Donovan was known to have brought a lot of innovation and activism to Richmond despite being severely affected by the Great Depression.
Donovan terminated the normal school in 1930, then created a division of graduate study in 1935 with the right to grant a master's degree in teaching, and Eastern became a teacher's college.
To get more men enrolling in the university Donovan made early graduate programs for ROTC enlistees and students drafted.
Donovan pushed for a college of pharmacy, a new medical center, a department of journalism, and a school of home economics.
Donovan worked to get the first “class” of African Americans in the fall of 1954 and the official academic segregation of the campus was ended.