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Alondra Rodriguez is planning to apply to several medical schools, including Old Dominion University’s new EVMS School of Medicine, when the biology major graduates from ODU in 2025. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Alondra Rodriguez is planning to apply to several medical schools, including Old Dominion University’s new EVMS School of Medicine, when the biology major graduates from ODU in 2025. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Long-planned EVMS-ODU merger becomes reality
Beth JoJack// June 27, 2024//
When Alondra Rodriguez considered which school to attend for pre-med, she found herself puzzled by Old Dominion University — and why it didn’t have an affiliated medical school.
“U.Va. has their own med school,” she thought. “Why don’t they just do that?”
Rodriguez, who already had a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Liberty University, ultimately decided to become a Monarch anyway. Norfolk is within driving distance to her parents in Northern Virginia — but not so close she has to visit every weekend.
Happily, when the 26-year-old started classes at ODU in fall 2022 to earn a bachelor’s degree in biology with a major in biomedical sciences/pre-health, she learned plans were in the works to integrate Norfolk-based Eastern Virginia Medical School into ODU.
Now, following her 2025 graduation, Rodriguez plans to apply to EVMS at ODU, along with several other medical schools, after taking a gap year. “I’m definitely excited,” she says. Even if she ends up learning how to be a doctor somewhere else, Rodriguez adds, she’s already benefited from the two schools joining forces.
EVMS and ODU were slated to formally merge July 1 — the deadline Gov. Glenn Youngkin set in 2022 for the merger to be completed.
As one of only a few stand-alone medical schools in the country, EVMS already had close ties with Old Dominion prior to the merger; its students and residents frequently showed up for meetings at ODU’s Pre-Health Club for undergraduates interested in health care careers. At one of those gatherings, Rodriguez mentioned she planned to apply to six medical schools.
“They’re like, ‘Oh no, honey, you have to apply to more than just that,’” Rodriguez says. “I was shocked. They told me it’s very hard to get into med school as it is. When you narrow down your options, it’s harder to get into one.”
Now, Rodriguez thinks she’ll apply to at least 15 medical schools.
While undergraduates will surely benefit from new opportunities to collaborate with EVMS medical students and residents, they’re not the only ones who will reap rewards from the integration of EVMS into ODU, proponents say.
A 2022 report commissioned by ODU from Missouri-based consulting firm Tripp Umbach predicted that combining EVMS and ODU would create “a full-scale urban powerhouse university with a closely aligned health care system that will drive the Virginia economy through the mid-century and transform the delivery system in the Hampton Roads region.”
By 2030, the report estimates, the total economic impact of integrating EVMS and ODU, along with a stronger partnership with long-time EVMS supporter Sentara Health, will reach $730 million for the state and approximately $600 million for the Hampton Roads region. That would come from “commercialization of research through startup companies and existing companies attracted to the region” by growth in merged academic programs and research, the report’s authors wrote.
In 2021, ODU earned R1 research classification, a designation held by only 146 universities nationwide and the top research ranking awarded by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Even so, Tripp Umbach analysts found, the Norfolk university earns five times less research revenue when compared with similar universities that have integrated medical schools.
Tripp Umbach also predicted the integration would boost the health care workforce in Hampton Roads “by expanding numbers of highly qualified graduates in the health professions who have regional connections and interests.”
A 2017 study on mergers in higher education points out that by joining forces and leveraging economies of scale, schools are sometimes able to reduce administrative and infrastructure costs.
Brian Weinblatt, founder and principal of Florida-based Higher Ed Consolidation Solutions, a consulting firm focused on higher education mergers, says any stand-alone school, whether a school of medicine or law, faces mounting financial pressures and can miss out on opportunities for synergy by failing to join forces with a larger university. “It’s harder than ever for these institutions to stand on their own,” Weinblatt says.
When independent medical schools merge with universities, undergrads have more opportunities to participate in graduate-level research, and faculty members enjoy greater research options and other professional development possibilities, Weinblatt notes. Of EVMS, he says, “If it was already a shining star, it [now has] the potential to be shining much more brightly, not just in their region, but nationally.”
