University Research Center Offers Ideas for a Mississippi College’s Vacant Properties

A research center operated by Mississippi State University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Design has spent much of this year coming up with ways to help Blue Mountain College use three vacant downtown properties it owns, according to the Starkville Daily News.

The university’s Carl Small Town Center worked with college officials to study the needs of both the college and its community, Blue Mountain, Miss., a town with a population of about 670 near the Tennessee border. The center recommended renovating the three adjoining properties to establish a college cafe, a new campus store, and a combined coffee shop and print shop that would offer Internet access. The center also suggested putting student housing on the second floors of the buildings to bring more activity to the area.

Blue Mountain College’s president, Bettye R. Coward, said she had presented the recommendations to the college’s trustees and that the college was “looking at these properties in a different light.” The center’s proposal, she said, “opened up a whole new area of ideas.”