Three months after opening its doors to students, the University of Mississippi officially celebrated the Jim and Thomas Duff Center for Science and Technology on Nov. 7 at 6:30 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
In 2020, Jim and Thomas Duff, prominent Mississippi businessmen, contributed to the building’s $175 million budget with the largest donation of $25 million.
“I am so appreciative of the tens of thousands of students that will go down these corridors that will learn and become the people that they need to be for the future,” Thomas Duff said in a speech before the ceremony commenced.
Construction on the 202,000 square-foot state of the art building began in fall 2021. Chad Hunter, the university architect, has been working on this building for 12 of his 18 years of employment.
“This ribbon-cutting ceremony is the achievement of achievements in such a significant project for the university but also for the state of Mississippi,” Hunter said. “The classes offered in this building will affect not only the state of Mississippi but the country.”
One of the main goals of the building is to drive economic growth and retain talent in the state, Chancellor Glenn Boyce said.
“The students coming here will graduate with the desire to continue on in the medical professions into engineering, technology, but what I hope most is that it keeps all of its students at home,” Boyce said. “I hope they stay right here and a part of Mississippi and that they help us grow the economic development and capacity and capabilities of our state.”
According to research by the Mississippi state government, Mississippi loses half of its college graduates to other states within three years of graduation.
“We’ve got to build careers and professions,” Boyce said. “Our students have to know that not only can they get a job in this state, because that’s not enough, but that they believe that that job lends itself to a career that will be fulfilling and purposeful.”
Jack Baker, vice president of UM Columns Society and a senior biology major from Jackson, Miss., praised the building.
“Having a state of the art building like this is incredibly special for the campus,” Baker said. “It’s incredibly state of the art, and the technology is unmatched.”
