ART AND NURSING FACULTY RECOGNIZED WITH AWARDS

Weekend programs in nursing and art received Old Dominion's Armada Hoffler Weekend College Teaching Awards. The programs each will receive $2,500 as part of the honor.

Established in 1996, the weekend nursing program was created to accommodate an extra 32 qualified applicants with a 3.0 or higher GPA who sought admission to the undergraduate nursing program.

Students are able to complete all courses in the nursing major on Fridays and Saturdays in six consecutive semesters. The final semester of classes and clinical experiences are scheduled on Thursdays and Fridays.

Weekend bachelor's degree students consistently scored higher than their weekday counterparts in tests in six program courses in 1997 and 1998, according to nomination materials.

Also established in 1996, the art department's weekend program has featured general education and foundation, upper-level and specialized topics courses for its majors.

One weekend topics course in historic preservation, taught by Robert Wojtowicz, associate professor of art, had students studying a proposed historic district in downtown Portsmouth.

"The rewards of Weekend College are numerous," Wojtowicz said. "Not the least of these is that we have been able to reach a whole group of students who might not otherwise have been exposed to our department."