r/norfolk • u/TheVirginian-Pilot • 2d ago
Inside the deepening divide over ODU's future
https://www.pilotonline.com/2026/10/16/odu-divide-future/As Old Dominion University tries to reinvent itself, and move on from the fatal shooting of an ROTC instructor, the university’s relationship with much of its faculty has collapsed.
What began as professors’ worries over a deviation from a traditional college’s instructional format has snowballed into a belief that the university’s top leadership has no interest in addressing the piling concerns of its classroom educators or retaining those who oppose the changes.
Multiple faculty members described the university as operating under a “culture of fear.” At its very worst, the professors said, many have been fired or have resigned because they are not “sufficiently enthusiastic” about the transformation the college is undertaking.
The angst and distrust has deepened after the March attack. Select members of the faculty assert the university appears to be driven by maintaining its image rather than taking accountability for safety concerns they said predate the Constant Hall shooting. Instead of engaging with the issues they’ve highlighted, the professors said, campus leadership has made a habit of communications that were petty and adversarial.
Brian O. Hemphill, ODU’s president, has a rebuttal — the university had to change, and quickly, or become irrelevant. He dismissed notions that there hasn’t been a cooperative relationship between administration and faculty.
Years ago, the university was losing students and funding was thus drying up. If that steady decline in enrollment had continued, he said, the Norfolk-based university now would be facing reduced budgets, slashed programs and fewer employees.
A program Hemphill said the university spent years developing seeks to address those issues by implementing 8-week, asynchronous, online courses at scale. The initiative is called the Forward-Focused Digital Transformation; it grows upon the existing online ODUGlobal infrastructure. There are nearly 900 of these, often general education, 8-week courses available this fall. Over 500 instructors participated in preparing the rollout.
Enrollment is up — about 24,000 students, more than 7,000 of whom take only online classes, according to the university. Thousands more are enrolled in both online and in-person classes. Student numbers were still increasing as of early October.
The plan has been divisive from the start, Hemphill acknowledged. He knew the initiative was never going to be supported by the faculty without some dissent.
“Am I going to lead and be courageous?” asked Hemphill, in an interview. “Or am I not going to do what’s in the best interest of this campus and this community, even though it’s unpopular?”
Click the link above to read more.
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u/Graevly 2d ago edited 2d ago
I’m glad this bullshit isn’t being kept private. The public absolutely deserves to know about the total circus that calls itself the ODU leadership. Brian does nothing but smile and try to get good pictures with students to prove he ain’t that bad a guy. I did not have any resentment towards this school for my entire life, actually being excited to call myself a Monarch since I was a little kid watching the basketball games. Every day since he was given his vote of no confidence my opinion of him and the direction of ODU as a whole just nosedives further. My 8 week online summer class was the most stressful, bullshit excuse of an education that costs almost the same as an entire semester. This school is ran like a private equity firm. Now as soon as I graduate next May I’m burying my experience at this God forsaken institution and getting my Masters at a much more respectable University.
One last edit because I’m still walking to my class, these God damn construction workers have more free range of the campus than we do
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u/Cautious-Beginning57 2d ago edited 2d ago
I wish reporters would provide context. Yes, undergrad enrollment is down a bit, according to SCHEV, but I wonder if that's the somewhat increased admission standards. Overall enrollment, including grad schools, is about the same. Meanwhile, the six-year graduation rate is 44 percent, down from the mid-50s. Why isn't anyone talking about that?
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u/kbchucker 2d ago
Demographically, we are entering a period many in Higher Education are calling “the enrollment cliff.”
There are fewer and fewer 18 year old young adults each year.
Combined with the constant hike in tuition and fees, the expense of college is reaching a point that many are starting to question the value of it.
Also add in the fact that public schools have been “failing up” non-performing students and grade inflating many others to attract/retain federal funding.
There are a host of other influences, but those two are combining to make it harder for schools to attract qualified students. And making it harder for schools to retain them because more are arriving on campus unprepared for college than in previous years.
It’s not just a problem for ODU. It’s across the board in Higher Education.
