“When HBCUs Thrive” with Ivy Taylor
Shownotes:
HBCUs, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, serve an important role in the education system of the United States. Today on The Weight, Chris and Eddie talk to Dr. Ivy Taylor, the President of Rust College, an HBCU in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Dr. Taylor consistently values the importance of education in general and the significance of HBCUs specifically in the United States.
Dr. Taylor is a native of Queens, New York. She received her academic degrees from Yale University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Pennsylvania. She spent twenty years in San Antonio, Texas as an affordable housing advocate, educator and elected official before transitioning to her role as president of Rust College. Dr. Taylor served as mayor of San Antonio, Texas for three years and as a member of the San Antonio City Council for five years. Even before working at Rust College, Dr. Taylor identified education as a key factor to helping people thrive, which in turn helps communities thrive.
Resources:
Learn more about Dr. Taylor
Learn more about HBCUs
Learn more about Rust College
Transcript:
Eddie Rester 00:00 I'm Eddie Rester.
Chris McAlilly 00:01
I'm Chris McAlilly. Welcome to The Weight.
Eddie Rester 00:04
We're so glad you're here. This is an episode where we get to talk with someone who's doing real difficult and important work with young people here in the state of Mississippi. We're talking today with Dr. Ivy Taylor, who is the president of Rust College.
Chris McAlilly 00:22
Dr. Taylor has an interesting personal journey that led her to this role. She hasn't spent the majority of her life in higher education, but rather in politics. She was the mayor of the city of San Antonio. Her background, though, was in kind of nonprofit work and...
Eddie Rester 00:40 City planning.
Chris McAlilly 00:40
Affordable housing and city planning. And so she just brings a wealth of knowledge and understanding about what what it is that makes communities thrive, and what makes understanding about what what it is that makes communities thrive, and what makes individuals thrive, and that those two things are connected. But we kind of teased out how she ended up landing on the side of investing in people through education, so that people thrive, and therefore their communities thrive.
Eddie Rester 01:09
And one of the things she talks about is just the important role of HBCUs in our country, in our state of Mississippi, in the south. For many people, they may not be familiar with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or they may be only familiar with a few of them, or because Deion Sanders coaches at one. But they play an important role, and I think she helps us see that in the role particularly that Rust College continues to play. It's one of our two United Methodist institutions in the state of Mississippi. And one is Millsaps College, and the other is Rust. So I think you're going to enjoy the conversation today. I think it's going to be informative and maybe challenging to you in how we think about the role of colleges and universities and particularly the role of HBCUs in our world today.
Chris McAlilly 02:05
Yeah, I think it's also just a good reminder, for people of faith. Oftentimes people of faith get caught up in... You know, the assumption is that we only care about people's souls, you know, that we care about people's spiritual well being. And one of the just unique threads of the history of Methodism in America is that Methodists invested in higher education, from Vanderbilt to Southern California to Rust College and Millsaps, with a belief that if a person learned, was educated and learned to think well, that it would contribute to their overall spiritual, emotional well being, and also to the well being of the communities in which they lived and served. So we're grateful that you're a part of the conversation with us here on The Weight. If you like this episode, share it with a friend. Tell somebody about it. Leave us a review. We're always glad to have you with us here. [INTRO] Life can be heavy. So heavy, in fact, that the weight we carry can sometimes cause us to lose hope.
Eddie Rester 03:21
But we've all come across those people in life who seem to be experiencing the same world we live in, except they maintain a great depth of joy and hope.
Chris McAlilly 03:30
A former generation called this gravitas. It was their description of a soul that had gained enough weightiness to be attractive, like all things with a gravitational pull.
Eddie Rester 03:41
Those are the people we want to talk to. On this podcast, we talk to pastors, entrepreneurs, artists, mental health experts, and many others.
Chris McAlilly 03:51
We'll create space for heavy topics. But we'll be listening for quality of soul that could be called gravitas.
Eddie Rester 03:58
Welcome to The Weight. [END INTRO]
Chris McAlilly 04:00
Well, we're here today with Dr. Ivy Taylor. Dr. Taylor, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
Ivy Taylor 04:08 Thank you for having me.
