Today I share with you the news that Dr. Timothy G. O'Rourke, Virginia Wesleyan's Provost and Vice President, has announced his decision to retire at the end of the academic year. As our chief academic officer, he has served Virginia Wesleyan with distinction for 12 years, first as Vice President for Academic Affairs followed by his appointment as Provost and Vice President in 2016. Since he arrived on campus in 2007, he has fostered a culture of civility and academic rigor, and made  significant  and lasting contributions to our campus and community, especially during a time of tremendous change. 

Under his tenure, we acquired new undergraduate programs, started online programs, and added two graduate programs. We embraced an elevated academic structure which includes the academic divisions' promotion to schools, chairs becoming deans, and the addition of the Batten Honors College and University College. We experienced curricular innovation through the four-by-four curriculum, a new general education plan, and degree mapping through VWU's leadership of the four-campus initiative made possible by the prominent Teagle Foundation grant. He guided a perfect accreditation review by SACSCOC and successful re-accreditation of multiple programs--most recently the Virginia Department of Education's review of our Education program. Tim is known to recruit, retain, and support excellent faculty and led the reform of VWU's tenure and promotion system. Community involvement and experiential learning  were enhanced through the creation of The Lighthouse: Center for Exploration and Discovery; the creation of Wesleyan Engaged: Center for Civic Leadership and Service Learning where their mission is a priority within our curriculum; and the establishment of partnerships with prominent institutions and in the community, such as NATO-ACT.  Tim is always one to help in a time of need, for instance springing to action to bring two Puerto Rican students to study at Virginia Wesleyan for a semester in the wake of Hurricane Maria. 

We will continue to benefit from his visionary leadership through key policy initiatives including the new strategic plan, Pathway to Preeminence '28, leading a campus community in its creation; the phased faculty retirement plan implemented in 2017, and the creation of a transgender policy. He did all of this while continuing to teach undergraduate courses and to lecture on American politics and constitutional law, both on and off campus, as a Professor of Political Science. 

Most of all, he has set a high standard for the pillars of any academic community--in teaching, scholarship, and service--and we are an immeasurably better institution for his commitment to these goals and ideals here. By his own example, he has inspired our faculty and our students with thought-provoking classroom teaching, special presentations, and publications. As a member of the President's Cabinet, he has offered wise and varied counsel on the challenges and rewards of operating a university in these times. His contributions of careful analysis and strategic thinking--not to mention his accurate weather forecasts and outlook on America's pastime--will be missed. 

My experience with provosts and vice presidents for academic affairs has vividly demonstrated the complexity of such positions. They inhabit two operational realms while seeking to bring unity, consensus, and collaboration to the greater good. They are stewards of an academic tradition that is both timeless and time-sensitive in the ever more competitive arena of higher education. Most important, they are charged with honoring and fostering the central components of an institution's mission--teaching, mentoring, changing lives--while constantly fine-tuning the means by which we achieve those goals.

We have all immeasurably benefited from his leadership and he has been exemplary in his role as provost and vice president for academic affairs, and it has been my privilege to work with him during this exceptional time of progress at Virginia Wesleyan University. My sincerest gratitude for his service and leadership which no doubt extends beyond what I've included here.

I invite the VWU community to please join me in congratulating Dr. O'Rourke on his well-deserved retirement and wishing him well for the future. 

On that note, please allow me to share that we have a talented and respected successor to Tim in our Associate Provost, Dr. Maynard Schaus. Accordingly, I am appointing Maynard to be Vice President for Academic Affairs, effective July 1. Please visit vwu.edu for more information released this afternoon.

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Highlights from the past month include: 

Fall 2018 President's List

With pride, we shared the Fall 2018 President's List. Congratulations again to these hard-working students for achieving a 4.0 grade point average for the fall semester. A reception will be held later this month to celebrate the outstanding achievements of these students. Well done!

Inclusiveness in the United Methodist Church

The Board of Directors of the National Association of Schools, Colleges, and Universities of the United Methodist Church (NASCUMC) met in Scottsdale, Arizona, recently to discuss the upcoming Called General Conference. A joint statement regarding issues coming before the Called General Conference later this month was drafted by the NASCUMC Board of Directors presidents and unanimously approved by the NASCUMC Board of Directors and by all of those gathered for the winter meeting. As the conversation continued about inclusiveness for all in the United Methodist Church, I was interviewed by The Washington Post as a spokesperson on this national issue. You can read the article, " United Methodist university leaders call for LGBTQ acceptance by church," in The Washington Post. This truly is "a pivotal moment in the Methodist Church and a pivotal moment in Methodist higher education." In case you missed it, additional coverage can be found in Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education's Daily Briefing, Religion News Services, and in The Laredo Morning Times.

VWU Expands Online Course Offerings

Virginia Wesleyan University's online course offerings have grown through two new partnerships: the CIC Online Course Sharing Consortium, a collaboration which facilitates online course sharing among members of the Council for Independent Colleges, and ed2go, a national provider of career training and continuing education courses. Read more here.   

VWU's 2019 Winter Shelter Experience

Special thanks to Portsmouth Mayor John Rowe for sharing this photo with our student volunteers at Calvary Baptist Church as part of Virginia Wesleyan's 2019 Winter Shelter experience. More than 70 VWU students are engaged in this important service-learning initiative this week at five shelter sites across Coastal Virginia! We are so proud of the work they're doing and grateful to our faculty members leading this effort. 

Ethics Bowl Team Announced

Virginia Wesleyan students will compete in The Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges (VFIC) 20th annual statewide collegiate Wells Fargo Ethics Bowl in Roanoke, Virginia, February 10-11. Our team will deliberate ethics and social justice in the form of case studies, competing against other highly qualified teams from Virginia's 15 leading independent colleges and universities. Notable individuals from career fields including business, law, finance, education, and journalism will serve as judges, listening to presentations and offering reactions. The VWU team includes Brandon Foster, Anitra Howard, Alex Powers, and Brianna Sandy. Dr. Steven Emmanuel, VWU Professor of Philosophy, and I serve on the Ethics Bowl Committee. Many thanks to Dr. Kathy Merlock Jackson, Professor of Communication, for her service as the faculty coordinator for the team. 

Effects of the Government Shutdown

As we experienced the longest federal government shutdown in history, its effects continue to impact many across the nation, in Coastal Virginia, and right here on VWU's campus. In response, VWU continues to waive  tuition deposits for families who experienced federal furlough. In addition, VWU's Wesleyan Engaged: Center for Civic Leadership and Service Learning has collaborated with local food banks to collect non-perishable food items to aid those recovering from the financial effects of the shutdown.

The January term chemistry course "Metrology: Measurement Science," a travel course to Washington, D.C., was canceled due to the closure of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Another Winter Session travel course to D.C. was also impacted.  Additionally, we experienced a delay in the construction on Oxford Village--our eight-building, 248-unit, mixed-use housing complex on University land, along Wesleyan Drive. The project is HUD-funded which was affected by the shutdown, reports our construction partners on the project, The Franklin Johnston Group. We are hopeful the three-week reopening of the federal government becomes permanent. Read more here .

Martin Luther King, Jr., Day 

We celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr., Day last Monday on campus and in the community. I enjoyed the 35th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Leaders' Breakfast with friends from Virginia Wesleyan University at the Ted Constant Convocation Center. It was great to see Gil Blan, President and CEO of the Urban League of Hampton Roads (ULHR), and we thank him and ULHR for their organization of the event. Thank you to Provost and Vice President Tim O'Rourke and University Chaplain Greg West for an outstanding service where we listened to Dr. King's famous and inspiring "I Have a Dream" speech that afternoon at the Monumental Chapel on campus.

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As January Term finished strong, I'm proud to share that by all accounts, it was a huge success. This was the first time first-year students were required to participate in January Term and it yielded a positive experience with impressive results. As we continue to grow as a twelve-month institution, enrollment options such as January Term offer benefits to students as well as the institution. January term remains part of our plan to make a VWU education more affordable with increased course offerings while also improving retention and cohort graduation rates. Kudos to Dr. Deirdre Gonsalves-Jackson, Director of Summer and Winter Sessions, for her effective leadership. Read more about Winter Session here and stay tuned for news as the spring semester develops!

Sincerely,