Mississippi Delta Community College

MOORHEAD, Miss. (Oct. 5, 2022) – Mississippi Delta Community College (MDCC) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in late September to celebrate the opening of the renovated Stauffer-Wood Administration Building on the MDCC Moorhead campus.

After the building sustained fire damage in 2017, a plan was put into place to build a new administration building more centrally located on the Moorhead campus. However, when Dr. Tyrone Jackson took office as president in 2019, he decided to reevaluate the plans.

Jackson explained that after seeing the financial cost of constructing the new building, he wanted to explore the option of renovating and adding on to the structure at the original location.

"We had the previous building inspected and found that the foundation was sound. It was determined that it would cost significantly less money to rebuild on the previous foundation, and we wanted to be good stewards of the money entrusted to us," explained Jackson.

MDCC Vice President Dr. Steven Jones is proud of the efforts of the administrative team to use college funds in the most optimal manner.

"The Stauffer-Wood Administration Building is the perfect example of MDCC's administration's efforts to maximize dollars spent while being creative and innovative in our approach. We were able to get this beautiful building, a bookstore, and more for the price it would have cost us to build a new administration building. Now, that's being good stewards of the taxpayers' dollars," said Jones.

Jones, who oversaw the project sees it as a testament to MDCC's perseverance.

"This project also holds a special place in my heart as it was my first major construction/renovation project since arriving at MDCC in 2019," Jones continued. "We have had several challenges along the way, and COVID didn't help any, but we are blessed and extremely grateful to be officially moved in and back to normal operations. I thank Dr. Tyrone Jackson and the MDCC Board of Trustees for trusting me to lead these efforts."

The new building includes several conference rooms, a large executive board room, and a multipurpose room. Additionally, the building houses several office suites, a spacious breakroom with a patio for outdoor dining, a media room, and an abundance of storage space.

While Jones was in charge of the project, he also recognizes that it was a team effort.

"I would also be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the assistance of my colleagues Staci Miller, Janet Buford, David Tedford, Torrey Moore, the entire Facilities Management staff, and others who worked extremely hard to make this project a success. It was indeed a team effort. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the architects, engineers, contractor, members of the Mississippi Bureau of Buildings, and others who played an integral role in the process. Great things are happening at MDCC," concluded Jones.