ODU Deans Deliver Annual State of the College Addresses
September 20, 2018
Old Dominion University's academic deans and the dean of the libraries recently delivered their annual State of the College addresses for the academic year. The speeches highlighted accomplishments, core initiatives and strategic plans for each college as well as goals to help continue propelling that success.
Here are some highlights:
College of Arts & Letters
- The college increased sponsored research by 60 percent since fiscal year 2017 and by more than 360 percent since fiscal year 2016.
- Nineteen full-time faculty members were granted tenure or promotion in rank.
- Faculty members published more than 300 works, presented more than 230 scholarly papers and participated in nearly 200 concerts, exhibitions and productions.
- The college generated almost 165,000 student credit hours, served 5,129 majors (including 341 graduate students) and conferred 1,245 degrees.
- Eleven faculty members received distinguished university, regional or national awards.
- The college supported the Arts & Letters Diversity Task Force and appointed a new faculty diversity leader, Elliott Jones from the Department of Art.
- The college also established a Dean's Student Advisory Council.
Batten College of Engineering and Technology
- ODU engineers partnered with The Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters to develop a virtual-reality tool for treating chest wall deformities.
- The college ranks among the top in the University in grant expenditures.
- The college received a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Navy to solve challenges faced by local naval commands.
- The National Science Foundation recently awarded a three-year $500,000 grant to ODU researchers to address a critical gap in the training of cybersecurity students. Hongyi "Michael" Wu is the lead.
- The NSF also awarded the college $3.1 million for veterans and high-achieving low-income students in STEM fields.
- The concrete canoe team landed in its first national competition.
College of Continuing Education and Professional Development, and the Office of Distance Learning
- The college moved from Virginia Beach to the main ODU campus this summer.
- Enrollment rose 17 percent over the last four years.
- The college reorganized distance learning by moving from TELETECHNET to ODUOnline and going from site directors and assistants to enrollment coordinators and student success advisers. It moved from 80 percent live classes to 70 asynchronously developed courses.
- ODUOnline course registration increased from 36,778 in 2014 to 60,308 in 2018.
- The college expanded English Language Center partnerships. For example, it enhanced the partnerships with the Mexican Secretariat of Public Education and the Mexican Navy, and the Mexican Naval Academy. More than 150 cadets and 100 officers from the Mexican Navy graduated after a customized immersive language experience.
- The college developed certificates in response to workforce needs in patient advocacy, health informatics and professional leadership.
Darden College of Education and Professional Studies
- The college ranks among the highest at Old Dominion in grant expenditures in 2017, and itsDepartment of Communication Disorders and Special Education is the University's strongest department in terms of grant production.
- Helen Crompton in the Department of Teaching & Learning was ODU's 32nd recipient of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia's Outstanding Faculty Award Winner. Crompton researches the use of mobile technology to teach science and mathematics and the potential of mobile learning to bring education to residents of rural villages in developing countries.
- The Teacher In Residence Program has grown and is now working with two school districts - Norfolk and Newport News Public Schools.
College of Health Sciences
- The college is focused on establishing a School of Public Health by 2022. It would be the first School of Public Health in Virginia.
- The college is developing a doctor of occupational therapy program. The first step is to hire a program director during the academic year.
- Debra Gray was selected as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar for 2018-2019. She and her family are in Botswana for the next year. She is working with the University of Botswana to expand the number of nurse practitioners and advanced practice nurses in Africa, and with the World Health Organization Center for Nursing and Midwifery for Africa to expand patient access to care in Botswana and globally.
- The college expanded programming at the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center. The School of Nursing now offers all of its programs there.
- Monarch Physical Therapy provided robot-assisted therapy to patients for assistance with rehabilitation, exercise and walking.
Patricia and Douglas Perry Honors College
- The college was renamed the Patricia and Douglas Perry Honors College. Also, the John and Kate Broderick Opportunity Scholarship was launched in honor of John R. Broderick's 10-year anniversary as president of Old Dominion.
- The college launched an undergraduate research and creativity program to engage undergraduates early in their academic careers and to acknowledge student accomplishment in the areas of research and creativity.
- The Office of Prestigious Scholarships and Fellowships was created to provide individual mentoring to exceptional ODU undergraduates seeking merit-based, nationally competitive scholarship and fellowship awards.
- The college partnered with Perry Libraries to make odudigitalcommons the new home for the ODU Undergraduate Research Journal - streaming the submission and review process and making the journal available to a national readership.
- With National Institutes of Health funding, the college partnered with M-MARC U*STAR to expand financial support, training and services for undergraduates preparing to enter graduate programs in biology, chemistry, biochemistry, computer science and psychology.
College of Sciences
- The total of the college's research grants rose to $19 million in the past year; the college is placing a high priority on increasing research infrastructure to increase faculty productivity.
- The College of Sciences also wants to increase the number of undergraduates involved in research. It received a highly competitive MARC grant from NIH to support minority students interested in pursuing a career in biomedical sciences. In addition, the National Science Foundation has funded three Research Experience for Undergraduates programs in chemistry, oceanography and physics.
- The new interdisciplinary program in biomedical sciences accepted its first cohort of Ph.D. students this fall. The college also received two large grants from NIH in the area of biomedical sciences.
- A new series of public science lectures will begin with a speech by Paul Falkowski from Rutgers on Nov. 7.
Strome College of Business
- The Get Ready to GO PRO campaign, now in its third year, is a student-development program at the Strome College of Business featuring activities and events to help students develop core skills to compete for jobs and internships.
- Dean Jeff Tanner hosts the "Strome Business Minute," a radio segment that airs weekdays at 4:34 p.m. on 89.5 WHRV-FM. It is intended to inform and entertain the Hampton Roads business community about global and local issues that have regional impact.
- As of April 2018, the college had 766 military students.
- Wayne Talley, a professor of maritime and supply chain management, was named co-recipient of the 2018 Onassis Prize in Shipping, awarded jointly by the London-based Cass Business School and the Onassis Foundation.
- The college recently opened the Big Blue Snack Pantry, which offers healthy snacks and non-perishable foods to all students.
- Li Xu, professor and Eminent Scholar, is one of eight Clarivate Most Influential Scholars in Virginia and the only one at ODU. Clarivate was formerly known as Thomson Reuters and provides data on the impact of research. Xu also co-founded and co-edits five journals.
University Libraries
- After serving for 55 years as a depository library for government publications, the ODU Libraries are now a Center of Excellence for documents from the U.S. Department of Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, two areas of strategic importance to ODU and Hampton Roads. This re-emphasis on this critical segment of government publications will improve access to the content, as well as require less shelving space.
- The Libraries will think strategically about library spaces. Moving the government documents collection will free 4,500 square feet in the Learning Commons, creating an opportunity to adapt the Learning Commons for the next generation of ODU students. The Libraries are also dedicated to developing spaces for faculty members and graduate students that will make them feel welcome in the library.
- The Libraries have been active in communities at ODU and throughout Hampton Roads, working hard to preserve the cultural heritage of the region through the Special Collections and University Archives department and convening conversations around civic and community engagement, open education resources for K-20, active learning and information literacy.
