FEATURE STORY

Tom Meredith is man for the job
Educator enjoys a favorable national reputation
By C. Richard Cotton
DBJ Contributing Writer

Ask anyone in the business of governing higher education in Mississippi and you’re likely to get the same answer: Tom Meredith is the right man to lead the state’s universities to better times.
Commissioner of Higher Education for the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) for the past four years, Meredith is the go-to guy for what is happening with the eight universities in the state system. IHL is in charge of Delta State University, Mississippi Valley State University, University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, University of Southern Mississippi, Alcorn State University, Jackson State University and Mississippi University for Women.
“We have eight very good, well-run institutions in Mississippi, with good heads of those doing a good job,” says Meredith.
But even though the Kentucky native is bullish on the state’s universities, he’s also quick to point out that there are problems, both on the horizon and already here. And as repetitive as it may sound, the solution to most of the problems is found in one commodity: Money.
Rising costs affect not only consumers, who are reeling from rising gasoline prices and other increases in virtually every part of their lives, from groceries to utilities. State universities are not immune to rising costs in the same areas.
Meredith reports that the eight schools are seeing staggering increases: “Utilities alone have gone up $26 million.” That’s an increase in utility costs, above and beyond the millions of dollars already paid to light, heat and cool the institutions.
“That has driven increases in tuition,” says Meredith. “It’s not something we want to do but we have no alternative.”
He points out that the universities are not sitting on their laurels as prices rise: “They have instituted cost-saving initiatives on their own.”
Delta State University, for example, “is just finishing an energy audit that could eventually save $300,000 per year.” But Meredith knows that cost-saving can only go so far in meeting funds deficits.
Teacher pay in the universities is $8,600 below the average in the Southeast, but that disparity is not limited to universities. Pay in the community colleges, which have their own governing agency, is $3,500 below the southeastern average. Public schools – kindergarten through 12th grade and also under their own agency – pay $5,500 less than the average in the region.
Meredith says the pay disparity is a problem for recruiting but, somewhat ironically, it also is yet another bonding factor for the three education agencies. All of them, notes Meredith, suffer from funding problems.
And all of them show up at the State Capitol, looking for their share of the pie, a pie that is, at best, not increasing and, at worst, steadily shrinking as state revenues are spent in other arenas, such as health services and financing industry relocations.
Meredith refuses to enumerate areas where he thinks state expenditures could be reduced and instead added to education funding. He doesn’t, however, hold his tongue when he ruminates on the funding process.
“The state loses when (education agencies) are split up and made to compete with each other,” Meredith comments about the practice of public, community and higher education lobbying separately for funding. “The public loses.”
He suggests that “the state has to decide what the top priorities are.” Education, he says, should be at or near the top of that list because its benefits to society – ranging from a healthier population to a higher-earning workforce – are manifold.
Meredith has no lack of support within the 12-member IHL Board of Trustees. President of that group, Dr. Stacy Davidson of Cleveland, says the board supports Meredith’s efforts, one of which is to ally with public schools and community colleges to work together to secure increased funding from the state legislature.
“It’s important to go to Jackson as one entity,” says Davidson.
On the subject of Meredith himself, Davidson says: “I can talk about Tom Meredith from here to dark. We, as a board, don’t agree 100 percent with him but we work our disagreements out.” He credits Meredith’s former positions over university systems in Alabama and Georgia as a big plus for Mississippi; he has wide experience and a nationally recognized reputation.
Meredith earned his master’s and doctorate from the University of Mississippi, where he also met his wife Susan, a native of Booneville. They have two sons; Mark is serving a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville, while Matthew practices law in Dallas.
Meredith takes a low-key approach to his dealings with the board and others who influence and decide what will become of the state’s universities. About one thing, however, he is dead sure: “The future of Mississippi rests with its universities.” DBJ



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