Maroon MEMO: Employee News (Mississippi State University)

The iconic Chapel of Memories' bell tower bathes in golden sunlight high in the sky on a recent sunny day at Mississippi State. Students, faculty and staff will see a cloudy and wet start Monday give way to sunnier skies later in the week with forecast high temperatures in the 80s and lows in the 60s. PHOTO: Grace Cockrell | Public Affairs

Beloved children’s classic ‘Charlotte’s Web’ opens 2024 Theatre MSU season this month
Mississippi State’s Theatre MSU -- the production division of the Department of Communication -- is launching its 2024-2025 season with a heartwarming classic, “Charlotte’s Web.” Part of the department’s Theatre for Young Adults program, the play based on E.B. White’s novel will enchant young audiences through the touching friendship between Charlotte, the spider, and Wilbur, the pig. Performances include school shows at the MSU Riley Center in Meridian on Sept. 24 and at the MSU McComas Hall mainstage in Starkville on Sept. 26-27, with a public university Lyceum Series show on Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the show are available at www.events.msstate.edu.

USDA grant supports MSU research into dairy cattle heat stress
Mississippi State scientists are studying new ways to mitigate heat stress in dairy cattle -- a national problem costing the industry approximately $1.5 billion in lost production -- thanks to a $300,000 New Investigator Seed Grant from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The MSU Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station’s Joe Bearden Dairy Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine and Institute for Genomics, Biocomputing and Biotechnology are collaborating on a two-year study unraveling the crosstalk between rumen microbiota and the enteric and central nervous systems in dairy cattle under heat stress. Leading the team is Peixin Fan, an assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, along with ADS faculty members and MAFES researchers Caleb Lemley, Derris Devost-Burnett and Rhonda Vann.

Applications open for annual community engagement awards
Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to apply for a 2024 Mississippi State University Excellence in Community Engagement Award on behalf of a project in the following categories: Community-Engaged Service, Community-Engaged Research and Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning. A $3,000 award will be given in each of those areas to recognize outstanding work and support its continuation. Projects that achieve honorable mention will receive $1,000. Applicants should be aware that the MSU CE Awards are not a grant proposal process but a recognition of existing projects. Submissions are due Oct. 30 at 11:59 p.m. Community Partner feedback forms are due by Nov. 1 at noon.

Reminder: University policy addresses employee political activity
With campaigning for elected offices underway this year, Mississippi State's Office of General Counsel offers the following reminder of the university’s policy on political activities. There are several basic guidelines that university employees should keep in mind when engaging in any form of political activity. MSU employees are encouraged to review OP 01.14: Political Activities in its entirety and to understand their rights and responsibilities.

Free learning opportunities via LinkedIn Learning available to faculty, staff and students
Sharpen skills. Explore new interests. Increase professional value. These and other results are now available via no-cost learning opportunities to Mississippi State faculty, staff and students through MSU’s new agreement with LinkedIn Learning. A popular, online education platform, LinkedIn Learning’s 20,000-plus courses are available to campus via a quick login using their MSU NetID email addresses. With self-paced learning, courses are presented in various formats, including bite-sized video, audio only and in-depth content. The platform is directly integrated with Canvas, the university’s learning management system. MSU faculty can use it to supplement course material or even develop and load their own content onto the platform.

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. The complete policy is available at www.policies.msstate.edu/policy/91301.

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.

Burger inducted into National Bobwhite and Grassland Initiative Hall of Fame
Wes Burger, director of Mississippi State’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center, has been honored with an induction into the Hall of Fame of the National Bobwhite and Grassland Initiative. This prestigious recognition is in tribute to his lifelong dedication and significant contributions to the conservation of one of the South’s most significant gamebirds. Burger, who is also dean of the university’s College of Forest Resources, has spent decades addressing environmental and economic outcomes regarding quail conservation. Burger’s passion for quail conservation began at nine years old, bird hunting with his grandfather in western Kentucky. Growing up as an outdoorsman, he developed a deep connection with nature, leading him to a career in wildlife biology.

‘Civic duty in modern society’ focus of Constitution Day lecture
Brian Shoup, professor and head of Mississippi State’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration, delivers this year’s Constitution Day lecture as part of the Lamar Conerly Governance Lecture Series on Tuesday [Sept. 17]. The lecture, “What We Owe to Each Other: Civic Responsibility in a Narcissistic Age,” focuses on the importance of civic responsibility in contemporary society. “I hope to stress that our contemporary moment is one that urgently needs citizens who practice the cardinal virtues of temperance, courage, and wisdom,” Shoup said. “Such virtues are seldom found among people who demand that others serve as their audience or who see their own advancement at the expense of others as being preferable to the common good.”

Music department hosts Italian opera faculty recital
Voice faculty members in Mississippi State’s Department of Music are presenting an Italian opera recital Monday [Sept. 16] at 7:30 p.m. on MSU’s campus. “La Regata Italiana” takes place in the lecture-recital hall of the Music Building located at 124 Hardy Road. Featured performers include Associate Professor Roza Tulyaganova, soprano; Associate Professor Jeanette Fontaine, mezzo-soprano; and Instructor and Collaborative Pianist Anne Katherine Ragsdale, piano. Special guests include Adam Cromer, a professional singer from Montclair, New Jersey, who frequently performs in the New York area; music faculty members Anne-Gaëlle Ravetto, Amy Catron, Matthew Haislip and Peter Infanger; and music students Willian da Silva, Adonijah Mpinga and Emma Woodward.

Arts and Sciences Faculty Book Talk series announced
Mississippi State faculty members will tackle issues ranging from childhood experiences to emerging diseases to ancient literary collections in this semester’s MSU Faculty Book Talk series hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences. Free to all, the first talk is Tuesday [Sept. 17] at 3:30 p.m. in Mitchell Memorial Library’s John Grisham Room and will include a public reading and book signing. “The MSU Faculty Book Talk series celebrates one of the most significant research achievements for faculty in the humanities and social sciences: the publication of an academic book. This lecture series provides College of Arts and Sciences faculty an opportunity to share their research with the MSU community, and it provides this community an opportunity to learn about the important research being done by faculty in the college,” said Eric Vivier, series director and associate professor of English.