New NSU president has energy, experience - and a vision

A May news conference about a new women's center was about to start at Norfolk State University, but a fuss was taking place in the third row of the audience.

People wanted to shake hands with the man sporting the crisp suit, the semi-high-top fade and the sharp posture, which spoke to his military upbringing. An administrator tapped Tony Atwater on the shoulder. He stood and smiled.

"Just wanted to let you know that everyone I've spoken to is in awe of you," she said, "and happy about you being here."

So is he.

Atwater, 59, has been a frequent visitor to campus since he was appointed president in April. His first official week begins today, but he was in the office last week because he was "ready to go."

He's been brainstorming programs to improve the school's six-year graduation rate, which at 34 percent is the lowest in the state, and ways to work with the cities and businesses. He's been thinking about how he'll let faculty, students and neighbors know he wants to be the "captain" in their corner. They'll learn more about that as they learn more about him and the challenges he has faced.

"Oh, I have a little fun with it," he chuckled, pausing for a breath after a 25-minute-straight talk about "bridge programs" and "pathways" for students. "When you think of the Spartans, and the time, and the crusades, these wars were fought with a lot of grit and passion! That's the way you have to overcome these challenges..."

Then he was off again.

Atwater recently spent a year as a senior fellow of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington. Before that, he worked for five years as president of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a school twice the size of Norfolk State, with four campuses. Before that, he held a variety of positions, from professor to assistant director of the Honors College at Michigan State University and provost and vice president for academic affairs at Youngstown State University.

He will be NSU's fifth leader and the first to arrive with "president" already on his resume. Working in the top post also means Atwater has his share of critics who say he was too autocratic, pushing through projects against faculty wishes. He's also earned supporters who applaud him for making decisions during tough times, increasing enrollment and retention, and bringing much-needed changes to campus.

Atwater, who was given a three-year contract with a base salary of $295,000, comes to Norfolk State at a critical juncture for the university. Faculty, staff and alumni have been exhausted by budget cuts and a contentious presidential search process, but many see promise ahead. A new library, a student services center and a new classroom and nurse education building, the first academic building in years, are in the works. Student applications are up, and there's an energy to be harnessed, many believe, if NSU has the right leader.

Atwater assumed the presidency at IUP, about 60 miles outside Pittsburgh, in February 2005. Within eight months, the campus was hit with a string of drug- and alcohol-related incidents, including a student who overdosed on drugs within two weeks of Atwater's start.

That November, he formed a campus-and-community group to study the problem and enacted some of its recommendations, including stronger sanctions for drug and alcohol use and required completion of an online alcohol education program for entering freshmen.

Anonymous student surveys after the changes showed a decline in student drinking: 26 percent reported in 2005 that they did not drink; that percentage grew to 42 percent in 2008, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Two of the projects of which Atwater is most proud, however, also brought him the most controversy. The "Student Residential Revival project," a $270 million plan that replaced old dorms with apartment suites with learning labs was the largest building plan of its kind in the country. The Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex, a $53.4 million community-university facility was a project that had stalled for years. It opened in March.

Atwater got pressure from faculty on the projects. They felt he pushed the plans through on a tight frame, during a recession. Now, the university is carrying debt that it shouldn't, said Francisco E. Alarcon, vice president of the IUP faculty union chapter.

"Some of the decisions were untimely, and they appeared to be more about generating a higher profile for Dr. Atwater as a president," he said.

The projects led in December 2009 to a union vote of no-confidence in Atwater.

Atwater said he heard the faculty concerns, but he had to make decisions "for the greater good."

"I think one of the worst things a leader can do is be indecisive."

He said the convention center will increase business, jobs, entertainment and internship possibilities at the school and in the community, and the dorms will help the school compete for students.

"The residential revival, while it was a bricks-and-mortar project, it was something that changed the emotional landscape of the campus," said Rhonda Luckey, vice president for student affairs at IUP.

