Gemarion Nolan is the 2009 Black Colleges Radio Station On Air Personality of the Year!

Congratulations to Gemarion Nolan, a senior from Friars Point. He won the 2009 Black College Radio Station On Air Personality of the Year! We are thrilled that Gemarion won this prestigious award during the Black College Radio Conference in Atlanta last weekend. He was accompanied by other members of the WVSD 91.7 FM staff, including James Nolan, Andre Holly, Marcus Hill, Tineshia Banks and station programmer/announced Eric Cole. The students also competed in the HBCU Radio Station with the Most Community Involvement.

The MVSU Campus Honda All-Star Challenge team finished in the top 16 during the tournament in Orlando, Fla. Congratulations to the entire team and coaches for a job well done!

Valley’s own Dr. Marvin Haire recently served as a featured presenter at the Jus’ Blues Music Foundation’s Technology Conference in San Francisco, focusing on Valley’s model for supporting local communities that desire to engage in Blues cultural heritage and tourism, our work on the Randy Weston Blue-Jazz Room, and our design for the larger Blues & Abstract Truths Database. JBMF is planning a 10-city national tour for this Blues business and musicians’ technical support conference over a three-year period and expects to expand the tour globally. Dr. Haire is also working directly with the CEO and Board on plans for a featured “Trail of the Delta Blues Tour” for youth that will precede this year’s annual Jus’ Blues Music Awards ceremony in Memphis, on plans for honoring Mrs. Mary Shepard, former owner of Club Ebony, as our “Blues Homecoming Queen”!

Dr. Hammond and I are in Orlando, Florida with the MVSU Honda Campus All Star Challenge team. It has been three exciting days of watching our students dominate our bracket of the tournament!

Let me tell you about these young men and women. The team leader is Melissa Hamilton who is participating in her third Honda Challenge. Other team members are Ivory Johnson, also participating for a third tourney, Dominique Gardner, a second year veteran, Jimmy Brown and Robin McGee. They are coached by Dr. Louis Hall and Mrs. Barbara Washington.

We are in the “Buffalo Soldiers Division” which puts us against West Virginia State, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Prairie View A&M, Dillard University, Spelman College and St. Augustine.

We won our first two matches against Prairie View A&M and Dillard University (a whopping 405-10 victory!). Friday afternoon, our students defeated St. Augustine and Spelman College.

This morning, our streak increased to 6-0 as we beat West Virginia State and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Our next competition is against Virginia Union University this afternoon.

Regardless of the outcome, we’ll advance to the “Sweet 16” tomorrow. I can’t wait to share the results with you!

The Honors Convocation on Wednesday was a beautiful program. I am delighted to see the number of students recognized.

I would like to personally thank Dr. Joseph Stevenson for his remarks as featured speaker, the University Choir under the direction of Mr. Orlando Moss, and the MVSU Symphonic Band under the direction of Mr. Michael Torregano. The talent of these men and their students is of such magnificent depth! We salute each of you!

Monday’s town hall meeting for Valley students went extremely well. More than 350 students attended and received information about the direction of the new administration and goals. I appreciate the students who expressed their appreciation for bringing them together and for providing the information. Afterwards, I enjoyed having lunch with the student leaders.

Also on Monday, we cut the ribbon on the new MVSU Convenience Store. It’s just beautiful! Please share your appreciation with Mr. Andre Curry, vice president for Fiscal Affairs, Mr. Rudy Bastelli, bookstore manager, and his staff, and the staffs of Facilities Management and Information Technology for their work in our new state-of-the-art store. The students can take their laptops in the store and use wireless internet, enjoy the flat screen television and visit on the relaxing couches. It’s just gorgeous. The faculty, staff and students who came out for the grand opening enjoyed a real treat.

Members of the executive staff and I enjoyed attending the Greenwood-Leflore Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting and hearing Dr. Mark Keenum of Mississippi State, a Greenwood native, share a wonderful message.

CONGRATULATIONS, MVSU BASEBALL!  Mr. Oliver and I were able to attend all three of Valley’s games against Jackson State University on Saturday and Sunday and it gives me great Valley pride to tell you that these men won all three! I was so proud of the sportsmanship that each displayed. I thoroughly enjoyed welcoming in the new spring with victories on the MVSU campus. Congratulations to Coach Shanks and the entire Valley team!

