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We are Committed to Community Engagement and Student Success

About 100 faculty, staff and administrators participated in the University's annual administrative retreat on Aug. 12.

The program, most of which took place in Webb University Center, was a nice blend of conversations and presentations covering both internal and external issues. In addition, we visited several new campus buildings and toured the new District housing facility on Killam Avenue.

Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim joined us to provide a State of the City update, as well as discuss future partnering opportunities between ODU and Norfolk. We are fortunate to be able to work closely with Mayor Fraim.

Dr. Roger Brown, chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, also spoke, relating how his institution has become "an engaged Metropolitan university." He said this engagement has been exceedingly good for his university and his community, and predicted the same results here as ODU develops a similar program.

Overall, the day provided a great opportunity for the university community to get know and understand what Karen Travis and Cathy Lewis have planned to greatly expand our community engagement efforts. Travis will lead ODU's newly created Office for Community Engagement and Lewis, the veteran public affairs host for public broadcasting in Hampton Roads, will work with us.

Another speaker, Wood Selig, who became our athletic director earlier this year, shared his vision for our intercollegiate sports programs.

I believe everyone who attended the retreat was excited about the benefits of our Student Success Center and the opportunities we have down the road in gaining SAC's reaccreditation, developing a Quality Enhancement Plan and improving our customer service.

I see evidence every day of a university community committed to student learning and student success. The retreat provided much more such evidence. I am grateful to be surrounded by so many people who are dedicated to students and each other - people who come to work every day to make a great institution an even better place.

This article was posted on: August 13, 2010