Parents and Friends
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For our Alumni, Parents and Friends |
| Spring 2006 |
 Paul and Rosemary Trible |
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.
Teamwork brings success at CNU
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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.”
The crowing jewel of the physical transformation so far has been the Ferguson Center for the Arts, which is impressing not only the University community, but the entire region and state, as well, in its first full season.
“Ten years ago, we had a dream of seeing the community embracing the Center,” said Mrs. Trible. “When it opened with singer Michael Crawford, his first song was ‘To Dream the Impossible Dream.’ I got tears in my eyes because seeing the community’s reaction to the Center was seeing that dream come true.”
With tremendous commitment as a skilled leader, President Trible, joined by Mrs. Trible, has changed the very personality of the school in a way several observers say reflects the Tribles’ own strong beliefs on such topics as leadership, interdependence, honor and civic engagement. Above all, President Trible’s vision for the University has focused on turning CNU students into future leaders, and he has emphasized the importance of supporting that development throughout every aspect of the CNU experience.
“We believe we are shaping both hearts and minds,” President Trible said. “We want students committed to excellence in their lives, with a passion for engagement and a sense of responsibility for the world. We try to help students identify their gifts for leadership. Here all of us put the students first. Our job is to move heaven and earth to help them succeed. It’s the most important thing we can say or do, and most schools don’t think that way.”
Provost and Distinguished Professor Dr. Richard Summerville has served the University since 1980, through three presidents. “In my opinion, the most significant impact that Paul Trible’s presidency has had upon CNU is that he has engendered in the University community the freedom and capacity to actually achieve goals to which we would have not even dared to aspire a brief decade ago,” he said.
“He has also crystallized the essential mission of the University, and that mission is now universally embraced by the entire University community.
“And he has made the physical campus a place of physical beauty appropriate for serious academic study with capital projects that communicate to those who behold them that what is here is permanent, that the work which is done here is important and that great things are expected of those who become part of this environment,” Dr. Summerville said.
As a Newport News community leader and former member of the CNU Board of Visitors, Dorothy Rouse Bottom has seen President Trible’s leadership in action, as well. “Paul has changed the scope, speed, and style of the university’s mission. Beyond that, he has brought into being on campus a cultural center for the entire Peninsula that dazzles and delights us all. Amazing! I cannot think of anyone who could have accomplished this other than Paul Trible.
“Paul has a steely resolve, not knowing the word ‘no.’ His calm, friendly and completely confident attitude that an impossible goal can be reached is contagious. He is a convincing man.”
Reflecting on the University now, President Trible sees more than the academic and physical changes. “There’s magic at CNU, and it’s infectious. On campus people feel energy, enthusiasm, a forward motion and an expectation of success. I’ve always felt that great dreams have power. We’re in the business of dramatically transforming our school to create a new CNU. There really is a difference here and it’s reflected in the faces of students.”
And he’s looking toward the University’s future. “We’ve built the campus and the students are coming. We now want to expand the faculty and focus on those things that make good schools truly excellent,” he said.
“Our challenge is to provide academic excellence to the truly outstanding students who are banging on our doors. And we have to enhance our reputation so diplomas have more value for our graduates.
“My colleagues and I have a rare opportunity to shape and define the University,” he said. “That task largely will be completed over the next decade, and the CNU students attending 100 years from now will be at a school our students, faculty and staff and Alumni and friends are creating today.”
He added, “That’s a powerful reason to get up in the morning and sprint through the day.” And for him, that is reason enough to be president.