A recent Mississippi Valley State University women's volleyball match drew a cross-section from a student body that has changed in ways other than its growing enthusiasm for volleyball.
The vast majority of the people in the stands and on the court were black, which is no surprise for a historically black university in a historically black conference. Interspersed among the spectators were white faces - classmates, colleagues and coaches.
The sight, once unusual at Valley, is becoming more and more common, says Dr. Roy C. Hudson, vice president for university relations.
"At one time, a white student stepped on this campus, and that student stood out," Hudson said. "They were something of a rarity and caught a lot of attention. Now, we have such a presence of white students that it's really not a big deal anymore."
Valley has 113 students who are white, Hispanic or Asian. In addition, there are 110 who aren't classified by race or ethnic origin. Including some of those unknowns, Hudson estimates other-race students make up about 4 percent of a record enrollment that broke 4,100 this fall.
Part of the core of that racial shift was right there at the volleyball match last week. There were one white player on the court and another on the bench, and that's a low number compared to other teams at MVSU.
The Delta Devils women's soccer team, which just finished its inaugural season, is predominantly white. And while teammates naturally band together, fitting in with the rest of the student body hasn't been a problem, says Destiny Graham, who came all the way from Ontario, Canada, to play soccer.
"Coming from back home in Canada, you hear stories about down South," said Graham, 19. "I was a little worried, but as soon as I came here on my visit, it was totally different perspective, for the better. Color doesn't matter. It's not an issue here at all."
Valley has had about 30 years to get used to seeing white faces on campus, Hudson noted. The university, he said, has been trying to attract other-race students since the 1970s. But the $503 million Ayers settlement reached last year has made that effort a priority, he said.
The settlement of the 1975 lawsuit filed by Jake Ayers Sr. aims to close some of the funding gap between the state's three historically black universities and the other schools in the university system. Currently, an appeal by a splinter group of plaintiffs dissatisfied with the amount has stalled the deal. Once that's over, the three schools will share the money on the condition that each reaches a 10 percent non-black enrollment within 10 years.
The percentage at Valley hasn't change significantly in the last two or three years with the jump in overall enrollment. But Hudson says the MVSU administration is comfortable with the deadline. They know it won't happen immediately, he said.
"Let's face it," he said. "There has not been a trend, as we know, nationally and locally for white students to make the transition to a predominantly black school. That's just a societal factor we're not in control of. So for us to have reached this amount, which is right around approaching 4 percent, that's not bad."
Faced with the settlement terms, Mississippi Valley State, Jackson State and Alcorn State universities have all stepped up their recruitment of white and other-race students by offering incentives such as diversity scholarships. Many of the white students at Valley receive $700 off the full $1,730 tuition.
But the Itta Bena campus under President Lester C. Newman has relied on its athletic department to pull a good portion of the weight. The strategy shouldn't be surprising, Hudson says.
"Like the historically white universities, our first attempts and first results at attracting other race students have been in athletics," he explained.
Part of Valley's success with that strategy has been its hiring of other-race coaches. Doug Shanks is preparing for his third season as head coach of the Delta Devils baseball team. His squad is one of the most racially and geographically diverse groups on campus, including white, black and Hispanic players who hail from as far away as Alberta, Canada, and San Diego, Calif. But Shanks, who is white, says race isn't a factor when he's recruiting.
"President Newman made clear from the word go that Mississippi Valley belongs to the taxpayers of the state of Mississippi, and that includes all of them," he said. "I recruit players, some black, some white. I look for good baseball players, and people who want to come to our university and be a part of our university."
In two years, the players he has brought on have completely turned what was once a flailing program around. The team won its first ever Southwestern Athletic Conference regular-season title last year. Shanks attributes the success to the team's diversity.
"I personally think that any time you have a situation whether it's all white, all black, all Indian or all anything, it's not healthy," he said. "I certainly think that with Mississippi as diverse society as it is, we do better when we work together, and that's kind of what we're doing on that baseball team. And I think the university benefits from it, and I think the state of Mississippi benefits from it."
Yet, not all the students at Valley think the university should go so far as to offer incentives to accomplish that exchange.
Sheree Alexander, a senior from Yazoo City, pointed out that the opportunity for whites to attend historically black universities isn't new; it's has been there since blacks were allowed into the former all-white schools.
"I don't think it's necessarily a good thing we have to recruit other races because I know they've always had the chance to come here just like I always had the chance to go to Ole Miss and Mississippi State," she said. "I just chose to come here."
Alexander said there are many more white students on dorm and in her classes than there were her freshman year. Most of them are women, and most are on full athletic scholarships, she said.
Graham said what brought her down from Canada wasn't necessarily the money. Other places had scholarships, but what they don't have is Dean Joseph, Valley's first soccer coach. He recruited Graham.
"He seems like a really, really awesome guy," she said. "He knows a lot about the sport itself. He's really dedicated. It's a brand new program, and he was really excited about it, which made me really excited about it."
Since Graham has come to Valley, she has discovered other attractions besides the coach and the scholarship. She enjoys the Southern hospitality, she said.
Her race causes more of a stir outside the Valley community than on campus, she said.
"A lot of people are shocked," she said. "I think people a lot of the time have preconceptions of the school because it is a historically black school. People get all hung up on color. But here, it's not like that at all."
The administration hopes the experience Graham and other white students have will get other people to see the same thing, Hudson said. As more white, Hispanic and Asian students, athletes or not, come to live on campus, there develops a comfort level for prospective students of those races and ethnicities, he explained.
"You want to get to the point where it's not just based on special incentives, where people will come, first, because they can get the goods and programs they're looking for and, second, because they feel comfortable and satisfied about coming," he said.
