Alumni and Friends of VMI:
Cyber Corps Numbers: 551
Dedication of Neikirk Hall: I recently received
the following memorandum from Jim Adams '71, EVP of the VMI
Foundation.
It has long been recognized that Mr. Joseph D. Neikirk '32, the
first Executive Vice President of the VMI Foundation, needed to
be honored for his long and tireless service to VMI. On Marhc 26,
1999, the new facility which will house the VMI Foundation
offices and those of the VMI Keydet Club, Neikirk Hall, will be
dedicated at 11:00 AM, followed by a reception and luncheon.
Cyber Corps Grad Bag: Couple items on which to follow up. As far
as I know Gordon Liddy will be the commencement speaker at this
year's graduation. If anyone knows anything differently, let me
know.
Rats areg geeting closer to breaking out. Appears Marine
Crucible-like exercises and march to New Market (about 20 miles?)
are still in the works. I had heard rumblings about a make-up
session for those that do not participate (basketball players,
wrestlers, etc.), but I do not believe there will be any sort of
make-up session. Again, if anyone knows anything different, let
me know and I'll pass it along.
VMI Wrestling:
Keydet wrestlers win crowns
FROM STAFF REPORTS
VMI teammates Leslie Apedoe and Matt Erwin won
individual titles Saturday at the All-Academy Wrestling
Championship in Annapolis, Md.
Apedoe beat Chad Stephenson of The Citadel
19-7 in the finals of the heavyweight class. Apedoe, a senior, is
ranked fourth in the nation in his weight class by Amateur
Wrestling News.
Erwin, a freshman, beat Norwich's Keith Parent
5-2 in the finals of the 157-pound division.
VMI finished third out of eight schools in the
team battle.
Roanoke Times
--------------
WRESTLING
Monday, February 8, 1999
COLLEGE MEN
All-Academy Championship
Teams -- 1. Navy 171, 2. Air Force 134, 3. VMI 105½, 4. Army 90½,
5. The
Citadel 80, 6. Norwich 56½, 7. Coast Guard 33, 8. Merchant
Marine 8½.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
-----------------
Virginia Military Institute Keydets 1998-1999
Schedule
Current Record: 9 - 11
Date Opponent Time
FEBRUARY
Mon 02/08 at Charlest. SC 7:15 pm
Sat 02/13 APPALACH.ST 12:00 pm
Mon 02/15 NC-GREENSB. 7:00 pm
Sat 02/20 CHATTANOOGA 1:00 pm
Home Games represented in all caps
All times are Eastern
VMI Basketball: Next game is today at Lexington
(1:00PM) against Appy State.
Cougars put away Keydets
Tuesday, February 9, 1999
By RICK NELSON
Of The Post and Courier staff
Jody Lumpkin looked like he had just
gone 10 rounds with a heavyweight. His left eye was black. There
were four stitches in his cheek. An ugly scratch curved around
the side of his neck.
But Lumpkin was the one dishing out the punishment Monday, scoring 25 points and grabbing 15 rebounds to lead No. 20 College of Charleston to an 85-59 blowout of VMI before 3,522 at the Johnson Center and a local television audience.
"They came out very aggressive in the first half," Lumpkin said of the scrappy Keydets, who combined with the Cougars to commit 42 fouls. "But this is our home court, and we don't want to get pushed around by anybody."
The Cougars (22-2, 13-0 Southern Conference) overcame a ragged first half to extend the nation's longest winning streak to 19 games. Top-ranked Duke, which had been tied with Charleston with 18 straight victories, was idle Monday.
VMI (10-13, 7-6) used constant full-court pressure and quickness to disrupt the Cougars in the opening half, which ended in a 36-36 standoff. It was only the third time during the streak that Charleston was tied or trailing at intermission.
"VMI may be the feistiest, most aggressive team we've played this season," Cougars coach John Kresse said. "Their pressure bothered us and forced turnovers in the first half, and we were unable to defend their cutters to the basket.
"But everything - shooting, defense and rebounding - picked up in the second half. And they had no answer for Jody Lumpkin."
The Keydets inched ahead 43-42 with 16:53 left in the game, but that's when the Cougars showed once again that they can turn it on almost at will.
With their perimeter shooting gone cold, they began pounding the ball inside to Lumpkin and Sedric Webber. Lumpkin, who got some of his wounds Saturday in Charleston's 60-39 rout of The Citadel, sparked a decisive 26-9 run with successive dunks. He scored 10 points - including a powerful rebound and put-back between three defenders - and Webber added six during the spurt.
Webber finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds, giving the Cougars dual double-doubles for the first time in four years. The pair helped Charleston to an overwhelming 54-33 advantage on the boards, which marked the school's highest rebounding total in five years.
