MSU delegation visits future home of Rome programs, takes part in personal audience with Pope Leo XIV

Contact: Mary Pollitz

A delegation of Mississippi State officials visited the future home of the university’s international programs headquartered in Rome, Italy, this month and participated in a personal audience with Pope Leo XIV.

MSU has partnered with the Pontifical University Antonianum (PUA) to establish an academic collaboration, signing a Memorandum of Understanding last June. Additionally, MSU is renovating a historic convent that will provide students a home-away-from-home while abroad. The property is owned by the Vatican through the Carmelite Order, which sees this relationship as an extension of their educational mission. By entering this agreement, MSU will support a key element of its own rapidly growing study abroad program.

The Rome Center was made possible by a gift from MSU donors Mike and Laura McDaniel, of Houston, Texas. The McDaniels took part in the MSU delegation’s personal audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, where the first American-born pontiff in history was presented a special Mississippi State baseball jersey. Other university officials greeting the Pope included MSU Provost and Executive Vice President David Shaw and Vice President for Development and Alumni John Rush.

“My wife and I are thrilled to support the new partnership between Mississippi State University and the Pontifical University Antonianum. This will offer Mississippi students the opportunity to experience the Eternal City for extended study periods while living university life alongside the students of the Pontifical University Antonianum. Studying and learning together means sharing each other’s experiences, improving cooperation and global understanding,” McDaniel said.

The center in Rome will be MSU’s first venture into providing such an international facility for students, and it will serve students from all majors across the university.

“We are deeply grateful for this wonderful opportunity that allows our students to participate in long-term study programs here in Rome. Furthermore, the generosity of Mike and Laura McDaniel will allow us to renovate this beautiful residential structure while keeping student costs very low. Offering all of this to students at every level—regardless of their financial means—would not be possible without the partnership with the Pontifical University Antonianum and the collaboration with the Order of Carmelites, who own the facility,” Shaw said.

“The residence can host 36 students at a time. Our expectation is to host as many as 150 each academic year. Renovation work is scheduled to begin this summer, and the first students should arrive in spring 2028,” Shaw explained.

In addition to this month’s official activities, MSU and PUA convened an international conference in mid-March about the ethical use of artificial intelligence and the recently launched International Observatory for Integral Intelligence, Ethics and Public Value.

The observatory was founded to bring together—consistently and systematically—advanced reflection, interdisciplinary research and institutional cooperation within a space dedicated to the ethical, legal and cultural governance of artificial intelligence in contemporary societies.

Within this framework lies the agreement developed between the Pontifical University Antonianum and MSU, with particular focus on the North American context. Supported as well by qualified European public and institutional partners, the observatory aims to become a reference point for a human-centered digital transformation paradigm, oriented toward generating public value and capable of combining innovation, responsibility, and the protection of human dignity.

MSU and PUA formalized their joint academic, research and cultural exchange partnership last summer.

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