Dr. Donna Oliver hardly had time to savor her rise to the top ranks of higher education as a college president when she got the sobering news from her new bosses: cut the school’s budget by 5 percent immediately and be prepared for more cuts later.
“My mouth dropped open,” says Oliver, president for the past 18 months of Mississippi Valley State University, recalling the startling news she faced two weeks into her freshman year as a college president. The 60-year-old veteran higher education executive expected challenges, “but not instant budget cuts.”
The budget cutting was done, however, as have several subsequent cuts, she says. They have been achieved without major damage to the school’s core programs or employment rolls, she says, and with input from a university community advisory group she appointed. The group has helped her navigate the school through its tough economic times, challenges mirrored at colleges and universities across the state and nation.
Oliver is among a corps of career academicians making up the growing ranks of first-time presidents at historically Black colleges and universities. They are taking on the challenge of championing HBCUs for the 21st century as the schools face a growing chorus of politicians and others questioning their continued value as demands grow for the schools to beef up their academic performance and needed funds — from public and private sources — become harder to come by.
“They are very difficult jobs and more requirements are being placed on them,” says Dr. Frederick Humphries, former president of Tennessee State University and Florida A&M University, where he is now a Regents Professor.
“Ultimately, it becomes a tenuous situation,” says Humphries, citing the heavy turnover of presidencies in recent years.
Just this summer, 55-year-old Dr. David Wilson, formerly with the University of Wisconsin, joined Morgan State University in Baltimore as a freshman president. Dr. Harry L. Williams, 46, who got his start in university management a decade ago as director of admissions at North Carolina A&T State University, became president of Delaware State University in January. Nearly half a dozen HBCU first-time presidents are three years or less into their jobs, including the Southern University at Baton Rouge chancellor and the South Carolina State University president.