Jermel President and Jeff Bolton chipped in 10 points each for the Cougars, who connected on 65.5 percent of their shots in the second half and 50.8 percent for the game.
The Cougars, with a loud sellout crowd urging them on, used a stifling man-to-man defense to set up the scoring burst. They switched to a zone later to slow the pace against the speedy Keydets, who tried to push the ball up the court as much as possible for the full 40 minutes.
"I think the whole team takes a lot of pride in the defense," said Lumpkin, who had four of Charleston's 14 blocked shots. "That's kind of our trademark."
VMI shot just 22.2 percent in the second half - hitting only one field goal over the final 7:50 - and 27.7 percent for the game. Jason Bell, the SoCon's leading scorer, paced the Keydets with 17 points on 4-of-14 shooting and Nick Richardson added 14.
"I felt like we missed some easy shots," VMI coach Bart Bellairs said.
"We lost our composure some in the second half."
Alumni Chapter Web Sites: A couple alumni
chapters have their own web sites. It was brought to my attention
that the DC area chapter (Potomac River Chapter) has a web site
that provides a calendar of events. For those interested you can
go to the VMI Alumni Agency web site (www.vmiaa.org) and click on
the Alumni Office Chapter Pages. Or you can go directly to the
chapter web site at: www.vmiaa.org/potomac.htm.
Cyber Corps Membership: Over the past several
weeks I've received e-mails from cadets wanting to be included on
the Cyber Corps distribution list. In all cases I have chosen to
graciously (at least I think I was gracious) declined to do so. I
want to clarify my rationale on this. I've always thought that
the running of barracks and the Corps is best left up to the
First Class. I even think that some alumni tend to try to get too
involved in the running of the Corps. If we had cadets as part of
the Cyber Corps I'm just afraid that cadets would want to use
this forum as a sounding board with an expectation that I'd pass
along their thoughts, solicit responses, get alumni involved,
etc., etc. I see such an arrangement as being potentially
damaging. And, there are other ways for alumni to get involved if
they so choose. Maybe I'm just being overly conservative about
this, but as the country song says, "That's my story and I'm
sticking to it!" I welcome any and all comments.
Update on the Former Southern Seminary: I
recently saw this article in the Richmond Times Dispatch. An
interesting update on what used to be Southern Seminary (now
Southern Virginia College).
A unique college thrives / 'Chemical-free' campus attracts many
to small private school
Sunday, February 7, 1999
BY CALVIN R. TRICE
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
BUENA VISTA
Under most circumstances, taking over a financially unstable
two-year college with declining enrollment would be a daunting
venture.
It was even more of a challenge for the people who assumed
control of Southern Virginia College almost three years ago with
the idea of attracting a coed student body to a small private,
four-year school whose obscure reputation was made as an
all-female junior college.
The organizers, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints often called Mormons, also wanted to pitch the
institution as a chance for a unique college experience: One
that's "chemical free," where alcohol, tobacco and even
coffee and tea are strictly prohibited.
With such conditions, many of the nation's high school seniors
might disqualify the new Southern Virginia as a college
environment at all.
The planners had an idea, however, that they could count on
prospects like Gordon Mills, a 24-year-old senior and Latter-day
Saints member who arrived in fall 1997 from a junior college in
Utah.
"I didn't think I'd end up coming here," said Mills,
who's majoring in general studies with a business emphasis. He'd
heard about the new Southern Virginia College by word-of- mouth,
he said.
"After my visit, I fell in love with the place and decided
that this is where I wanted to come," Mills said. "I've
loved it. It's been the best experience for me."
To students like Chris Gladding, a 19-year-old freshman transfer
from Mount Airy, Md., SVC's booze-free campus was a draw, not a
drawback.
"It's fantastic," said Gladding. "It cuts down on
a lot of the problems you run into at other colleges."
The new leaders of Southern Virginia College have been filling
the school's dorms and classrooms largely by catering to a
ready-made clientele -- Mormon students wanting to learn in a
Mormon environment -- administrators say.
Likewise some of the faculty, such as philosophy and Greek
professor John M. Armstrong, wanted the chance to teach students
they can connect with on a spiritual as well as intellectual
level.
"I wanted to teach at a college where I would have students
who have values similar to mine that I could relate to with
personal experiences more deeply than I could with the average
student at a state college," Armstrong said. "We can
talk about [Latter-day Saints] themes when they come up."
In recent years, the nation's classes of college-bound students
have included about 100,000 from Latter-day Saints households,
Southern Virginia officials said. Brigham Young University, the
church-owned flagship in Provo, Utah, accepts approximately
4,600. About another 5,000 to 6,000 get into the two other
colleges affiliated with the Latter-day Saints in Idaho and
Hawaii.
