The Board of Visitors convened in full sessions Friday morning and afternoon to hear University updates and discuss a recent report on higher education issued by the Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.
JLARC was charged with studying the cost efficiency of 15 four-year institutions to identify opportunities to reduce the cost of higher education in the commonwealth. The report said the University lacked efficient spending in some capacities.
“The folks at the state level are saying to the institutions that have the means to do so ... [to] be more responsible for your long-term financial ability,” Board member Frank Atkinson said.
Board member Helen Dragas said the Board is focused on “how to deliver 120 percent of the quality [of education] at 80 percent of the cost.”
Board member Frank Genovese expressed concern that JLARC did not include institutional quality as a primary factor of evaluation.
“It’s time to call the fairness doctrine if they really want to go after us,” Genovese said. “It’s just not right.”
In response, Dragas said the Board needed to take the JLARC findings seriously.
“I think that sometimes we hurt ourselves by this sort of U.Va. exceptionalism argument, and it comes across to the rest of the world as if … maybe things don’t apply to us because our quality is higher,” Dragas said.
Board member Kevin Fay said there is “a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and we need to be careful not to cross it, but we also don’t need to be apologetic for being confident.”
“We have to be on the offensive,” Fay said.
Atkinson agreed the JLARC report needed to be taken seriously, but had different ideas on how to proceed.
“We need to take this to heart, understand it,” Atkinson said. “We need to recognize that JLARC, although important, is not the only player in Richmond. … It was just as much a criticism of the general assembly and its choices and procedures for allocating capital investment as it is a criticism of the institution.”
Dragas highlighted a portion of the report which called for greater Board engagement.
“I really don’t think we want to get involved in such nitty gritty management issues,”
Board member Barbara Fried said in response.
Dragas replied, “What I hear in very broad terms is that something isn’t working.”
Fourth-year College student Meg Gould, the student member of the Board, also gave an update on recent student life at the University, outlining various initiatives to combat sexual assault and the launch of the Substance Abuse Prevention Week.
University President Teresa Sullivan updated the Board on the Cornerstone plan, including the Meriwether Lewis Leadership program, which will begin in Spring 2015.
“We’ve got a number of programs underway that are focused on career issues,” Sullivan said, “particularly in getting students engaged in their first and second year in thinking about careers.”
Sullivan also delivered the Gifts and Grants report. The University has matched the $4 million Challenge Grant for the Blue Ridge Scholarship Foundation from alumnus John Griffin. Sullivan said the grant was matched in nine months.
The Board passed each item on its docket, including the establishment of several new professorships and the acquisition of a new property.
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