Thirteen graduate students were inducted into the public administration honorary, Pi Alpha Alpha in the Spring 2005 semester. The induction was held on Friday, April 29 at noon in the M Club of the Stadium. All students inducted have completed at least 21 hours of our graduate MPPA classes and have a grade point average of at least 3.7.
The students inducted were:
The guest speaker, who was also honored by being named an honorary member, was Secretary of State Eric Clark. Clark is in his third term as Mississippi's Secretary of State, and he holds a PhD in History from MSU. Clark talked about the importance of pursuing the public service in any government job, and how government employees should not gratify their ego or glorify themselves. Clark stressed two important passages in the Christian Bible that mentioned being a servant, and loving your neighbor as yourself. Clark has made the Secretary of State's office a user-friendly agency, as he strives to be a solution to people's problems instead of part of the problem. He said that many citizens have a bad image of a government worker, so public employees should never be rude, and should always help people with their problems, even going to great lengths to connect them with the more appropriate agency to call to solve their problems. He has been active in many areas, such as helping businesses create corporate charters in Mississippi and implementing the Help America Vote law which is improving our elections.