Chris McAlilly 04:09
We're excited to be here and to learn a little bit about your journey. And I think Eddie may have a first question for you.
Eddie Rester 04:18
Well, I'm just excited, as... You've been a mayor, you're now president of Rust College. In a minute, we'll try to figure out which one of those was more difficult for you. But just tell us a little bit about your story. How did... I know, I think you were raised in New York. You had time, if I'm getting that right, time in North Carolina, college at Yale, but just kind of give us a thumb sketch of how you ended up in politics and now in higher education.
Ivy Taylor 04:18
Okay, great. Well, it has been an interesting journey for me. I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens. I always throw Brooklyn in there because that gives you street cred. So raised in Queens by parents who were, kind of followed that typical great migration pattern. My parents were from Wilmington, North Carolina. And in the 60s, they left North Carolina for opportunity in New York City. That was kind of the pattern. Folks from North Carolina went to New York. Folks from Mississippi went to Chicago. So, you know, they did not have... They weren't educated. My mother completed high school. My stepfather went to maybe eighth or ninth grade. And so, I was raised in kind of a humble home, where there was a focus on education, but it was just more like "do well in school." There wasn't a lot of engagement in the household. But my mom did make sure we had a World Book Encyclopedia set. And I remember those gold rimmed pages were very inspirational to me. And if I didn't have a book to read from the library, I could always go to the encyclopedia, and find out about places that I had never been. So I, again, was educated in public schools there. Because I did well in school, I ended up on the Ivy League track and I went to Yale. I got a bachelor's degree from Yale and came back home to New York, where I kind of floundered because I really didn't understand the idea of figuring out what you want to do with your life, because my parents were more so like people who had jobs, not people who were inspired by what they did every day. So I didn't quite figure that out at Yale. A lot of folks at Yale had different preparation than I did in different types of connections. So I just kind of went home and got the Sunday Times and looked for a job, which didn't really take me too far. I ended up as an administrative assistant at an advertising firm. And after feeling like a failure for a few years, I decided I needed to kind of reset, restart and go back to school and focus on something that I knew I was interested in where I wanted to make a contribution. Throughout the course of my life and my career, I discovered urban planning, which I really had never heard of, until I was in my 20s. And went back to school in North Carolina, got a master's degree in city planning from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, got a summer internship that led me to San Antonio. I was working for an affordable housing nonprofit. And then in San Antonio, I met my future husband. So that's where the Texas hook comes in. And when I finished school, he proposed, so I had to move to San Antonio.
Chris McAlilly 08:00
San Antonio is such a wonderful city, having visited there a few times. It just, there's a wonderful... It's eclectic. It just there's a... I don't know. it's a walkable city, in some ways, you know, parts of the city. What did you find when you got there? And how did how did you begin to get more and more engaged in kind of civic service?
Ivy Taylor 08:28
Well, what I found when I got there were... You know, originally when I was an intern, I was working with some nonprofits that were involved with creating affordable housing. So that kind of gave me a view and a lens for different neighborhoods in the city. What I really found was at that time that the city was behind the curve on inner city investment. In many other places the downtowns had come back. But San Antonio was kind of lagging in that regard. There was still a lot of sprawling suburban development. And I was particularly interested, maybe because I grew up in New York, in one of those more traditional neighborhoods, urban feel neighborhoods. I was really interested in how to spark investments and interest and revitalization into those older neighborhoods that had unique, amazing housing stock, you know, older homes, historic homes, were walkable, as opposed to the suburban areas, and also had access to some of the city's cultural and historic assets downtown. So it was an interesting time. I worked for the city of San Antonio actually, when I first started there. I was a grants coordinator for federal grants that supported affordable housing, and I kind of immersed myself, and after that I worked at a Catholic agency, a nonprofit that built apartments and refurbished homes for low income seniors who had single family homes. Through that I got involved in some of the neighborhood associations in the areas where we were working, and really just became committed to being part of the change. So I convinced my husband that we needed to buy a home in one of the neighborhoods that at that time was transitional. And so we ended up buying a house that was built in 1911, in a neighborhood called Dignowity Hill, that was kind of undergoing some transition. So I started out, again, as an employee at the city, worked at a nonprofit, and then kind of the hunger to do more the urge to do more. I was frustrated by the bureaucracy of the city, and at the nonprofit, I felt we were doing really good work, but I realized the limit of the impact of affordable housing. And that's where a light bulb moment came on, where instead of focusing on making neighborhoods and communities better so people could thrive, I decided why don't I just focus on how to make people thrive. And I knew education was the key to that, but I couldn't figure out how I could make a career pivot to education. So instead, I ran for office.
