Our Goal: Joining The Top 100 Public Research Universities

Why should we support research? Why do we pursue the American dream? What is this vision which makes Americans work so hard to develop strong entrepreneurial skills and abilities? We all want to live longer, to enjoy better health, to achieve prosperity, to be productive and happy. We espouse the same goals as our forebears who enshrined them in the Constitution as rights: to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Research enables us to realize these goals, to live the American dream.

At Old Dominion University, we have undertaken to become one of the Top 100 public research universities in America. This is a lofty and serious goal. To reach it will require dedication and effort. Yet, this goal is truly worthwhile. To achieve it is to make the American dream possible in Hampton Roads.

You do not need to go to Boston or the Silicon Valley to receive a fine education and to find an excellent job. Old Dominion is a strong research university, and we are improving daily. We are creating an environment for the success of our students and our faculty, as well as economic development for the region. Our work in areas such as modeling and simulation, nuclear physics, oceanography, bioelectrics, computational sciences and mathematics is of national significance.

We are improving the quality of life and the ability to gain a good livelihood in Hampton Roads. If, on the way, our faculty win a Nobel Prize or two, if they continue to be recognized as the best teachers and researchers in the commonwealth, we shall celebrate their successes.

In considering the role of research in achieving the American dream, I am reminded of a governor of another state who once asked why he should make education, and especially higher education and research, a priority in his budget when there were problems with the roads, with basic literacy, with unemployment, with crime.

He told me that we did not need any more Nobel Prizes, that we really did not need universities, but if we had to have them, they could be small, mediocre and preferably located in other states. He forgot that diseases can be cured and avoided, that biomedical research improves the length and quality of our lives. He forgot that we need engineers to solve transportation problems, teachers to ensure literacy, sociologists to solve employment issues, and humanities graduates to create the art and literature which inspire us each day. He forgot that the pursuit of happiness means the freedom to develop our potential and use our intellect.

We are a nation largely composed of immigrants. My forebears arrived during the time of the potato famine in Ireland and Scotland. They came here to seek a better way of life. The first generation farmed. Every member of the second generation graduated from college. They knew that this was the way to improve their economic status.

Other immigrants came to America because they did not have the freedom to be educated in their country. They wanted to learn, to be able to think and to speak with freedom and confidence. America is not perfect. Poverty exists. Yet, as long as there is education, there is hope. As long as there is access to higher education, the American dream can survive.

If we, at Old Dominion University, continue to create employment, to attract major businesses to the region, to collaborate with the artistic and cultural communities, to offer individuals the capacity to change their lives, then we will truly achieve the American dream. I invite you to join us in this effort to discover new ideas, new worlds and new ways to conquer them.

– Roseann Runte
President