Points of Pride
Students
Mississippi State ranks among the top 100 institutions across the country in the number of bachelor's degrees awarded to African-Americans. The 2008 rankings list MSU fifth in the number of education baccalaureate degrees awarded to African-Americans.
The women's athletic program at Mississippi State again is being honored for having the highest graduation rate among all of the state's public universities. With 85 percent of its student-athletes completing degrees over the past year, the women's program recently received the David M. Halbrook Award for Academic Achievement. It holds the title for five of the past six years.
The MSU Cricket Club won the Bulldawg Championship Cricket Trophy for 2008.
The club defeated eight regional teams in the summer tournament, including Vanderbilt and Auburn universities, and the universities of Alabama in Huntsville, Mississippi and Tennessee.
A Mississippi State team is the victor over students from 13 other universities for a top prize of more than $10,000 in competition to navigate an unmanned radio-controllable aircraft system in a simulated combat zone. MSU's 17-member unmanned aircraft systems group--working under the title "Team Xipiter"--recently took the 2008 Best Flight Award of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. The MSU group also finished with the highest score ever logged in the event's six-year history.
Two undergraduate student teams with an interest in muscle foods took top honors during their first appearance at the American Meat Science Association Intercollegiate Quiz Bowl. The two MSU teams, a collaborative effort between the departments of animal and dairy sciences and food science, nutrition and health promotion, won first and second place among 20 collegiate teams from across the country.
MSU's student chapter of Pi Omega Pi consistently is included among the organization's national top 10 and was ranked fifth at the 2009 convention in Chicago.
For the second consecutive year, Mississippi State's ChallengeX team took first-place honors in student competition sponsored by General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy. The MSU group topped 16 others in May from universities in the United States and Canada, all seeking to re-engineer a sports utility vehicle with advanced technologies that improve fuel economy and lower emissions while maintaining driver comfort and vehicle performance. GM also announced that MSU will be participating in the next national design challenge. The automaker provided each team with a Chevrolet Equinox that employs advanced power-train technologies. The Bagley College of Engineering vehicle is an electric hybrid powered by a 1.9 liter GM direct injection turbo diesel engine fueled by B20 biodiesel. The Department of Housing and Residence Life provides homes to nearly 4,000 MSU students, including 100 percent of first-time freshmen.
A Mississippi State broadcast meteorology group took top honors in national competition. Know as the WxChallenge, the competition is considered by many to be the national championship of weather forecasting. The MSU team won first place in team, undergraduate, graduate, and faculty categories.
For the second consecutive year, a Mississippi State student team is the winner of a regional mathematics competition. The four-person group of university upperclassmen took first-place honors in a student challenge that was part of the Mathematical Association of America, Louisiana/Mississippi Section's 2008 meeting in spring 2008.
A compact robot designed and built by a Mississippi State team is the 2008 winner in student competition sponsored by the National Association of Industrial Technology. All members of the campus NAIT chapter, the 10-person group was among 11 university teams from around the United States involved in the challenge. The event was part of the association's 2008 convention and the first time MSU had entered the competition.
Professional Golf Management students have worked at more than 1,500 golf courses worldwide. The program has a 100 percent job placement rate following graduation.
The 47-member student chapter of the Society of American Foresters recently placed first nationally in the 2007-08 Web site competition and third place overall among outstanding campus chapters. The group has been atop the overall chapter rankings for the past nine years. This is the sixth year the student chapter has won first place in the Web site--www.cfr.msstate.edu--competition.
About 60 Mississippi State students are preparing to spend three years working to improve "their car" and, in the process, help shape the United States energy policy. MSU holds a special honor entering the 2009-12 event. For the last two years, the land-grant institution won first place in ChallengeX, a national four-year collegiate competition also sponsored by DOE and GM that focused on hybrid vehicle technology. So far, early tests show the prototype "EcoCAR" they're designing now will have a fuel economy reaching up to 100-miles-per gallon.
Based on responses from more than 1,700 randomly selected participants, Mississippi State students are engaged in service and learning activities at rates higher than the national averages. The annual National Survey of Student Engagement is designed to provide information about activities that educational institutions offer for learning and personal development. Launched in 1999 with support from the Pew Charitable Trusts, NSSE now is administered by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research.
A senior wildlife and fisheries major at Mississippi State is a national Barry M. Goldwater Scholar. Mitchell D. "Mitch" Weegman of Winona, Minn., is among nearly 280 university students being honored this year with the official U.S. tribute to the late former Arizona Republican senator and prominent American statesman. He is MSU's 12th Goldwater Scholar.
MSU has a thriving Greek Life community with more than 30 fraternities and sororities on campus.
