Mississippi Valley State University President William J. Bynum Jr. says a culture change must take place at the school in order for it to continue moving in the right direction.
“Change is always tough. It’s not like turning a speedboat. It’s more like turning an aircraft carrier around,” Bynum told faculty and staff Monday during his State of the University address.
Following a morning orientation as the university starts a new semester, Bynum took the podium for the main event, addressing changes and challenges at the historically black university established in 1950 near Itta Bena.
Bynum said that when he came to Valley three years ago, then-Commissioner of Higher Education Hank Bounds and a state senator said that they were going to stop beating the drum to close Valley because they believed the university would close itself.
“Because of Valley’s own behavior, its lack of customer service, its lack of serious urgency about issues plaguing the institution, those men told me they believed Valley would close itself down,” Bynum said.
Those rumors, he said, have been silenced in the past three years, and he added: “It’s not about me.”
Bynum cited a nearly $3 million increase in research grants at the school, growing enrollment numbers, high student athlete graduation rates among Southwestern Athletic Conference schools, vigorous alumni giving, student internships at major corporations, new academic programs, and new and refurbished buildings on campus as evidence of progress in improving Valley.
Bynum urged all faculty and staff to focus on why it is important for the school to be strong, saying he had found answers to that question in James Herbert White’s book, “Up From a Cotton Patch: J.H. White and the Development of Mississippi Valley State University,” published in 1979.
“Close your eyes,” Bynum instructed the audience, “close your eyes and picture the Mississippi Delta without Valley. Homes foreclosed. More people without jobs or a place to be educated. The cycle of poverty gets worse. People are not able to build better lives for themselves.”
Bynum asked those gathered to commit to strengthening Valley as it moves forward.
“If you can’t commit,” he said, “with all due respect I’m asking you to go elsewhere.”
Bynum said education in the Delta is a light leading the way for the whole region, and that Valley serves a unique purpose among universities, with 66 percent of its students “full Pell grant eligible” due to poverty. It’s the same type of background from which Bynum said he came.
“I’m tired of hearing about what we can’t do,” he said. “I’m tired of this excuse. We’re gonna keep fighting. We’re gonna keep scrapping. And I’m asking those of you in this room to take care of this precious jewel.”
Bynum pointed to obstacles in the way, including two budget cuts amounting to a half-million dollars last year and the likelihood that future cuts are coming.
The Legislature has been pushing for a performance-based accountability model for funding universities that, if passed, he said, could impact Valley negatively.
“We have to find ways we can be more competitive under a performance model if it is put in place,” he said.
He also cited the fact that in two years, Valley will receive $1.5 million less from Ayers funds, and $1.5 million less again the year after that. Ayers funds come from the settlement of a desegregation lawsuit that has provided additional funding to the state’s three historically black universities for more than a decade and will be completely paid out by 2022.
Bynum said some have accused MVSU of having a plantation mentality with all power at the top and workers who are afraid to speak their minds.
“I will continue to empower vice presidents and department chairs to make important decisions,” he said. “It’s not my style to be involved in every single area. I’m a lifelong team player. I want to share the ball.”
He encouraged faculty and staff to cultivate a mentality that lets their own individual lights shine.
“We are capable far beyond what we let people see,” he said. “You lower the service you provide because you’re afraid others might think you’re showing off.
“Don’t dumb down your talents and abilities to make somebody else feel comfortable,” he said.
On a lighter note, Bynum told the crowd he wanted to quash rumors from the “Street Committee” about how he acquired a 3-inch gash on his bald head this summer that required stitches.
The truth, he confessed, was that he’d been dieting and his blood pressure had gotten dangerously low when, one morning, he stood up suddenly, passed out, and cut his head on the corner of the tiled tub in his bathroom.
The rumor, he said, was that he was messing around, got caught, and somebody bashed him on the head.
“I gotta clear this up because of the Street Committee,” he said, “I gotta give them credit. They’re usually right.”
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
