Candor, communication will help boost Fort Valley State, new president says

FORT VALLEY -- About six weeks into his new job as president of Fort Valley State University, Paul Jones is optimistic about the school's future.

He's nearly halfway though a 100-day assessment period, after which he'll have more firm plans and goals. But one thing is already evident to him.

"Faculty, our staff, our students seem to care very deeply about Fort Valley State University, and I'm learning why that passion is there," said Jones, a graduate of Colorado State and Utah State universities.

One of the biggest concerns is enrollment. This year's total student count of 2,695 was an increase from 2014 -- the first upturn in four years -- but Jones said that needs to improve.

He pointed to 3,600 as a solid goal for the university, not far from the 3,896 students enrolled on the campus in 2011 before the recent slide. Residence halls and other facilities were built and configured with that level of enrollment in mind.

"We certainly have capacity right now to grow," he said. "From a fiscal perspective, if we want to ensure that we can have greater flexibility, if we want to make sure that we have the right infrastructure for classrooms and beyond, then we know we need to get up there because that's where we were."

One key to growth is creating systems on campus to support new and incoming students.

Part of that "greater effort" is getting rid of inefficiencies in the university's processes and infrastructure. For instance, the admissions and recruitment offices are now separate at FVSU, and that takes away from cohesion in those two very similar initiatives.

"They're all working very hard, but how do we create an environment where we're working more efficiently and effectively by leveraging the resources that we have in front of us?" he asked.

Diversity will be another key to growing the university and helping it reach its potential. While FVSU's legacy as a historically black university is important and still necessary, he said, the admissions and recruitment staff will need to reach out to all communities to find the best students.

"As an institution, we want to welcome all students. We have to. In this climate, if we believe we are delivering the best education, then we ought to embrace anyone who wants to be in this environment," he said.

"If anyone should understand diversity or anyone should understand how it feels to be excluded, Fort Valley should, and we don't need to perpetuate that, in my mind, in terms of making people not feel welcome."

That focus on bringing in students from various backgrounds extends into the Hispanic community, which is especially important in Peach County. The student population for the county's public schools is about 15 percent Hispanic, easily the largest such percentage among Middle Georgia counties.

In April, the university hired Paco Paredes-Sanchez to serve as bilingual admissions and international recruiter to increase FVSU's presence in the Hispanic community both locally and in other areas.

"We need to be in all communities. I really believe that," Jones said. "He's here, I think, doing a great job of really saying to students, 'We believe we have something here you will really benefit from.'"

FVSU's Hispanic enrollment last fall was just 45 students, the lowest in the University System of Georgia.

MORE ACCESSIBLE

One criticism of Jones' predecessor, Ivelaw Griffith, was that he wasn't accessible enough, particularly to alumni and other university stakeholders.

Pamela Berry-Johnson, FVSU's communications director, said that hasn't been an issue with Jones.

"He really wants to listen intently to what they say are the challenges and the bright spots," she said.

Berry-Johnson pointed to a series of "fireside chats" Jones is scheduling with students and "brown-bag lunches" he's setting up for faculty and staff, both to serve as opportunities for informal discussion. Those will add to an already busy schedule for the president but will help him gain more knowledge about the FVSU community.

"He's very energetic, very comfortable talking to people," she said.

For Jones, that doesn't come from any initiative or plan. He described his style of leadership as one of openness and transparency and said he aimed to eliminate "silos" where different groups aren't communicating well with each other.

"We need to be transparent. We need to be honest with one another," he said. "We need to enhance communication. That's clear to me already here."

His early efforts in his time at the helm drew praise from Hank Huckaby, chancellor of the University System of Georgia. He called Jones a "strong leader" who has already shown initiative as FVSU's president.

"He's a quick study and is working to build relationships with Fort Valley State's constituencies: students, faculty, staff, alumni and the community," Huckaby said.

Jones also addressed concerns that FVSU might become part of another consolidation effort like the one that created Middle Georgia State University. Even though Jones was interim president at Darton College when that school's merger with Albany State was approved, he said there had been no indication that the same move was coming to Fort Valley State.

Instead, the Board of Regents was focused more on FVSU's reaching its full potential as an asset to the state, he said.

"I hope that we don't become paralyzed by what's going on in our system because if we continue focusing on those things, we're going to miss what we really should be doing, and that is providing high-quality education for our students," he said.

Huckaby confirmed that mindset. He described FVSU's success as "critically important" for the university system.

"The long-term health of Fort Valley State is of utmost importance," he said. "We must ensure that the right programs are being offered that will enroll and graduate students, align with available resources and contribute to the economic health of the institution, community and region.

That effort is already underway, with research in agricultural fields that Jones said isn't taking place anywhere else in the state. Additionally, raising the academic standards at FVSU will be key to everything from enrollment and retention to alumni involvement.

"Students, no matter who they are, people, no matter who they are, want to be associated with things of excellence," he said.

To contact writer Jeremy Timmerman, call 744-4331 or find him on Twitter @MTJTimm.

This story was originally published January 30, 2016 at 8:46 PM with the headline "Candor, communication will help boost Fort Valley State, new president says ."