FAMU's Rivers named Pres. of FVSU

Dr. Larry Eugene Rivers, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida A&M University, today was named today president of Fort Valley State University by the Board of Regents and University System of Georgia Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr.

Rivers earned a bachelor’s degree in social science education with honors from Fort Valley State University in 1973. He will assume the presidency of the institution on March 14, 2006.

Rivers is dean of FAMU’s College of Arts and Sciences – the institution’s largest college, with approximately 5,000 students, 240 full-time faculty and an annual budget of $60 million. He counts among his major accomplishments the reorganization of the college, increasing sponsored-research funding by 25 percent, increasing the graduate enrollment by 15 percent annually, sending more than 500 arts and sciences graduates on to enroll in various doctoral programs, and engineering the reaffirmation of 11 teacher education programs by the Florida Department of Education.

Before joining the FAMU faculty, Rivers taught history and political science at the University of Pittsburgh from 1974.

Rivers holds a Master of Arts in American history and political science from Villanova University, in Villanova, Pa.; a Doctor of Arts in American history and curriculum development from Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh; and a Doctor of Philosophy in African-American and cultural studies from Goldsmiths College at the University of London, England.