THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 85 lines
Improving student success is the goal that Marie V. McDemmond has set for her presidency of Norfolk State University.
She has given herself a tough assignment. NSU's seven-year graduation rate is the lowest among Virginia's state-supported four-year colleges and universities. A historically black institution of higher education, NSU seeks out and enrolls above-average students, using scholarships to attract them. But it also prides itself on admitting young people whose dismal academic performance in high school and low test scores mark them as unpromising material for colleges.
Some of these poor risks seize the precious opportunity that NSU offers to gain knowledge and occupational and social skills that empower them to move up the socio-economic ladder. That many do not or cannot take advantage of their good fortune is evident in NSU's 22 percent seven-year graduation rate - attributable in large part to the poverty that forces many of its students to work or to drop out.
President-to-be McDemmond, who will succeed Harrison B. Wilson on July 1, expresses confidence that she can boost the graduation rate. Inevitably, therefore, gains in the rate will be a measure of her presidency.
President Wilson, who early last year disclosed his intention to retire, expanded and upgraded NSU's academic programs and enhanced the campus physically. NSU has never looked better; the recently opened L. Douglas Wilder Performing Arts Center is the crowning achievement among many Wilson-administration milestones.
And NSU's ability to effect positive change - in the region no less than in its students and neighborhood - has never been stronger.
But NSU's endowment is modest, and it falls to McDemmond - who is vice president for finance and chief fiscal officer for Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton - to enlarge it substantially to underwrite the scholarships needed to draw more talented, motivated students to the Norfolk campus.
McDemmond herself will ``bring energy, enthusiasm and expertise,'' as she said following announcement of her appointment by the NSU board of regents. Splendid! She will assume leadership of a thriving enterprise. A spirited performance will be essential to the school's continuing progress.
Meanwhile, McDemmond's extensive experience in administration and finance - acquired in posts at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Emory University in Atlanta and Florida Atlantic - and clearly articulated aspirations for NSU and its students argue that the board of regents has chosen carefully and well.
Improving student success is the goal that Marie V. McDemmond has set for her presidency of Norfolk State University.
She has given herself a tough assignment. NSU's seven-year graduation rate is the lowest among Virginia's state-supported, four-year colleges and universities. A historically black institution of higher education, NSU seeks out and enrolls above-average students, using scholarships to attract them. But it also prides itself on admitting young people whose dismal academic performance in high school and low test scores mark them as unpromising material for colleges.
Some of these poor risks seize the precious opportunity that NSU offers to gain knowledge and occupational and social skills that empower them to move up the socio-economic ladder. That many do not or cannot take advantage of their good fortune is evident in NSU's 22 percent seven-year graduation rate - attributable in large part to the poverty that forces many of its students to work or to drop out.
President-to-be McDemmond, who will succeed Harrison B. Wilson on July 1, expresses confidence that she can boost the graduation rate. Inevitably, therefore, gains in the rate will be a measure of her presidency.
President Wilson, who early last year disclosed his intention to retire, expanded and upgraded NSU's academic programs and enhanced the campus physically. NSU has never looked better; the recently opened L. Douglas Wilder Performing Arts Center is the crowning achievement among many Wilson-administration milestones.
And NSU's ability to effect positive change - in the region no less than in its students and neighborhood - has never been stronger.
But NSU's endowment is modest, and it falls to McDemmond - who is vice president for finance and chief fiscal officer for Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton - to enlarge it substantially to underwrite the scholarships needed to draw more talented, motivated students to the Norfolk campus.
McDemmond herself will ``bring energy, enthusiasm and expertise,'' as she said following announcement of her appointment by the NSU board of regents. Splendid! She will assume leadership of a thriving enterprise. A spirited performance will be essential to the school's continuing progress.
Meanwhile, McDemmond's extensive experience in administration and finance - acquired in posts at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Emory University in Atlanta and Florida Atlantic - and clearly articulated aspirations for NSU and its students argue that the board of regents has chosen carefully and well.