But if that is the plan the university adopts, Brown said recipients of the waiver will have to meet certain yet-to-be-determined requirements.

“I am comfortable with that scheme as an entry point to an out-of-state waiver program, but I am adamant and certain that the maintenance of that waiver will require some threshold of academic performance,” he said.

“I don’t want to give that waiver to persons who come to the institution and earn a 2.1 or 1.90 (grade point average), (when) we could be concentrating those resources somewhere else.”

Mississippi’s IHL colleges include ASU, Delta State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi State University, Mississippi University for Women, Mississippi Valley State University, The University of Mississippi and The University of Southern Mississippi.

Not included in the legislation were Mississippi’s community colleges.

Copiah-Lincoln Community College President Ronnie Nettles said community colleges are funded through tuition, local county support and local state support, with tuition supporting a third of their costs.

“I think we would support (a waiver program) as long as there is some kind of funding mechanism that would make up for the loss of revenue that the community colleges would lose with the waiver of those fees,” Nettles said.

Other legislation

Brown said next he wants to see the passage of House Bill 1631, which would allow universities to lobby for multi-year bonding. Currently, colleges can only lobby for single-year bonds, which Brown said complicates long-range planning.

“(Multi-year bonding) helps us to be very thoughtful and strategic about planning over the life of the university as opposed to every year going and disrupting the normal legislative business and lobbying for our particular legislative need,” he said.

ASU has a 10-year plan with a 20-year outlook, Brown said, that includes improvements to the Natchez campus’ buildings and educational labs, and multi-year bonding will help ease the implementation of that plan. Multi-year bonding will allow universities to operate with the knowledge funding for certain projects is secured for several years.

“This (bill) is helpful because this is how families balance their checkbooks,” he said. “Dad or mom bring home a certain amount of money, and no matter what happens they have to live within that budget.

“This kind of multi-year-long strategy allows me to strategically plan.”

At the community college level, Nettles said administrators are watching for the passage of a $20 million bond bill that would be divided up among the state’s 15 community colleges based on enrollment.

Another bill that Nettles said could have an impact on Co-Lin is one that will allow the creation of additional dual enrollment programs between community colleges and high schools focusing on trade skills.

“We already have dual enrollment with academic programs, what this might allow us to do is establish dual technical program,” Nettles said.

Co-Lin is already looking at a pilot program in the Brookhaven school district, he said.

“If that is successful, we will certainly be looking at expanding that. We are going to be a part of that in the future, and certainly having that legislation passed will help us do that.”­

The legislature is in session until May 6.