At the helm of Christopher Newport University is President Paul S. Trible Jr., a former U.S. Senator from Virginia who was appointed to lead CNU on January 2, 1996.
President Trible represented the Commonwealth of Virginia in the U.S. Senate from 1983 to 1989 and the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1983. Following his term in the Senate, Trible was a Teaching Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Under Trible's leadership, Christopher Newport University has become a university of choice for high ability students from throughout Virginia and beyond. Applications have exploded by more than 700 percent, the average SAT of entering freshmen has increased by 240 points and the campus has been transformed by more than $500 million in capital construction.
Trible has overseen significant improvements in the academic programs offered at CNU and is committed to providing a high-quality liberal arts education that stimulates intellectual inquiry and fosters social and civic engagement. His visionary leadership has moved CNU into the ranks of the finest preeminent liberal arts colleges in the nation.
President Trible was a leader in winning approval by Virginia's voters of the $1 billion bond referendum for capital construction. He also was instrumental in obtaining legislative approval for the restructuring of higher education to give colleges and universities expanded power to pursue excellence.
Trible earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Hampden-Sydney College and his law degree from Washington & Lee University. He served as Commonwealth's Attorney of Essex County from 1974 to 1976, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1977 and to the U.S. Senate in 1983.
He was a member of the United States Delegation to the United Nations in 1988 and a Teaching Fellow at the Institute of Politics, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1989.
He is married to Rosemary Dunaway Trible and has two children, Mary Katherine Trible Peters and Paul S. Trible, III.
The University is also led by a Board of Visitors.
