|
The second youngest of the University's Chancellors and the only one
of Native American ancestry, Gerald Turner is credited with boosting the
University's enrollment and with significantly increasing endowment
funds. Spearheading the University's first capital campaign solely for
academic enrichment and following that with a campaign to raise funds to
bring athletic facilities to SEC standards, Dr. Turner oversaw a private fund-
raising effort that resulted in gifts to Ole Miss of more than $100
million. During his Chancellorship, the University's endowment increased
from $8 million to $64 million. A Texan, Dr. Turner received his Ph.D.
in psychology in 1975 from the University of Texas at Austin. He
advanced rapidly through a succession of teaching and administrative
positions at Pepperdine University and later served as vice president for
executive affairs at the University of Oklahoma before being named
Chancellor of The University of Mississippi. During his administration,
seven new academic programs were introduced, and six federally funded
national centers were established: the Jamie L. Whitten National Center
for Physical Acoustics, the National Center for the Development of
Natural Products, the Marine Mineral Research Institute, the Center for
Computational Hydroscience and Engineering, the National Food
Service Management Institute, and the Center for Water and Wetlands
Resources. The Mississippi Supercomputing Center was established on
campus, and externally funded research programs increased more
than 300 percent. Twelve Barnard Distinguished Professorships were
created from private funds, and the University's 23rd Rhodes Scholar,
Mississippi's first African American honoree, was named. Minority
enrollment increased 85 percent, and the University received two
Peterson Awards for Excellence in Graduate Admissions for Minority
Students. More than $200 million in new construction was either
completed, initiated, or approved on the Oxford and Jackson campuses prior
to his departure to become president of Southern Methodist University in
Dallas, Texas, in May 1995.
