JACKSON, Miss.
Members of Mississippi Valley State University’s faculty senate have expressed “no confidence” in the school’s president in a 33-1 vote.
There was one abstention when Tuesday’s vote was taken, according to faculty members who attended the meeting but asked that their names not be made public because of concerns about their jobs.
Dr. Lester C. Newman, an alumnus of Southern University in Baton Rouge, became MVSU’s fifth president in 1998. He succeeded William Sutton, who served as president for 10 years.
Newman came to MVSU from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C.
MVSU is one of three historically Black universities in Mississippi — the others are Jackson State and Alcorn State. MVSU’s 3,100-student main campus is located in Itta Bena in the Mississippi Delta.
Curtis Baham, the interim vice president for academic affairs, attended the meeting but said he had to leave before the vote.
