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Contact: James Carskadon

������Ƶ President Mark E. Keenum took the helm as president of the Mississippi Association of Colleges and Universities during the organization’s annual conference on Tuesday [Oct. 11].

As president, Keenum will lead MAC for the next year. The organization promotes goodwill among Mississippi’s colleges and universities and works to stimulate academic and professional cooperation. In addition to Keenum leading the association, MSU will host the 2017 MAC Annual Conference.

“I am honored to serve as the next MAC president, and all of us at ������Ƶ are looking forward to hosting the 2017 annual conference on our Starkville campus next fall,” Keenum said.

MSU was also recognized Tuesday for having the highest student-athlete graduation rate (87 percent) over five years in MAC’s Public University Division during the Halbrook Awards Program.

The president’s gavel was passed to Keenum at the end of the 2016 conference, which was held in Natchez and hosted by Copiah-Lincoln Community College. Ronald E. Nettles, Co-Lin Community College president, has led MAC for the past year and will now serve as immediate past president of the organization.

Program sessions at the 2016 MAC Annual Conference focused on student completion, leadership in higher education and successful student initiatives, among other topics. Keenum said he looks forward to working with Mississippi’s higher education leaders to solve issues facing the state.

“Higher education in our state faces a number of challenges,” Keenum said. “But, whatever the challenges we face, I believe that by working together we can solve them — or, in the very least, make them better. Of course, that’s what the members of the Mississippi Association of Colleges have been doing since MAC’s founding in 1921: working together.”

The MAC consists of public and private two-year and four-year institutions. More information can be found at .

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at .