By Allen Snow
Photos by Fred Faulk

An interview with Dr. Zacharias
Construction and renovation projects under Dr. Zacharias

s the institution's first president, Lee prepared Mississippi A&M College and its students for the promises and challenges of the 20th century. Zacharias, by all standards, has prepared Mississippi State University for the 21st century. Zacharias' tenure has brought to the university dramatic growth in enrollment, private contributions, research activity, and athletic success.

During his presidency, enrollment has increased to more than 15,000, the largest in the state, and African-American enrollment has expanded by two-thirds, to 15 percent of the student body.

Private support for the university has taken a quantum leap, from annual contributions of $4 million in 1985 to more than $42 million in gifts and pledges last year. The recently completed Campaign for Mississippi State, the first comprehensive major gifts drive in university history, tallied commitments of $143 million.

Unparalleled construction and renovation of existing structures has vastly improved the university's ability to serve its students and other constituencies, and $100 million of new construction and major renovation is under way or about to begin on campus.

Research has reached new heights under Zacharias' leadership, with external contracts and grants totaling as much as $80 million in a year, and support continues at levels more than twice as high as when he arrived in 1985.

Mississippi State's athletes have enjoyed greater success during his tenure than at any other time, both on the field and in the classroom. The basketball team's trip to the NCAA Final Four in 1996, the baseball team's World Series appearance in 1997, bowl games for the football team, and vastly expanded programs for women's athletics are among the highlights. No less an accomplishment is the academic success of the university's athletes in recent years. Football team members have tallied a graduation rate of 70 percent for six consecutive years, placing them near the top among big college football programs. In recent years, four Bulldog athletes have been named SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

These accomplishments among others have greatly contributed to the university's expanding visibility and recognition, both regionally and nationally, as a premier institution of higher learning.

A native of Salem, Ind., Zacharias in 1957 graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown College in Kentucky. He went on to Indiana University, where he earned a master's degree in 1959 and a doctorate in communication in 1963. For the next six years, he taught at Indiana.

In 1969, he joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, attaining the rank of full professor in 1972. His evident leadership skills led to his being named assistant to the president in 1974 and, in 1978, executive assistant to the chancellor of the statewide University of Texas System that included 14 campuses.

In 1979, he was named president at Western Kentucky University, where he quickly distinguished himself by helping the university raise academic standards, develop a strategic plan, and establish its first comprehensive development program. In 1985, he was selected as Mississippi State's 15th chief executive.

From the beginning of his presidency, Zacharias has been Mississippi's leading spokesman for higher education and has been active in national higher education circles. He has served as a member of the executive committee and the steering committee of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and as a member of the organization's Commission on Food, Environment, and Renewable Resources. He also has been a member of the Commission on Arts and Sciences and the Subcommittee on Federal Student Financial Assistance.

He has previously served as a member of the National Agribusiness Education Commission, and was president of the Southeastern Conference for intercollegiate athletics in 1990. In 1992, he received the Justin Smith Morrill Medal from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Higher Education.

Zacharias holds an honorary doctor of laws degree from Georgetown College for distinguished contributions to college administration. He is married to the former Tommie Kline Dekle, and they have three children, Alan, Eric, and Leslie.