Old Dominion University - Troubador Yearbook (Norfolk, VA)

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When I came here fourteen years ago, I used to say that Old Dominion (then William and Mary In Norfolk) was nothing more than a glorified high school. It is now developed into a college, and Is really verging on becoming a university. The acquisition of the name “university doesn't mean that you really are one. I think we’re doing It, but as a result we have to develop an entirely new administrative structure. The old-line faculty members have to become accustomed to the newer situation. Many people came to Old Dominion who thought they were basically coming to a teaching Institution, a college. . . . Now It’s developing Into an urban university which needs teaching and research and publication. I think we have a tremendous lack of facilities for It, and you can’t really expect faculty members to teach the load that they do and do meaningful research and publication. In other words, it’s growing pains; that’s exactly what we have. I think that probably one of the most Interesting things that Old Dominion Is giving to the community right now is what e would call extension educational programs; .... It brings in an entirely new Insight to life. Old Dominion can give to the community not only a cultural uplift but it can give It an educational uplift , It can broaden the horizons of the Individuals living In the community .... This Is the whole purpose of education anyway: to introduce a person to the world around him. ... we ought to still be able to enjoy learning for the sake of learning. 1 firmly believe that the community should give more financial support. It Just isn’t doing it. . . One of the reasons they haven’t done it of course Is they’re afraid If they start picking U up then the state Is going to drop Its aid. I believe that probably the biggest problem at the current time deals with the morale of the faculty. In any time of expansion, any time you have a new administration coming In, you are going to have a radical change in the whole program and purpose of the university; you’re going to have morale problems. I do not believe that our faculty is overwhelmingly 100% in support of the current administration. They don’t understand It, they don’t know where they stand with the administration. . . I believe that there has been a drift developing Into a widening gap between the faculty and the administration. I don’t believe the faculty understands the administration and I don’t really believe the administration understands the faculty. . . I firmly believe that any administrator in the academic line should always teach. Therefore every dean should teach at least one course, every administrator and I even include the President. 1 think that its an absolute necessity that the academic administrators teach so that they can understand the problems of the teachers, the professors, and the students, and you can’t do it If you’re Isolated In an office.

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Professor A1 Teich: It’s growing pains, that’s exactly what we have.” I don't believe that the community gives the respect to the university that it deserves. . . . Maybe I can give you another illustration . “Expert is always someone from out of town but we have persons over here who can conduct many of the surveys and the research programs that the university and business firms in the area hire other people outside to conduct. From time to time this university has tried to get these projects and lost them. We've made tremendous strides at Old Dominion in earlier years. . . but I don't think you find this spirit of dedication any more. . . You know there are two ways to quit: one is to leave, and one is to stay--but do nothing. And I believe that unless the administration finds a means of approaching the faculty, that a good number of the faculty will quit in one way or the other. The role of an urban university should be to supply the educational needs of the people living in the urban university. The problems of being an urban university as far as Old Dominion is concerned are great. The first thing of course is the financial problem, which basically comes around from the political problem. . . . The problem we've had at Old Dominion ever since if started is the same problem that Norfolk has had as far as the rest of the state is concerned. We’ve just been sort of the outcast historically speaking: the aristocracy lived up river, lived in Richmond or on the James plantations. Down here we had the merchant seamen and the maritime trade, and the plantation class always looked down on the merchant class. And so, as the power has shifted they’ve always looked down on us. . . . We concentrate to serve the needs of the people in this area, and so therefore we don’t have a good political base around the rest of the state. And since we don’t have that good political base, we don’t get the money we need. They’re not as sympathetic. ... Of course, one way to solve that is to establish a law school. And if you ever established a law school then you’d bring people in from outside and they, lawyers (since over half the General Assembly is made up of lawyers), are going to run for the General Assembly so we’ll not only have the votes in Norfolk . . . . we’d- have people from the rest of the state being interested in us.

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Student Caucus sident Bruce BisTop''We still h iv n’t made the choice. An urban university first has to be centered in some kind of metropolitan area. Actually it»s a very distinctive university; it’s very specialized. It’s not a comprehensive university in the sense that it offers programs in a very wide field; it's all concentrated in the field of urban studies . . .It's a university that has a great deal of innovation and experimentation, especially in its courses. It also provides the trained leadership to help solve the urban problems that are homogeneous to urban areas across the nation. We've Just never developed the type of research that is needed to try to solve these problems. And that's what an urban university is trying to do. It has to hit it from a lot of different angles. Throughout the university you have to get away from a traditional university structure, and this includes your curriculum. In education you have to do a lot more with inner city education and specialized education for a metropolitan area. It is different. You have to go into mass transit systems. You have to look at the governmental systems in metropolitan areas. A lot of research has to be done in regional government: which type of government can best solve the problems? Then, you have to look at ecology: water pollution, noise pollution, air pollution . . . What I'd like to see is an urban university, yes, but not so distinctive that it is useful only to this area. But a lot of the problems that are faced in an urban area like Tidewater are going to be faced by a lot of other urban areas all across the eastern seaboard, all across the nation ... So if we can provide the trained leadership to help solve the problems that are homogeneous will all these areas here we're doing quite a bit. In solving theproblems of the Tidewater area, you're going to help solve the problems of these other areas. So you could say it's a distinctive regional university also. We're Just getting into this area now. We still haven't made the choice, I don’t think. We still have a very traditional curriculum, the structure in traditional. But I think we're moving in the right direction. 1 think the move will be made in the next couple of years. It’s going to depend a lot on the faculty whether they want to make the move too. I think that we'll make the choice, but I don’t think that it's been translated into action yet. Probably it has been made: that we’ll go into urban areas. But I know Louis Mayhew wasn’t exactly too pleased with the new mission of the university, it’s too general. It’s not distinctively urban in nature, really. The university provides leadership to help solve the urban problems. It provides service in many facets. In the field of research, it’s got to provide research in trying to solve the urban problems. They can’t Just train the leadership and then let the leadership go out and try to solve them, it has to provide the research also tohelpwiththis.. . It has to provide an evening college program which is very strong. I think ours has been strong; it’s been upgraded considerably m the last couple of years. They also have to provide a great number of extension programs . . We have a police academy here and I think that’s important for most any urban institution. . . A lot of schools call it volunteerlsm. Whatever you call it, you’re going to have to do basic education programs in personal hygiene, nutrition, psychological counseling. Of course we need this on campus, really; I think we do you’re going to have to do it in the surrounding community also . . .You have to work for better off-campus housing for students especially in an urban area where it’s very critical. We might establish an urban life center in which there would be an internship program in various governmental structures in the community . . . Drug information and a rescue program: we’ve never tried anything like this. An urban university ought to provide this basic information because it’s such a problem in urban areas. Draft information, police relations, day-care centers are going to be increasingly important. . . Accounting aid: Business majors could go out in the community and give aid to low-income familleson income tax, how to keep a budget, and consumer protection. You can have community food programs, counseling for Juvenile probation court, sending students out as counselors... You can work with the elderly and with the blind. Community recreation programsneed a lot of help. It would be good to have a Job referral program also. Mental health: we’ve never entered this field yet . . . Secretarial aid is needed for a 11 these service agencies in the community. Now this could all be tied into academic credit. A lot of schools have done this. I think Old Dominion is going to have to get into this area if it’s going to become an urban institution.