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Wonder Years. On Its 75th Anniversary, Old Dominion University Embraces a History of Going Against the Grain

Posted on: Thursday, 22 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

BY PHILIP WALZER

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

NORFOLK Seventy-five years ago , Norfolk shed one of its least flattering distinctions the largest city in America, maybe in the English-speaking world, without a college.

On Sept. 12, 1930, 206 people 125 men and 81 women began classes in a former elementary school on Hampton Boulevard, the first students of the Norfolk Division of T he College of William and Mary. In the midst of the Depression, most couldnt afford to go anywhere else.

They didnt even get a degree usually just two years of higher education to help propel them to another college or a job.

That was long before maglev and oceanography, Teletechnet and the Ted . But not before football: On a muggy Sept. 26, 1930, the schools team lost its opener, 7-0, to Suffolk High School. It won four of its next five games.

In the three-quarters of a century since, the school has grown from one building to 106 , with plenty more on the way. Its enrollment has increased 100-fold, to more than 21,000 students, the seventh-largest college in Virginia .

The school began handing out four-year degrees in 1956, broke free of William and Mary to become Old Dominion College in 1962 and adopted its current name, Old Dominion University, in 1969.

In a state where some colleges have long since celebrated their bicentennials, ODU is a relative youngster. That has forced it to battle for recognition and funding against stalwarts such as Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia.

But Old Dominions youth also has given it the freedom to experiment to become, in the words of longtime professor and administrator David R. Hager, a developing, blue-collar, dont- apologize-for-what-we-do university.

It grabbed opportunities in televising courses and distance learning earlier than most. It has led the way in computer modeling and simulation. It also gambled on the maglev train.

The train is still stalled. But that hasnt stopped ODUs reputation from accelerating.

I think ODU has become a pretty well-respected institution in the state now, and that is a great satisfaction to me because it wasnt that when I came here, said James L. Bugg Jr., the president of Old Dominion from 1969 to 1976.

Its easiest to remember what the Norfolk Division didnt have in the early 30s.

There was no gym, recalled Maxine Meltzer, 91, a retired teacher, who attended the school from 1931 to 1933. I dont think there was a library to speak of. There was no regular cafeteria. No dorm. No science building. No lockers or dressing room.

All the classes were held in the former Larchmont School , which has since been razed, on the northwestern corner of Hampton Boulevard and Bolling Avenue.

The college students, wearing coats and ties or d resses, often ate lunch at the new elementary school across the street, sometimes sitting at tables with the youngsters. Phys ed consisted of running up and down Bolling.

Tuition the first year was $50.

Even then, alumni say, the school attracted top faculty. W. Gerald Akers, who received a doctorate at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, was hired to teach languages and stayed until 1972.

Perry Y. Jackson, known behind his back as Perry Pink Wheels for the flashy look of his car, provided and demanded excellence in his chemistry classes, said Meltzers brother Dr. Jack Kanter, 88. Jackson usually failed half his students. You either had respect for him, or you hated him, Kanter said.

For fun, students tossed horseshoes in front of the building. They held weekend dances. Admission was less than $1, but that was still too much for some.

And just as now, they put their peers through zany antics. Meltzer had to polish streetcar rails with a toothbrush to gain entry into a womens society.

Alumni from that first decade say they didnt envy students who went to bigger colleges with lusher facilities, who didnt have to share lunch tables with first-graders. It was the Depression. They were happy to be attending any school.

We were going there for a necessary education, which was given to us very well, Kanter, a retired dentist, said.

The colleges first major scandal came 11 years after its founding and reached up to its leader, William T. Hodges. He was accused of changing the grades of several students. Hodges defended doing it for humanitarian reasons.

An exuberant campaign sprung up for the beloved dean, encompassing students, merchants, even the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. He was just being kind, said Kanter, whose cousin was one of the students involved.

But Hodges could not escape the ethical taint and resigned in the spring of 1941.

Controversy returned in the 60s, but at a less fevered pitch than at many other colleges.

This was not a radical campus, said Hager, a professor of political science at Old Dominion since 1969. I recall very little in the way of anti-war protests here.

