OXFORD, Miss. – Longtime police officer and chief Calvin Sellers is the
new director of police and campus safety at the University of
Mississippi.
Sellers had been at UM for 14 years and was captain of patrol services
in 2000 when he left to become police chief at Mississippi University
for Women, the position he will vacate when he takes over as head of
the University Police Department July 7.
“I’m really, really excited to get back there (to Ole Miss)” Sellers
said. “I love the place. I worked there for so long, and there were so
many good people. It’s a special place and I just want to be a part of
it.” Sellers, 55, has been in law enforcement since 1984, when he
joined the Water Valley Police Department. He became certified in law
enforcement in 1985 by the Mississippi Law Officers Academy and earned
a bachelor’s of public administration degree from UM in 1997.
“Calvin’s eight years of experience as police chief at MUW and his prior 14 years as a member of the Department of University Police and Campus Safety make him well-qualified to assume the leadership of UPD,” said Larry Ridgeway, UM vice chancellor for student affairs. “We anticipate that he will quickly adapt to his new role and will provide outstanding service and leadership for UPD and the campus community.” Sellers said he looks forward to being the head of UPD during the 2008 presidential debate and to incorporating his knowledge and skills as the university continues planning for the Sept. 26 event. Under his watch as police chief, MUW hosted Sen. Barack Obama and Vice President Dick Cheney.
As part of his new role at Ole Miss, Sellers said a top priority is to continue building strong relationships between the campus and Oxford.
“I hope to bring community relations not just on campus, but I want to be involved in the whole Oxford-Lafayette (County) community. You can’t separate Oxford and the university, in my mind.”
Because of Sellers’ previous experience with UM’s police department, the transition to director should be relatively uncomplicated, said UPD Crime Prevention Coordinator Thelma Curry, who has known Sellers since his first tenure at the university.
“I think he knows the philosophy behind community policing on a college campus,” Curry said. “He’s already familiar with how it applies in a college setting.”Sellers said the new position is his “dream job.””I’m just ecstatic,” he said. “I worked at Ole Miss for 14 years and I remember how good a police department we had at that time and the relationships we had with different people on campus. I just can’t wait to start.” Sellers replaces former UPD Chief Jeffery Van Slyke. Van Slyke came to UPD in June 2005 and was recently named director of public safety at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
For more information on UPD, go to http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/u?police/ .