Eddie Rester 11:29
A different pivot. And, you know, in San Antonio, the very first time I visited, I visited for a Final Four, but the second time I went, I got to explore the city. And it's one of those really unique cities that offers a lot of history, a lot of culture, a lot of athletic events. I mean, a lot of sports are huge for San Antonio. But for all of us who visit places like that, we get to see... I don't want to say what the city wants us to see. But we get to see the bright and shiny...
Chris McAlilly 12:06 The curated.
Eddie Rester 12:06
Yeah, curated part of San Antonio.
Ivy Taylor 12:08 Yes, yes.
Eddie Rester 12:10
And we forget sometimes that there's the kind of the day-in, day-out: neighborhoods, blight, police forces, education. All of that requires a level of vision and effort that, again, we just take for granted when we show up and enjoy on the Riverwalk.
Ivy Taylor 12:32
Yes, yes, yes, definitely. That is the case. And of course, we always want to put our best foot forward for guests and visitors. But there definitely were quite a few issues that, you know, the city was dealing with. There's a lot of poverty in San Antonio, low educational attainment rates, largely due to history and legacy of racism, similar to Mississippi, but with a different population, Latinos. So yes, was an interesting place to work.
Chris McAlilly 13:07
So you ran for... You didn't only run for office, you became the mayor of San Antonio, and...
Ivy Taylor 13:13
Well, first, I was a council member.
Chris McAlilly 13:15 I got you. Okay,
Ivy Taylor 13:17
I was a council member for five years, representing the neighborhood, the area where we had invested, you know, and had purchased a historic home. So that was really fun. Being a council member, you felt like you could really make an impact on a certain geographic area. It was your job to advocate for that geographic area. And I was able to be the catalyst for a major revitalization project in the east side of San Antonio, that brought, you know, in excess of $50 million in federal funding from various sources. Well, actually $50 million in funding, 25 from the housing authority. And yeah, the other side was federal, too. So, but in any case, it was a lot of money. We were able to build things and create educational programs. And then after five years into my term, the person who was mayor at the time, he was tapped by President Obama to run HUD, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. So that left a vacancy in the mayor's spot, which had never happened before. So we all pulled out our charter to see, city charter to see, okay, what are we supposed to do and the charter said that in the event of mayor leaves before his term, their term is up, the mayor has to be selected from the council, by the council. So what was interesting about this time of my life is I had already been kind of struggling with what am I gonna do next? Right, because I, you know, I wasn't gonna... Well, we had term limits, plus I wasn't one of those people that identified with being an elected officer. I was already trying to figure out what to do next. And several people had said to me that they thought I should be mayor. One of my colleagues on the city council told me that, and I was like, "Are you crazy? The city is 65% Hispanic. This little Black girl from Queens will never be elected mayor." And a news reporter said that to me after an interview. We did a little interview on the sidewalk in the neighborhood, and when she put the mic down, she said, "When are you gonna run for mayor?" And I just was kind of shocked. You know, it's interesting how other people can see things in you that maybe sometimes you don't. And so when people started saying this, I started telling them, well, I want to be the mayor, but I don't want to run for mayor. Because I'm not really into the whole... The election side of things is no fun. I like to do the work and get things done. So I kept telling people, "I want to be the mayor, but I don't want to run for mayor." Well guess what? God made exactly that happen. I had the chance to be the mayor without running for mayor. So I was the person selected by my council colleagues to fill the one year, unexpired term from my predecessor. But then, after that year was up, I did go on to run and win my own term, so I ended up serving for three years as mayor.
