On one hand, it seems insensitive to the plight of students, their families and taxpayers to build a $1.1 million home for the president of a small university in Mississippi. On the other, it seems appropriate for a university president to have a home in which to work, entertain potential donors and even stand as an example for students to show what can be achieved through academic success.

The College Board, which continually pleads poverty, has signed off on plans to build a new home in Itta Bena for Mississippi Valley State University President Donna Oliver. Since taking the job in January, Dr. Oliver has been living 15 miles away in The Alluvian, an upscale hotel in Greenwood, at a cost of $2,450 a month.

We’ve been here before. A few years ago when a new, million dollar home was being built for Dr. Clinton Bristow, then president of Alcorn State University in Lorman, there were voices of dissent.

Like Alcorn, Valley has about 3,000 students. Both are historically black universities and both struggle to continue to exist. Both also provide higher education to a student body that includes a disproportionately high number of first-generation college students, young people whose parents had no shot at a university degree. More than 90 percent of Valley students have their tuition paid by Pell grants, available to lower-income families. Few attend without taking out student loans. Having the president live in a 4,100-square-foot, two-story home seems incongruous, at best.

But lavish lifestyles for university leaders is the rule, not the exception. Carrier House at the University of Mississippi was built for a timber baron in 1954 and later donated to the campus in Oxford. The 11,540-square-foot structure has 12 rooms and a guest house over the garage. The University of Southern Mississippi has a two-story Georgian-style house with five bedrooms and sits on three acres in southwest Hattiesburg. The 9,200-square-foot house was built in 1979 with public funds at a cost of $577,000. The state has placed its current replacement cost at $1.8 million. The home of the president of Mississippi State is a columned mansion sitting in a meticulously groomed green field. The president of Jackson State lives in a home in an upscale residential area.

So the debate goes on.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be that way, but the president’s home is a symbol of a university. So there’s more to consider than the expense. The state Supreme Court, for example, could meet anywhere, but has a $400 million “justice building” in Jackson. That may help explain why the College Board is sticking to its plan despite protests.