Real world learning

In 2021, colleges and universities got back to semi-normal, holding more classes in person and hosting sporting events and commencement ceremonies. Many institutions required students, faculty and other employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 last fall, and some schools also mandated booster shots.

In Hampton Roads, three institutions — Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University and Eastern Virginia Medical School — signed an agreement in August 2021 to establish the state’s first school of public health, with the state contributing $5 million to the project and Sentara Healthcare pitching in $4 million in grant funding to support the accreditation process.

In Northern Virginia, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and George Mason University all made progress toward expansion last year. Tech broke ground on its $1 billion Innovation Campus in Alexandria in September 2021, starting construction of the $302 million Academic Building 1, scheduled to open in August 2024. Major corporate donors include The Boeing Co., which has pledged $50 million to promote diversity, and Northrop Grumman Corp., which gave $12.5 million toward a quantum information science and engineering center.

U.Va., meanwhile, set the stage for its growth in Fairfax and Arlington counties, rebranding its northern presence as UVA|NOVA in December 2021. Graduate-level business and executive education programs are set to expand at U.Va.’s Rosslyn location, and growth also is expected around the Merrifield area of Fairfax, where U.Va.’s medical school has a northern outpost on Inova Health System’s campus.

Also in Arlington, GMU is set to open the $168 million building that will house its Institute for Digital InnovAtion and School of Computing by summer 2025.

For Mason and Virginia Tech, the new buildings are part of their efforts to graduate many of the 31,000 computer science and engineering graduates the state has promised to deliver within 20 years. Virginia’s Tech Talent Investment Program was a major part of the state’s campaign to woo Amazon.com Inc.’s HQ2 East Coast headquarters. Eleven universities are part of TTIP, but Mason and Tech shoulder the majority of the responsibility.

Other universities and colleges are focusing their efforts on workforce training in other sectors with talent gaps, including data science, cybersecurity, wind energy and health care. Gov. Ralph Northam’s $36 million “G3: Get Skilled, Get a Job, Get Ahead” initiative, making community college tuition free for low- and middle-income students pursuing jobs in data analysis, cybersecurity, information technology and other high-demand fields, was signed into law last year.

The past year also saw some significant leadership changes and announcements. Glenn DuBois, chancellor of the Virginia Community College System since 2001, announced last August that he plans to retire in June, having led the 23-college system through three strategic plans. Radford University President Brian Hemphill moved east in June 2021 to become Old Dominion University’s president after the retirement of John Broderick. Bret Danilowicz, Florida Atlantic University’s provost, is set to become Radford’s next president this summer.

Christopher Newport University President Paul S. Trible Jr. is stepping down in August but will remain on staff as chancellor through the 2022-23 academic year. The university has launched a national search for a new president, who is expected to take office in summer 2023.

Hampton University’s William R. Harvey, who has led the private HBCU since 1978 and is one of the nation’s longest tenured university presidents, announced he will be retiring this summer.

Virginia Military Institute appointed retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins as its permanent superintendent in
April 2021, six months after he was chosen as interim superintendent. Wins returned to his 1985 alma mater at a time of crisis, as Northam launched a state investigation into the school’s culture amid reports of racism. The report, released last June, revealed numerous instances of racist behavior but also sexual assaults against female cadets and staff.

Wins has hired VMI’s first diversity officer and proposed an expanded Title IX office, but some alumni and current cadets are pushing back against the changes, according to recent news reports.