On Monday, we are holding a Student Town Hall meeting and I hope that each MVSU student, both undergraduate and graduate, will attend, if at all possible.

Vice President for Fiscal and Administrative Affairs Andre Curry will be sharing key information regarding tuition payments and our new refund service through Sallie Mae Services. In addition, he will be discussing Nelnet, an actively managed payment plan for students to pay tuition through a bank account or using a credit or debit card. He will be available to answer any questions or concerns, so it is important to attend the meeting.

Others on the agenda include Dr. Anna Hammond, chief of staff; Dr. Joseph Stevenson, provostl; and Dr. Jerald Jones-Woolfolk, interim vice president for Student Affairs.

At The Valley, we want our students to succeed in every way, at all times, in the classroom and in your future careers. Every student here is a VIP and I want to share with you at Monday’s meeting what I mean by that. Please Twitter your friends, make a note on Facebook, and share e-mails. The meeting begins at 11 a.m. in the H.G. Carpenter Auditorium. See you there!

Please join us for church on Sunday, March 22. We will be attending First Baptist Church of Greenwood, located at 500 West Washington. Services begin at 10 a.m. We have received such a warm invitation from The Rev. Joe Pate and the entire congregation. Won’t you join us?

The Valley offices will be closed tomorrow for an energy conservation day! We are doing our very best to become an energy-efficient university. Friday is the final day of spring break for our faculty and students so it correlates well to give our staff a day off and shut the computers down and turn the lights off.

Mississippi Valley State University will hold its annual Honors Convocation on Wednesday, March 25 at 10 a.m. in H.G. Carpenter Auditorium. The University’s new provost, Dr. Joseph Stevenson, will be the keynote speaker. Speaking of Dr. Stevenson, he and MVSU Mathematics and Computer Information Science Chair Constance Bland were recognized in New Orleans this week by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Dr. Stevenson was recognized for Outstanding Leadership in Higher Education and Dr. Bland was recognized for Outstanding Faculty Research. Congratulations to both!

Please consider joining us tomorrow (March 15), 3 p.m., at the Saint James African Methodist Episcopal Church, 102 Church Street in Leland. I am so honored that the women have invited me to be their guest speaker at the annual Women’s Missionary Society Program.

I am excited that the MVSU Concert Choir, under the direction of Orlando Moss, will be featured during the church services.

For additional information about Sunday’s program, contact Mrs. Tamara Williams at (662)-686-4843 or 4138 or email at tlbwilliams@gmail.com.

For you alumni who may not have heard the choir lately, you must know what an outstanding job they do in representing The Valley. I asked Mr. Moss to give me information about the choir and I hope you will take some time to read about them below:

The MVSU Concert and Gospel Choirs were selected to visit Nassau, Bahamas to serve as clinicians in the performance of the Madrigals, Motets, Anthems, Spirituals and Gospel music in 2008. They visited Nassau in 2007and introduced the cultures of Mississippi, the Mississippi Delta, and America to the Governor General and his Prime Ministers. Later, the choirs received an invitation to teach Bahamian school children how to perform different musical genres. During this visit, Bahamian students were offered the chance to study at Mississippi Valley State University. Each member of the choir was given a token of appreciation by Ambassador Ned L. Siegel for performing a lecture/concert at the American Embassy in Nassau. Since winning the Silver Cup at the 15th Concorso Internazionale Di Canto Corale in Verona, Italy, the MVSU Concert and Gospel Choirs have performed in many churches, schools, and specifically for the MVSU alumni chapters in their support of MVSU and the choirs. The gospel choir recently won the competition to appear on the Bobby Jones Gospel Tour.

Mr. Moss, a respected choral director/voice teacher has conducted the MVSU choirs since 1993. His original musical, The Mississippi Delta Saga was performed by the MVSU choir in 1997. He is the author of two vocal technique books: The Developmental Vocal Method and the Complete Handbook for teaching Small Vocal Ensembles. He is married to the former Ollie Bell Scholars and they have three children, Orlando Jr., Karen and Frederick.

