Christopher Newport U was in better shape than portrayed

While a recent article and editorial justly celebrated former Sen. Paul Trible, outgoing president of Christopher Newport University, for his many accomplishments in leading the school to unprecedented heights, a number of statements of the period preceding his tenure were marred by some rather troubling inaccuracies.

Allow me, as a 44-year veteran of the CNU faculty with three years’ service as an administrator, to offer some clarification.

First of all, CNU in 1996 was not “a struggling little commuter college;” it had built its first dormitory and begun enrolling residential students several years before. Second, as for the school “losing students,” high school graduation rates in the early 1990s were going through one of their periodic declines. The impact of that decline on Christopher Newport was measurable but minimal; student numbers never declined to any significant degree, and the rate of enrollment remained comparable to the university’s current population.

The bottom of that decline was reached in 1996 after which they would once again begin to rise. Trible took over just as graduation rates rose and, of course, he benefited from that rise. In sum, we were never struggling.

Third, there was never a state report recommending the institution be closed. A consultant study called the Shaner report that made such a recommendation was produced in August 1973. After review by school and commonwealth officials, it was retracted by the consultant himself and unanimously rejected by all parties in January 1974. When Anthony R. Santoro was hired in 1987, state Sen. Hunter Andrews and U.S. Rep. Alan Diamonstein mentioned it only to tell him that it was a long-dead letter.

Fourth, the remark attributed to Trible, “When I came, Christopher Newport was sort of going out of business,” may be a misquote as it is wildly inaccurate. Santoro, president of CNU from 1987 to 1996, had put the institution on a solid basis by gaining university status; initiating graduate programs; increasing the size of the faculty from 113 to 174; building the university’s first dormitory; acquiring the Ferguson High School property which increased the university’s footprint by a third; increasing research grants six-fold; and successfully battling against a host of hostile forces to raise its operating budget from $14.8 million to $33 million.

A June 1995 piece in the Daily Press cataloged these accomplishments, and praised his leadership. In addition, Santoro required that all faculty members hold terminal degrees, raised faculty salaries and created a Faculty Senate with control over the curriculum and the ability to evaluate the president and senior administrators annually.

A host of agreements guaranteed acceptance of graduates of the local community colleges and the shipyard training programs as students at CNU. He initiated and even taught in our study-abroad programs and established faculty and student exchange programs with universities in China and Japan.

Gov. Douglas Wilder called CNU “a jewel of the commonwealth.” It was in no sense, “going out of business” or going “bankrupt,” but was quite healthy with excellent prospects for the future.

To conclude, the above facts — most of which can be verified by reading

Philip Hamilton’s history of Christopher Newport College/Christopher Newport University, “Serving the Old Dominion: A History of Christopher Newport University, 1958—2011” — prove that, in fact, Trible inherited a thriving, vibrant institution which provided him with a strong foundation on which he could build a school which reflected his own vision.

It takes nothing away from his legacy to point out that he, as all of us, owes a debt to those who came before him and who laid a foundation for his quite notable accomplishments which are evident for all to see.