NORFOLK
Old Dominion University President Roseann Runte served up cider, apple crisp, gingerbread cookies and a surprise gift Sunday for international students unable to go home for the holiday break, unveiling plans for a new home for the campus center that serves them.
The Dragas International Center will move into the soon-to-be-renovated Hughes Hall, one of the growing campus's oldest academic buildings that has not yet undergone a rebirth.
"We just got the first proposals for what it might look like, and I showed it to the students and everyone was quite excited," Runte said.
The international center opened in 1995, according to the ODU Web site, and is named for the Dragas family, which has long supported the school.
George Dragas Jr., a local real estate developer who completed his studies in 1956 at the university's predecessor, the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary, served as rector of the ODU Board of Visitors in 1990-91.
Currently, the international center is housed in a small facility that is part of Foreman Field. But with the stadium, built in 1936, undergoing its own $24.8 million face-lift in preparation for the return of football to ODU in 2009, "it can't remain there," Runte said.
The center houses offices for all units of the ODU Office of International Programs, with the exception of the English Language Center, whose staff and faculty are in the Batten Arts and Letters Building. That office also will move to the new facility when the Hughes Hall renovations are complete.
Work on the project, which will cost about $20 million, is to start in June.
Funding comes from a general obligation bond project approved more than three years ago for the renovation of several buildings that, for decades, had been the core of the campus. They include the Technology Building, the Chemistry Lab, the Physical Sciences Building, the Batten Arts and Letters Building, and Hughes Hall.
When finished, Hughes Hall - originally built as the library for what was then Old Dominion College - will be renamed Dragas Hall. The name change was approved by ODU's Board of Visitors earlier this month, Runte said.
The center serves a large segment of the student body. ODU has more than 1,400 international students from more than 100 countries, Runte said.
Additionally, the center assists the "thousands of ODU students who go abroad to study at universities around the world every year," she said.
The unveiling came during Runte's annual holiday reception she has held at her home for several years for international students who stay in Hampton Roads while the university is closed for the winter holidays.
About 40 students attended this year, enjoying a variety of treats, some of which Runte made.
"Some of the students brought their spouses and their children," she said, making it "a lovely gathering."
Steve Stone, (757) 446-2309, steve.stone@pilotonline.com
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