Institution
The university's primary mission is "to cultivate intellectual development and creativity through the generation, dissemination, application, and preservation of knowledge." Southern Miss is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and its programs are fully accredited by 30 state and national agencies.
Southern Miss offers approximately 189 programs leading to baccalaureate, master’s, specialist, and doctorate degrees. A faculty of about 715 serves 17,968 students according to school numbers for Fall 2011. Southern Miss has traditionally drawn many of its students from Mississippi schools and community colleges, hailing from every county in Mississippi, though today the majority of undergraduates come from public schools across the southern United States and around the globe. The University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra has more than 90 members (including undergraduate and graduate students) from the United States and 14 other countries.
The University of Southern Mississippi offers more than 250 clubs and organizations, as well as intramural athletics and special events. Student organizations at Southern Miss include the Student Government Association, The Legacy, The Student Printz (the biweekly student-produced newspaper), The Southerner (the yearbook), Southern Style (the university's student orientation team), national fraternities and sororities, honor societies, and various religious organizations. Southern Miss has more than 300 cultural events every year. In addition, the school participates in the NCAA's Division I-A, and Conference USA featuring year-round athletics in 16 sports.
The institution's strengths include its large research endowment, its emphasis on accreditation at the departmental and college levels, its respected music and art programs, and its athletic prowess. Several degree programs at the university rank among the best of their kind in the nation. The New York Times Book Review rates the university's Center for Writers as one of the Top 10 in the country, and the Polymer Science and Engineering department is consistently ranked among the nation's top 10 by U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report also included the university on a list for “Most Popular Universities”. It is the only school in Mississippi included in this listing which makes it Mississippi's Most Popular University. The School of Communications is ranked among the top ten programs in the nation, according to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and Southern Miss is one of only one percent of business schools in the nation accredited in both business and accounting by the AACSB International Association for Management Education.
Dr. Martha Dunagin Saunders, a 1969 graduate of USM, was selected as the ninth president of the university in April 2007, giving her the distinction of becoming the first woman to hold that post..
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Famous quotes containing the word institution:
“The sick man is taken away by the institution that takes charge not of the individual, but of his illness, an isolated object transformed or eliminated by technicians devoted to the defense of health the way others are attached to the defense of law and order or tidiness.”
—Michel de Certeau (1925–1986)
“... an institution cannot be run progressively on a basis of fear.”
—Mary B. Harris (1874–1957)
“When God desires to destroy a thing, he entrusts its destruction to the thing itself. Every bad institution of this world ends by suicide.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)