A longtime Mississippi State University faculty member has been named dean of the university’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Rick Travis, who has served as interim dean of the college for the past year, will be confirmed as dean, pending formal approval by the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees.
Travis will also serve as CEO and chief academic officer of the university’s largest college, including 300 full-time faculty, more than 5,000 students, nine doctoral programs and 24 academic majors across 14 departments.
“I’m very excited and very humbled,” Travis said. “It’s a large operation with an enormous faculty and probably the best faculty it’s had in its history. I look forward to leading all of these faculty and leading our students. I think there are a lot of great things that we have real potential to accomplish.”
Travis listed building on the college's degree programs for the 21st century as a goal, and spoke to the potential for CAS research.
"We have a very young and hungry faculty," Travis said.
Travis holds a bachelor’s degree in international business from Memphis State University, as well as master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Georgia. He has served on the MSU faculty since 1993.
“We have appreciated Dr. Travis’s leadership during the interim period and have every confidence that he will continue his exemplary service to our university as our new dean,” said MSU Provost and Executive Vice President Judy Bonner.
Travis’ research and teaching areas include social science research methods, foreign policy decision-making, democratization and political change and advanced quantitative methods. He holds various awards, including Outstanding Honors Professor, Political Science Professor of the Year (three years), Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education Mississippi Professor of the Year, the MSU Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching award and the John C. Grisham Teaching Excellence Award.
“The College of Arts and Sciences is a jewel, and I’m proud to be part of it,” Travis said.