Video: Students React To Dr. Keenum’s Flag Decision

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – The president of Mississippi State University has voiced his decision on removing the state flag from campus.

President Dr. Mark Keenum says he will not remove the state flag from the Starkville Campus.

Although he doesn’t support the confederate battle emblem, the flag will continue to fly in its several locations around campus.

Recently, Ole Miss and Southern Miss have removed the state of Mississippi’s flag from their campuses.

But at MSU, the flag will still fly.

President Dr. Keenum talked about his decision this week.

Many students have their own take on the flag.

“I don’t support the rebel flag’s message but at the same time, I think that it is a historical marker for Mississippi and so if we can take away the negativity around it and say that you know, it’s our history and not support it as a message of hate, then I think that it should be something we keep,” said MSU student, Caroline Hill.

“I partially support it. I feel like if the flag is bothering that many people, then it should be taken down and I think it should be reevaluated and changed, and then maybe put it back up later, but until then, I think it should be taken down,” said MSU student, Matthew Crittle.

“Well we are Mississippi State University, if we don’t have a Mississippi state flag, would we go back to when I was a freshman and be called the land mass state university? There is really no reason for us to take it down. Yes, it was bad back in the day but we’ve kind of changed how we view everything,” said MSU student, Myles Harris.

“I believe that if other schools are pulling it down, I feel like we should be the ‘big sister’ school or ‘big brother’ school and people should follow our lead as opposed to us following Ole Miss’ lead or Southern Miss,” said MSU student, Samantha Walls.

While students voice their own unique opinions, others hope this will be a learning experience for everyone.

“I think that it becomes difficult whenever we decide to take down everything across the nation that ever stood for anything negative instead of learning for that and moving forward, if we just hide things in our past that maybe we made mistakes of, then I don’t think that will help us to improve for the future,” added Hill.