…and we have plenty to talk about. The easiest item to discuss involves Mississippi SB 2715, which would authorize the move of MSMS to MSU and give MDE power to have MSMS “collaborate” with the Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District “as needed.”
The bill might die in committee before y’all have time to consider it. I have no official opinion on the bill. Regarding SB 2715, I’m as neutral as Switzerland. What matters to me is that the state decides to invest more in MSMS.
For the majority of my time at MSMS, I was all for MSMS moving to Mississippi State, but, as I get closer to graduating and actually moving to college, I think that MUW was the perfect middle ground and fear what it would mean for MSMS to move to Mississippi State. First of all, possibly the most obvious concern is safety. MUW is much smaller, and easier to “guard,” with the possibility of moving to State, could the same be said? What about gameday weekends at State, what would that mean for MSMS students? Another con is what it would do to MUW and Columbus. While I haven’t proven this to be true, I’ve heard that MSMS brings a lot of attraction to Columbus, keeping it (arguably) afloat. The only possible pro that I can imagine MSMS moving to State would be is closer to research. But even with this, most students don’t participate in research, and those who do only have an approximately 30 minute drive. All in all, I can’t imagine MSMS moving to State bringing much to MSMS, and think that a better solution is simply more funding. I fear in total, it would cost more to build a new campus, than to fix the dorms and school buildings that we already have.
I think the last line summarizes my view well: “What matters to me is that the state decides to invest more in MSMS”. I see the upsides and downsides of a move to MSU; while students and faculty would have more resources at State, students would be less safe on such a large campus. While this bill will not impact our class, the decision is still of monumental importance. I am leaning more toward staying in Columbus, focusing funding towards new dorms and renovated academic buildings. An unrelated change I hope to see is the enrollment of sophomores at MSMS. I worry many parents would refuse to send 10th graders to live on the MSU campus.
I feel that there are many pros and cons to moving the campus to MSU. The biggest pros would be that MSU would give us better facilities for both the school and the dorms, and it would give us more opportunities to collaborate with the programs at MSU. The main con would definitely be safety concerns involving the number of people on the campus, especially during football games. The benefits MSMS gives MUW and the city of Columbus through programs like Outreach and Tales of the Crypt would also be forfeited to Starkville (not that Starkville is good, as say Oxford, but it is better off than Columbus). I think overall moving the campus would be better off for the teachers and students, but it would be damaging to the community of Columbus. For these reasons I feel as though it would be best to move. Not to mention the cost of renovating the facilities here would be much more costly than simply moving.
In my opinion, MSMS should stay in Columbus and on the MUW campus. I think there was definitely reason for why the people picked this location in the first place, though I don’t know the reason. However, MSMS is still a high school even though it has a very similar school day schedule for students as if they were in college. High school students constantly being in contact with college kids is maybe not a good idea if you really think about it. As MSMS faculty always said, “The students safety is our biggest priority,” moving onto a bigger campus decreases the amount of control over the student’s safety. Especially with the football games and the huge amounts of outsiders coming in to watch, it really does not ring “safe” to parents who wants to sends their kids to MSMS. Though there are pros regarding moving like easier access to resource, but this school have not really had a problem with sending students to a nice college or university, so they definitely have their ways for students to succeed. Therefore, the move is really unnecessary.
Moving the MSMS campus to MSU has its ups and downs. On one hand, better facilities and increased opportunities for collaboration with MSU programs are major advantages. On the other hand, safety concerns due to the high number of people on campus during football games and the loss of MSMS programs that benefit Columbus, such as Outreach and Tales of the Crypt, are significant downsides. Nonetheless, overall, moving the campus would be better for students and teachers, and the cost of renovating the current facilities would likely exceed the cost of relocation. Ultimately, while it would be detrimental to the Columbus community, moving the campus would be the more practical choice.
Personally, I really enjoy the fact that MSMS resides on the W campus. In my opinion, the W is safer, more secluded(I feel like MSMS students get a lot of space to enjoy campus), and has less competition(we get a lot of opportunities around town-ex. Mentorship). The W has also been home for MSMS since its opening and has many special relations with the people around town(like Tales of The Crypt). Mainly(like many others), I believe that The W is the perfect middle ground for all types of students because of its special opportunities and secluded location. However, I genuinely think that for any MSMS student with major interest in the sciences(which is a reason many students come) would benefit from the MSU campus. For example, they will more opportunities in the research fields and easier access to supplies for projects. Also, the move to a bigger college campus would give students a more typical “college” experience. In short, there are many reasons for both sides. Regardless of the final decision, I agree(“What matters to me is that the state decides to invest more in MSMS.”) with the point of Mississippi investing more into MSMS(and education in general) and focusing on making it thrive.