Eddie Rester 16:35
Okay. So when you think about your year, those three years as mayor, what's the thing that you're most proud of? What's the thing that you're happy that that got done while you were mayor, or got started while you were mayor?
Ivy Taylor 16:51
Well, there were a few things. You know, I'm an urban planner. And so we did a plan. We did a city master plan, which was a big deal, because we really had not had one, you know, in decades. And so really being the center of those conversations about how do we want to grow as a city for the future. I think that was important. We also got a big water pipeline project done. San Antonio's main water source is an underground aquifer. And so the development over the aquifer was kind of threatening, you know, the quality of the water. And also, we found that some folks in the business community felt uncertain about growth of the city for the future, because we had one main water source. And so we were able to get the votes to support a pipeline from an aquifer in another county. So that was a big deal, getting that done. And then the other thing that was a big deal was we, when I became mayor, we were at a stalemate in our negotiations with the police union over their next contract. And so I was able to broker and negotiate a contract with the police union. And the new contract did save the city some millions of dollars on health care costs for the officers. But, you know, I think that probably the most important thing, really, is that when people turned on the news at night and heard about something that was happening down at City Hall, there were thousands of young people who saw my Black face on the news as the mayor of the city. And I think that was very important for the Black and Brown population. It was very important for young girls to see a woman in that position. I'm not the first woman mayor in San Antonio, but the first woman had been mayor 40 years before me, and there was not another one in between. So I think, I know that that was a point of inspiration for some young people. I would get letters from kids that would write me from school. Or the best was I got this video a mother sent me where, one day I wore this really, like, fuchsia colored scarf. I don't know why. I just was in a fuschia mood. I wore this fuchsia scarf and a patterned jacket, and this woman sent me this video of her daughter dressed up like me, pretending to be me.
Eddie Rester 19:45 Oh, that's great.
Ivy Taylor 19:47
Some little scarf and she was pretending to be me. So it's really a blessing to have the chance to be an inspiration to people.
Eddie Rester 19:56
My daughters are both in science fields, STEM majors in college, and part of that is because they had strong females in their life who were doctors or scientists or taught science, and when you see something, that changes your perspective.
Ivy Taylor 20:16 Yes, yeah.
Eddie Rester 20:17
On what you can be. So you've had this tenure. You've done, lead the city, I know, the re-election, you didn't didn't get reelected.
Ivy Taylor 20:32 Right.
Eddie Rester 20:33
So what's the pivot? Then you finally make a pivot to education. But how do you get from San Antonio, Texas, to Holly Springs, Mississippi to a historically black university there, Rust College?
Ivy Taylor 20:47
So that goes back to my time on the council. So when I was a council member, I was a member of the Texas Association of Black City Council Members, a statewide organization that met, you know, I don't know, quarterly or something like that. But the meetings were always held on the campus of HBCUs in Texas. And so of course, having grown up in New York, I really was not familiar with HBCUs. My parents didn't go to college. So that was kind of my first introduction to HBCUs. So I became a little bit intrigued about the institutions. And then that same dated charter that allowed me to be mayor also, when I was a council member, that same dated charter dictated that council members were paid $20 per meeting. So I had to find a job that would let me serve my community. And the job that I found was serving as a full time instructor at University of Texas at San Antonio. So I was a council member, mainly by day and then at night I taught, because I taught in the public administration, department and I taught masters level courses. And a lot of them were at night. So I worked two jobs for six years. And when I became mayor, I actually got on the board of a HBCU in Austin, called Huston-Tillotson. And so that's when I really... You know, between me being in the classroom for six years, and then having the opportunity to serve as a trustee, I became more intrigued about the idea of using the leadership skills that I had amassed to support the cause of HBCUs, which I came to understand have a very special role in the American higher education landscape and American society in general. And so yeah, that's really how the mental connection was made.
Chris McAlilly 22:54
One of the things you said earlier was that you got into city planning, urban planning, and you kind of have this perspective that if you could change the neighborhood, then people could thrive. Education is the other side of that coin, which you referred to, is that it's a way of investing in the individuals and in the particular people as a means of their thriving, and if they thrive, then it's kind of the flip. It's a flip perspective. Where the people thrive, then the neighborhoods and...
