2020-Present

2020: Sydney Fletcher becomes the first female member of the Monarch Marching Band's snare drum line

June 11, 2020: ODU held a March for Justice to support the Black Lives Matter movement after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor

July 2020: Louisa A. Igloria, a professor in the Creative Writing program, is named Poet Laureate of Virginia

Portrait of Dr. Brian O. Hemphill

February 2021: ODU names Brian O. Hemphill of Radford Univeristy as the ninth president of Old Dominion. Hemphill, who's tenure begins in July, becomes the first African American president of the univeristy

June 2021: Natalie Diaz, class of 2000, become the first Latina to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

2022: Vukica Jovanovic becomes the first known female Chair of Engineering Technology

April 2022: ODU establishes a minor in Queer Studies to be initiated in the Fall 2022 semester

July 18, 2022: Lt. Amanda Lee, class of 2013, is chosen as the first woman to fly for the Blue Angels demonstration team

September 13, 2022: The first Unity Block Party to celebrate the many unique and diverse communities of ODU, takes place

2020-Present