Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--The Mississippi State University Alumni Association is announcing the highest membership in its history.
Executive director Jimmy Abraham said Thursday [Jan. 21] the campus-based organization recently closed its 2009 books with an enrollment of nearly 37,470 active members.
The alumni association was founded in June 1885 by the first three graduating classes of then-Mississippi A&M College. Celebrating a 125th anniversary this year, it now includes 90 chapters throughout the United States--including 64 in Mississippi--and one in South Korea.
"It has been a banner year for the association, thanks to the thousands who care so strongly for an institution that means so much to them," said Abraham, also associate vice president for development.
"We are very appreciative of the overwhelming support that so many Mississippi State graduates and friends have shown to our university," he added.
MSU was created by the legislature in 1878. Opened as Mississippi A&M, it was renamed Mississippi State College in 1932, then changed to its current title in 1958. Enrollment this year is some 18,600.
For more on the MSUAA milestone, contact Dr. Abraham at 662-325-7000, or visit www.alumni.msstate.edu/2009membership .
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.