Ivy Taylor 23:24
And communities can thrive.
Chris McAlilly 23:26 Right.
Ivy Taylor 23:26 All interrelated. Yes.
Chris McAlilly 23:28
Yeah. That's a powerful vocational... I mean, I think for young people, I, you know, we, I'm in Oxford, Mississippi, so in a college town, and constantly interacting with students who are trying to figure out what they want to do with their life. And they do view education in large part as a means to the end of getting a job, you know. But there's this larger kind of vocational trajectory that it sounds like you picked up on that. There's a way that you can invest your life and your energy and your effort, your skills to make the world a better place. And education is a way to do that.
Ivy Taylor 24:10
Yes, that is exactly how it kind of came together for me. Once I was intentional about trying to understand where my interests and skills could take me, and then while I was in the job of being an urban planner, paying attention to what I was learning from the people that we're serving. And that's what helped me to understand that the need for leadership in higher ed and a focus on creating access to educational opportunities.
Chris McAlilly 24:49
So tell us about the Rust opportunity. How did that intrigue you as opposed to... I mean, there are a number of HBCUs. How did you end up pursuing this this particular opportunity?
Ivy Taylor 25:02
Well, so when I left City Hall without a plan B, because I lost the election. I had a bad consultant. I should have known I was going to lose before election night, but. So that created consultant. I should have known I was going to lose before election night, but. So that created the space and opportunity for me to pursue this interest. But I knew I'd have a better chance at getting a leadership position if I had a doctorate. So at age 48, I actually went back to school, University of Pennsylvania. They had an executive program, a two year program, so I spent two years flying up to Philly for classes, and I wrote a dissertation. And when the second year was winding down, and I was finishing up my dissertation, that's when I started kind of scouring some of these job postings. And I actually really just applied for the job. I did not know anyone here. A couple of folks that I knew had mentioned to me that the president of Rust was planning to retire. But it didn't really stick in my mind because I just, you know, Mississippi was not top of mind, and I wasn't familiar with Rust. But when I saw the job posting, I just went ahead and submitted an application and went through the selection and vetting process, which was virtual because of the pandemic. And so Rust appealed to me, because it felt very similar to the school that I was familiar with, where I was a trustee, which was Huston-Tillotson, which is also affiliated with the United Methodist Church, is a small liberal arts school, of, you know, a thousand or less. The only key difference is that HT is located in tech town Austin, and Rust College is located in rural Holly Springs, so. But it felt familiar. And that's why I felt comfortable applying and thought that I could do the job.
Eddie Rester 27:01
Let's kind of start at a higher level and then we'll drill down into Rust and its particular place and an understanding of itself. But for folks who may not be familiar with uniqueness of HBCUs, the place that they have, the role that they play in our communities and in our nation's history, can you say just a little bit, maybe for folks who aren't familiar with them to help kind of paint the picture of what they are, why they're so important?
Ivy Taylor 27:31
Well, HBCUs are Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Actually, that term is a result of a federal designation that was created when Lyndon Johnson was president, to refer to a set of schools that were created in the wake of the Civil War and freedom of the slaves to educate Black Americans. And so Rust is one of those schools. We were founded in 1866. So many of those schools came about, you know, in the years immediately following the Civil War, and they were founded specifically to educate freed slaves or Black citizens. And they started out, many as elementary and high schools, because there were not... Well, first of all, in the South, the public education system was somewhat limited in general. And so what was open was not open to Black Americans. So many of them started out as primary schools, high schools, and then over time became institutions of higher education. Now, as there was a fight in the courts for access to the public schools that were being established by various states, many states still had the desire to continue to bar African Americans from attending those schools, and therefore states created Black schools. And so any school created under those circumstances prior to, I guess about 1964 or something, is considered a Historically Black College or University. Now, interestingly, Black colleges have probably always had more diversity on the faculty than other schools, because if you've systematically excluded a population of people from access to higher education, then how can you expect them to fill the ranks of the faculty at those schools? So those schools have always kind of had diverse faculty. But the schools have really provided the foundation and the backbone for Black teachers and preachers initially, and the Black middle class in general. So you will find that there are Black families, not mine, but there are Black families where they have attended college for generations, maybe three or four generations, because they have had access to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. These schools continue to be responsible for the education of the majority of Black doctors, Black engineers, Black lawyers, and I think that speaks volumes, that even in the 21st century, when people have access to attend all different types of schools, that still HBCUs are the ones who generate Blacks in these key professional roles.
