Marvalene Hughes, the first woman president of California State University, Stanislaus, and the first woman president of Dillard University in New Orleans, passed away on January 3. She was 88 years old.
Dr. Hughes received her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Tuskegee University in Alabama. She later enrolled in a doctoral program at Florida State University, where she became the university’s first African American to earn a Ph.D. in counseling and administration.
Before her historic presidencies, Dr. Hughes held senior administrative roles at Florida Presbyterian College (now Eckerd College), the University of Minnesota, the University of Toledo in Ohio, Arizona State University, and San Diego State University. From 1987-1988, she served as president of ACPA-College Student Educators International, an association focused on advancing student affairs in higher education.
In 1994, Dr. Hughes was named the eighth president of Stanislaus State, making her the university’s first woman and first African American president. Under her leadership, the university doubled its enrollment and added $135 million in new buildings and facilities, including four scenic lakes that form the university’s 12-million-gallon landscape water management system. The university has since dedicated one of those lakes as the President Emerita Marvalene Hughes University Reflecting Pond. Dr. Hughes ended her presidency at Stanislaus State in 2005. She remains the university’s longest-serving president.
Dr. Hughes began her tenure as the first woman president of Dillard University just weeks before Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the university’s campus. As the storm approached, she evacuated Dillard’s students to Shreveport, Louisiana. In the months that followed, she negotiated with the Hilton New Orleans Riverside to allow Dillard to continue instruction and operations as the university recovered.
Over the next few years, Dr. Hughes worked to rebuild Dillard’s campus, which sustained more than $400 million in physical damage and business interruption losses. She led several major fundraising campaigns, opened new facilities, and oversaw a major academic restructuring under a new four-college system. Dr. Hughes retired from Dillard in 2011.