An outsider witnessing Allegra Brigham at work Thursday at Mississippi University for Women might believe she’s been president of the school for years, yet she’s only held the interim title for a week.
Brigham has yet to visit every building on campus, but she’s greeted like a veteran everywhere she goes. The 1969 graduate of MUW has worked for the school on three separate occasions prior to assuming the interim president position. She’s also worked as a public and private school teacher in the area and as lifestyles editor and managing editor of The Dispatch.
Cassie Derden, MUW’s director of admissions, worked for Brigham’s husband years ago at the First Federal Bank for Savings and was a high schooler when Brigham profiled her mother as Cook of the Week once while lifestyles editor at The Dispatch. Derden estimates Brigham knew more than half of the faculty at MUW before her old friend took over at the beginning of July.
Brigham, the former CEO of 4-County Electric Power Association, says the familiarity is simply the result of a lifetime spent in the area. It wasn’t the reason the state College Board chose her to replace former President Dr. Claudia Limbert until a permanent president is named, but it’s helped her accomplish her goal of making an immediate impact.
Her areas to address are many. There’s the newly-launched V3 e-college, bridging the gap between alumni associations, boosting enrollment, navigating the sharing of office duties with Mississippi State University and steadying the budget following round after round of state cuts.
Early in the afternoon Thursday, Brigham walked — she walks whenever possible — over to the Stovall House for her second meeting of the day with Mary Margaret Roberts, executive director of alumni relations. The two discussed a meeting of all Lowndes County alumni, from MUW’s official Alumni Association and the disaffiliated Mississippi’s First Alumnae Association, planned for July 22 at the Columbus Country Club.
“This is our hometown and our university’s hometown and we need to get everyone on the same page. Everyone needs to know what’s going on at their school,” said Brigham.
After discussing the meeting, Brigham and Roberts discussed other upcoming annual campus events such as the Tennessee Williams Tribute, the Welty Writers Symposium and the Welty Gala. MUW will also host a meeting of the board of directors of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in October.
When Brigham mentions she lived on the ground floor of Calloway Hall as a student, Roberts asks if she allowed people to sneak in and out of the dorm through her window before the two shared a laugh.
“We’ve had fun today,” said Brigham of handling the brighter side of university business.
After leaving Stovall and walking to Reneau Hall, Brigham took the stairs — she also skips the elevator whenever possible — up to the third floor to see Dr. Bill Mayfield, dean of the School of Professional Studies and architect of the V3 College. Mayfield was out on business to Copiah Lincoln Community College, but near his office Brigham found local Century 21 realtor Jane Smith, who had brought David Hevel, a recent American Eurocopter hire from Pennsylvania considering signing up for the V3 College’s online technology degree program.
Without skipping a beat, Brigham began touting the V3 College’s benefits.
“There are lots of opportunities for many people like you who come to this community for jobs,” she told him.
Hevel already holds an associate’s degree in specialized technology and said Eurocopter may be willing to pick up the tab for his continued education, thus making him ideal for the V3 College.
“A lot of industries pay for employees to go to school,” said Brigham. “They can’t give them the time off during the day to go, so if you can go to school online and get your company to pay for it, what an incredible way to earn your degree.”
Hevel also revealed his wife is an instructor for several e-colleges, which prompted Brigham to begin a different recruiting angle. She took his email address and passed it on to Derden, whom she asked to follow up.
Brigham guessed her encounter with Hevel was probably the third time she’s pitched MUW to a potential student in person.
“I love doing that. When I was faculty here I did a lot of that. When you love your job and the institution you work for, recruiting is easy,” she said.
She’s also made good on her promise to begin calling students who have visited campus and expressed an interest in attending MUW. Armed with a short profile listing each student’s interests, she began cold calling, but many students weren’t home because of the Fourth of July holiday. Still, she’s caught a few who were in the midst of filling out their paperwork when she called and hoped to sway their decision toward MUW.
Brigham has set a goal of increasing enrollment by 400 students during her time at MUW. It’s one of several she’ll likely share with department heads at an upcoming administrative council meeting intended to discuss policy and share information among departments. Dr. Martin Hatton, associate vice president of academic affairs and director of graduate studies, who joined MUW as an instructor in the communication department in 1992 while Brigham was head of the department, will lead the meeting. The two discussed the meeting briefly Thursday before Brigham moved on to the Stark Recreation Center to meet up with another faculty member from her past.
Marion McEwen, wellness director at the recreation center, was a student in Brigham’s government class at Heritage Academy when Brigham was fresh out of college.
“You got the president’s cut,” McEwen teased Brigham about her new hairstyle while giving the current president and former teacher a tour of the recreation center.
Along the way Brigham bumped into several more people she knew, including Dr. Mark Bean, chair of the department of health and kinesiology, whom Brigham grew up near. The two discussed what their children were up to before Brigham moved on to visit with Dr. Sue Jolly-Smith, interim dean of the college of education and human sciences, who worked at MUW’s summer Governor’s School while Brigham was the university’s head of public relations.
Thursday afternoon had the feel of a light workday for Brigham, but for every recruitment opportunity and special event to plan, there are several less enjoyable business aspects to the president’s job.
“I just forget how many things college presidents are expected to do,” she said.
To meet the workload, Brigham has been working 11-hour days. She gets out of bed at 3 a.m. every morning before going in to work at 8 a.m. She leaves the office at 7 p.m. and is usually in bed by 9 p.m.
Being new means she’s still handling “tedious” tasks such as learning MUW’s computer software and getting paperwork processed through the human resources department.
In the midst of getting settled into her own job, she’s already solving problems for others. When the e-college needed additional personnel for a data entry project, Brigham asked her assistants in the president’s office to lend a hand to get the job done on time.
“I’m trying to put resources where they’re needed most. People are usually willing to assist if asked,” she said.
Of course, that’s a minor example of the type of problems which are brought to the president, and she says the faculty has not been shy about voicing complaints or concerns.
“There have been a lot of issues shared with me that need to be resolved. My to-do list has grown extensively. Each night I try to compile those lists of things I’ve been doing and gradually take small steps to get things done,” she said.
Of course the budget looms as the largest problem. State economists have estimated the Gulf oil spill could cost the state as much as nine percent of yearly sales tax, which would likely mean more budget cuts for education.
MUW has already eliminated one job in
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.