The W was not Libba Fairleigh’s first choice when it came to picking a college.
When she graduated from Pascagoula High School in 1966, she first wanted to attend Rhodes College in Memphis, but her family couldn’t afford it. She enrolled at Mississippi University for Women after her sister’s best friend, another alumna, recommended it.
As a compromise, Fairleigh’s mother said if she still wanted to go to Rhodes by her junior year, the family would figure out how to make it work financially.
“You know, it never crossed my mind going to Rhodes again,” she said. “I loved my years at The W.”
Fairleigh quickly came to cherish the campus and the time she spent there before graduating in 1970. Now she remembers The W as a place where she found a community and felt affirmed for the person she was.
“My closest friends I had at The W are still some of my closest friends,” she said. “When times get hard in life — which they obviously do — my mind goes back to what it was like to be walking on that campus.”
Wanting to give back to the university, she called Andrea Nester Stevens, The W’s executive director of development and alumni, to ask where a donation would be most helpful. When Stevens mentioned the newly established Campus Beautification and Maintenance Fund, Fairleigh knew it was perfect. She committed to matching up to $12,500 in donations to support the fund.
As a master gardener and a committed member of the Beautification Committee in Black Mountain, North Carolina, where she currently lives, the fund was the ideal way for Fairleigh to combine her love for gardening and her love for The W.
Since her office announced the gift on Tuesday, Stevens said the fund has already received $3,000 in donations, bringing the fund to $6,000 with Fairleigh’s matching commitment. Stevens told The Dispatch the response is a testament to how much alumni, like Fairleigh, care about The W.
“She’s so supportive, loves the university and realizes the importance of her time here on campus and what a difference it made in her life,” she said. “I have no doubt that our alums will step up to the plate and match this gift, so that we can have a total of $25,000.”
Stevens said the fund, which will be managed by the director of facilities, will go toward funding beautification and maintenance projects on campus, whether it be bedding flowers and planting shrubs or repairing a dorm.
“It can go for just about anything that is on campus to make it beautiful and to maintain what we have,” she said. “But it is not limited. It’s really going to be based on what’s available in the fund.”
The fund is, in part, a product of alumni-led conversations that came about during the most recent failed name change effort. Alumni on social media raised questions about how money should be used on campus to ensure current and future students are in a safe and beautiful learning environment.
“It’s a product of those conversations, and I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Stevens said. “Regardless of the name change and conversations that took place, this fund is greatly needed because we don’t have all the funds that we need to do the extra things we would like to do.”
For Fairleigh, the donation was a way to address those conversations but, more importantly, demonstrate her commitment to the school through tangible actions, something she hopes other alumni will do as well.
“With the challenges the school has faced, I thought it would make a statement to say I believe in The W,” she said. “I wanted a way for all the alums who really care to have a tangible way to say thank you. I hope people hear that the alumni are wanting to make a difference.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 30 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
