Hampton's love child is a class act
Published October 21, 2005
Driving along Settlers Landing Road in downtown Hampton, somebody must've hung a mistake. What does that banner say? Hampton University our .... what - Treasure?
Make a U-turn. Wait, there's another banner and another and another?
Well I'll be...
"Right," Lewis Bellinger said. "That's what it says."
Bellinger is the chairman of Hampton Town and Gown, the group that tries to keep the city and HU getting along like family. The group is behind the powder blue banners that turned many heads in August when students returned. There were also banners inside the Radisson Hotel and Wal-Mart.
"We wanted to show that they are indeed welcome in Hampton and we're working together," said Bellinger, who is also a business professor. "The reaction was, like 'well it's about time.'"
As alumni roll into town for homecoming this weekend, expect to see drivers peeking up through their windshields and stopping to snap photos of the banners.
During the Aug. 10 City Council meeting, Mayor Ross A. Kearney II issued a proclamation acknowledging HU's value to the city and welcoming students and faculty. Most proclamations are just ceremonial, but not this one. Through its 137 years, the HU family has often felt like that child daddy doesn't acknowledge publicly, even though everybody can see they share the same color eyes.
"It really, really said a lot," Bellinger said of the proclamation. "I was very proud of the city. We're really working together now."
The city and HU obviously share deep roots, since the private historically black university was born in 1868 as Hampton Institute. The city helped nurture HU and the university has nourished the city with people and projects, such as architecture students who have erected homes and churches. Or partnerships like the Hampton Jazz Festival. But there have been family feuds and hurt feelings over the years, too. The failed plan to build a charter school on campus in 2002 comes to mind.
"Even though we had to recognize that that was the past, we couldn't dwell on the past," Bellinger said. "That wasn't going to take us to where we need to be. We acknowledge it, but don't need to dig for the answers why."
Instead, you find ways to hold hands again, he said. An example being the city's pledge to donate about six acres of land off Magruder Boulevard near the former Gateway site for HU's $189.5 million cancer treatment center.
Now that's love and good business.
"I think the perspective is that the community as well as the city didn't know how much of an asset Hampton University is," Bellinger said. "There are some people in the community who haven't set foot on the campus."
Not like the bond Williamsburg has with the College of William and Mary, or Newport News with Christopher Newport University. Both are public institutions. You know there's love for CNU when you can pay an Italian singer a ton of money for a concert, charge up to $300 a ticket and most folks couldn't understand a word the guy sang.
The idea for the welcome banners actually came from discussions Town and Gown had with HU students, said Bellinger who became the group's chair in 2004. He also said this 16-member group better reflects the entire city now. School board and business leaders from downtown and Coliseum Central are on it. Students are getting discounts from downtown and area stores as a result.
"We really had to get to know each other and create some common bonds and convince each other that working together we could achieve far greater things than if we worked as individuals," Bellinger said. HU has been accused of behaving like an island city at times, but Bellinger says to expect the university to reach out more. Town and Gown is planning an on-campus reception for November to celebrate the family affair.
"I see our campus being open even more to the entire community for cultural events, and sporting events," he said.
The banners turned President William Harvey's head, too. One of them will be placed in the university's archives, Bellinger said.
Wil LaVeist can be reached at 247- 7840 or by e-mail at wlaveist@dailypress.com.
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Sunday, October 23rd 2005 at 1:38PM
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