LORMAN – The state commissioner of higher education was at Alcorn State University Thursday to inspect several construction projects under way at the main campus.

Dr. Thomas C. Meredith, who has been in the position since October 2005, visited with Dr. Clinton Bristow Jr., president of Alcorn, about the progress of the institution and plans for the future.

&#8220I’m amazed at what is going on here at Alcorn, beginning with the four-lane road that leads to the campus on Mississippi 552,” Meredith said.

&#8220This campus is growing and good things are happening here,” he said.

Meredith is a former University of Mississippi vice chancellor. He was hired from his job as director of the university system in Georgia.

He said his purpose in visiting the 1,700-acre campus was to get reacquainted with Alcorn and this part of the state in a more detailed fashion and to talk one-on-one with Bristow about the $25 million in funds from the $517 million Ayers desegregation settlement.

Alcorn enrolls about 3,400 students and was the only one of the state’s three historically black institutions to have maintained other-race enrollment of at least 10 percent for three consecutive years. That benchmark was set in the settlement in order for any of the state’s historically black universities to receive a share of settlement money from the litigation.

State-funded projects in progress at Alcorn include a state-of-the-art Dining Commons, which will replace a 50-year-old dining facility; a 3-mile bicycle path that winds through campus and connects with the bike path along Highway 552 and onto the Natchez Trace; and construction of an ecology building, baseball complex, biotechnology building and research center with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

Other federally funded projects include the renovation of historic buildings on campus such as the original president’s home to house different subject area offices and the Center for Multi-cultural Education and International Affairs.

The first project scheduled for completion is the $12 million dining hall, which is planned to be ready by August 2007.

&#8220We are working on becoming the educational epicenter of southwest Mississippi and northeast Louisiana,” said Bristow, who is celebrating his 10th year as president.

&#8220We are transforming into a new university that focuses on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The growth is substantial,” Bristow said.

It was Meredith’s first trip to Alcorn since he took the post as commissioner. &#8220It’s clear that anyone should be proud to be a student here or a graduate of Alcorn State University,” Meredith said.