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Date 4-10-06
Contact Daphne Alford 601.266.5619
Hattiesburg—On
the third anniversary of the U.S military intervention to liberate
Iraq, University of Southern Mississippi President Shelby F. Thames
has announced the establishment of the Buford C. Blount III Endowed
Chair in the university’s College of Arts and Letters.
The Endowed
Chair is named in honor of Southern Miss alumnus and retired Maj.
Gen. Buford C. Blount III, who was the former U.S. Army commander
of the 3rd Infantry Division in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Blount
joined the Southern Miss faculty as a distinguished visiting lecturer
in the College of Arts and Letters in January 2005.
“General Blount
has demonstrated outstanding service to our country and to this
university. We are pleased and honored to establish this chair in
his name as a way to further academic distinction and innovative
thinking at Southern Miss,” Thames said.
An endowed chair
is a prominent academic position that is funded through an endowment
to recognize visionary leadership and promote academic excellence.
The Blount Endowed Chair will promote National Security and Policy
Studies in the International Development Ph.D. Program at Southern
Miss. There will be an annual lecture series addressing key issues
in national defense, securities studies and international policy,
as well as sponsorship of monographs and continued support for the
Global Policy and Development Conference.
“Our national
security will continue to be challenged for many years to come as
we fight the global war on terrorism,” Blount said. “We must continue
to develop leaders that are better educated and better trained,
so that we are not doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.”
Blount has been
recognized for his outstanding leadership, both nationally and in
the military. He was commissioned an armor officer in 1971 from
the ROTC program at Southern Miss and is a graduate of the Armor
Officer Basic Course, the Infantry Officer Advanced Course, the
U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and the United States
Naval War College, where he earned a master’s degree in national
security and strategic studies.
While serving
his country on active duty, Blount was awarded two Distinguished
Service Medals and the Silver Star, plus numerous other awards.
Blount was recently the keynote speaker for the inaugural Global
Policy and Development Conference 2006 at Old Dominion University
in Norfolk, Va., where he presented the topic “Nation-State Building
in the Contemporary International System.”
“I applaud the
efforts of Southern Miss to address these important and challenging
issues through the establishment of this academic chair and, recently,
through the sponsorship of the global policy conference,” said Blount.
“Our young men and women did a great job in quickly defeating Iraq’s
military, but the coalition could have been better prepared for
the rebuilding of the country. My hope is that programs like this
will help better prepare us as a country for the next time, and
I am firmly convinced there will be a next time.”
The 2006 conference
was co-hosted by the University of Southern Mississippi International
Development Ph.D. Program and the Association for Global Policy
and Development (AGPD). Topics discussed included peacekeeping,
peace building and peace enforcement; reconstruction, reconciliation
and transitional justice; and intervention and the conduct of humanitarian
relief operations.
The Southern
Miss International Development Ph.D. Program is an online curriculum
designed for working professionals/executives. This program has
a hybrid structure of online and in-person class meetings, as well
as regularly scheduled international experience opportunities that
allow students and professors to interact within various international
contexts.
Fund-raising
efforts for the Blount Endowed Chair will continue through The University
of Southern Mississippi Foundation. The Foundation is a 501 (3)(c)
nonprofit organization that serves as a fiduciary of private funds
donated to Southern Miss, and gifts are tax deductible within the
limits of the Internal Revenue Service. For more information on
donations, call 1.888.GIVEUSM (1.888.448.3876).
Click to enlarge
Buford C. Blount III
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