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A Mississippi bill that would close three unidentified state colleges or universities essentially died in a state Senate committee Monday, but a new measure emerged that could have similar effects.
The committee’s chair, Senator Nicole Boyd, a Republican, told fellow committee members she does not intend to bring the original legislation—Senate Bill 2726—forward at this time.
If passed, the bill would have required the Institutions of Higher Learning, a statewide governing board for Mississippi’s eight public universities, to choose the three institutions based on factors such as enrollment, degree attainment, federal aid, tuition rates and local economic impact.
Two of the state’s three historically Black universities, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State, as well as Mississippi University for Women, a historically single-gender institution that has been trying (and failing) to rebrand itself to boost coeducational enrollment, could have been up for potential shuttering.
Some lawmakers have said mention of the HBCUs as being considered for closure was an example of “misinformation” from the news media, but based on enrollment statistics it is likely they would have been considered.
The sponsor of the bill, Senator John Polk, a Republican, seemed relieved by his bill’s death. “Please, everyone, get that message out: The chair has killed my bill,” Polk said during the meeting. “That way I can sleep at night.”
But Boyd introduced another piece of legislation—Senate Bill 2725—that wouldn't mandate any closures but would require a task force to conduct a similar review.
“This bill is about us taking a look, which we haven’t done in a while … at what is going on with our universities and colleges,” Boyd said.
SB 2725 passed the committee and will now be presented to the full Senate for a vote.
