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MC Founder's Day Celebrates School History


Mississippi’s 200th anniversary celebrates the state’s accomplishments, history, culture, educational institutions, food and much more.

Efforts include festivities booked in Jackson, Gulfport, Oxford and other towns around the Magnolia State. The Gulfport Bicentennial Plaza will host a blitz of activities March 30 to April 2.

A parade of events in big cities and small towns will occur for months leading up to Mississippi’s Statehood Day on December 10, 2017.

Mississippi College, the state’s oldest institution of higher learning, trumpets a rich history of its own dating back to 1826. MC officials announced plans to showcase the Baptist-affiliated school’s creation early in 2017.

Trumpeting MC’s birth more than 190 years ago, university leaders will mark the occasion at a special Founder’s Day convocation. The program is set for January 31 at First Baptist Church Clinton.

Cindy Townsend, a longtime Mississippi Baptist leader who serves as executive director-treasurer of the Woman’s Missionary Union, will serve as guest speaker. The MC graduate will address hundreds of students about the role of missions around the globe. On mission trips, MC students impact scores of nations around the world. MC also serves as the home of more than 400 international students.

The 10:50 a.m. chapel program at the church sanctuary is expected to attract MC faculty and staff members, religious leaders and members of the metro Jackson community. Coffee and cake is expected to be served to MC family members at the B.C. Rogers Student Center around noon following Townsend’s remarks.

In 2015-16, MC officials spotlighted the institution’s 190th birthday. Events included a series of lectures, theatre performances and Festival of Lights performances that aired statewide on Mississippi Public Broadcasting stations in December.

America’s second oldest Baptist college, Mississippi College struggled mightily, but managed to keep its doors open during the Civil War.

That Civil War era history remains in plain sight on the Clinton campus. MC’s oldest building, Provine Chapel once served as a hospital for the wounded troops of Northern General Ulysses S. Grant soon after it was completed in 1860. MC survived despite severe economic hardships during the Great Depression of 1929 that lingered into the 1930s. The Christian university saw enrollment expand and its financial picture brighten following World War II. Many ex-soldiers enrolled at American colleges, including MC, under the G.I. Bill.

Other facets of Mississippi College growth in the modern era included the creation of the MC School of Law in downtown Jackson. MC Law celebrated its 40th anniversary last year.

Today, Mississippi College enrolls 5,133 students to make it the largest private university in the state. That’s a dramatic uptick from the 3,300 students enrolled in the Fall of 2002 soon after President Lee Royce became the school’s leader. In September 2016, “U.S. News & World Report” gave MC a ranking of 31st best among the South’s regional universities. Other surveys such as “Christian Universities Online” rate MC’s online MBA Program the Best Value among Christian colleges in the United States.

The Mississippi Bicentennial will be a great opportunity for the state’s to brag about sports heroes like Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Eli Manning and Brett Favre, and literary giants like William Faulkner and Eudora Welty. The “Who’s Who” of Mississippi includes entertainment icons like Elvis Presley, B.B. King and Charley Pride.

Leaders like Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, House Speaker Philip Gunn of Clinton are working with the Mississippi Development Authority and other agencies to make the Mississippi Bicentennial an unforgettable event.

Grants of $1.6 million will be split between Jackson, Oxford and Gulfport for the three major Bicentennial events. Other towns may also apply for state funds to plan activities throughout 2017.