The Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning announced that it would not renew the contract of Donna Oliver, president of Mississippi Valley State University. Dr. Oliver’s contract expires on December 31. The board announced that an interim president would be named shortly.
Dr. Oliver became the university’s sixth president in January 2009. She is the first woman to lead the historically Black university. Prior to being named president, Dr. Oliver was provost and vice president for academic affairs at Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida. From 1998 to 2007 she was vice president for academic affairs at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Dr. Oliver is a graduate of Elon College in North Carolina. She holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in curriculum and teaching from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She earned a second master’s degree at North Carolina A&T State University.
The board of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning did offer four-year extensions to M. Christopher Brown, president of Alcorn State University, and Carolyn Meyers, president of Jackson State University.
