The History Press. Published this summer, “The Hidden History of the Mississippi Sound” is the second book by Joshua K. Foreman, an instructor in the Department of Communication and faculty adviser to The Reflector. Foreman co-authored the publication with Ryan Starrett , a fellow Jackson native and childhood friend. Together, Foreman and Starrett first authored “The Hidden History of Jackson” in 2018, and expect their third book, “The Hidden History of New Orleans,” to be released in conjunction with Mardi Gras in 2020.

Faculty encouraged to attend information sessions on writing for The Conversation
Faculty at Mississippi State University are encouraged to attend upcoming information sessions Oct. 23 and 24 on The Conversation, an independent source for informed commentary and news analysis, written by academic researchers and edited for the general public. In the first year of MSU’s partnership with The Conversation, articles by MSU authors have been read more than 2 million times.