THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9408180550
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Norfolk State University President Harrison B. Wilson urged his faculty Wednesday to give the academic equivalent of intensive care to more students at risk of failing.
Wilson - in an annual address to faculty members that was part pep rally, part serious business - linked higher retention of students to the university's push to build its bank account and enhance its reputation as a center of culture and scholarship.
He also announced plans to meet with City Council members soon about 25 acres of land on which NSU wants to build a hotel, a business school and an Urban Institute to serve as a national think tank.
``Retention of students is a very serious concern because that's a factor that we're judged by,'' Wilson said after his speech to nearly 400 professors.
About 22 percent of NSU students earn degrees in five years, he said. Wilson attributed NSU's retention rate primarily to the school's commitment to enroll disadvantaged students who otherwise might not attend college.
At the same time, however, he emphasized the need to attract more academically gifted students as well as the importance of programs aimed at weak ones.
This fall, for instance, Norfolk State will introduce a program in which all freshmen will be tested to determine their readiness for college-level work. Students who perform poorly on the test will be referred to special counselors.
They also will be steered toward an academic track in which their classes will be tailored to help them catch up in a year's time.
But the university, Wilson said, can't do more with less. Norfolk State ranks near the bottom of state-supported universities in the amount of state aid it receives per student. Wilson said his administration is lobbying hard to get a bigger slice of state revenue.
He's also pinning his hopes on future projects - such as a state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center scheduled to open in early 1996 and a 30,000-seat football stadium to be completed by 1997 - that may help the university turn profits.
The hotel, business school and Urban Institute complex would factor heavily into that effort, Wilson said. The land, some of which is still privately owned, is part of the South Brambleton Redevelopment Project and is all slated to be acquired by the city.
``We're still talking about it,'' said Juanita Buster, a senior city planner, referring to future use of the land. ``We're supportive of NSU but everything is still in the planning process right now.''
Norfolk State is also banking on the cash and clout its first doctoral program may bring. Last January, the State Council of Higher Education gave NSU the go-ahead to begin offering doctorates in social work next year.
Most schools see the doctorate as the ticket to reach the topmost rung of the higher-education ladder. Doctoral programs also help attract research grants.
Jules LaPidus, president of the Washington-based Council of Graduate Schools, told faculty members Wednesday to proceed with a clear mission and to make sure students understand requirements from the start. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Harrison B. Wilson
by CNB