One of the largest followed the shooting deaths of protesters at Kent State University in Ohio in 1970. Hundreds marched to the presidents office at ODU, demanding that Bugg cancel classes and write to the governor and president opposing the Vietnam War. It ended peacefully when Bugg promised to bring the matter to the board if a majority of students voted in favor.

I knew they couldnt get 51 percent of the students to do anything, he said recently.

The radical impulse was tempered by the strong military presence on campus, as well as students obligations at work and home.

They were here to do what they had to do and move on, Hager said. They didnt have the luxury of time to talk about and think through these ideas.

That hasnt changed. ODU remains very much a working mans school. Seventy percent of its students receive financial aid. A majority of seniors report working more than 16 hours a week.

Integration came slowly, as it did elsewhere in Virginia. Even in the 19 50s, the Norfolk Division refused to admit blacks or even play teams with blacks.

We simply were told not to schedule any team that had blacks on it, Lewis W. Webb Jr., the divisions director at the time, said in a 1974 interview in the ODU library archives. With the school under William and Marys control, I certainly couldnt violate the regulations which they specifically gave to me, Webb said.

When the school separated from W&M in 1962, the policy didnt immediately change. Old Dominion began admitting blacks in the mid- 60s.

Ronald L. Horne, 58, a policy adviser and writer for the U.S. Defense Department, was the first to receive a bachelors degree, in 1969.

Hardly anyone spoke to him when he started in January 1965. But after that semester, I was very engaged with the students in all of my classes, said Horne, who became senior class president. I did not feel that I could not walk up to anyone in my classroom and ask them any question. I never experienced, while at the campus, any overt, negative racism.

Jackie Bryant graduated two years after Horne . She was refused admission into every sorority she tried to get into.

A member of one told her over lunch: We dont want you to think we dont like you, but were not letting you in because we have no black members.

The hurt did not cancel out the positives of Old Dominion solid friendships, a chance to participate in the White House Conference on Children and Youth, a role in founding the campus group Students for the Development of Black Culture.

It was just a wonderful experience, even though some of the things were not as matured as they could have been, said Bryant, 55, a vice president of a publishing firm who lives in Norfolk.

Bryant was one of about 100 black students. Now ODU has one of Virginias most diverse student bodies. More than 4,000 students nearly 20 percent are black. An additional 9 percent are from other minorities, primarily Asian-American.

Forty-n inth S treet features centers for black, Filipino and international students. The social schedule includes dances and readings by ethnic groups, events named Cafe Con Leche and Cultural Explosions.

ODUs doing a good job of getting everyone in the mix of diversity and different programs, said Angeline Fontimayor, 20, a junior who is president of the Filipino American Student Association.

The school cut against the grain from its beginnings. After all, who starts a business in the middle of the Depression?

Its history has been marked by innovations many, though not all, successful.

During World War II, under Webbs direction , the division expanded to war-related training, including aircraft repair, meteorology and drafting, keeping enrollment steady.

In 1952, before most other colleges, it began offering classes via TV. That paved a natural progression to the Teletechnet program, the brainchild of then-President James V. Koch. Born in 1994, the distance-learning network now reaches 5,000 students at every Virginia community college, seven other states, 53 submarines and eight aircraft carriers.

I continue to be a big fan of Teletechnet, said Peter A. Blake, the states secretary of education. It came along at a time when we were looking for creative ways to deal with enrollment pressures, as well as with the need to reach out to underserved students across the state, and it certainly delivered.

Last semester, ODU introduced a global-environment class, required for all freshmen, bridging disciplines including biology, economics and literature. We did a lot that ordinarily isnt done, said Roseann Runte, ODUs president since 2001. The class received national attention but also lukewarm student reviews.

And theres maglev.

In 1999, Old Dominion announced a partnership with a private company, at no cost to the school, to build the countrys first magnetic-levitation train. Three years after its promised debut, it still isnt running right. The track that stretches across campus remains dormant.

Runte told board members recently that, after tests this month, administrators will decide by December whether they want to continue the project or drop it. The faculty and engineers are convinced its possible to move ahead, she said.

