In the '90s, VWC's campus chapter of Habitat for
Humanity built two area homes and made two
trips to hurricane-ravaged Florida.
By Craig S. Wansink, Ph.D.
It was 1990. There was no Clarke Hall; Lambuth Clarke was still the College president. There was no Wilson Arboretum; Bill Wilson was still the vice president for academic affairs. There was no Godwin Hall, no Batten Student Center, no references to “Bray Village.”
The landscape at 1584 Wesleyan Drive was sparser in other ways. In 1990 there was no Academic Village III, no Foster Field, and no Trinder Soccer/Lacrosse Center. There was no Barclay Sheaks Gallery, DeFord Gate House, no Outdoor Achievement Center.
There was no life-size statue of John Wesley standing outside the Boyd Dining Center, because there was no Boyd Dining Center in front of which a statue could have stood.
There was no College website; no Virginia Wesleyan magazine. There was no sense of the ecological significance of a grove of old growth beech trees.
There was no cross-country or women’s lacrosse team. There was no hint that Sonny Travis would be selected as ODAC Soccer Coach of the Year five times in one decade and then, in 1997, be named National Coach of the Year.
There was no voice-mail or e-mail. At the receptionist’s desk, there was Jayne Moore, who took messages and who—in an omniscient manner—always seemed to know where faculty and staff could be found.
But by the end of the decade all these would exist.
The decade of the ’90s, like that of the ’60s, was a time for building, growth, and change. For 26 years Lambuth M. Clarke had been president. Highly respected, he had built a college characterized by its family atmosphere. In the latter years of his tenure, Virginia Wesleyan joined the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC). That move shaped the College ’s perspective on peer institutions, as student-athletes began to compete against those of other of the best liberal arts colleges.
When Clarke retired in 1992, William T. “Billy” Greer, Jr. arrived from Brevard College in western North Carolina, to become the third president in the college’s history. He spoke of the necessity of advancing academics, technology, and civic-mindedness.
To address these initiatives, Greer announced a campaign two-and-one-half times larger than any the College had undertaken. “Consider the Harvest” had a goal of $25 million. The campaign was chaired by Jane P. Batten, who has served on the College’s board for 20 years, three years as board chair, following Judge Jerry Bray’s 31-year tenure. Her leadership, like Greer’s, marked the beginning of a new era.
By Dec. 31, 1998, Virginia Wesleyan had concluded the most successful fund-raising effort in college history. More than 4,000 alumni and friends of the College had contributed a total of $36,538,532. The campaign resulted in both the largest foundation grant, $750,000 from the prestigious Kresge Foundation, and the largest single gift, $10 million from Frank Batten, Sr.
When William M. Wilson, who served as academic dean from 1971-1994, tragically died, the College lost an “academic architect” who clearly saw his work as a ministry. Stephen Mansfield, a Virginia Wesleyan history professor since 1968, succeeded Wilson and the academic terrain shifted. Because of retirements of the College’s “first generation,” nearly 40 percent of the faculty members at the end of the decade had not been present at the beginning.
Centers developed: the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom; the Center for Sacred Music; the Women’s Resource Center; the Office of International and Intercultural Programs. An Honor Code was adopted, and an annual fall Honor Convocation instituted. Majors in criminal justice, and earth and environmental sciences, and a minor in women’s studies were created. The College developed the PORTfolio Program—linking campus and community. More internships and partnerships formed through Pipeline to the Community, Adopt-a-School, and ROTC. The College hosted its first visiting Fulbright Scholar. In 1994, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classified Virginia Wesleyan as a Baccalaureate I Institution, ranking it among the best national liberal arts colleges. Because of its “smart” classrooms, the College was then recognized as one of the “Top Wired Colleges and Universities of 2000” on the website of Yahoo! Internet Life.
Concern with civic-mindedness was reflected in the development of the Office of Community Service, made possible through the Birdsong Community Service Endowment. The campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity took two work trips to hurricane-ravaged Florida and built two homes in Hampton Roads. Athletic teams, sororities, and fraternities also engaged in community service regularly. It was reflected by the College winning the 2000 Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges Ethics Bowl Championship, and in the recognition by the John Templeton Foundation for the College’s “commitment to inspiring students to lead ethical and civic-minded lives.”
Near the end of President Greer’s first year, at his installation ceremony, April 27, 1993, he noted, “The major test for Virginia Wesleyan College is how wisely and how quickly it can adjust to important new possibilities. One may be headed in the right direction, but if he or she is just sitting there, he or she will simply get un over.” By the end of the ’90s, it was difficult not to look at what had happened, to realize that the College had not been run over, and—with amazement—to consider the harvest.