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President's Life Can Be a Mix of Hard Work and Play

Although a President deals with many significant administrative and financial issues every day, there are also plenty of moments where fun and enjoyment take top billing.

As an example, I go back to the University's Martin Luther King Day celebration Jan. 22, when former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford provided an inspirational lecture for more than 450 of us in the Mills Godwin Auditorium.

At a dinner just prior to the lecture, Old Dominion University officially changed the name of its annual MLK Award to the Hugo Owens Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Award in honor of our first African-American Rector. With Dr. Owens' son and two daughters looking on, I presented the inaugural award to Rev. Anthony Paige, a former member of our Board of Visitors and an advocate on so many levels for Old Dominion University.

Friday evening, more than 750 people packed the Sheraton for ODU's annual Baseball Banquet, where a Red Sox fan (me) got to introduce former Yankee and baseball Hall of Famer Goose Goosage. For a guy known to throw his 102-mile-per-hour pitches at hitters without an ounce of remorse, he actually was as gracious with fans as anyone we have ever brought to ODU.

On Saturday morning, Old Dominion's Institute for Community Justice and the City of Norfolk welcomed 400 guests to campus for a town hall meeting that explored the likely causes for racial disparities in the juvenile justice system. The session, according to a newspaper report, was based on statistics showing that four times as many black children go into the city criminal justice system as white children.

Later in the day, I joined 7,500 of my closest friends as the Monarchs hosted Northeastern at the Constant Center. While the atmosphere was electric, the final score was not…unless you made the trip down from Boston. I had hope that the outcome of the Lady Monarchs game against JMU Sunday would send us all out into the cold in a better frame of mind. Despite keeping it close for most of the game, the Lady Monarchs lost for only the third time against a conference rival on their home court.

Reality returns in a hurry tomorrow, however, when I head back to Richmond to try to negotiate some solutions for higher education within the state budget.

This article was posted on: January 26, 2009