The Board of Visitors Education Policy Committee met Thursday to approve the establishment of a new Thomas Jefferson Medal, the renaming of a professorship and a new major in the Education School — the three items will be voted on by the full board Friday.
The committee also discussed substance abuse among University students and heard from a panel of graduate school deans about the successes of the Law School, the Medical School and the Darden School.
The first item of business was the approval of the Jefferson Medal in Global Innovation. The University currently awards three Jefferson Medals each year that are given to “recognize the achievements of those who embrace endeavors in which Jefferson excelled and held in high regard,” according to the meeting’s agenda. The medal will be offered through the Darden School.
“This makes an important statement about the values of the University of Virginia and Thomas Jefferson,” Darden Dean Robert Bruner said. “The medal is consistent with the mission of the University and the Darden School.”
Current Jefferson Medals exist for achievement in Law, Architecture and Citizen Leadership, and serve as the University’s alternative to honorary degrees.
The committee then turned to approving a Youth and Social Innovation major. The degree, offered by the Education School as a Bachelors of Science in Education, seeks to prepare students to deal with the social and developmental challenges youth face and how to create programs and policies to deal with the challenges.
“We’ve done a considerable amount of research in terms of career pathways involved with this degree,” Education School Dean Robert Pianta said. “We found strong evidence that there would be a large job portfolio for these students.”
The final action item passed by the committee was a change in the name of six Engineering and Commerce professorships to the “Rolls-Royce Commonwealth Professorships.” The current Commerce professorships have “Commonwealth” in the name and the Engineering professorships have “Rolls-Royce” in the name, but all six are sponsored by Rolls-Royce in cooperation with the Commonwealth of Virginia.
“We want the title to really announce that this is a partnership between the Commonwealth and Rolls-Royce,” Provost John Simon said.
The committee then transitioned into more general discussion. Chair Stephen Long started a discussion about substance abuse by students at the University, referencing a video released to students in a Thursday email from Vice President of Student Affairs Pat Lampkin about the dangers of Molly.
“[Lampkin’s] office released a video on the death of Jefferson Scholar today,” Long said. “We need to let students know that this is not something that’s wise, tolerable, safe or socially acceptable.”
Board member Bobbie Kilberg then directed the conversation towards alcohol abuse, saying it should be treated just as intolerably as drug abuse. She alluded to heavy drinking activities of students, citing the “fourth-year fifth,” a ritual of drinking a fifth of a gallon of liquor in one day which many fourth-year students engage in around the final home football game of the season.
“Do you think we do enough? We see kids every weekend in the ICU and dying of alcohol abuse,” Kilberg said. “I worry about that because it’s endemic and rampant.”
Lampkin addressed Kilberg’s specific concern about the fourth-year fifth, saying it was by no means an activity endorsed by the University and that the fourth-year class works hard every year to dissuade students from participating. Student Board Member Blake Blaze chimed in on the issue as well.
“One thing that’s done to combat this is endorsing more positive programs, like the Fourth Year 5K,” Blaze said.
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