For just the second time in the last decade, enrollment is up over last year at Mississippi Valley State University this fall.
According to preliminary numbers, Valley’s enrollment grew by 91 students, or just over 4 percent, to 2,294 students.
Statewide, enrollment is up 1.1 percent at Mississippi’s eight public universities but dropped for the fourth straight year at the state’s 15 community colleges. Mississippi Delta Community College had the second largest drop, with enrollment there down 7.5 percent.
For Valley, the increase is a welcome sign after years of slumping enrollment. It also comes in the first year on the job for Valley President William Bynum, who was selected last October to lead the historically black institution.
Bynum has emphasized that turning around the slipping enrollment would be his first priority. The failure of his predecessor, Dr. Donna Oliver, to significantly turn around enrollment at Valley was a major factor in the state College Board’s decision not to renew her contract as president in 2012.
“Obviously, task number one was to stop the decline,” Bynum said. “We’re very happy to see that we’re in position to do that.”
Bynum said that a number of initiatives — including reaching out to high schools and community colleges in counties and states beyond MVSU’s traditional recruitment area — “bore some fruit,” but he added that he expected those efforts to be even more productive in coming years.
“We’re very confident going forward that we’ll be able to continue to drive enrollment up,” Bynum said.
A growing student body at Valley could have a significant effect on the university’s finances as well as an economic impact on the surrounding community.
With a large percentage of state funding tied to overall student numbers, increasing the enrollment at MVSU, even if slightly, could help turn around the cycle of declining budgets and decaying facilities. Over the past decade, total enrollment at Valley has dropped 1,400 students.
Dr. Hank Bounds, the Mississippi commissioner of higher eduction, has also indicated that stopping the decline in enrollment is a top priority for state officials.
Speaking at the Greenwood Voters League in August, Bounds said that the facilities and faculty salaries at Valley were both lacking but stressed that declining enrollment was the number one factor holding the university back.
“Short of stopping the bleeding with enrollment decreases and increasing the number of students, I sincerely fear for the future,” Bounds told the Voters League.
This morning, Bynum said that continued growth would allow the university to give faculty and staff — who have been without a raise in nearly a decade — cost of living and other salary increases.
“It also means we’ll be able to increase spending,” Bynum said.
The president said Valley currently operates on an approximately $45 million annual budget. “If we hit our enrollment goals over the next seven to eight years, we could be looking at a budget that could go as high as $65 or $70 million for the university,” Bynum said.
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
