This is not a topic that many in the Delta want to consider. They think they put it to rest decades ago, when the College Board was seriously talking about shutting down or merging some of Mississippi’s eight public universities.
But given the troubling enrollment trends at the Delta’s two four-year institutions, if the College Board has not restarted the conversation, it’s a good bet it will.
At Mississippi Valley State University, enrollment this year fell below 1,900 students, the lowest it has been in decades. That’s about half the number of students MVSU was enrolling in the mid-2000s, when a proposed merger with Delta State University was officially taken off the table.
Delta State is experiencing an even more dramatic swoon. Since 2019, it has lost almost a third of its students and now stands at less than 2,600.
The administrations at both schools have tried some of the same approaches to turn their numbers around. They have offered out-of-state students the same tuition as those from in-state. They have enlisted faculty and alumni to help with recruiting. They have said they would put a greater emphasis on recruiting students from their own backyards.
When none of that has worked, the College Board has shuffled the chairs, most recently forcing William LaForge out as president at Delta State.
You get the feeling that both schools are swimming against the tide.
The Delta, from which both schools draw the majority of their students, has been losing population for decades. It’s not just been a slow trickle. In most Delta counties, the declines have been 10% or greater decade after decade.
There also is greater competition for students who used to stay put in the Delta, especially the African American ones. As the historically white comprehensive universities, especially Ole Miss and Mississippi State, have become progressively more integrated, the small regional schools have had a tougher time recruiting.
The enrollment numbers are a reflection of the market. The market is telling both of these schools there may not be enough demand any longer in the Delta to support two free-standing universities.
The current situation should not be confused with the circumstances that prompted the initial proposal 30 years ago to merge Mississippi Valley State and Delta State.
In 1992, the focus was on desegregation. The U.S. Supreme Court had ordered Mississippi to take active steps to integrate its campuses and end a racist system that produced five predominantly white universities and three predominantly Black ones.
One solution the College Board offered was to merge the historically Black and historically white schools, including MVSU and DSU. The proposal was met with outrage, especially from the historically black institutions and their supporters, who rightfully noted that Mississippi had starved these schools of adequate financial support for decades.
Instead, the remedy was remedial funding for the historically Black schools and uniform admissions standards that would make it easier for Black students, many of whom came from disadvantaged backgrounds, to get into the historically white schools.
The remedial funding, which has now played out, has improved the course offerings and the campus appearance of MVSU, but uniform admission standards have had the unintended consequence of further depleting its prospective pool of students beyond what the population losses alone would have done.
The reason that mergers of schools at any level are difficult is they run up against so many deep emotional connections. No one wants to lose their school or risk the jobs they provide. Even if it makes economic sense to combine schools, no one wants their school to have to make the sacrifice.
The proposition gets particularly tricky when race is involved. Delta State, with a non-white enrollment of about 45%, has the largest “other race” enrollment of the state’s universities. Even still it’s considered the “white school” in the minds of those who assume that if there is a merger, it would be at MVSU’s expense.
Maybe, however, the two universities could combine in a way that would strengthen both of them and better ensure their long-term survival in the communities where they are located.
You could maintain both campuses and their residential housing but assign academic programs that would be specific to each location, and put them under a single administration. With around 4,500 students combined, one president could easily oversee both locations. There would be other efficiencies to realize in both personnel and purchases.
Resistance to a merger would be significant, that’s certain. Coming up with a name for the school and its athletic teams would be an ordeal of its own.
At the rate both schools’ enrollments are going, though, they really don’t have much choice. They can either start talking about combining their efforts or they can wait until there are so few students that their only options are merge or close.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
