Gov. Mark R. Warner's administration announced that the University, the College of William & Mary and Virginia Tech all have passed the requirements in the higher education restructuring act to receive the highest level of autonomy, according to University spokesperson Carol Wood.
The University applied to be a level three institution, which would give the Board of Visitors full responsibility for managing the University's operations.
The autonomy will eliminate extra procedures that add time and resources to the daily functioning of the University, Wood said.
Tuesday was the last day for an institution to submit a management agreement to the Commonwealth, which lists the responsibilities of the institution and proposes a six-year operating plan.
Because Warner has approved the management agreements, they will be sent to the General Assembly, which will vote on the agreements during its session that begins in January. If the Assembly approves, the agreements will go into effect July 1, 2006.
The management agreement covers several key areas such as capital outlay, procurement, information technology, human resources, finances and accounting, Wood said.
The University has been working on some of these as part of an effort toward decentralization.
"There was a pilot program called the decentralization program that was started with the state a number of years ago, and we, along with a couple of schools, were able to test some of these things with the state," Wood said.
The pilot program showed that some of the areas covered in the management agreement benefited the institution and the Commonwealth as well.
Although the University is already implementing some of these measures through the pilot program, it will gain additional advantages if the general assembly approves its management agreement.
"Overall we're gaining a lot of new flexibilities through this that will be a benefit to the institution and to our employees and to our students," Wood said.
The management agreement returns the ability to set tuition to the Board of Visitors.
"From the beginning, Governor Warner was receptive to giving some more flexibility to University officials, but he insisted that they be sensitive to the need to protect students and their families, especially first-generation college students when it comes to financial aid," Warner Spokesperson Warner Kevin Hall said.
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