MSMS 20 year celebration, Part 3

Friday, continued (Friday was a really long day!)
At the Alumni Meet and Greet/Open Forum, Mr. Brown and all the other members of the administration got up and gave brief (and some not so brief!) updates on the state of the school. A lot of the current administration is new, but they really impressed me with their enthusiasm for the students and, dare I say it, the alumni. After the admins were done, Aubrey gave sort of a then and now speech, since he's been around to see all the changes. Then Orlando Hill, class of 1999, showed up and gave an update on the newly elected Board from the Alumni Association. The only other board member in attendance was Jeremy Crawford, class of 2004. When they opened the floor for alumni to air their concerns, Jennie immediately got up and hung all the laundry out to dry. I mean, as well as she did on her first speech, this one was equally as impressive. I think you all know what she got up and said, so I won't rehash it here. But girlfriend threw down.

And, quite unexpectedly, Mr. Brown addressed our concerns, even agreeing with most if not all of them. I really believe that they are working to get things straightened out, so that the school can reap the benefits. It's my impression that there was a lot of inaction and apathy for the last few years, so they already were in a pretty undesirable position to begin with. Throw in what the legislature did to them, and it was a disaster. They WANT alumni input/feedback - I think Mr. Brown would have talked to Jennie and me nonstop for the entire weekend if we had allowed it. We ended up going to his office after the meeting and writing a few checks. It felt good to actually do something to help, outside of the Foundation.

I feel significantly better about my hopes for MSMS administration that wants to involve alumni. He wanted to know what they could do for us, as far as reunions and whatnot go - I told him that we are pretty comfortable with doing reunions on our own, but that I felt that the school should host a Homecoming type event every single year at the same time of the year. Something that people can count on and plan for when they're able to. If they can get the alumni on campus and give them a weekend like they just did (or even better - with actual food at the picnic!), the alumni will start to respond. Jennie kept reiterating that they needed to be patient, because there have been many years of neglect, but that eventually people will most likely come around.

So after that, we ran into a group of class of 2005, including the MSU blog guy, so we stopped and chatted for a good while. I enjoyed hearing their stories. So similar, yet so different. They kept us out way too late (um, 11:30pm or so? LOL!). I don't think MSMS had even had curfew yet by the time we were heading back to the hotels.

Saturday
We planned to meet at Hooper for the Emissary tour that started at 10:30am. Of course, they had the Emissary tours departing from the tent out on the lawn that used to be Simmons, so we had to track them down and join a few minutes late. We toured most of the places we had already seen - Hogarth Dining Center, Hogarth Student Union, Shackleford, Performing Arts Studio - but we got to go into the 2 dorms that they use now, Goen and Frazer. After that, we went in the new MUW Stark Recreation Center, which was built to replace Pohl Gym that was destroyed in the tornado a few years ago. Side note: Peyton Hall was significantly damaged in that tornado resulting in a pretty quick move-out, and Fant sustained some damage that eventually resulted in MSMS leaving it behind after a couple of years had passed. The new rec center is fantastic, and MSMS has free use of it. Apparently, the activities center right in front of Fant that we used isn't habitable anymore either. Props to the W for having so many spare buildings around for us. LOL!

After the tour, we went to the tent for the picnic events. The Alumni Association provided soft drinks and ice cream, so they are actually collecting some dues now. We got to meet and chat with Patti Vizzini, the President of the PLUS organization. She was also quite impressive. She really wants to reach out to alumni for help. She helped start up a Needs/Wants/Wishes list from the faculty and students that she hopes she can get into the hands of alumni to get fulfilled. Her daughter is class of 2006 (we met her on Friday night), and her son is class of 2009 I think. We also got to meet another person on the Board of the AA - Ginger Tedder, class of 1992.

Then we went over to Hooper again - Mississippi Public Broadcasting is putting together a documentary on MSMS, with the help of Mr. (I mean Dr.) McCaleb. They had cameras set up in Mr. Carter's room to film individual people telling their stories. Mr. Brown has the intent to buy a similar camera, so that they can do some of their own filming for the documentary. Jennie and I gave our testimony, and I'm convinced that mine sounded not-so-interesting. Then we were both headed out of town.

Overall, it was a very busy, very successful weekend. I have hope, yet again, that things might get on the right track. All I can do is keep my ear to the ground and wait and see what develops. I really hope that I am pleasantly surprised, like I was this weekend.


P.S. - Cameron is doing fine. Still has mono. Bloodwork was normal. They told us that the headaches and nosebleeds are normal and gave us some things to do to help prevent them. 2 more weeks until she can resume physical activity (like soccer practice, which starts this week!).