CNU Alumni Magazine Spring 2006

Applications have exploded from 1,204 in 1996 to 4,683 in 2001 and to 7,115 in 2006.
The freshman class has increased from 543 students in 1996 to 1,250 students in 2006. The percentage of accepted students has dropped from 82 percent to 44 percent of all applicants.
The average SAT score grew from 960 in 1996 to 1175 in 2006, and the grade point average has gone up from 2.8 to 3.5.
Students enroll from every region of Virginia, 32 other states and several foreign countries.
State-of-the-art residential facilities now house almost 3,000 students, a dramatic increase from 301 students in 1996. Every residential room has high-speed Internet, basic satellite cable TV, digital local phone service, 24-hour security, and electronic room access. All rooms are equipped with microwave and mini-refrigerator or have kitchen access.
Fifty-five new faculty positions have been created in the past two years.
Eighty-five percent of faculty members hold a Ph.D. or the highest degree in their fields.
A $500 million building campaign brought to campus The Freeman Center, the Ferguson Center for the Arts and soon a new 116,000 square-foot student union and a 21st century library.
International studies initiatives now allow CNU students to live and study in CNU Study Center in Prague; find information, help and support at the new Office of International Initiatives and Fellowships; and study at Oxford.
CNU has added athletic teams in women’s soccer, field hockey and lacrosse; football; men’s lacrosse; and a marching band and dance team.

A decade of change
Paul and Rosemary Trible celebrate 10 years
at CNU

By Alumni Magazine staff

What was it about Christopher Newport University that would make a U.S. senator from Virginia want to become its president?

“I fell in love with its potential,” said President Paul Trible with his trademark smile. “I felt this was the defining moment for CNU. Few have the chance to shape an enterprise for years to come. I’ve had the happy opportunity to engage in important public service by helping to define this University and enriching the life of this community that I long served and loved.”

Today, 10 years after the former senator became the University’s fifth president on Jan. 2, 1996, the University’s commitment to its students, its traditions and its exceptional faculty remains a rallying point for Alumni. But CNU also has eagerly welcomed what President Trible came prepared to offer – a decade of change.

Paul S. Trible Jr. earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hampden-Sydney College and a law degree from Washington & Lee University. He served as Commonwealth’s Attorney of Essex County from 1974 to 1976, and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1977 and to the U.S. Senate in 1983.

After 12 years in Congress, six of them in the U.S. Senate, President Trible spent the fall of 1989 as a Teaching Fellow at the Institute of Politics, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Having always loved college activities, he later agreed to serve on CNU’s Board of Visitors.

“We both saw CNU as a potential jewel,” says Rosemary Trible, a valuable member of the Trible team who joins in her husband’s enthusiasm for the University’s growth. “When the board asked Paul to be president, we felt and hoped we could make a difference, polish that jewel and make it a great University,” she said.

“Serving on the Board of Visitors gave me the opportunity to get to know the University,” President Trible said. “When offered the opportunity to become president, I accepted, and our time here has been the happiest season of our lives.”

An exciting challenge for the new president was to bring the University into the new millennium, guiding it through the inevitable changes in academic culture and climate, integrate it as an important element in the life of Virginia and, beyond that, a dramatically changing world.

Under his visionary leadership, CNU has become a university of choice for high-ability students from throughout Virginia and beyond. Applications have exploded by more than 600 percent, and the average SAT of entering freshmen has increased by more than 200 points. Improvements in CNU’s academic programs have furthered the University’s commitment to providing a high-quality liberal arts education and taken CNU into the ranks of the finest liberal arts universities in the nation.

President Trible explains that his goal has been for the University to get better and better, not bigger. “That means great teaching and small classes,” he said. “We want our faculty to be on the cutting edge of their academic disciplines and to really engage our students. For example, our Freshman English classes have just 19 students, and they are taught by a Ph.D. We offer a private school experience at a public university – great teaching, small classes, lots of personal attention and a marvelous sense of community.” He added, “And we do that for a fraction of the cost of a great private school.”

The University’s dramatic academic change is matched by a transformation of more than half a billion dollars in capital construction that will soon be complete with a new student union and expanded library, buildings that President Trible calls the heart of the campus, with activities in progress day and night.

CNU librarian Mary Sellen recalls her initial interview with President Trible long before the new library construction was visible from Warwick Boulevard. “He talked about his vision for the campus, told me the library would be the most visible, physical structure,” she said. “He told me his vision was for people on campus to see the library first, see the Ferguson Center and see the Freeman Center. He said the library represented the mind, Ferguson was the spirit, Freeman was the body.”

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Highlights from the last 10 years