Charleston officials last week voted to explore the possibilities of a proposed partnership between the city and the University of Mississippi.
Catherine Moring, executive director of the local James C. Kennedy Wellness Center and the Charleston Main Street Association, pitched the idea to the mayor and city commissioners at their Feb. 6 board meeting at City Hall.
“The university has chosen Charleston, along with New Albany and Lexington, as the first three communities that they’ve asked to partner with as part of what they’re calling the ‘M-Partner’ initiative,” Moring explained.
Ole Miss Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter first unveiled plans for the program at his “State of the U” speech last fall.
M-Partner, he noted then, would permit university students and faculty “to showcase their academic talents by partnering them with cities across the state to provide solutions to community problems,” according to a story in the campus newspaper, The Daily Mississippian.
Vitter said he envisions the initiative enhancing “every aspect of community life, ranging from medicine and population health, engineering, education, arts and culture and law and public policy.”
Moring seemed to echo the chancellor’s vision when she told Charleston officials, “The possibilities are really endless.”
An Ole Miss graduate, Moring retains strong ties to the university and serves as an affiliated researcher for the school’s Center for Population Studies.
As a graduate assistant, Moring conducted the needs assessment in Charleston that led to the eventual development of the Wellness Center.
She said the M-Partner initiative could help to address many areas of local need.
“From a personal standpoint, I’ve seen the university invest its resources in a community in a lot of different ways over the years: from building roads in Belize, to offering educational enrichment camps for students, to the medical school doing work in rural communities through telemedicine.”
The UM partnership in Charleston, she explained, “could really work in a lot of different ways.”
“Obviously, we have different needs: education and safety, health care, economic development and tourism,” Moring noted. “There’s a lot of things we could address: roads, bridges, water.”
In highlighting some of the ongoing efforts to improve the community, ranging from the Tallahatchie Early Learning Alliance’s work with early childhood education to Tallahatchie General Hospital’s expansion of health care services, Moring said partnering with the university would provide even greater impetus for wide-ranging positive change.
“There’s so much opportunity here for new business and tourism and just really growing this community,” she noted. “And I think when you have resources like [the university] behind you, it can really help move you in the right direction.”
Ward 1 Commissioner Gyrone Kenniel called the pact “a great idea and something that we need.”
“It sounds great,” agreed Ward 2 City Commissioner Lloyd Smith, who made a motion to pursue the partnership. The motion, seconded by Ward 5’s Perry Herron, was adopted unanimously.
Moring suggested a meeting involving members of the city and Main Street boards, joined by select members of the community, to “brainstorm Charleston’s future.”
“I would really like to get leaders and stakeholders in our community together within the next month to talk about what we think this could look like and also what our needs are as a community,” she noted.
While saying she already has a list of about 50 people, Moring encouraged city leaders to suggest more names for the initial work session.
Moring said a memorandum of understanding would be drafted for signing by Charleston and UM officials.
She said Ole Miss staffers would then conduct a joint press conference here in late March to “talk about our vision ... and to publicly announce the partnership.”
“It would bring a lot of positive attention to Charleston and, of course, it would be 100 percent community driven,” Moring added.
While the M-Partner initiative would be for a term of from 18 months to two years, she said the joint venture would pay lasting dividends.
“Once we’ve established that relationship with the university, it wouldn’t just end after that,” Moring said. “We would always have that networking ability with being one of the first communities that was a part of the initiative. And the university doesn’t have any intention of stopping that mission once a partnership is off the ground and running.”
IN THE PHOTO: Catherine Moring
