A proposal to merge 2 universities fizzles in the Mississippi Senate

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A proposal to merge one of Mississippi’s smallest universities into one of its largest ones died Wednesday in the state Senate.

But the future of the small school, Mississippi University for Women, could still be endangered by a bill that senators passed Tuesday, which will go to the House for more work. It would create a group to study whether Mississippi should close some of its eight public universities.

Senate leaders have questioned whether the state can afford to keep all the universities open as population trends show that a decrease in birth rates has caused a drop in elementary and secondary school enrollment, which could lead to fewer students pursuing higher education in the coming years.

A bill that came out of the Senate Education Committee last week proposed merging MUW into nearby Mississippi State University. The committee chairman, Republican Sen. Dennis DeBar, offered a significant change when he brought the bill up for debate Wednesday in the full Senate.

DeBar’s amendment removed the merger proposal and replaced it with a proposal to have a legislative group examine the financial needs of MUW and the Mississippi School for Math and Science, a public high school that’s located on the MUW campus in Columbus. He said the group would be able to make recommendations to state leaders.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«READ MORE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> READ MORE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Mississippi University for Women urges legislators to keep the school open </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline