ODU announces $500M capital campaign

Old Dominion University on Thursday announced the formal launch of a five-year, $500 million campaign to raise money for scholarships, research, campus improvements and faculty recruitment, with the university saying it’s already more than halfway to meeting its fundraising goal.

ODU President Brian O. Hemphill announced the campaign, Forward Focused: For Dreams and Beyond, Oct. 20 during an alumni dinner. The university raised $275 million during a quiet phase that began July 1, 2016, and concluded in September, prior to the campaign’s rollout. That included lead gifts, including the university’s Barry Art Museum.

“As we embark on this campaign, Monarch nation is stepping boldly forward to declare our dreams possible,” Hemphill said in a statement.  “We will focus our investment and efforts in the areas where ODU is poised to innovate and lead – social mobility, research and workforce development.”

ODU was designated last year as an R1 research university, which recognizes it under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as a doctoral university with a great amount of research activity. The designation creates a pathway to recruiting high-quality faculty and students, obtaining large research grants, and attracting industry and government agency partners, and the new campaign capitalizes on that momentum, ODU said. 

The campaign will focus on the following areas:

• Student scholarships: $100 million in new scholarship support and $8 million for more student-led research opportunities and the expansion of internships and experiential learning;
• Academics: $85 million to recruit faculty, add department chairs and professorships, and fund new technology and equipment;
• Research: $81 million to support ODU’s recent R1 research university designation, with a focus on coastal resilience, cybersecurity and data sciences, maritime and autonomous systems;
• Public Health: $70 million in philanthropic investment in public health, including mental health initiatives, a library for the proposed ONE School of Public Health, a professorship in substance abuse nursing and a chair in mental health nursing. In addition, ODU plans to establish a Center for Movement Health and Disability;
• Campus upgrades: Adding a data science facility and alumni center, improving the Perry Library and modernizing engineering lab technology;
• Athletics: $120 million to add athletic scholarships and facility improvements, including expansions and upgrades to the university’s baseball stadium.