She and other ODU officials have stood by maglev . Weve been willing to take on some challenging problems for the purpose of pursuing research, said Robert L. Ash, a longtime professor of aerospace engineering.

But William M. Lechler, a former ODU board member and retired Sumitomo executive, calls it a terrible boondoggle. If they want to do research, for Gods sake get the kids doing something that pays off.

Rankings and statistics sketch a mixed picture of the university:

* Last month, the Princeton Review, which ranks schools based on feedback from students, named ODU one of the top 140 Southeastern colleges. Yet U.S. News & World Report, which uses criteria such as retention rates, selectivity and faculty resources, ranked it in the fourth, or last, tier of national universities, below such schools as George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth. Runte said U.S. News undercounted ODUs research; the university is appealing its ranking.

* The graduation rate falls on the low end: 42 percent of freshmen graduate within six years, compared with 45 percent at similar colleges nationwide. ODU officials have argued the number is deceptive because it doesnt include Teletechnet graduates and because military-related students often come and go. Plus, Runte said, it doesnt account for the schools increased selectivity recently.

Eighty-six percent of applicants a decade ago got in; 69 percent did this year. The average high school grade point average of freshmen in 1995 was 2.8; now its 3.3.

ODU, though, still is not the main destination for many of those at the top of the class: Thirteen of this years approximately 2,100 freshmen were high school valedictorians.

The good students are the best Ive ever taught, said G. William Whitehurst, 80, a former congressman who has been at the school since 1950, but their writing skills are not as good as previous generations.

And what do students think of ODU? Trey Mayo, 22, a senior from Norfolk majoring in communication , said, I do see faculty taking a lot of time to really work with students and to have their door open and to sometimes have lunch with them. But he wishes his department had more amenities, such as media labs or a student-run TV studio.

The main gripes tend to be parking and social life. I think we could use more school unity, Fontimayor said. Too many students have a commuter mentality: Go to school, go home, they dont really take the time to be active.

Since the 90s, ODU also has smoothed its relationship with the adjacent Lamberts Point area. A 13-year-old ODU summer program provides free classes and recreational activities for 150 youngsters, mostly from the neighborhood. They are really a good neighbor, said Ellen Harvey, president of the Lamberts Point Civic League.

Old Dominion has made notable research contributions, primarily in the sciences and engineering. Its computer modeling center, which simulates such things as war exercises and traffic bottlenecks , is considered a leader in the nation. The oceanography program was ranked 17th best in the most recent analysis by the National Research Council.

Runte is aiming higher. She wants ODU to become one of the top 100 public research universities, by getting more research grants, graduate students and Ph.D. programs.

Thats one facet of a multipronged agenda which supporters consider ambitious and critics scattershot to reshape the campus from academics to athletics in the next decade:

* Resurrecting a football team in 2009. The team was disbanded in 1941 because of financial problems and lack of enthusiasm . In recreational athletics, the university plans to start work next summer on a $21 million remake of the Fieldhouse, which will eventually feature a rock-climbing wall, juice bar and two-story cardio center.

* Continued progress on the University Village, east of Hampton Boulevard. It began in 2002, with the opening of the Ted Constant Convocation Center, known as the Ted, which attracted 408,000 people to games and concerts last year. Future construction includes a hotel, shopping center, research park and more storefronts.

* Transforming the western side of ODU, now mostly a 1,300-spot parking lot, into a quad with four dormitories for 900 students, two parking decks and plenty of grass, to increase the schools residential flavor.

On and off campus, some wonder if the university can carry out so many projects simultaneously.

I think Roseann needs to be careful that she doesnt overextend, that she doesnt take on too much at one time, said Frank Batten Sr., a former rector of ODUs board and the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Landmark Communications, which publishes The Virginian-Pilot.

If you dont try it, it will never happen, Runte said. If you look at where Old Dominion was and where it is now, we did a lot of things. Theres no reason we cant continue doing it.

ODU 75TH ANNIVERSARY

* Reach Philip Walzer at (757) 222-5105 or phil.walzer@pilotonline.com.

Source: Virginian - Pilot

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