I was just told that the Senate bill just failed. A big problem with this whole thing was that they never really asked the students about their points of view on the matter. The other day, I was wearing an MSMS shirt and had someone ask me about the bill. He made it clear that the students should have a large voice in the matter. With that being said I think that MSMS being in Starkville would, despite the large college environment, be much safer than Columbus. I never had faith that the bill would pass especially with the fact that MSMS would be a part of the Starkville school district. All in all, staying at the W is not the worst thing that could have happened so my opinion on the matter is not that strong.
I feel like the reason why MSMS has the close-knit bond it has is the direct result of being on the MUW campus. The culture of MSU and MUW is VERY different. There are tons more people. In a slightly faster-paced city, with less concentration on groups of students. There nothing wrong with moving a school that has out grown a place. Though moving MSMS to MUW is the uncertainty. Such a decision should not be made so abruptly. Columbus is not the safest, though Starkville is not better just because it is busy and MSU has way more money. There are also so many more things that can distract students. In high school, students are very likely to try things that are not in their benefit, though we still do it just because we dont know better until after the fact or some people do things just because why not?
I think the bill wasa disruption to MSMS and not a real representation of what we feel, with MSMS working hard to preserve what we have and renovating the dorms and doing several things to improve the student life, it feels off when a senate bill that is INTRODUCED is coming in and taking over the work that is being done to the school to improve it at the best of the admin and staff ability.
From listening to some of my close peers and father I feel as though this bill, had it gone through, would have not been beneficial for the future of MSMS as a whole. Students seem to have a lack of interest in this move, they believe it would either dampen the educational integrity of the school as well as the safety. I too believe that I feel safer where the school is now compared to if it were on MSU campus. MSU is a much larger and much more prevalent party culture than MUW as well as a much larger campus and student body; this leaves room for more unsupervised students from both schools. This could lead to much more conflict than good; the school would become a lot stricter effectively taking away the main purpose of this school that many students attend for which is independence. It could also lead to many incidents happening that simply would not happen on a small campus like MUW such as, harassment, student endangerment, underage drug/alcohol use, and violence. Overall, I do not believe that this move would have been beneficial for our school, and I am quite glad it died.
I think that a move to MSU could be really great for MSMS as a school. I think many parents would feel better about sending their kids to a town where they likely know people and have someone they could go to for help if anything ever happened and that is generally considered safer than Columbus. I think moving to MSU would have a lot of short term negatives, many of them based on misconceptions and concerns of parents, but the long term benefits would be greater. There would be more opportunities for MSMS to grow as a school, more research and mentorship opportunities for students, more faculty and staff willing to work with MSMS students available, (assuming a move also indicates more funding) better living conditions for students and better facilities overall (also assuming we would share at least a little bit with MSU). From a purely student and non-financial perspective, a move to MSU would be the best for MSMS in the long run.
This almost feels like one of those ‘careful what you wish for’ parables. We begged for more funding and new facilities and the legislature said, “Ok! This is our solution! Two birds with one stone!” It almost feels like this bill was made without speaking to anyone who has actually attended MSMS or anyone who has ever attended MSMS. A move to Starkville, yes we MIGHT get new facilities, but at what cost? It would be at the cost of admissions, it would be at the cost of dissolution of the current administration system, it would be at the cost of everything that makes MSMS…MSMS. I’ll never understand why the legislature wants to defund the best-performing school in the state so badly. Yes, Starkville High School could use better facilities…..so could every other public school in the state. Yes, gifted students of MSMS could encourage Starkville High School students. Respectfully, that is not our responsibility. We don’t need to move to MSU, we just need the mold out of our showers. We don’t need to move to MSU, we just need a fair amount of money compared to our sister STEM schools. MSMS does not receive local funding. A move to MSU is drastic and unnecessary. If I were my mom, I would not send my children to MSU when they were 15.
I can see the concern with moving to MSU. I even had a lot of responses to the matter making me able to see both sides and the concerns with both. It is a concern for college students already at MSU for the forming issues that are already occurring, and the matter of adding even more people to their numbers. My opinion on it is that the students of MSMS would have a better res life and to address certain safety concerns. As we currently rent dorms from MUW they seem not to be doing the up keep that is needed for students to be safe, a great example is having had two carbon monoxide scares in Goen alone. As well as the city we currently live in is unsafe as well. I would agree with moving for the safety concerns, but I also know that moving would mean a lot of change and something MSMS might not be able to survive such change.