Gift Supports Holistic Higher Education

Faculty member’s endowment to support experiential opportunities for higher ed students

By Bill Dabney

A University of Mississippi professor’s nest egg will help offset expenses for higher education students seeking extracurricular experiential learning opportunities.

“I’m not going to retire,” said George McClellan, professor of higher education in the School of Education. “However long I have left in this life, the University of Mississippi is where I think I will be. There’s this retirement money that I’ve been building up over time, and I’ve had this incredible career where students have let me be a part of their dreams.

“I’ve gotten to work with amazing colleagues, travel to all kinds of places, and meet all kinds of different people. I had a really, really, really great ride. I just figured it was my turn to help students have those kinds of experiences.”

McClellan is also faculty director of the online master’s program in higher education and interim director of the doctoral program in higher education. He has designated the university as beneficiary of a portion of his estate, establishing the Dr. George S. McClellan Higher Education Student Support Endowment.

The endowment will provide holistic support for students, including tuition expenses for higher education degree programs, travel expenses for those attending conferences or professional development opportunities, support for student-research activities, and special technology needs related to academic work within the school.

Dean David Rock expressed gratitude for his faculty member’s vision for the future.

“Dr. McClellan is passionately dedicated and committed to student learning,” Rock said. “He is always accessible and eager to support students and their research. His gift is inspirational.”

Among the courses McClellan teaches at Ole Miss are Advanced Qualitative Research; Budget and Budget Management in Higher Education; Education and Society; Enrollment Management; Esports in Higher Education; Individual, Relational and Collective Identities; Intercollegiate Athletics; Introduction to Research; Organization and Governance in Higher Education; Power, Persuasion and Politics in the Professional Workplace; Resource Management in Higher Education; and The College and the Student.

“I teach a whole host of courses,” he said. “I teach on college student development – how students change while they’re in college – courses on education and society, why do we in society spend so much time and energy and money on higher ed? What are we trying to do? And how’s that going for us?

“I teach classes on office politics and higher ed. A lot of people don’t understand how political high ed is. There are so many different constituents and they don’t all agree on what we’re trying to do. We don’t teach students very much about how to get along in that world, how to deal with power and how to persuade people and that sort of thing.”

Before joining the Ole Miss faculty, McClellan was vice chancellor for student affairs at Purdue University Fort Wayne from 2007 to 2017 when he was sidelined due to a health issue. It was the worst six months of his life.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m not going to be able to work with students. What am I going to do?'” he said. “Even on the bad days in this job, I still love it because I get to hang out with students and learn from them.

“They and their families and their communities let me in some small way be a part of them going after their dreams. It’s the coolest job on the planet, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

McClellan has authored or co-authored 12 books – including the best-selling book on budget and financial management in higher education – and more than four dozen textbook chapters, monographs, papers, articles and reviews. He also has produced six podcasts/webcasts related to student affairs administration in higher education.

He has been actively involved at UM and other universities, serving on a myriad of advisory boards and committees that shape the future of higher education. Additionally, he has received multiple awards for his service to universities and their surrounding communities.

McClellan, whose own education was supported by scholarships, encourages others to give back in any way they can.

“I know there are staff and faculty all across this university who give every day with their heart, their head, their time, care and commitment,” he said. “I don’t think you have to give money. There are tons of ways to give. Just care about students.”

To support the School of Education, contact Jacob Ferguson, development associate, at jacobf@olemiss.edu or 662-915-2836. To learn more about methods for including the university in estate plans, contact Marc Littlecott, advancement director for estate and planned giving, at marcplan@olemiss.edu or 662-915-6625.