The merger is more complicated than simply absorbing the medical school under the ODU banner, says Brian Hemphill, the university’s president.
ODU has created a health sciences center, Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University, that will serve as the overarching structure for all health sciences programming, including the medical school.
The name recognizes a $20 million gift from Virginia Beach philanthropist Joan Brock, who earned a master’s degree in humanities from ODU and is the widow of Macon Brock, a co-founder of Chesapeake-based Fortune 500 discount retailer Dollar Tree.
The health sciences center will serve as an umbrella organization overseeing the Ellmer College of Health Sciences, the Ellmer School of Nursing, the EVMS Medical Group, the EVMS School of Health Professions, the EVMS School of Medicine, and the Joint School of Public Health.
Through this reorganization, ODU will grow its roster of 2,541 employees and 22,541 students.
“We’re bringing on 2,000 new employees [and] 1,400-plus new students,” Hemphill says. “And so, when you look at the size and the scale and the scope, on day one, we become a $1.7 billion operation.”
The change means that EVMS, which was founded in 1973, will cease to exist as a legal entity July 1, according to Dr. Alfred Abuhamad, the former president, provost and dean of EVMS, who is now ODU’s executive vice president for health sciences. But most students, faculty and staff members won’t see major differences, he says.
“We will continue to operate as we do today, [but] within ODU,” Abuhamad says. “So, for the majority of staff, students and faculty, nothing will change, really. They will come to [the Norfolk] campus of EVMS, and for the majority — if not all — of the students, staff and faculty of ODU, they will continue to go to their campus.
“We’ve worked hard enough over the last three years to ensure that the culture of both institutions is represented and respected in the process, and ensured that as we come together, we’re building something special for the community,” he says.
There will be no immediate change in the number of medical students enrolled at EVMS due to the merger, according to ODU spokesperson Jonah Grinkewitz. EVMS had 1,278 students enrolled in fall 2023, according to data from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
Tuition also won’t change for medical school students under the merger, according to Grinkewitz. However, the merger will bring some new opportunities for assistance. In June, ODU announced the Brock Opportunity Scholarship, which will support medical school students. Also in June, ODU announced a $20 million gift from Priority Auto Group CEO Dennis Ellmer, a member of ODU’s board of visitors, and his wife, Jan. Those funds will support the creation of scholarships for students pursuing health sciences degrees at ODU or at the EVMS School of Health Professions.
To prepare for the merger, ODU and EVMS set up 10 staff and faculty committees to iron out details on everything from branding to financial aid to human resources, according to Abuhamad.
A new board of directors has been created to oversee Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at ODU. Both Hemphill and Abuhamad will be nonvoting members. Additionally, there will be seven members appointed by members of the EVMS Foundation, four members appointed by the rector of ODU’s board of visitors and four members appointed by Virginia lawmakers, according to Grinkewitz.
Speaking in May, Hemphill felt confident that ODU would receive approval for the integration from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The association was expected to grant that approval in mid-June, after this issue’s press deadline.
The Virginia General Assembly and Gov. Glenn Youngkin also had to give their blessing to the ODU/EVMS union.
State Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, and Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, carried bills during the 2023 Virginia General Assembly session ratifying the merger, and in last year’s budget negotiations, lawmakers allocated $14 million to cover merger-related startup costs.
In May, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed off on the 2024-26 state budget, which included about $136.7 million for EVMS for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, with $65 million earmarked for operations at the health sciences center.
“The merger is poised to strengthen positive health outcomes in the region and help address the critical nurse and doctor shortages,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement.
ODU could “not be more pleased,” with the support of Virginia’s lawmakers, Hemphill says.
Another organization that’s been supportive of EVMS over the years is Sentara, the Norfolk-based health care system with 11 hospitals in Virginia and one in North Carolina.
