Associated Agencies

This is an archived copy of the 2013-14 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit http://catalog.msstate.edu.

The Mississippi State University Alumni Association Inc.

The Mississippi State University Alumni Association was founded June 17, 1885. The mission of the Alumni Association is to foster lifelong support for the university’s mission through programs, activities and events for its alumni, future alumni and friends who are forever maroon and white.

The alumni of Mississippi State University have their permanent headquarters in the Hunter Henry Center on the campus. Housed there are over 100,000 address records of alumni and friends of Mississippi State University. In addition, the center is used frequently by faculty, students and alumni for meetings, conferences and other events.

Some of the services rendered by the association annually in the promotion of the university are: maintaining and updating biographic and demographic information of all alumni; mailing over 350,000 pieces of mail, including the Alumnus magazine; planning and organizing numerous alumni meetings and special events; supporting various fundraising programs for the university through the MSU Foundation’s Annual Giving program and the Bulldog Club; providing support for alumni chapter scholarship programs; supporting the university’s appropriation requests from the Mississippi Legislature; assisting in the recruitment of prospective students to Mississippi State University; sponsoring the Alumni Delegates, student leaders preparing to be alumni leaders; partnering with the university’s Career Center to assist students and alumni with employment opportunities; supporting excellence in teaching, research and service through the annual faculty recognition program; and assisting in the annual Staff Appreciation Day.

Currently, the Association has 93 chartered local alumni chapters, including 64 in Mississippi, 28 in states throughout the nation, and one in South Korea. In addition to a national board of directors and two standing committees, most chapters and societies have officers, committees and boards of directors. This totals more than 2,500 volunteer workers on all levels and provides for wide participation of former students and friends in the promotion of their alma mater each year.

For more information, visit the association’s web site at www.alumni.msstate.edu .

The Mississippi State University Foundation, Inc.

Since 1962, the Mississippi State University Foundation, Inc., has served as a nonprofit corporation offering a comprehensive program of giving opportunities for alumni and friends of Mississippi State University. The foundation’s purpose is fourfold:

to provide the university a way to recruit and draw on the expertise of a network of dedicated volunteers who can assist in soliciting gifts from alumni and friends;
to provide a mechanism to keep private gifts clearly separate from public funds and to provide flexibility in the use of private funds;
to assist the university in the investment of endowed funds (the foundation has greater flexibility than the public university to seek the most favorable return on investments); and
to ensure that funds designated for a particular purpose are used in the manner intended by the donors, and to ensure that funds unrestricted by the donors as to their use are appropriately distributed.

Since its incorporation, alumni and friends have invested $1 billion in the university through the Foundation. In the past seven years, over $440 million has been contributed. Also during the same period, the endowment has grown from $254 million to over $357 million.