The MVSU women’s and men’s basketball team represented your University in hard-fought contests at the SWAC tournament this week in Birmingham’s Fair Park Arena.

Our women, ranked sixth, upset the second-ranked Alabama State women in a 48-43 win. This is the same squad we lost to in triple overtime earlier in the year.

We led most of the second half thanks to senior Michelle Messaga who had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Ashley Brown added 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Friday’s game was equally exciting but this time Southern held on to defeat our ladies 64-56. Even though we led at the half 31-25, Southern outscored us 39-35. Scoring for Valley was Colby Stallings with 17 points. Ashley Brown added 14 points and Kristen Ellis tallied 11 points to round out the Devilettes in double figures.

On the men’s side, sixth seed Valley lost to #2 Prairie View A&M, 65-60. It was a heartbreaker! Valley’s Eric Petty led all players with 18 points with nine rebounds, while Dwayne Harmason added 15 and four assists.

All Conference

Valley’s own Eric Petty and Shannon Behling were named to the Third Team All SWAC.

Devilette Kanesha Smith was named the Freshman of the Year, Smith, a 5-9 freshman from Sandhill averaged 8.4 points and 4.9 rebounds for the Devilettes. She scored a season-high 20 points against Texas El-Paso on Dec. 14.

Congratulations to all three players and to the coaches and the entire team for their efforts this season!

Our initial phase of the Valley Renaissance is under way. We will officially launch the campaign in the coming days but I want to share with you some of the items we have been discussing on campus.

On March 10, Dr. Joseph Stevenson, our new provost, held the first faculty forum. He discussed academic phase of the Valley Renaissance. Among them:

·          Modernize the current academic offerings

·          Provide professional development and training in action research for faculty to improve classroom instruction and student retention

·          Establish a men’s college for low-income, high-risk males who transfer from local community colleges

·          Build relationships to improve articulation with the K-12 school systems and the local community colleges

·          Establish a new emphasis in organizational management for adult learners;

·          Establish technology transfer and matriculation from community colleges to MVSU;

·          Upgrade the MBA program with an emphasis in professional and executive development

·        Establish a Mississippi Mini Medical School, which will provide healthy lifestyle instructional modules for middle school age youth and for the aging elderly population.

I had the opportunity to visit with the MVSU Staff Council on Tuesday where I talked about enhancing the campus environment. We are exploring several cost-saving measures to save on energy, fuel, water and other resources affiliated with the physical plant and facilities.

Campus lighting is in the process of being upgraded to improve security and environmental initiatives are under way to promote conservation.

It is exciting to prepare for the opening of the new Science & Technology Building. If you have not been on campus lately, you will be pleasantly surprised with the progress of the building. We are looking at moving into the building in the early summer.

Thursday evening was the final home game for our MVSU men’s and women’s seniors, Eric Petty, Michael Clark, Dwayne Harmason, Latoia Mackey, Latasha Williams, Aleana Fisher and Michelle Messaga. I know it was an emotional time for these young men and women and for their coaches and teammates. I am so proud of our all our teams and I especially want to thank these seniors for representing The Valley.

The women defeated the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff Lady Lions 61-56, coming back from a huge deficit the first quarter. It was an exciting game!

Junior Ashley Brown led all scorers with 20 points while Latasha added 12 points and 9 rebounds for her final game in Harrison gym.

On the men’s side, we lost a close one, 73-63. Eric scored 14 points in his final performance in Harrison gym.

In other sports, our baseball team lost a heartbreaker to Louisiana State University. They led through the game until a LSU player hit a grand slam! These men get better with each game. Please give coach Doug Shanks and the team your support!

Before you go to bed on Saturday, set your clock forward one hour so you can join The Valley Family for services at Immanuel Baptist Church, 916 Medallion Drive in Greenwood. The church is easy to find; turn off Park Avenue between Regions Bank and Walgreens and go one block. Pastor Tommy Williams and his congregation will begin services at 10:45 a.m. I want to thank Mrs. Linda Bassie of The Greenwood Commonwealth for inviting us.

Have a great weekend!