- Dr. Mark Keenum is the institution’s 19th president, taking the reins of the university in January 2009.
The President of Mississippi State University has been contractually renewed for another four years by the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL).
According to minutes from the IHL meeting on May 16, Dr. Mark Keenum will continue to serve as President of Mississippi State University. He will receive “a state salary of $500,000 per year and a Mississippi State University Foundation salary supplement of $450,000 per year,” the IHL minutes outline.
The new contract starts on July 1, 2024.
When Keenum’s current contract ends this week, he will receive a retention payment of up to $800,000. Another retention payment of a maximum of $600,000 will be paid to Dr. Keenum when he completes his new contract, slated to end on June 30, 2028.
Dr. Keenum is the institution’s 19th president, taking the reins of the university in January 2009.
Bruce Martin, president of the IHL Board, called Keenum a “consistent, steady leader.”
“Dr. Mark Keenum has been a consistent, steady leader at Mississippi State University since 2009. His commitment to Mississippi State University for this many years is rare and very impressive in college presidents,” Martin said. “We are fortunate to have his leadership and I look forward to the many accomplishments he will generate in his service to students, facility, alumni, and the citizens of Mississippi.”
Under his leadership at the university, Mississippi State has seen record enrollment.
Mississippi State has completed or initiated capital improvements of $1.2 billion since 2009. Chief among these projects has been the $68 million expansion of Dudy Noble Field/Polk-DeMent Stadium, home to the school’s baseball program.
In addition, Phi Beta Kappa Society granted the university a chapter in 2018 and the university has been cited as generating graduates who earn higher-than-average starting salaries. Phi Beta Kappa is the country’s most prestigious honor society, with only 10 percent of colleges and universities in the nation being granted chapters.
The university has been ranked by the National Science Foundation as a top research institution. Mississippi State’s yearly research and development expenses total more than $320 million, according to information from MSU.
Sid Salter, Vice President for Strategic Communications for Mississippi State, told Magnolia Tribune that Dr. Keenum has been a transformational president.
“Dr. Mark Keenum has been a transformational president who has overseen record enrollment growth, record development of programs and facilities, and provided unprecedented leadership for the trajectory of Mississippi State University as our state’s premier research institution,” Salter said. “The university is extremely grateful to the State Board of Trustees of Institutions of Higher Learning for their confidence in Dr. Keenum’s visionary leadership and their unanimous decision to allow him to continue to ably serve MSU’s students, faculty, staff and alumni.”
As an alumnus of MSU, Dr. Keenum holds degrees in agricultural economics. He began his career at Mississippi State as an Extension Service faculty member in the 1980s and worked with the Department of Agricultural Economics from 1988-89. He previously served as chief of staff to U.S. Senator Thad Cochran from 1996 to 2006 and Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2006 to 2008.
Keenum has also served as president of the Southeastern Conference. During his two-year term, he led the SEC Executive Committee, and he continues to serve on the SEC’s Content Committee that oversees programming of the highly successful ESPN-SEC Network.
