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Old Dominion University (ODU) is a university located in Norfolk, Virginia. It was established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia and became an independent institution in 1962. As of 2004, it had approximately 14,200 undergraduate students and 6,600 graduate students. Old Dominion University is one of only 101 public universities with a Carnegie/Doctoral Research-Extensive distinction.
Old Dominion University is often referred to as SoVa, a play off of the name NoVa, a common abbreviation for Northern Virginia Community College. Old Dominion is known in the state for relatively low academic standards, and a status of being a primarily community and commuter college. While they have been endeavoring to change this reputation the Norfolk area's high crime statistics and a general failure to attract top quality faculty and students have hindered their efforts.
In 1999 ODU began a project to build its own Maglev system[1] (http://www.odu.edu/af/maglev/). The project was concieved only as a test of the technology and spans less than a mile in length. Originally offered to several other institutes of higher learning, including Virginia Tech, all of these institutes rejected it due to concerns of the projected cost and the safety of such a system. At least one of these concerns has proven true as the $14 million originally slated towards this project has proved inadaquate, and the project has frequently missed deadlines. Scheduled to open in 2002 for riders, as of 2005 it is still no where near completion.
Old Dominion's athletic teams are known as the Monarchs and compete in the Colonial Athletic Association. The school's best-known sports team is its women's basketball team, which is often nationally ranked.
ODU has not had a football program since it was still a division of William and Mary.
See also: List of colleges and universities
Colleges within ODU
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