Minium: Bridget Groble Stood Tall as Student Representative to the ODU Board of Visitors

By Harry Minium
 
Sailing is in Bridget Groble's blood. Her parents are both long-time sailors and she and her twin brother, Ray, have been sailing since they were five years old.
 
Like most twins, they are incredibly close. They went to school together, sailed together on Chicago's Lake Michigan, played soccer together and hung out with each other. They have, she said, a special connection.
 
But when it came time to choose colleges, they went in different directions. He went to Boston University while Bridget chose Old Dominion University.
 
"We both sailed and we had a similar group of friends, but we just decided we wanted to be on our own for college," she said.
 
Both have done very well. They've been standouts for nationally ranked sailing teams and have also been academic superstars.
 
Bridget Groble, a Perry Honors College student, is a biology major with a 3.91 grade-point-average. A three-year starter, she was named the team MVP, earned all-conference honors and helped ODU to a 10th place finish at the 2019 national championships.
 
She served on ODU's Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC), raised money for Virginia Special Olympics with her team by participating in the Virginia Beach Polar Plunge, and volunteered at both the American Red Cross and the Norfolk Department of Public Health.
 
But her contributions to ODU didn't stop there. For the past nine months she's been the student representative to the Board of Visitors, the University's ruling body. She applied for the position after being encouraged to do so by sailing coach Mitch Brindley. 
 
Because of the pandemic, the board met virtually this year, meaning she sat at her computer in her apartment watching meetings rather than meeting with members face to face.
 
I've covered board meetings off and on for nearly a decade and they can be intimidating. All of the University's senior management is there, as are all 17 members of the board, mostly prominent business people with deep resumes and a ton of brain power.
 
Yet the 22-year-old senior was not intimidated. Her job was to represent students and their perspective when it came to policies, tuition costs and student well-being, and she did her job well.
 
She spoke passionately about the needs of her classmates, including those struggling to make ends meet and others facing depression and other mental health issues as a result of the pandemic.
 
"I felt like my role was to be there and ask questions about things that impact the daily lives of students," she said.


 
She and President John R. Broderick were obviously on the same wave length.
 
For the first time in its history, the board followed President Broderick's recommendation and not only froze tuition costs for all students, but also froze mandatory fee costs. ODU has not increased tuition for in-state students since 2018-2019.
 
It is little wonder that ODU athletic officials chose her to speak at the Golden Monarchs Awards event Wednesday night, when the athletic department will honor many of its 450 athletes.
 
Click here to watch Golden Monarchs Awards
 
Groble came away from her experience on the board with a ton of respect for how board members, senior administrators and President Broderick run the University.
 
Greg DuBois, ODU's senior vice president for Administration and Finance, met with her to go through the budget, page by page, and explain the many places where money comes from and where it goes.
 
She also read through thousands of pages of briefings and presentations on subjects ranging from the opening of two new buildings on campus, the performance of University investments (they've done pretty well lately), audits of various departments on campus and a presentation on how the University plans to revamp the medians on Hampton Boulevard, all while preparing for meetings.
 
It wasn't always scintillating, but she learned that sweating the details is all a part of good governance.
 
"From my experience and my observations, it seems like board members put in a lot of extra time and a lot of effort," she said. "They seem very on top of the University's operations.
 
"I'm sure they have late nights but they're definitely putting in the work."
 
She said she also learned how hard President Broderick has worked with legislators in Richmond to increase ODU's state funding. Between private donations and increased state revenues, President Broderick brought $1.1 billion to ODU over his 13 years as president.
 
"President Broderick has done such a great job as president, especially regarding the budget," she said. "He understands that so many ODU students sometimes struggle to make ends meet and has tried to keep costs down.
 
"But it was his advocacy for more state funding is one of the main reasons ODU was able to keep tuition low during the pandemic."
 
President Broderick is leaving the presidency this summer to become President Emeritus and Board of Visitors Distinguished Lecturer in the Darden College of Education and Professional Studies.
 
Groble was given a unique chance to take part in interviews for President Broderick's successor and said she was impressed with all the candidates who interviewed, especially Dr. Brian O. Hemphill, the president of Radford University, who was chosen as the new president.


 
She was there for the final round of interviews and says she met some of the candidates in person rather than on Zoom.
 
"Dr. Hemphill really knocked it out of the park," she said. "He was an outstanding interview.
 
"I'm very excited for him to be our next president. He has a lot of great experience he can bring to ODU. I hope he has ideas for how to keep tuition low while also providing the services that students need."
 
She's also excited about her future, which means another year of studies and another year of sailing – because of COVID, she has an extra year of athletic eligibility and will use it in 2021-22.  She plans to go to medical school in a year, but not before she hopes to lead ODU to another top 10 finish at nationals.
 
Her message to ODU students? I won't spoil things for the thousand or so people who will be watching. But suffice to say, it's a heartfelt message about the camaraderie that resulted between athletes from the pandemic, which forced most athletes to spend most of the school year in "bubbles" and away from the public.
 
"ODU is where we came to grow," she will say.
 
The perfect message from the perfect speaker.
 
Minium is a Senior Executive Writer who worked 39 years at The Virginian-Pilot. Was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, won 19 Virginia Press Association awards and 4 each from the Associated Press Sports Editors and Football Writers of America. Follow him on Twitter @Harry_MiniumODU, Instagram @hbminium1 or email hminium@odu.edu