MSU AD Cohen visits Rotary Monday
The Rotary Club held its weekly meeting at the Starkville Country Club on Monday and featured guest speaker John Cohen, Mississippi State’s athletic director.
Cohen started off the meeting by expressing how valuable the Rotary Club’s involvement is to Starkville and Mississippi State University.
Cohen then explained how much the athletic department got cut from the state’s budget cuts.
“100 percent, the state of Mississippi cut us 100 percent,” Cohen said. “We don’t receive any funding from Mississippi State University or the state of Mississippi.”
Cohen went on to express his thankfulness to the university for allowing the athletic department to be on its campus and compete for the university.
Mississippi State is one of six SEC schools that doesn’t receive a student activity fee.
Cohen said one of the reasons the athletic department survives is because of people like
the Rotary Club.
The meeting carried on with Cohen mentioning the athletic department’s future projects.
Future projects include renovations of Dudy Noble Field, Davis Wade Stadium and Humphrey Coliseum. New sound systems are planned for Davis Wade and Humphrey Coliseum, along with an expanded Fueling Station at Shira and new field turf at the Palmeiro Center.
Cohen said construction should begin soon.
“We will start construction as soon as our
season’s over,” Cohen said.
Cohen named various athletic achievements made by MSU, such as the women’s basketball team winning beat UConn in the Final Four and making it to the national championship game and how MSU is the only school that’s been a New Year Six Bowl every year since 2013.
The rest of the meeting was focused on the development and achievements of the athletic department and how people like the Rotary Club make everything possible.
“Rotary is one of those programs that does so much for our community and just the opportunity to come and share information about our athletic department is a real honor,” Cohen told SDN.