Bagley College wraps year with celebratory picnic
Members of the Bulldog Engineering family gathered on Mississippi State’s historic Drill Field for a lunchtime celebration of a year full of success in research, academics and service. Pictured from left to right are Academy of Distinguished Teachers inductees Priscilla Hill and Cindy Bethel, and professional staff award of excellence winner Courtney Blaylock. Not pictured: Sharon Hankins, administrative staff award of excellence winner.
Recent spring showers held off just long enough for the Bagley College to end the academic year in style with the annual Faculty and Staff Appreciation Picnic.
Members of the Bulldog Engineering family from across the college gathered on Mississippi State’s historic Drill Field for a lunchtime celebration of a year full of success in research, academics and service.
As the crowd settled in for barbecue, chicken and catfish from The Little Dooey and Mississippi State ice cream, interim dean Jason Keith recapped the year’s highlights and recognized the 2015 staff award of excellence winners.
Courtney Blaylock, an accountant in the dean’s office, earned the professional staff award, and mechanical engineering’s Sharon Hankins, an academic records assistant, earned the administrative staff award.
Keith also recognized recent Academy of Distinguished Teachers inductees: assistant professor Cindy Bethel, computer science and engineering, and associate professor Priscilla Hill, chemical engineering.
“It’s dedicated staff and teachers that help the Bagley College maintain its reputation as a student-focused, nationally-known college with growing research capabilities,” Keith said. “It’s great to get together at the conclusion of a successful school year to celebrate those who make the college great and be reminded of everything we’ve accomplished together.”
Among the year’s high points, Keith highlighted several significant milestones that will propel the college forward:
-- Enrolled a record-breaking 3,800 students in the fall of 2014, including nearly 1,000 freshmen and transfer students. This achievement puts Bagley as the second largest college at Mississippi State University.
-- Received approval for a petroleum engineering to become the 11th undergraduate degree program in the college.
-- Added a distance-delivered mechanical engineering graduate program with the approval process for another in computational engineering nearly completed.
-- Began collaboration with Jackson State University to teach an introduction to engineering class at Jackson Academy.
-- Signed agreement to offer mechanical and electrical engineering courses at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
-- Singed agreement with the Universitie Internationale de Rabat in Morocco to offer a collaborative degree in automotive and aerospace materials engineering.
For more information about the college and it’s 2014-15 academic year accomplishments visit www.bagley.msstate.edu. Photos of the event can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/msuengineering.
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Susan Lassetter | Bagley College of Engineering
