{"id":59,"date":"2026-09-30T20:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T20:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citizens1.wpenginepowered.com\/?page_id=59"},"modified":"2026-10-01T03:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T03:43:10","slug":"timeline-of-events","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/citizens4columbus.com\/?page_id=59","title":{"rendered":"Timeline of Events"},"content":{"rendered":"<nav style=\"--separator: &quot;\/&quot;\" class=\"alignwide wp-block-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumbs\"><ol><li><a href=\"https:\/\/citizens4columbus.com\/\">Home<\/a><\/li><li><span aria-current=\"page\">Timeline of Events<\/span><\/li><\/ol><\/nav>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>1884<\/strong> &#8211;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/about\/history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> MUW established<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>1987<\/strong> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/themsms.org\/about\/history-of-msms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MSMS established<\/a> on the campus of MUW. The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors gave MUW $1.5 million to renovate the facilities the newly created school would need to operate. No new buildings were built for MSMS.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Nov, 2002<\/strong> &#8211; a tornado causes severe damage to several buildings on the MUW campus, including both of the dorms MSMS students were then occupying (Fant and Peyton), requiring MSMS students to move to Goen and Frazer, where they are still housed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>2016<\/strong> &#8211; Low funding means MSMS will accept fewer students. <a href=\"https:\/\/cdispatch.com\/news\/funding-leads-to-fewer-msms-students-next-year\/\">https:\/\/cdispatch.com\/news\/funding-leads-to-fewer-msms-students-next-year\/<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Sept, 2023<\/strong> &#8211; Donnie Cook is fired after 15 months as MSMS Executive Director reportedly for his attempts to discuss moving MSMS to MSU with the MSMS Advisory Board. <a href=\"https:\/\/cdispatch.com\/news\/msms-director-donnie-cook-fired-friday\/\">https:\/\/cdispatch.com\/news\/msms-director-donnie-cook-fired-friday\/<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>February, 2024<\/strong> &#8211; Bill\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/billstatus.ls.state.ms.us\/documents\/2024\/pdf\/SB\/2700-2799\/SB2715IN.pdf\">SB 2715<\/a>, sponsored by District 43 Sen. Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, would direct the State Board of Education to develop a plan to relocate the school by the 2026-2027 school year. The bill was referred to the Senate Education Committee, which DeBar chairs. Bill dies in committee.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>March, 2025<\/strong> &#8211; Senator DeBar proposes a substitute bill that would transfer control of MUW to MSU. Bill dies in committee.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>February, 2025<\/strong> &#8211; MDE requests proposals from <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1MMEq_vHIWsUAxTfA6N5Sr7krVv8X5ola\/view?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MUW<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1w2SSC436N6jV_QYdKhjdbDcHOt5ZqZUZ\/view?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MSU<\/a> detailing what hosting MSMS on their campuses would look like.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>March, 2025<\/strong> &#8211; MDE votes to accept the MSU proposal and move MSMS to Starkville, despite overwhelming public comment against the move.  <a href=\"https:\/\/cdispatch.com\/news\/area\/state-board-recommends-msms-move-to-msu\/\">https:\/\/cdispatch.com\/news\/area\/state-board-recommends-msms-move-to-msu\/<\/a> Legislature to date has failed to act on this request.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>March, 2025 <\/strong>&#8211; MUW raises fees charged to MSMS by over 300% after years of covering costs on behalf of MSMS. <a href=\"https:\/\/cdispatch.com\/news\/muw-raising-fees-on-msms-to-1-3m-reflects-actual-cost\/\">https:\/\/cdispatch.com\/news\/muw-raising-fees-on-msms-to-1-3m-reflects-actual-cost\/<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Jan, 2026<\/strong> &#8211; Nora Miller announces her intention to step down as MUW president at the end of June.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>April, 2026<\/strong> &#8211; MS Legislature awards MUW $11.5M to renovate Pohl Gym (which was last used as an MSMS recreational building) and $1M to MSMS for preplanning of renovations to the Hooper academic building. <a href=\"https:\/\/cdispatch.com\/news\/state-funds-muw-historic-renovation-msms-upgrades\/\">https:\/\/cdispatch.com\/news\/state-funds-muw-historic-renovation-msms-upgrades\/<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Sept, 2026<\/strong> &#8211; IHL creates a committee to search for a new MUW president. <a href=\"https:\/\/cdispatch.com\/news\/committee-aims-to-find-muws-next-president-by-spring-2027-2\/\">https:\/\/cdispatch.com\/news\/committee-aims-to-find-muws-next-president-by-spring-2027-2\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-59","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizens4columbus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizens4columbus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizens4columbus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizens4columbus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizens4columbus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/citizens4columbus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"https:\/\/citizens4columbus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/59\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizens4columbus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}