Facts about the Decade of 1980s
 

1980 – Committee on Black Student Concerns formed.  Director William S. Griffin retires as Alumni Association director.  James N. Butler became new director.  Anonymous gift of $250,000 given to restore Barnard Observatory.

1982 – First annual Alumni College was conducted.  Nineteen Distinguished Achievement Awards presented.  

1983 – Alumni House Board Room changed to William S. Griffin Board Room. 

1984 – Dr. Robert Gerald Turner became new Chancellor of the University.  Establishment of Long-Range Planning Committee for the Alumni Association.  William Emmett Marston elected president of the Alumni Association the first president to live outside of Mississippi.

1985 – Susan Akin, an Ole Miss coed, crowned Miss America. 

1986 – Board of Directors voted to approve the publication of A History of the Alumni Association.