Runte leaving ODU for top post at Canadian university

NORFOLK

Change has been the byword for Old Dominion University during its six-plus years under President Roseann Runte: More education programs and research. New dorms and other buildings. The return of football.

Surprised university and community leaders said it’s too early to speculate what kind of change will result after Runte’s announcement Monday that she’s leaving midyear to become president of a Canadian university.

“Seven years of dreams and accomplishments have flown by at the speed of light,” Runte said in an 1,300-word e-mail to the campus community announcing her decision to accept the presidency of Carleton University, a 24,000-student institution in the Canadian capital of Ottawa. “This is a time for parting, a well-made parting when we can smile with pleasure at the shared voyage and accomplishments … It has been a true pleasure and a privilege to work with you …”

Runte didn’t return telephone messages Monday; an ODU spokeswoman said she was traveling north. A formal announcement is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at Carleton.

A New York native and scholar in French literature, Runte came to ODU in 2001 from Victoria University in Toronto, where she had been president for seven years. She also has worked at other Canadian universities.

In South Hampton Roads, her decision to step down elicited praise for Runte as a tireless promoter who raised the standing and visibility of ODU.

“It has been a good seven years,” said William Drewry, chairman of the Faculty Senate. “It’s going to be a hard seven years to duplicate.”

“She’s top-notch, and this will be a serious loss, for the university and the city,” Norfolk Councilman W. Randy Wright said.

Marc Jacobson, rector of ODU’s governing Board of Visitors, said the board soon will appoint a presidential search committee and hire a consulting firm.

Runte will remain at ODU until taking her new position on July 1, Jacobson said.

“It’s a career move,” he said, when asked about her reasons for leaving. “We certainly would have preferred her to stay. … It’s not dissatisfaction with ODU.”

Some speculated that for Runte, who turns 60 this month, it was the time to make the change given the prestige of her new position and her fondness for Canada.

“She’s at an age where, if you don’t go now, you never go,” said Ross Mugler, a Board of Visitors member.

Runte’s new university bills itself as “Canada’s Capital University” on its Web site. Carleton was founded in 1942 and has almost 1,800 full- and part-time employees, along with a like number of lecturers and teaching assistants.

Runte will succeed a president who left in November 2006, only 15 months into his six-year contract. The only public explanation for his departure was that he and the university’s governing board weren’t in accord, according to Toronto’s The Globe and Mail newspaper.

Runte is ODU’s seventh president, and the first woman in the post.

In September, ODU’s board extended her contract one year to 2011 and increased her annual salary by $12,487 to $324,643. She pledged to donate her raise to the university.

Under her leadership, ODU added seven doctoral programs, more than doubled its endowment to $187 million and opened the first building in a research park. New dormitories and increased on-campus activities moved the campus toward a more residential feel, along with the planned 2009 return of football and the creation of a marching band.

“We can see a campus life for the first time,” Mugler said.

Kojo Asamoa-Caesar, president of the Student Government Association, called Runte’s leaving “a big blow.”

“She was very student-centered,” the senior said. She held town-hall meetings and chatted up students at most home basketball games.

Asamoa-Caesar remembered helping her distribute door-to-dormitory-door the chocolate-chip and sugar cookies that she baked at the start of each school year.

“A lot of times, students at other universities don’t even know who their president is,” Asamoa-Caesar said.

Not all of Runte’s effort was warmly welcomed.

Her efforts in 2006 to add classes at the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center that ODU shares with Norfolk State University drew criticism from Tidewater Community College and the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia – but the classes eventually were approved.

And not all faculty members were happy with the football decision, worried that it could detract from academic needs.

Runte’s length of service at ODU is not unusual, said Dennis Gregory, an associate professor of higher education at ODU. The average tenure for college presidents is five to seven years, he said.

The presidency is a “high-burnout position,” Gregory said, noting that Runte was extremely active in pushing new programs and attempting to expand the university.

“There’s just so much going on,” Gregory said. “I think we will miss a lot of the dramatic activity she has engendered here. And I think next year will be very interesting.“

Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf said she wishes that Runte’s successor will share her “futuristic thinking.”

“What a loss for the region,” said Oberndorf, who worked with Runte to increase ODU’s presence in the state’s most populous city. “She’s the iron fist in a velvet glove. She’s brilliant.”

“We needed a person like her in order to make a difference,” said Mohammad Karim, whom Runte hired as vice president for research.

ODU’s new football coach, Bobby Wilder, and other coaches said Monday that they will miss her support.

“I’m not shocked, but I’m disappointed,” said Wilder, noting that she’s the reason he took the coaching job.

Basketball coach Wendy Larry said, “I’m sad from the standpoint that the women’s team is losing a great model.”

“This is not necessarily good news for us,” said ODU board member Moody “Sonny” Stallings Jr., a booster of ODU’s return to the gridiron. “But she leaves the university in the best shape it’s ever been in. …

“We’ll want her back for football.”

Staff writers Vicki Friedman, Harry Minium, Richard Quinn, Rich Radford and Nancy Young contributed to this report.

Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-3893, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com