In 2022, Aubrey Layne, executive vice president and chief administrative officer for Sentara, said that the health system gave EVMS about $60 million each year for education and training, and Sentara wanted to see the medical school receive “state funding parity with other Virginia schools.”
Sentara administrators are happy that goal has come to fruition. “We feel like we have a partner in this, in terms of [ensuring] the long-term sustainability of EVMS,” Layne says.
But even with state support for the health sciences center and EVMS at ODU, Sentara has not closed its pocketbook to health sciences students in Norfolk. Sentara has agreed to contribute $350 million in dedicated funding to support the ODU-EVMS integration over the next decade, ODU announced in June.
“Sentara is committed to health care education and training and looks forward to what this merger will bring,” Sentara President and CEO Dennis Matheis said in a statement.
Things haven’t always been this rosy between ODU, EVMS and Sentara.
In November 2020, EVMS’ board held a vote of “no confidence” in a study commissioned by Reinvent Hampton Roads, an economic development organization, to identify opportunities “to strengthen the Hampton Roads health care ecosystem in partnership with EVMS, Sentara, ODU, the Commonwealth of Virginia and other key stakeholders.”
In 2020 and 2021, the medical school reportedly paid Vienna-based public relations firm Tigercomm $497,000 for crisis communications and community support work in what Tigercomm President Mike Casey has said was a bid to avoid a potential EVMS-ODU-Sentara merger “being pushed by Sentara.”
After that rocky start, however, new leadership at ODU and EVMS paved a path toward a merger.
Three different individuals served as EVMS board rector during summer 2021 with little explanation. Dr. Richard Homan, who had served as president, provost and dean of EVMS for nearly a decade, announced he was retiring in August 2021. (Homan declined an interview request.)
Hemphill took over as ODU’s president in summer 2021, coming from Radford University, where, as that university’s president, he guided the creation of Radford University Carilion through a merger with the Jefferson College of Health Sciences.
In August 2021, the leaders of Norfolk State University, ODU and EVMS signed a memorandum of understanding creating the ONE School of Public Health. Now, the school, which is awaiting accreditation, is known as the Joint School of Public Health and will offer a master and doctoral program in public health as well as continuing education opportunities.
And in December 2021, Sentara joined ODU and EVMS in signing an agreement to explore how “closer alignment or affiliation” could improve health care in Hampton Roads and educational research.
By June 2022, Hemphill put his cards on the table, stating in a letter to ODU’s faculty and staff that the university had a goal “to develop a comprehensive plan to integrate ODU and EVMS in 2023.”
And now, after many meetings involving state lawmakers, community stakeholders and employees of the two schools, Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University is ready to go live.
Hemphill says he doesn’t expect the integration will suddenly make ODU known primarily for its health care curriculum, because the university has a reputation for many things — including its maritime and cybersecurity programs and its distance-learning offerings.
But he does believe the merger will produce significant health sciences research, with EVMS having conducted hundreds of clinical trials and other research, in addition to ODU’s research capabilities that led to its R1 classification.
By merging the expertise of the best minds at the two schools, Hemphill says, Virginia Health Sciences at ODU will be able to compete successfully for larger grants from the National Institutes of Health and other organizations.
“This does add another significant piece to who we are.”
At a glanceFounded
Old Dominion University was founded in 1930 as a two-year college to train teachers and engineers as an extension of William & Mary and Virginia Tech. It gained independence in 1962 as Old Dominion College and began offering master’s degrees in 1964 and doctoral degrees in 1971. It was renamed Old Dominion University in 1969.
Campus
ODU has seven academic colleges and three schools. Its 337-acre Norfolk campus is bordered on two sides by the Elizabeth and Lafayette rivers. The school also operates regional higher education centers in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Hampton. ODU is designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as an R1 Research Institution.
Enrollment1
Undergraduate: 17,736
Graduate: 4,805
In-state: 19,559
International: 758
Students of color: 11,448
Employees
Tuition and fees2
1 Fall 2023 enrollment statistics
2 2024-25 rates
3 Varies: number based on silver meal plan and a shared dorm room
4 2022-23 data
