Dr. Richard Summerville retires 3 Provost's significant contributions helped shape University. Outstanding in their field 9 Outstanding teachers and students are part of the University 's exciting transformation. CNUabroad Students explore other lands and cultures to gain life-changing experiences. President's Leadership Program Civic responsibility is key leadership lesson for students in GNU's distinctive program. Sports: Year in Review CNU Captains continue to shine in sports as the 1Oth consecutive winner of the USA South Athletic Conference President's Cup. CNU's teacher preparation program Five-year Master of Arts in-Teaching program is in full bloom. aass of 2007 gives their best Graduating class continues a tradition of gratefully giving back. New faculty pro!Iles 28 Alumni Society ___ 32 Commencement 2007 36 44 46 Provosts significant contributions helped shape University By Terri Haynie t is difficult to measure the one of the very important changes tions that year, and that brought us immense impact that Dr. that's taken place over the past to 196. That was so much fun that decade. the next year we created 30 more Richard Summerville has I "Because we've chosen to build positions, which brought us to 226. had on Christopher Newport buildings that are elegant, where We have in place a six-year plan University over the past three it's clear we haven't sacrificed qual­ that will take us to 273 by the decades. He has challenged ity for a few additional square feet 2011-12 academic year. That's colleagues, students and the of space, those buildings say that about where we need to be to have what is done here is important, reasonable teaching loads, a pre­ University as a whole to achieve and that our work here is done to dominance of class sizes under 20 excellence in every arena, leaving high standards of quality. That and the sort of intense student-to­ an indelible mark of dedicated applies to everyone: students, faculty interaction on which we optimism and foresight that has professors and staff alike," he said. pride ourselves." been felt in all corners of the "And of course, the appeal all of this has had to college-age students Roadmap for the Future campus. His retirement as throughout the Commonwealth is provost in June marked the end All public colleges and universi­ nothing short of remarkable." ties in the Commonwealth were of an era for CNU- one that required by the Virginia General launched the dramatic transfor­ The Challenges of Assembly to submit a six-year plan mation of which Summerville Transformation as part of the 2005 Higher Education Restructuring Act. Dr. was an integral part. His 27 years of service to CNU Summerville was the main archi­ included roles as dean of the tect of CNU's plan, which is a Then ... and Now School of Liberal Arts and Sciences roadmap for the University's future from 1980 through 1982, full-time Dr. Summerville left his through 2012. In it, he describes mathematics professor from 1995 position as chairman of the depart­ CNU's deeply rooted commitment through 2001 and provost from ment of mathematics at Armstrong to liberal learning, continued 1982 through1995 and again State College in Savannah, Ga. to improvements to the campus and from 2002 through 2007. Dr. become professor of mathematics the intent to limit enrollment to Summerville has retired just as the and dean of the newly created no more than 5,200, all of which University emerges as one of School of Liberal Arts and Sciences are essential to sustaining "the Virginia's most dynamic and at what was then Christopher strong personal bond that exists increasingly selective public liberal Newport College. Having success­ between faculty and students." It is arts institutions. That reputation fully invigorated the mathematics also a blueprint for the "Students owes a great debt to his vision, department at Armstrong, First" philosophy that CNU faculty, guidance and perseverance in Dr. Summerville was excited at the administrators and staff adhere to managing the challenges that prospect of contributing to CNC's passionately. Summerville writes, growth and transformation bring. obvious and burgeoning potential. "Small classes and intensive (and "I think the greatest challenges Still, who could have known that time-consuming) out-of-class con­ had to do with sustaining the the small, commuter-based liberal tact between students and faculty professional work of very good and arts college had such a huge are seen through the CNU lens not highly self-sacrificing faculty in future, or that he would figure so as inefficiencies to be corrected, the conduct of the teaching and prominently in it? but as mission-essential virtues to research programs of the "It was, especially when I first saw