BOV. OUT of context, one might think they are yet another boy band arriving on the scene. Maybe they are the latest conglomerates of hi-tech biotechnological testing laboratories. Perhaps they are a part of some strange slogan catch phrase, for example, "a-BOV-e your head." Considering that the University's Board of Visitors is, in actuality, the governing body of our University, these are fairly clever concoctions, no? It is just too bad, however, that Gov. Mark R. Warner could not be half as clever as this in his selections of this year's Board members.
When the new nominations for the Board finally were announced, many expected to see Warner remedy some of the diversity issues existent within the current Board composition. How surprising it was when all four of the new nominees turned out to be men. Maybe someone needs to remind Warner how much of his support in the November election came from the female population in Virginia. One of these male appointees is black, but this is far from satisfactory. The Board makes all the executive decisions for this school, and we only can see diversity in three members of the group: a white woman, a black woman and a black man. The fact that more than 80 percent of the Board is comprised of white males is truly ridiculous.
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The Board is actually an executive committee that consists of 16 members appointed by the governor of Virginia - and confirmed by the General Assembly - to four-year terms. The Board may appoint a student to serve a one-year term as a non-voting member - next year the student member will be Tim Lovelace. The terms of the members are staggered so that only a few appointments can be made each year. A person only can serve two four-year terms on the Board. As a collective, the Board is responsible for approving the policies and budgets of the University. According to the Board's Web site, it also holds the responsibility of maintaining certain University traditions, like that of honor.
Before Warner's appointees, the Board consisted of 14 men and two women, one of whom is black. This year, four positions on the Board were up for consideration. That is, four members had completed their terms and either could be appointed to a second term or completely replaced. It is customary to make appointments after the technical March 1 deadline because the General Assembly meets during this time and their business takes precedent over new Board nominations.
However, Warner was late in even announcing his appointments, which did not occur until after the Board's April meeting. One might have been led to believe that Warner was effectively evaluating the candidate pool for these new positions and taking the extra time to find qualified people who represented multiple walks of life. Are we to assume that Warner was just procrastinating and behind in his schedule?
If the Board holds so much power, they should be at least partially reflective of the people whose decisions they affect. All members of the Board must be University alumni. With the University having not representatively integrated in terms of race and gender until the 1970s, it has been a tradition for the overwhelming majority of the Board to be comprised of white males. If people are not careful, such tradition will begin to exclude certain viewpoints and inputs because they will never be heard. It is a harsh reality to know that minorities and women have to struggle to be represented at their own University.
Naturally, instinct and principles for survival tell us that we should be concerned for our own selves. However, what some fail to realize is that this diversity problem is prevalent in the Board composition of other public schools in Virginia as well. For instance, George Mason University's Board of Visitors (which Warner himself served on prior to being elected governor) has only one woman, the secretary, and only one underrepresented minority member. Other schools, however, have a wonderfully diverse Board. Old Dominion University has five women, one of whom is a minority, in addition to five other minority members serving on their Board; Old Dominion began true integration at the same time at the University. I suppose that only the governor can explain exactly how certain schools have Boards that are so diverse, while others consist solely of a group of elderly white men.
Warner disappointingly missed a wonderful opportunity to correct previous wrongs done by other administrations. Based on all his platforms while running, it seems most natural to be most assured that he would make an effort to nominate at least one of the many qualified women or other minorities that would have served the University well. But he didn't, and we all must now wait another year to see this remedied, if even then. The worst part of this tale, however, is that the only people who truly will suffer consequence from yet another Board overly dominated by white males is the University community as a whole. The governor does not have to encounter the repercussions of the Board composition; students do.
(Amey Adkins' column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at aadkins@cavalierdaily.com.)
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