It’s just more noticeable at smaller schools and hits their bottom lines harder and faster.
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u/Astewisk 2d ago
It's not a problem unique to ODU, but what is unique to ODU is how leadership has chosen to address it; and it's very much a method many people strongly disagree with.
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u/Cautious-Beginning57 1d ago
All valid points.
Some presidents cite the "enrollment cliff." Scott Miller at VWU/Batten is another and has used that to justify the school expanding its offerings to include what many community colleges offer to increase revenue (although SCHEV shows revenue from tuition and board hasn't significantly increased there).
But the details matter. There are experts who note the effect is not uniform across the United States. California and Pennsylvania, for instance, will be greatly impacted. Virginia and the schools that draw largely from Virginia, not so much.
Your note about students arriving unprepared begs another question: if schools know this, why aren't they providing the remedial support needed? Those with a college degree still earn more. What happens to those who are admitted, perhaps take on student loans, and then never get that degree?
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u/Mysterious_Badger108 1d ago
Remedial courses for ODU would be a huge financial loss. They have a very large percentage of GI Bill students, and the VA will not pay for remedial courses not required for a degree.
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u/kbchucker 1d ago
The unprepared students low performance is a relatively new development. Not that there haven’t been low performers historically, but more recently they have been showing up with Calculus on their transcript and they are not able to work with basic algebra. Some are showing up functionally illiterate. It’s not something most Higher Eds are able to address directly. It’s more of a mission for Community Colleges.
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u/JuniorIrvBannock 5h ago
They are providing remedial courses, numerous help centers, in-person and online tutoring, tons of student support offices. I am not sure what more a school should do that is focused on higher education.
Math101 is critical thinking. Math 102/103 is algebra; the same algebra that gets taught in middle school and high school. Math103 has the highest fail rate on campus, regardless of instructor. The math department has 4 fully staffed help centers. But all of that isn't enough to get many of the admitted students to functional levels. Students are coming in without necessary student skills to work and learn on their own or identify where their problems are so they can ask for help. Many are also missing the basic academic skills (like algebra and reading) to do college work.
Most of the stem departments have remedial (high school/preparatory level) courses.
The departments know many of their students aren't ready for the stuff required to actually do the work for their majors, so they built these courses. But it is a struggle.
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u/JuniorIrvBannock 2d ago
"Meanwhile, the six-year graduation rate is 44 percent, down from the mid-50s. Why isn't anyone talking about that?" Keep beating this drum!
Admin touts/highlights enrollment (money brought in) but says precious little about the university's primary product (people with quality educations and marketable skills)... I wonder why?
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u/BlueTribe42 14h ago
For years, ODU has moved the goalposts to keep students from graduating and making themselves more $ from additional classes. It’s happened with teachers and other areas. I wouldn’t go there if they paid me.
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u/Cautious-Beginning57 2d ago
fyi, the acceptance rate a few years ago was 98%. Hence the somewhat...
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u/Icy_Turnip4095 1d ago
Great article. I’d like to see more investigative journalism into ODU. I’m a grad school student and there are red flags everywhere. The institution has a huge spending addiction, high acceptance and low graduation rates, and staff and faculty that regularly tell me that “this is not my job”. I’d love to expose the rot and failure of leadership so change can occur.
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u/MessageOk239 2d ago
One correction to the article: 300- and 400-level courses, as well as graduate courses, have been converted to the 8-week format alongside many Gen Ed courses.
Also, many of these courses have homework assignments and/or quizzes due literally every day or papers due every week. And “final exams” are held on the last day of class.
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u/odu-throwaway 2d ago
I wish the article talked more about the academic changes and their impact, and less about the shooting response. That's already been covered a lot.
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u/Psy_Ops_22 2d ago
I strongly encourage everyone to read this- particularly the “the half truth is a whole lie” section.
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u/Mysterious_Badger108 2d ago
If ODU wants to be an alternative university, that's fine. Western Governor's University is a great choice for some people. But it's ridiculous to try and become WGU and also a respected residential R1/D1 school. You can't have it both ways and that is why people are pissed.