be cultivated and celebrated." University," he said. it, a remarkably beautiful campus. And there is much to celebrate. "We had some very, very lean It wasn't in any sense elaborate, According to the plan, "A dozen years, and it was often difficult to but I remember when I came here, years ago, not a single student have on campus a faculty that was the dogwoods were in bloom and it resided on the University's campus. adequate in size to properly meet was just so lovely," Dr. Summerville Today, nearly 3,000 out of 4,800 the needs of the students we had," said. "The buildings on campus at students live on campus. A dozen he continued. "It has taken quite a that time were the Smith Library, years ago, the University was an while to rectify that. The job isn't McMurran Hall (then called essentially open admissions univer­ done yet, but we're well on the way Christopher Newport Hall), sity. Today it is rapidly becoming to having it done. When we started Gosnold, Ratcliffe and Wingfield. one of the Commonwealth's most the 2004-05 academic year, I The campus did not have about it selective." The number of applica­ believe there were 166 full-time the same sense of permanence that tions, as well as SAT scores, faculty. We created 30 new posi- it has now. And I think that's been continues to rise. Average scores Alumni Magazine CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT UNIVERSITY 4 for the freshman class of 2005 were what the future of this institution is were flocking to us from across the just below 1200. Dr. Summerville going to be like." state, and so it would be to the very predicts that by 2012, they will President Trible credits Dr. best that a liberal learning environ­ easily exceed 1200. Summerville's guidance and classi­ ment could be," he said. cal sense of what a liberal arts uni­ Dr. Summerville asked Dr. A Curriculum for the versity should embody as the foun­ Douglas Gordon, now the dean dation for CNU's liberal learning of the College of Liberal Arts and 21st Century curriculum, which seeks to produce Sciences, to lead a broadly based, There is no question that Dr. empowered, informed and respon­ multiyear effort to identify needed Summerville's most significant sible learners. changes and associated costs. The contribution lies in the completely new curriculum debuted in 2006. revamped curriculum that he "I think that from the very first began transforming in 2002. "Dr. Summerville has semester students are with us, they Mter leaving the provost position had a tremendously are having a 21st-century liberal in 1995 and taking a sabbatical, positive and far-reach­ arts education and are getting it he returned to quietly teach mathe­ ing influence on CNU's in a very, very exciting context," matics in 1996. In 2001, President Dr. Summerville said. Among the academic direction. Paul Trible asked him to again hallmarks of the redesign is a fresh­ serve as provost - an offer he He will be greatly man-year seminar that fosters an couldn't refuse. missed here on cam­ understanding of what it's like to "Paul Trible is very hard to say no pus, but the legacy of belong to a community of scholars. to," he said with a smile. "I didn't As well, the general education his commitment to requirements of a degree are serving the best inter­ spread throughout all four years ests of students and of a student's experience. faculty will be evident for decades to come." Looking Ahead - Paul Trible "I believe that in the next half decade, the reputation of CNU is going to explode beyond the The overhaul of the curriculum boundaries of the Commonwealth began shortly after Dr. Summerville of Virginia, and that when people returned to the provost's office in hear our name mentioned, they 2002. "I felt we needed to take will think of us as being in the same steps to transform the curriculum mold as some of the best liberal for undergraduates, so that it took arts colleges in the country­ cognizance of being in the 21st places like Davidson, Dickinson, century, so that it took cognizance Hobart, and Franklin and of these bright young minds who President Trible and Dr. Summerville think I could ever forgive myself if I'd had the opportunity to be on the cutting edge of the wonderful changes that were taking place at the University and said no. That's the sort of thing that people who've had a career like mine pray might someday happen to them, and for most of them it never does. I know I am privileged almost beyond mea­ sure to have had this chance, par­ ticularly at my age, to help shape Dr. Summerville talks with students 5 CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT UNIVERSITY Alumni Magazine Marshall," he said, noting that success at preeminent liberal arts most are private institutions.