Eddie Rester 30:50
It's interesting to me that this is a moment, particularly I think with Deion Sanders coaching at Jackson State. He's part, brought a lot of... You can't, folks who are listening, you can't see. But Dr. Taylor's smiled as I mentioned that name. He just, he's shined the light again on HBCUs for a lot of folks, and I know HBCUs aren't just about sports. But he's kind of helped folks remember this--not just the white population, but I think the Black population as well, the value, the importance and significance of HBCUs in the United States.
Ivy Taylor 31:26
Yes, there are only about 105 left. Many have closed over the years due to lack of financial support, due to competition with other schools as schools began to be integrated. But these schools have consistently punched above their weight and have had such an incredible impact and are still relevant. And it's very unfortunate that many people in our society are unaware of them. I went to my thirtieth college reunion in May and was invited to give a little talk about my career journey. And that gave me the chance to speak to a roomful of Yalies about Rust College. And I spoke to one of my classmates afterwards and he was saying how excited he was to learn about these institutions. And I kind of said, well, you know, a lot of the other schools are... You know, there's a handful, there's kind of a clutch of schools that people know a little bit more about, Jackson State now entering that group, thanks to Deion. But over the years, that's been Howard, Hampton, Morehouse, and Spelman. And I mentioned some of those names to this guy. And he was like, "Well, I never heard of any of them until I heard you talk about Rust." And coincidentally, the president of Morehouse is also a Yalie. And he said, "I never heard any of them except Morehouse and Rust." So and we're... You, I mean, you're laughing, because you're here in the South. And so the chances are, but think about somebody who's in California, or where there aren't any HBCUs or there's a handful of them in the Midwest. But if you're in the Northeast, there are none. So there are many people who have just literally never heard anything about these schools, or maybe saying them themselves, why is there even a need for these schools? We had, we were interviewing a woman who had relocated here because her spouse is in the military. She moved here from someplace like Vermont or something. And we did a virtual interview with her. We tried to explain to her that this is a Black school, and she was like, "Is that legal?" She's like, "I don't understand. Is this all Black?" [LAUGHTER] She had never. This was, like, 2021. She did not understand even the concept.
Chris McAlilly 33:52
Yeah, so I mean, the racial dynamic, and particularly the North and the South, that factors into the founding of Rust, and also it kind of brings back the religious dimension of its founding. So you know, the history of the Methodist Church, which is affiliated with Rust College is, you know, in the 1860s, the Methodist Episcopal Church split in North and South and on racial lines. Kind of the Civil War, Mason Dixon Line was the split. But my understanding of the founding of Rust is that there were missionaries from the MEC North, that came down to Louisiana, looking to evangelize freed slaves and heard about this town in Mississippi called Holly Springs where there was a vast population and they came to organize the church. And then as they were organizing the church, the way the story got told to me and I think this comes from David Beckley, was that folks were very reluctant to take the secretary position when the officers came. The officer elections were coming into being for the organization of the church. And it became very widely a reality that they needed to start a school. But so that there would be deliberation, both of I guess a spiritual liberation, but also education as a means to overcome oppression and to really establish oneself as a free person. It's a powerful story, just thinking about, you know, the religious impulse to educate and to be of help, the healing and salvation of the whole person. It's a fascinating story. I didn't know about it until just a couple of years ago.
Ivy Taylor 35:42
Okay. Yes, it is. Powerful story. And it's inspiring how courageous those people were to do that at that time. So yes, that is the history of the founding in 1866, is when that occurred.
Eddie Rester 36:00
So let's fast forward 150 plus years now, barreling towards 160 years. Tell us about Rust College now. Where do the students come from? What are the joys? What have you discovered that really excites you about Rust College?
