USM Coast campus serves a need

By By William F. West / community editor
June 25, 2002
University of Southern Mississippi President Shelby Thames made clear that his university's Hattiesburg and Mississippi Gulf Coast campuses will continue to function as a dual system.
Thames said USM plans to have the same quality of education, faculty and administrators at the Gulf Park Campus in Long Beach as it does at the university's main campus in Hattiesburg.
The state Supreme Court earlier this year gave USM permission to move forward with Gulf Park expansion. The court ruling overturned a 1972 law that allowed community colleges to veto university campus expansions.
Coast leaders and USM officials have been working for more than five years to turn the Gulf Park Campus into a full-fledged, four-year, degree-granting branch campus.
Until now, Gulf Park like most state university branches, including Mississippi State University-Meridian Campus has offered a limited number of courses for juniors, seniors and graduate students.
Thames also said it is important for USM to bolster its image in central and north Mississippi.
Thames said he'd like to compete for students in neighboring Alabama and Louisiana.