NSU leader takes long strides in short time

NORFOLK

It happened to Gary McCollum a few weeks ago, just as it has to other Norfolk State University board members. Someone stopped McCollum, the rector of the Board of Visitors, to say: “Wow, your new president at Norfolk State is everywhere.”

That kind of feedback about Tony Atwater, who’s been on the job for six months, is welcome news for McCollum and many in the Spartan community. The board had been criticized last year for its closed, monthslong presidential search, but McCollum said Atwater is the strong leader it worked hard to find.

Although faculty members want more attention to their concerns, “He clearly has hit the ground running,” McCollum said.

Atwater has worked to forge better ties between the school and the community and to make himself accessible to students on campus.

Even before he took the job in July, he canvassed the area and talked to people about what Norfolk State needed. One refrain he heard again and again was leadership and direction.

His predecessor, Carolyn Meyers, who resigned under pressure in 2010, often was described as doing too little, too late.

Atwater, a poet who loves playing with words and acronyms, sums up his presidential philosophy with “APIE.” – Academic Excellence, Partnerships, Institutional Advancement (fundraising and marketing), and Enrollment.

He walked into the job with that idea and another acronym in mind – “SCAS,” which stands for the Spartan Crusade for Academic Success. One of the crusade’s goals is to increase the numbers of low-income and minority students going to college, staying there and graduating on time. Another is to steer them into areas of high demand, such as science, math and technology.

Atwater calls it a holistic approach because it will benefit students before they come to NSU and will require help from around the region in the form of school partnerships and financial support.

He’s taken the crusade to churches and businesses, and Bank of America recently donated $20,000, essentially becoming the first corporate sponsor.

Norfolk State has “adopted” schools, such as nearby Booker T. Washington High School, and will soon begin providing NSU students as mentors and offering students on-campus programs.

Atwater wants to reach down to preschools, where learning gaps can be caught early, he said. The challenges aren’t always academic. Lack of money and familial support are problems, too.

“For example, if you have a 16-, 17-year-old and he has two or three siblings and the parents are drug addicts, John has to take care of everything,” he said. “If he goes to school, he has to choose between the viability of his family or going to school.”

If these students aren’t helped now, society will pay for them another way, such as through prison or the welfare system, Atwater said.

To that end, he has created the NSU Faith Partnership Network, a coalition of faith groups.

William Chatman, pastor of Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Chesapeake, said he was surprised to receive an invitation to meet with Atwater on campus.

Atwater asked Chatman and other leaders to work with their young congregants, talk to them about college and monitor how they’re doing now.

“He’s the first president in recent years who’s reached out to the community like this,” Chatman said.

Bill Bagby, a 1969 graduate and president of the Norfolk State University Foundation board, got word of the new president’s community outreach shortly after Atwater started. Then he saw it for himself.

Bagby was on campus in the fall and attended a “feedback forum” that Atwater held exclusively for students. Atwater drew an overflow crowd that complained about course content, technical support and dorms.

“For two hours,” Bagby said, a bit of awe in his voice. “I was impressed that the president would make himself available in that way. … He was very candid about financial constraints, but very uplifting in his plans for the university.”

Atwater also met with the foundation board and not only asked for more money for student scholarships and faculty development but said he’d help the foundation raise it.

“He’s also the first person to hold up his hand and say, ‘I will go out and help you raise the support,’ ” said Bagby, who has been on the board for nine years.

Faculty members, according to Archie Earl Jr., the immediate past president of the Faculty Senate, have mixed impressions of Atwater. Earl said they want the president to take the quick-start approach with them, too, and to address issues that have lingered for years, such as salary inequities and an unresolved post-tenure review policy.

“The president has not been that accessible,” Earl said.

Earl said there have been some good moves during the president’s first six months, however, such as a deal with Hampton Roads Transit to allow students and employees to ride public transportation for free.

Students say they’ve seen lots of positives with “Dr. A,” as he’s often called.

Junior Krysta Ricks said that the president is frequently seen on campus and that students get constant emails about ice-cream socials and events. At Atwater’s meeting with students, she said, students talked about dorm visitation. Shortly afterward, residents at the Spartan Suites, where she lives on campus, received questionnaires about changing visitation hours.

Ricks said, via email, “I am extremely impressed with the effort he has made in his short time here to show his students that he actually cares about us, our interests, our ideas, and our education.”

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