State Farm grant will establish insurance center

The gift is payable over five years and will allow the College of Business and Industry to develop and further expand its insurance program, said Dr. Robert Hershbarger, holder of the Peter K. Lutken Chair of Insurance at Mississippi State.

State Farm officials presented the gift during the university's annual Insurance Day activities this spring.

"The establishment of the center will give Mississippi State something that no other university in this part of the South will have," said Joe Hodges of Columbus, a State Farm Agency manager and Mississippi State graduate.

Hershbarger said the center will work with industry to reduce losses that affect the economy of the state. "The center's efforts will concentrate primarily on industry workshops and seminars," he said.

Another goal will be to provide educational opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students, he said. "Insurance majors will most closely relate to center activities, but students of every discipline may interact with industries because of the center."

Hodges learned of the need for the center through his membership on the advisory board for the university's Chair of Insurance.

"The foundation decided to support the center because we feel it is a worthwhile project," said State Farm regional public affairs specialist Jennifer Lancaster of Birmingham, Ala. "We are trying to give back to the community some of what it has given us."

The State Farm Foundation was established in 1963 to channel funds for business and insurance educational support. In 1990, the foundation made a $10,000 grant to the Chair of Insurance at Mississippi State.