THE CRY goes up in class: "Does everyone have a chair?" More often than not, the answer is no, and students are sent out into the hallways like daylight thieves. They creep from doorway to doorway in Cabell Hall, hoping to find a room without a class and with respectable desks that can be pilfered for an hour. They drag three or four back and the scraping begins - everyone pushing a little farther into corners or squishing a bit closer together. An hour later, some other student will sneak in and move the chairs around again.
This is a problem, and not just for the chairs.
The College of Arts and Sciences is suffering. There are too few professors and too few classes for too many students. Cabell Hall is a disgrace; Rouss and Cocke aren't much better. Students and professors sweated their way through exams last year. Desks in one piece are getting harder to find. Professors are crammed into tiny offices. Classes on ISIS fill faster than seats at the Tibetan Freedom concert.
The only solution is money. More money to hire professors, redo Cabell and fix the chairs. The good news is there's over a billion dollars in the University's coffers. The bad news is that we can't touch any of it.
The endowment sits like forbidden fruit on the tree - every year a piece falls off, but the rest hangs just out of reach. Donors give a sum of money to the endowment for investment. The University can then use the income, and, thanks to a recent court ruling, the appreciation from that investment. "The endowment is designed to be there forever," says Alice W. Handy, the University Treasurer. Thus it must return about 10 percent of its value every year in order to keep up with inflation and pay out the expected yearly income of 5 percent, or $50 million.
That kind of money could make Cabell an academic palace, but it won't. The majority is earmarked for specific purposes - an endowed chair, new technology for the Law School, scholarships, etc. That's one reason Darden has a faculty-student ratio of 7:1, the English department 10:1, but the Government and Foreign Affairs department 24:1. Therefore the money cannot be equally distributed.
Some funds are not marked - they are donated as "unrestricted." But that title is misleading. Much of that money is informally designated: It must go to faculty benefits packages like health care and retirement, or to particular schools. Special projects like a facelift for Cabell are excluded.
The endowment has blossomed in the last few years, and it exploded in 1999. The return on our apparently well-placed investments was 47 percent - excellent by any standard. Thirty percent of that went to new spending in respective designated areas, "raising the boat in the water for everyone," Handy said. The remaining 17 percent went back into the endowment. This surplus will guarantee the yearly 5 percent payout, even if the market cools off. Long-term thinking is valuable because it guarantees our professors will be paid, but it also trumps concerns of the present, such as plaster falling off the walls in the basement of Cocke, and exposed cinder blocks in Cabell.
In the meantime, members of the faculty are getting angry phone calls.
Professor James Sofka, the Associate Program Director for Government and Foreign Affairs, says he got 150 emails in one day from fourth-year government/foreign affairs majors who couldn't get the classes they need to graduate. "I've gotten angry calls from parents who have also contacted the administration because their kids aren't getting into classes," Sofka said. He also teaches a very popular class, International Law, which recently added a section because of overwhelming student interest. Because of understaffing, however, they could not add another TA, leaving two grad students with 140 students.
An even bigger problem arises with 400-level classes that students need to complete a major. Classes that are meant to be seminars top out with 30 people instead of 15 or 20, and grad students are forced out of 500-level classes in order to make up for the overflow. And still, the College grows. "A school of such reputation and stature should not have to deal with a problem like this," said Sofka.
Since the College has not yet found its David A. Harrison III, the largest school in the University must look elsewhere for funding in order to remain on top. One option is Richmond - the General Assembly and Governor could send some of the recent surplus to Charlottesville. Or, the College could follow its younger, richer brothers' examples and start its own foundation. Darden's piece of the endowment pie is not all that's funding their 130,000 square foot expansion and new 500 space parking structure. They, like the Law School and several other schools, have a non-profit corporation completely separate from the Capital Campaign to gather funds from willing sources, much like their own mini-endowment. The Law School's foundation holds $129 million in assets.
At this moment, such an organization is not officially active for the College, but may be soon. Though no one seems to know for sure why such an organization wasn't created sooner, it appears the College is beginning to jump through the necessary hoops. It may not be a cure-all, and Cabell needs much more than band-aids, but it is at least the potential for a solution. Until then, students, watch where you sit - a chair could disappear from underneath you.
(Emily Harding's column normally appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily.)
Read More
EDITORIAL: Celebrating and reflecting on The Cavalier Daily’s independence
By Editorial Board | YesterdayOur independence grants us the ability to ask the hard questions and to say what University representatives cannot.
ARRAS: U.Va. must revise the Sexual Assault Prevention Training module
By Aoife Arras | 2 days agoIn addition to its failures in interactivity, the module lacks details specific to the University and discusses key concepts in universal terms.
EDITORIAL: Pedestrian safety is an institutional imperative
By Editorial Board | 4 days agoAmid a national crisis of pedestrian safety, Charlottesville and the University are also struggling to properly maintain pedestrian safety.