Ivy Taylor 36:18
Well, Rust College, here in Holly Springs, and for anyone who may be unfamiliar with the geography, we're close to the Tennessee border. And we're still a liberal arts college that is still closely affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Right now we have about 500 students. In the past, it's been maybe as high as 1200. We'd definitely love to get back towards those types of numbers. But y'all know there's a lot of competition out here. But we do still have, I believe, a unique value proposition. Many of our students, probably about half, come from Mississippi. We always have a large clutch from Memphis, being that we are, you know, basically kind of in the Memphis metropolitan area. It takes less than an hour to get to Memphis from here. We also, going back to the history of the Great Migration, we also always have a good number of students from the Midwest, from Chicago, St. Louis. Surprisingly, we even have some students from Milwaukee here. Here in recent years, we've attracted more students from Georgia, and Florida. And last year, our Student Government Association President was a Latina from Houston, Texas, who came here to play softball. So it is kind of probably more diverse student population than people would expect as far as the places that students come from. In the past, we've had more international students. I think the last few years hadn't been that friendly to international students. But we'd love to revive some of the pipelines to have international students. We have about 24, 25 majors here. Again, it is a liberal arts school. I think one of the key assets of the school is our small size. It provides opportunity for students to get to know their faculty members. And the way I see Rust is we were in a rural Mississippi town. But we connect, we try to connect our students to the world through that small town. And so through a variety of partnerships, internships, and different programs, students have the chance to explore and discover. One of our... The gentleman who was the Student Government Association President when I arrived, he was from the Midwest. And he asked me to write him a recommendation letter, and I wrote it. And he matriculated at Columbia University for graduate school, and is actually finishing in a little more than a year's time, and called me up and said that he had already been given a job offer from Deloitte. And he already wanted to commit to giving a certain amount to us every year, he said for the next 50 years. I thought that was very inspiring for him to want to do that. But I think that's just an example of how students here, they don't get lost in the shuffle. And they have the chance for personal attention. And we meet students where they are. When you listen to alumni talk about the impact of this college has made on them, it really is startling. Well, especially for me, coming from another part of the country. You know, one of our alums who's a board member, he says he was the only person on the plantation he grew up on that had the chance to go to college. Some of our other alums have stated that being at Rust College was the first time they had the opportunity to use indoor restroom facilities or have access to indoor plumbing. And these are people who have gone on to accomplish much. I know Dr. Beckley, when he was here, he used to talk about that there were, I don't know, seven or eight of them in his suite, when he was a student here. And, like, five of them all got doctorate degrees. And, you know, they're all professionals. And so it's just really amazing what this small school has been able to do in providing a launching platform for many.
Chris McAlilly 41:06
When you think about the next five, ten, fifteen years into the future, where do you hope to be?
Where do you see Rust College moving?
Ivy Taylor 41:12
Well, I see us staying true to our roots and our history, but also adapting for the modern age. So since I've been at Rust, we've had a focus on improving our technology, our facilities and expanding our curriculum. So, you know, it's hard to sell liberal arts to people, even though I think those of us who've been out here kicking around for a while know that the most valuable thing you can learn in college is writing, reading, critical thinking and analysis. And that's what a liberal arts education gives you. But most folks want to connect to a specific job, though. They don't think about the fact that ten years from now, that job may no longer exist or may have substantially changed as far as what you're required to do. And that's where those critical thinking skills help you to be able to adapt and learn a new skill set. But, you know, we also want to be relevant in connecting with some of the things that the market dictates. So, whereas biology has been one of the most popular majors at Rust College, here recently, we created Health Science major, because Memphis is a burgeoning healthcare metropolis, and we want our students to be able to connect to careers in that field. We have a mass communications program here at Rust, and we have our own radio station and TV station. And I definitely see the connection between that and some of the challenges in our current society as it relates to access to information and bringing different perspectives and sharing the stories that we see and hear on the news. So, you know, in the years to come, I really see Rust continuing to serve students and create leaders for communities. We focus on people leaving here and serving, not just getting a job. So we'll continue to do that. I'd love to see some more partnerships with other institutions. I'd love to talk with Millsaps. So maybe you can help make that happen. But also, we've been working with University of Mississippi a little bit and so we'd love to expand some of those partnerships, too.
