Old Dominion University declines to say how many responses there were to criminal history questionnaire

John Buzbee, The Virginian-Pilot on Mar 27, 2026

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NORFOLK, Va. — Old Dominion University officials declined to say Friday how many students answered a questionnaire disseminated by the university asking them to disclose their criminal histories.

The university sent the two-question form to its roughly 24,000 students last week, a few days after the fatal shooting on campus, and asked them to respond by Thursday. When asked how many had responded and how many had said they had been convicted of a crime, vice president for university communications and chief marketing officer Kimberly Osborne said all responses, on both a collective and individual level, were confidential.

“No other information will be made available regarding the student questionnaire,” she said.

ODU again deferred questions that asked how the responses of the questionnaire would be used to tighten campus security. It also declined to say if any students had or would experience consequences based on how they answered the questionnaire.

The gunman in the shooting was an enrolled student at the time of the shooting. He had been sentenced to more than a decade in prison for attempting to aid a terrorist organization. There has been no indication that his status as a student further enabled him to carry out the shooting. The university did not know of the assailant’s criminal history before he enrolled.

ODU said previously it was empowered to issue the questionnaire under Virginia law. It maintains that public colleges are restricted from questioning applicants about their criminal histories or denying admission on the basis of that record. Universities can only use self-reporting and voluntary disclosure to ask students of their histories.