Hampton University announces new president and financial relief

Hampton University, an HBCU, is making news on several fronts this month.

Based in Hampton, Virginia, the 158-year-old institution has named a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general as its next president.

Darrel K. Williams has been chosen from a pool of “nearly 300 applicants,” according to the university press release. He will officially become Hampton’s 13th president on June 30.

Williams, a 1983 graduate of Hampton, is a retired three-star general from the Army. He retired in 2020 having served as Director of the Defense Logistics Agency, and as commanding general of the Combined Arms Support Command at Fort Lee among other senior leadership posts. Deployments included tours in Kosovo, Kuwait and Iraq.

He is succeeding Dr. William R. Harvey who has served as president of Hampton since 1978.

But the changing of the guard is not the only news students at Hampton have received recently.

Last week, the university announced that it is dissolving all outstanding student account balances for the 2022 Spring semester and will not increase tuition, fees, room and board for the 2022-2023 academic year.

A similar announcement was made in August of 2021. At that time the university paid all outstanding balances owed by continuing undergraduate students enrolled at the end of the spring 2021 semester, as well as issuing a $200 book scholarship.

Faculty and staff have not been overlooked. Minimum wage increased to $15 from $13 per hour beginning this year and all faculty and staff were given an end-of-the year bonus in 2021 of $200.

This article originally published in the April 18, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.