ODU’s new president isn’t new to campus

John R. Broderick skipped a few of the traditional rungs as he moved up the academic ladder to become president of Old Dominion University.

A onetime reporter who went to work at ODU in 1993 as director of public information, Broderick was appointed president in May after serving in an interim role for nearly a year.

In a sense, he is still ODU's chief spokesman.

"As a journalist turned college president, I don't know if there's a lot of us out there," said Broderick, who also served as ODU's vice president for institutional advancement and admissions for 12 years.

But he said the communication skills he picked up from his journalism and public-relations background have served him well as he promotes ODU's mission from Norfolk to the state Capitol and beyond.

The afternoon that ODU's board of visitors announced it had removed "acting" from his title, Broderick flew to Italy for a conference at the University of Bologna. He was home barely a week before he was off to Atlanta for three days of fundraising with ODU alumni.

One of his challenges as president, he said, will be "to enlist our students, our alumni, our community in being better advocates for this institution."

It's important to advance name recognition as public universities increasingly rely on private fundraising, he said. "Telling legislators, telling media, telling next-door neighbors, telling people at conferences is all of our jobs."

During his 16 years at ODU, he already has made many of the community contacts that goal will require.

Carolyn W. Meyers, president of neighboring Norfolk State University, said she and Broderick work together to identify educational needs in the Norfolk area.

"We collaborate. We don't have to compete," she said.

His background may be different, Meyers said, but knowing the community and university from the inside is more important "than the right academic pedigree."

"He's a consensus builder. He's inclusive. He's a straight talker and dealer," she said. "He has integrity."

Meyers said she was "just ecstatic at the wisdom" shown by the board of visitors in selecting Broderick.

Broderick was appointed acting president when Roseann Runte left last July to lead Carleton University in Ottawa. He had served as her chief of staff for five years and was on the search committee seeking her replacement.

So he wasn't one of the finalists for the post. But the search was suspended when ODU's faculty senate chairman spoke out against the committee's shortlist in August, saying there should be no rush to replace Broderick. Faculty leadership and others applauded when the board of visitors gave Broderick a contract through 2011.

"We were all very comfortable with that," said Gwendolyn Lee-Thomas, an assistant professor of education leadership and counseling.

He knows the university and understands its history, she said. "The trust factor was critical."

When he became acting president, Broderick initiated major conversations on campus about enrollment management and planning, and he included faculty and students in those discussions, she said.

The study led to a decision to slow the university's enrollment growth and to build faculty numbers to support the more than 23,000 students at ODU.

Broderick said the university has taken a different approach for how it will use its federal stimulus money.

"What we really need to do now is invest in people," he said.

ODU plans to hire 40 new faculty members over the next three years, primarily in subject areas such as science, engineering and nursing where there is a need for workers.

ODU, which will receive more than $12.7 million in stimulus funds, will use $2.19 million to fund 23 faculty positions. An additional 17 positions will be paid for by revenue from tuition increases.

The university also will become more focused in where it invests in research, Broderick said. It will retain its traditional niches in oceanography and physics while targeting new research efforts on sciences that "five or seven years ago people didn't even talk about," he said.

That includes the search for new sources of energy such as ODU's pilot project in Hopewell to turn pond scum into algae biodiesel.

Broderick plans to continue teaching a graduate course in education this fall. "Not only do I like to teach, but it also helps me understand and experience what faculty go through on a daily and weekly basis in the classroom," he said.

He has set an ambitious agenda for himself, even though he acknowledges the need "to be careful of standing up and saying you're going to conquer too many world issues in the first 20 minutes."

But he said he plans to reach out for help to the many contacts he has made over the years.

"If I pretend that the success of Old Dominion is exclusively on me, I'll be very frustrated."

Contact Karin Kapsidelis at (804) 649-6119 or .