Christopher Newport University outlines five-year “Strategic Compass,” plans new science and engineering center

Christopher Newport University President Bill Kelly told members of the Newport News City Council that the university’s new five-year Strategic Compass will guide campus decisions and strengthen ties with the city.

The plan, Kelly said during a council work-session presentation, focuses on four priorities: advancing the liberal arts while supporting strong STEM and business programs; building a fiscally and environmentally sustainable foundation; creating an intentional culture of inclusion and belonging; and connecting the university to the Hampton Roads region and the city of Newport News.

Kelly highlighted an 83,000-square-foot Science and Engineering Research Center funded by the Commonwealth. He said the building, set for a ribbon-cutting on Jan. 10, includes a two-story drone lab, expanded makerspaces and state-of-the-art laboratories and classrooms. "It is going to be a phenomenal resource not only for our university but we want it to be a resource for the region and especially for our city," Kelly said.

On academics, Kelly told council that more than half of CNU students graduate with STEM degrees and that share rises above 70% when business degrees are included. He said the Strategic Compass was drafted after input from more than 200 campus and community voices and contains about 49 discrete tasks for the coming five years.

Kelly said the university will pursue partnerships with Virginia Tech and Newport News Shipbuilding and perform an economic-impact study to better quantify CNU’s contribution to the local economy. He noted recent athletic events that brought visiting teams and their supporters—visitors who stayed in local hotels and used restaurants—and said the university wants to leverage campus venues, including the Ferguson Center for the Arts, for community benefit.

Kelly emphasized inclusion and community connection as central goals. "We want to be the hometown university," he said, expressing a goal that more local students see CNU as an attainable option. He also described recent campus sustainability efforts and said CNU recycled more than 95% of waste from a recent football event with about 4,000 attendees.

Kelly closed by offering to answer questions and by naming Tom Kramer as the university point person for municipal engagement. He said staff are available to meet with city officials and community leaders to identify partnership opportunities and that the university intends to publish additional implementation details in the months ahead.