Institutional Report: Introduction

 

Virginia State University, America’s first fully state supported four-year institution of higher learning for Blacks, is a comprehensive university and one of two land-grant institutions in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It was founded on March 6, 1882, when the legislature passed a bill to charter the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. A hostile lawsuit delayed opening day for nineteen months, until October 1, 1883. In 1902, the legislature revised the charter act to curtail the collegiate program and to change the name to Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute. In 1923, the college program was restored, and the name was changed to Virginia State College for Negroes in 1930. The two-year branch in Norfolk was added to the college in 1944; the Norfolk division became a four-year branch in 1956 and gained independence as Norfolk State College in 1969. Meanwhile, the parent school was renamed Virginia State College in 1946. Finally, the Legislature passed a law in 1979 to provide the present name, Virginia State University.

 

The campus sits atop a rolling landscape overlooking the Appomattox River in the suburban Chesterfield County village of Ettrick. It is accessible by Interstates 95 and 85, which intersect in adjacent Petersburg, as well as U. S. Routes 1, 301 and 460. The University is centrally located about two hours away from Washington, DC to the north, the North Carolina Triangle area to the south, the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.

 

Virginia State University, with an enrollment of approximately five-thousand students, offers forty-five baccalaureate and master’s degree programs and a Certificate of Advanced Study within five schools: The School of Agriculture; The School of Business; The School of Engineering, Science and Technology; The School of Liberal Arts and Education; and The School of Graduate Studies, Research and Outreach. In the Fall of 2003, the first doctoral program was approved, as a cohort of twelve students began studying for the Doctor of Education degree in Administration and Supervision. 

 

The mission of the University is to promote and sustain academic programs that integrate instruction, research, and extension/public service in a design most responsive to the needs and endeavors of individuals and groups within its scope of influence. Ultimately, the University is dedicated to the promotion of knowledgeable, perceptive, and humane citizens – secure in their self-awareness, equipped for personal fulfillment, sensitive to the needs and aspirations of others, and committed to assuming productive roles in a challenging and ever-changing global society. Virginia State University is currently restructuring all components of the University by implementing its 20/20 Vision long-range plan. The plan, approved in 2004, is intended to guide the course of the University through the year 2020.

 

The service area of Virginia State University is determined by the Superintendent’s eight regional-study groups. Superintendents from each study group meet regularly with the Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction to primarily provide the opportunity for collaboration with the state superintendent and the Board of Education. Virginia State University is located in Region I which is comprised of fifteen school districts. Demographic data for school districts located in Region I is listed in Table 1 (below).

 

The current Professional Education Unit was established the fall semester of the 2005-2006 academic year (Table 2 on page 10). It provides oversight for fifteen endorsement areas for initial preparation, two master’s level endorsement programs for advanced preparation, and one doctoral level program in Administration and Supervision. Six of the programs offered have been nationally recognized and three programs that were not nationally recognized have submitted revised SPA reports. Biology, Chemistry, and Physics were not required to submit SPA reports because of no pre-candidates enrolled in the program when SPA Program Reports were due; however, the program will develop state reports for review. Three programs have only state reviews required. Program information about each endorsement area may be reviewed in Table 3.

 

 

Unit changes must be viewed within the context of the state of Virginia’s restructuring of Teacher Education in 1987. At that time, the Board of Education abolished the undergraduate degree in teacher education. Students had to earn a degree in an arts and sciences discipline with a limit of eighteen semester hours of professional education courses. Even though Virginia State University had a legacy of preparing outstanding educators, this decision resulted in numerous personnel changes. Administrators and faculty resigned, retired, or relocated in other states and education programs were placed in the academic major of the endorsement area at the University.

 

In 1995, when schools at the university were restructured, the School of Liberal Arts and Education was formed. The Department of Educational Leadership, with a chair and the Center for Teacher Education with a director, provided limited leadership for academic majors with endorsement areas. Since 1995, there have been three different Deans for the School of Liberal Arts and Education and four different leaders for Professional Education Programs. 

 

As a result of the development of the VSU 2020 Vision Long-Range Plan, a renewed focus on preparing quality teachers had begun. The plan includes the following action items that are a direct reflection of needs identified during the planning process:

 

•     Prepare more teachers for the local school districts, especially in the areas of math and science

•     Establish a higher standard for teacher education graduates

•     Continue and expand the Praxis Preparation program

•     Work more closely with the local school districts

•     Have the Educational Leadership faculty interact more with the schools

•     Have functions on campus for teachers and school personnel

•     Become an Algebra Project site