- The IHL Board also elected Dr. Steven Cunningham of Hattiesburg to serve as its Vice President.
Six new degree paths and a center to assist with Mississippi’s teacher shortage were created by the Board of Trustees for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning during Thursday’s meeting.
The IHL Board also elected Dr. Steven Cunningham as its new vice president.
New VP
Cunningham became part of the IHL Board in May 2018, representing the 2nd Supreme Court District. He was appointed by former Governor Phil Bryant.
His term runs until May 2027.
Cunningham is a board-certified diagnostic radiologist and current president of the Comprehensive Radiology Services PLLC in Hattiesburg. A native of Columbus, he has been a Hattiesburg resident for the past 11 years.
New MCARE Center at USM
Before electing their new vice president, the IHL Board approved the creation of a new center at the University of Southern Mississippi aimed at addressing Mississippi’s ongoing teacher shortage.
USM’s Mississippi Center for Apprenticeships and Resident Education (MCARE) seeks to provide access to career advancement in education fields. MCARE will create a teacher residency program and teacher apprenticeships.
“The state of Mississippi is experiencing a daunting teacher shortage that if left unaddressed will impact students for years to come,” Associate Commissioner for Academic and Student Affairs Dr. Casey Prestwood said while presenting the item to the Board.
The center will be placed under the College of Education and Human Sciences and will cost $2 million annually. The funding, the Board was told, will come from the U.S. Department of Education, Americorps, and U.S Department of Labor.
New Degree Paths
The IHL Board also approved several new degree paths are state institutions of higher learning.
The University of Mississippi was approved to begin offering the Master of Arts in Teaching in Elementary Education. Housed under the School of Education, this online degree program will allow those who hold a bachelor’s degree in fields other than education to not only earn a K-6 teaching license, but also a master’s degree at the same time.
“This program emphasizes a strong foundation in lesson planning, classroom management, special education, literacy instruction and stem methods,” Prestwood said.
The degree path will also offer hands on practice-based learning and meet the state’s teaching licensing requirements.
The five-year cost to implement this program will be $436,345 while bringing some $1.4 million in revenue within those five years.
Similar degree paths can be found at Alcorn State, Delta State, Jackson State, Mississippi State, USM, Belhaven, and William Carey University.
Higher education leaders hope that by offering this 33-hour degree path it will help the state further address the ongoing teacher shortage.
During the 2023-2024 school year, the Mississippi Department of Education reported 2,775 teaching vacancies statewide, of which 815 were elementary teaching positions. Prestwood said the rise in teaching shortages has not been stemmed by the teacher pay raises approved by the Legislature in recent years.
Also at the University of Mississippi, the College of Liberal Arts will now offer the Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies. This 120-hour degree will take an interdisciplinary approach to educating students on environmental issues such as the political, social, and psychological dimensions of human interactions with the environment. It will also focus on the science of the ecological system and cover environmental change. While working on the degree, students will learn about the role of the environment in human history, philosophy, religion, culture and art, Prestwood said.
The anticipated five-year cost to implement the program is $37,500, and it is expected to generate $693,900 in revenue over five years. No similar programs are currently offered in Mississippi.
The Board was informed that this degree path provides a variety of career opportunities, from Conservation Scientist ($68,000 to $79,000), Law and Public Policy ($145,000), Urban and Regional Planning ($79,000) and even education ($50,000).
“Students majoring in environmental studies will have the opportunity to specialize in the natural sciences, social sciences, or humanities and will gain hands on experience in an environmental field or an environmental research through the required internship,” Prestwood described.
Ole Miss will also now offer the Bachelor of Arts in Sports Management, which will be housed under the institution’s School of Applied Sciences, Department of Health, Exercise Science and Recreation Management. Prestwood said the new degree path will feature a curriculum better aligned to ensure graduates are ready for a job in the sports industry.
“The new Sport Management degrees will be a 120-degree program that offers a dynamic curriculum that will attract more students and better prepare graduates for the highly competitive sport industry,” Prestwood described.
It will replace the Sports and Recreation Administration degree, which is being phased out over five years due to declining interest. The change is being made given that 95 percent of students working on a Sports and Recreation Administration degree indicated more interest in learning about sport management and administration rather than recreation since the current curriculum has a heavy focus on parks and leisure activities.
There are similar programs offered at Alcorn State, Mississippi State, and USM. Prestwood said the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects growth in the field to be about 12 percent within five years.
In the area of cybersecurity, Southern Miss will now be able to offer the Master of Education in Information Technology and Cybersecurity Management. It will be housed under the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering. With a five-year cost of implementation expected to be $322,670, the potential revenue over that period is anticipated to be $876,645.
This online degree program will prepare graduates to protect critical IT systems and infrastructures, education officials said. There is no other Mississippi IHL institution with a similar program.
Occupations within the field of informational technology were expected see a 15 percent growth from 2021 until 2031. The average median wage for someone in this field was $97,000 in 2021.
The IHL Board also approved changes to two other USM degree paths for students struggling to complete their doctorate in nursing degree. The Master of Science in Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner degree and Master of Science in Nursing in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing will be housed under the College of Nursing and Health Professions, School of Leadership and Advanced Nursing Practice. These degree paths will allow students seeking a Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree in those areas to move to a master’s degree capable of providing job placement if they find the path to the DNP degree to be out of reach for whatever reason.
