“The Board and the Mississippi Valley Search Advisory Committee have worked diligently to identify the best person to take Mississippi Valley to the next level of excellence.” Those were the words of Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU) Board Search Committee Chair Trustee Bettye Henderson Neely during the State Institution of Higher Learning (IHL) October 2008 announcement of Donna H. Oliver, Ph.D., as the university’s sixth president.
She also became the first female to lead the historically black university since it doors opened in 1950.
She came to the Mississippi Delta from Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Fla., where she had served as provost and vice president for academic affairs (chief operating officer).
Oliver officially began her duties as MVSU president January 2009. Making history did not take center stage of her agenda. She immediately made known her focus of a new renaissance for the struggling institution affectionately called, “The Valley” by its alumni.
MVSU had been without a permanent leader since former president Lester Newman resigned after public, faculty criticism of his leadership in July 2007. Longtime MVSU administrator and alumnus Roy Hudson steered the campus once again in the interim.
“I am inspired by your charge, and I accept it with the deepest humility and commitment to give my very best to lead this university with dignity, integrity and transparency,” Oliver told IHL officials, MVSU officials, students, faculty and supporters during her September 2009 inauguration.
She hit the ground running for “The Valley” as she promoted it and its goals for “The Valley Renaissance” throughout the state and across the nation.
“The Valley Renaissance” is her administration’s five-year strategic plan. It uses the African Adinkra as its symbol – a bird called Sankofa that flies with its head facing backwards as he advances forward without getting off track. She describes the course of action as “building on the strengths of the past and advancing forward for a promising future of distinction, uniqueness and longevity.”
The plan include enhancing academic curricula, student achievement, retention and graduation rates; excelling in all athletic programs; planning, assessment and accountability; improving deliberate work towards a successful accreditation; and achieving greater community building – internal and external to become a public square.
Her first 150 days produced changes and/or increases in academic offerings; strengthened relationships with K-12 school districts (both private and public); established a Public Square initiative uniting the campus with communities; created numerous collaboratives such as the statewide diabetes forum in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health, the Jackson Medical Mall and the Mississippi Institute for Improvement of Geographic Minority Health.
Her renaissance vision has often been blurred with talks of IHL mergers, closures and budget cuts by state government. In response to Gov. Haley Barbour’s budget recommendations to the Mississippi Legislature released Nov. 16, 2009, Oliver indicated that she and her staff had already been proactively reviewing and recommending savings without jeopardizing the mission and purpose.
Although merger/closure talks frightened some students away, Oliver, who established a rapport with her students, still seems to be driving “The Valley Renaissance” course.
“Based on the financial difficulties faced here at Mississippi Valley State University, I think that our first female president is doing as well as one would expect,” said Damien Redmond, freshman biology major from Lexington, Miss. “I do believe that Dr. Oliver is doing everything within her power to help MVSU progress. She has helped with the lightning on the campus as well as going through the steps of creating more parking spaces. Not only is she implementing or installing [safety] items, she [also takes time] to find out the needs and wants of the students. Dr. Oliver is a great president who has a lot of positive things in store for MVSU.”
Jackson-Hinds MVSU Alumni Association President Mary Crump concurs. “She has so much to do with so little,” Crump said. “It is always amazing how someone is asked to perform miracles without the needed capital. She is amazing to keep her sanity and continue to lead a university.”
Oliver also made history in 1987 by becoming the first African American to receive the Distinguished Young Alumnus of the Year Award at her alma mater, Elon College, now Elon University, a private liberal arts college in Elon, N.C. A North Carolina native of “meager” beginnings and who experienced the prejudices of segregation, Oliver has a portfolio with more than 30 years of K-16 teaching and administrative credentials. She has garnered numerous local, state and national awards and accolades. According to her biography, she has been recognized in more than 40 states and three foreign countries for her education contributions.
She and her husband James C. Oliver have one daughter, Rachel Oliver-Cobbin; a son-in-law, Keith James Cobbin; and two grandchildren, Cameron James and Raina Lael Oliver Cobbin.
At press time, Oliver had traveled to Texas to support her students of the MVSU men basketball team in the SWAC Tournament.
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