SVC, the first successful predominantly Mormon college on the
East Coast and the only one not officially or financially
affiliated with the church, began with 74 students in fall 1996,
months after the change in the school's leadership. This school
year, its third, the college has a student body of 286 -- 99
percent of whom are Latter-day Saints members, officials say.
About 31 percent of students hail from Virginia, with Utah, the
base of the Mormon church, representing the second-highest share
of students with 13 percent, according to SVC statistics. Of the
students from all over the nation who came to attend the college
in Buena Vista, 40 percent listed as their main reason the chance
to study in a Mormon culture.
Latter-day Saints families are generally eager to send their
children to Mormon colleges to have them maintain church values,
said Johnell Swan, SVC's director of public relations.
Students who do so are more likely to go on two-year missions
abroad, marry within the church and have strong families and
successful marriages, Swan said.
"Especially to maintain those four elements, families want
kids to meet people with values similar to their own," Swan
said. "The kids also want to come here to meet people with
the same values."
True to form, 20 percent of the student body got hitched last
year, Swan noted. SVC officials attribute about a third of the
"attrition" rate to students leaving for missionary
work.
For Buena Vista, a city of about 6,000 residents, SVC's
renaissance has paralleled and contributed to its own, a city
official said. The college overlooks the town from the southeast
in a converted resort hotel with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the
background.
Community service is central to Mormon doctrine and required at
SVC. Students last year logged an estimated 4,500 service hours
in Buena Vista, Swan said.
Dan Collins, the city manager, said the success of the college is
one of the top three things Buena Vista has going for it right
now, besides the construction of a 2.5-mile flood wall and an
industrial park.
"The city's had a very good working relationship with the
administration and the students," Collins said. "Some
nice things are happening to Buena Vista right now, and I think
the school's a big part of that."
As part of SVC's remodeling, the school has committed itself to
what it calls a technology-enhanced liberal arts education. Plans
to have a curriculum based on the "great books" were
scrapped because it proved to be too narrow a focus for
recruiting students, officials say.
The college confers bachelor's degrees in 11 majors and four
associate degrees. Sixty-five percent of the faculty hold Ph.D.s.
Typical of most small colleges, student-teacher ratio at SVC is a
remarkably low 15 to 1.
The old school, known as Southern Seminary for most of its
132-year history, had kept up a distinguished intercollegiate
horse-riding program since the 1960s. The new administration
brought in a riding expert who has expanded the instruction to
two styles.
The curriculum stresses computer competency, beginning in an
intensive computer application class required of all freshman.
Students "drag-and-drop" assignments into their
professors' restricted access files on an SVC computer network,
and teachers grade and correct them electronically.
All students must set up and activate World Wide Web home pages
that include an electronic portfolio of their work at SVC, which
they are required to present to instructors and other students.
C. Curtis Fawson, a college executive vice president and provost,
said the exercise is intended to combine computer competency with
life skills.
"It gives the students the opportunity to get up in front of
people and practice their presentation skills," said Fawson,
who came to Southern Virginia last year after 25 years at Brigham
Young. "We think it'll pay off."
The success of the school's athletics has astonished even SVC
officials. The school's president, David W. Ferrel, said he
expected to have about two or three club-level sports competing
by this time. What they got instead were two cross-country
national championships in National Small College Athletic
Association competition and a first-place finish in women's
soccer last fall.
The men's and women's basketball teams are ranked in the NSCAA
top 10.
"This has been a real surprise for us," said Ferrel,
noting that the college hasn't made an effort to bring in
athletes. "We recruited them and found out that they came
with these capabilities."
Although the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia
authorized Southern Virginia to enroll students and grant
degrees, the school didn't become eligible for accreditation
until after it graduated its first class, which it did last year.
SVC awaits official sanction by the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools, Swan said.
Glade M. Knight, chairman of the school's board of trustees and
head of Cornerstone Realty Income Trust in Richmond, projects SVC
to grow to about 600 by the fall 2002. A three-year fund-raising
campaign will kick off Tuesday to raise $50 million for an
endowment that would support that number of pupils.
"I think we'll be very successful with it," said
Knight, who helped lay the groundwork for the school after
officials with the old SVC approached him in spring 1996 to take
it over. "That really would put us on good footing for 600
students."
Persons of any faith are invited to attend SVC, but the
leadership is committed to a student body that's at least 90
percent Mormon. And the pupils must be 100 percent committed to
the college's moral as well as academic standards, officials
said.
"That's the reward -- the students," Knight said.
"We do it for their benefit and for their lives. They can
get a great education and learn that life is service, that
service is really their crowning achievement."
That's it for this week.
Yours in the Spirit,
RB Lane '75
Last Updated: October 11, 2009
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