re: MS baws, tell me about Delta State University

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Cleveland is an underrated town in the Mississippi Delta, which is a place filled with history and great people. People from all over the world visit the area because of the Blues history.

Delta State has struggled with an identity crisis driven by poor leadership. The most recent president, a former DC lobbyist, tried to pull the school hard left.

Even blacks in the Delta are socially conservative.

Your friend needs to look at the things that worked in the 80s and 90s. The school needs a giant recruiting overhaul. It needs to tell its story. In the 1990s, Delta State was considered the best public institution value in the nation. Good academics, athletics and social life.

It also needs to emphasize agriculture as a curriculum more to keep Delta kids in the Delta. It needs to embrace what farming looks like in the future as well as agronomics. That resides at MSU now. Delta State needs to have offerings too.

He has a job ahead of him, but it can be a great place.

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As a 2010 DSU business grad, exactly all of this. Specifically, the bold part.

It’s a good school, or was. I graduated on the tail end of its good run. I wouldn’t know much about it anymore, other than the previous administration was a cluster frick and they’ll have a decent act at the Performing Arts Center occasionally. The contact with alumni is few and far between if you don’t still live in Cleveland. There’s a little group in Jackson and Memphis, but I didn’t even know until recently that our town has alumni events. Only reason I knew that was somebody at church told me.

I mean, I grew up in the delta, am a farmer, and my wife and I own a business in the delta. We’re not like out seeking other DSU people, but shite, maybe the school should try to reach us every now and then since we’re actually here (in the delta, not Cleveland) and are making a go of it. I have never received a single piece of mail intended for alumni, and have to seek out any info on how the school is actually doing, what the sports teams are up to, etc.

I think the business school kind of shot its wad because there was so much emphasis on international business, and they were really hoping the casino thing would take off when I was there, but I don’t really remember a whole lot taught about how to run a local business in the delta. It’s like they don’t know there are hundreds of thousands of acres generating $800-1500/acre of gross dollars in their backyard, and then there’s all these other types of businesses that are servicing these acres. Hell, the MSU research farm is like 30 miles from DSU, and there’s at least 4 other corporate research farms the same distance.