Eddie Rester 43:51
You know, you're talking to me about the Millsaps thing, I just joined the Millsaps Board of Trustees. And every small liberal arts college right now has a set of challenges, whether it's fundraising or student retention or student recruitment. As you, now are in year two, almost year three, I guess, of being at--moving into year three--at Rust, what are some of those challenges that are unique to Rust right now that you would say, these are some of the things we're gonna have to, we're just gonna have to face and deal with and kind of push our way through in the next few years?
Ivy Taylor 44:31
Well, I think in the post pandemic era, it's becoming harder to make the case that residential liberal arts college provides a value for students, especially a place like Rust where many of our students come from disadvantaged families or neighborhoods, and they have the immediate pressure of needing to provide some type of financial support, either just for themselves or for their families as well. I know I had an eye opening moment when the some of the student leaders were pressing for stipends for them to serve in certain leadership positions. And I was trying to explain to them, while we don't want to set you up to think that when you get out in the world, when you get on a board or a commission, that there's going to be some pay, because that's not how a lot of these things work. I'm not casting a judgment on what should be, but that's how it is. And then one of the students said to me, "But I'm deciding whether I should spend the time on this role, or if I should get a job at Walmart, so I can pay my phone bill." And it's like, okay, you just made it real, real for me. So I think those are the types of challenges, and then also does the pressure of trying to figure out what's the right balance on online, because during the pandemic, a lot of courses went into online mode. And so now students kind of have that expectation that the flexibility of online allows them to work again. It goes back to work, and the students needing money to support themselves and sometimes support their families.
Eddie Rester 46:22
Yeah, I you know, it's an interesting time, not just from the side of the college or the university, but also the students and the pressures that they're all, that their families are facing right now. And so it's just an interesting piece. One more quick question is how do you see the relationship between Rust College and the United Methodist Church? It's affiliated with the Methodist Church. How, how does that benefit Rust College? How does it benefit the larger church in your mind?
Ivy Taylor 46:55
Well, I think that has been an anchoring relationship for the college. And we are grateful for the support that we've received over the years, not just prayers, but money. The United Methodist support that we've received over the years, not just prayers, but money. The United Methodist Church has provided financial support for Rust college and ten other HBCUs. I think there are eleven that are affliated with the United Methodist Church. And so we're grateful for that. What we'd love to see more of, but you know, I mean, y'all may be able to speak more so to the changing nature of who's at church is, you know, we used to receive more of a pipeline of students from churches. But now church has changed so much that that's not, and there are so many different options for students. They're going to pick selecting colleges for a variety of reasons. So, but I think maintaining those types of connections are beneficial, both for the college as well as for the United Methodist Church.
Chris McAlilly 48:03
My last question is simply what gives you hope? What makes you hopeful about the future?
Ivy Taylor 48:11
I would say our students. You know, their energy and their passion and commitment for making the world a better place is inspiring on a daily basis. And even when I look back at previous, at alumni, I think about we had a few alums here giving a speech a few weeks ago, who were students during the Civil Rights Movement. That's another unique thing about Rust. We were kind of a hub for civil rights activities. And I think about those people being, you know, 19, 20, 21 years old and doing brave things, filing lawsuits, going down to register to vote, being involved with the Freedom Riders. Those were courageous things that helped to change the American trajectory, and they were young people. And we're still serving 19, 20, and 21 year olds, and there's no telling what they may do in this current age, that we'll look back on 40 or 50 years from now and say, "Oh, we were grateful for the courageous young people at Rust College."
Chris McAlilly 49:29
I think that's a great place to set it down. Dr. Taylor, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for engaging with us today on the podcast.
Ivy Taylor 49:39 Thank you.
Eddie Rester 49:43
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Chris McAlilly 49:49
If you would like to support this work financially or if you have an idea for a future guest, you can go to theweightpodcast.com. [END OUTRO]