The campus improvements and initiatives helped bolster student success, she said. The school's six-year graduation rate climbed from 49 percent in 2006 to 54 percent last fall. The school received more than 13,000 applications for this fall, almost double the 7,000 it received in fall of 2006.

Atwater also worked well with students, said Tiara Johnson, a recent IUP grad.

She recalled a time when some students were harassing others by writing insults underneath photos posted on Facebook. One student almost committed suicide, Johnson said. Atwater called Johnson and other student leaders to an emergency meeting to figure out how to stop the harassment. Johnson said she volunteered to work with Facebook to shut down the pages.

"To me," Johnson said, "he was concerned about students."

Controversy at IUP is not what led to his departure, Atwater said; rather he felt he had achieved his goals.

The move to Norfolk State will bring him closer to family. His mother lives in Roanoke, where the military family settled when Atwater was 15 and where he began his career as a TV journalist before switching to academia. His brother Terry - a twin who's older by five minutes - is in Charlottesville. His father died in 2006.

His wife, Beverly, a doctor who specializes in rehabilitation and physical medicine, plans to move her practice to Hampton Roads, Atwater said. It was Beverly who pushed him to consider administration, he said, to make a greater impact.

He thought about that often as he commuted to his position in Washington, often on a Greyhound bus. Those long rides also allowed him to relax in one of his favorite ways: writing poetry.

During one of these trips last November, he said he was contemplating Psalm 27 and hoping that heading another university would be in his future. He penned his piece, "Captains in My Corner."

The first stanza:

Walloped by the throes of life

I fell to the canvas floor

A fatal count of strife began

As hope was round no more.

Through the poem, he recounts his captains - parents, friends, mentors, his wife - and reminds himself that he can be a captain to others. It ends with the "one captain above them all" who would always see him through.

At Norfolk State, Atwater realizes he's walking onto a campus hungry for stability. The university has been operating under an acting president and an interim provost since Carolyn Meyers resigned under pressure last year. The university has had so many changes in administration in the past few years that some faculty and staff have found it difficult to keep track. In addition, many still are angry that they had very limited involvement in the presidential search process. They blame the board, however, not Atwater.

"We will not hold it against him because he was not chosen in the proper method," said faculty senate president Archie Earl Jr. "The basic feeling of the executive committee is that we give him a chance and judge him by what he does after July 1st."

Besides, they are ready to start thinking about the future of Norfolk State.

A new state-of-the art library is rising in the geographic center of campus. It will house the school's archives and its collection of African and African American art. Across the green will be the new student services building that will centralize services such as financial aid and registration and will include the long-missed bowling alley.

Since January, the university has received more than $11 million in grants and funding for science, math, technology and its community outreach programs to interest younger students in science, technology, engineering and math.

"Norfolk State has a great story to tell," alum Mildred Allen said. "We need to tell the Norfolk State story to more people."

Atwater could not agree more. One of the items he'd like to tackle first is the branding of the university. The days of calling it Norfolk's "best-kept secret" should be gone, he said. He thinks the university can draw more students with high-demand programs, such as a master's in public health or physical therapy. He also wants to capitalize on its historical strengths in liberal arts, nursing and social work.

Even though he's itching with ideas, he repeated throughout his interviews that he will not move forward without the faculty. He has receptions scheduled with faculty, staff and students during the next two weeks.

"I don't want to give the impression that I'm telling the faculty what to do," he said. "The president can only be as effective as the team that supports the vision."

He also recognizes that others beyond campus must share in Norfolk State's vision. Already, he's met with various legislators and Norfolk city officials.

Josh Darden and John O. "Dubby" Wynne, civic activists and businessmen, said Atwater made a good first impression.

"He's looking for help, and some of us feel that we have not been asked in the past," said Wynne, former chief executive officer of Landmark Communications, the predecessor to Landmark Media Enterprises, which owns The Virginian-Pilot.

That will change, Atwater said.

"One of the things I will bring is hope. Hope to the Norfolk State university community."

Denise Watson Batts, (757) 446-2504, denise.batts@pilotonline.com