Absent: Abubaker, Andrews, Coleman, M. Contos, Festa, Heldberg, Henry, Jackson, Kester, P. Kirkpatrick, Klinker, Koerin, Liberti, Little, Malloy, Merchant, Nixon, Olbrisch, Peel, Peng, Philipsen, Ripley, Roberson, Schmitt, Shoaf, Spottswood, Vallarino, Van Tuyle, Webb, Ivatury
Faculty Senate President Wes Poynor opened the meeting at 4:05. He introduced the distinguished guests, including Provost McDavis, Vice President Timmerick, and Vice President Macrina. President Trani was then introduced along with Rector Ed Flippen, past Chair of the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Higher Education.
President Trani remarked that he was finishing up his tenth year as president, so it was a good time for reflection. He noted that he has signed another five-year contract to 2005.
President Trani talked about increasing enrollment. He stated that when he came in 1990 we had 1600 freshman and today we have 2500 freshman with higher SAT scores and higher GPAs. One of his two current initiatives is recruiting 2000 out-of-state students. These students will bring more diversity to the campus, we can recruit really good students, and they will pay $13,500 each so that can generate about $22 million. Seventy percent of the difference between out-of-state tuition and in-state tuition will be given to the academic units. VCU has historically had only 8% out-of-state students compared to 35% for William and Mary and the University of Virginia. James Madison and Virginia Tech have 30% out-of-state students. We are targeting New York, New Jersey and the Philadelphia area. President Trani pointed out that 2300 students in Washington DC will get a five year $10,000 per year scholarship from the Congress. We are heavily recruiting these students. He is promoting the Business School, Arts, Engineering, and Life Sciences.
A sheet was handed out on what has happened to the budget in terms of E and G dollars from 1989-90 and 1998-99. President Trani noted that the library had increased from 3.42% of the budget to 3.94% of the budget. He also pointed out that Instruction dollars increased by 43.24% and academic-computing dollars increased 55.99%. Overall, the E and G program dollars have increased 44.40% from $167 million to $241 million dollars.
President Trani reviewed VCU’s success at the General Assembly this year. VCU’s first priority was the new governance structure for the hospital. The Board has been expanded to 21 including five faculty members. The system should be more efficient.
The second priority that was accomplished was full state funding for indigent care. The General Assembly voted all $22 million to make up the difference. Indigent patients are 20% of the volume of patients.
The third priority was faculty salary increases. In four years the faculty salaries have increased an average of 6% a year or a total of 24%. That brings us back to being at 60% of the average faculty salary of our peer group. Next November the faculty will get a 3% increase and the staff will get a 3.2% increase.
The fourth priority was targeted funds. We got $1.8 million for the Life Sciences Initiative. One hundred thousand dollars will go to the library and the remaining $1.7 million is for faculty priorities. There was a big increase for facility maintenance and also a $1.9 million for computers.
President Trani again emphasized that new faculty for the College of Humanities and Sciences and other schools can come from the funds returned as a result of increasing the number of out-of-state students.
Dr. Frank Macrina, acting Vice President for Research talked about the IRB problems. The first new VCU IRB will be starting to meet very soon. A new organization is being built up that will have two sections; one to promote research and the other to ensure compliance with all federal regulations. The budget is being doubled to support the research infrastructure and there will be a new computer tracking system. In the end, the suspension will be good for us because we will have a stronger institutional support system for research.
Provost McDavis talked about the student computer initiative. We are moving forward so that it can be implemented by fall 2001. His task force is working backwards from that date and taking steps to wire the dorms for the freshman and working with the faculty to make sure the curriculum is ready. There are 9 working groups involved and every classroom is being evaluated and prioritized for computer –readiness. Increases in HEETF funds are helping with getting the faculty ready.
President Trani talked about the challenge of dealing with the high cost of education per FTE. We are the highest in the Commonwealth. The problem is that the FTE being used as the basis are not correct. If we use FTEs that are Virginia resident, then UVA is more expensive. VCU has expensive programs; the School of the Arts, Medicine, Dentistry, Mass Communication, and Engineering. Forty-five percent of VCU students are graduate students and they are more expensive than undergraduates are.
We are making progress on shared governance, President Trani stated. Ten years ago, faculty did not know about the budget. Now we have an Executive Budget Committee. We have a Classified Staff Senate. There is a student member on the Board of Visitors.
President Trani discussed the moving of a portion of MCV to Northern Virginia. In years 3 and 4 of medical school, the students go off campus to other teaching hospitals. We needed for there to be more opportunities for the students. For instance, there were about 10,000 babies born last year in Fairfax compared to about 25 at MCV. There is already a waiting list of students to go up there. The Department Chairs were involved in this decision from the beginning. It will be phased in over the next five years.
President Trani is concerned because VCU is not keeping up with research. VCU needs to be competing for the large core grants, for large interdisciplinary grants. This is how to get money for new equipment and more faculty lines. At the May 25th SCHEV meeting, the MS and Ph.D. for engineering will be on the agenda. That will propel VCU forward in research.
There are 67 candidates for the Vice President of Research. Significant additional amounts of staff will be added to the office. Her/his job will be to mobilize groups of people to go after the large grants.
In reflecting on his ten years at VCU, President Trani noted that at the University of New Mexico where he was also a candidate, they have gone through 3 presidents in this past ten years.
Rector Ed Flippen addressed the Senate. He told how when he started with the Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education there was no consistent information on FTE, costs, etc. So that was one item the Commission worked on. Now one can compare the different Universities using the same assumptions and definitions. There is a $1 billion backlog in deferred maintenance. While the report is about institutional ineffectiveness, there is no specific criticism of VCU.
Rector Flippen noted that there is a lack of interest in long distance learning. There is a noticeable lack of interest in importing classes, though there is a lot of interest in exporting classes. He was disappointed that there is only one university in Virginia that is in the top 50 universities in the nation in terms of research dollars and that is Virginia Tech at number 48. He thinks that is because there is no research czar in the state. There is no one to focus on technology and economic development.
Rector Flippen sees that universities will have to change the way they do business. There is too much regulation. He hopes that institutions will sign a pledge of accountability with outcome measures and then they will be able to get a budget authorized for several years. He sees the accountability as going from faculty to Chair to Dean to Provost and then to the President.
Dr. Trani noted that the School of Engineering is on the list of priorities. He is planning on a 500 to 1000 student increase in Engineering and the conversion of adjuncts to regular faculty. We can get some of the money to do this from the Life Sciences Initiative, but most will have to come from the increased number of out-of-state students. He stated again that the newspaper was wrong in saying VCU’s accreditation is at risk. Fifty-two percent of the faculty is full time, At William and Mary, a big proportion of the classes is taught by graduate students. Here graduate students teach less than 5% of the classes. We do need to make more of the collateral faculty full time, but the state legislature is into glitzy initiatives.
School and College bylaws need to be submitted to the Provost and President for review. Of the 25 sets of bylaws sent up, none have been put before the University Council in the last 10 years. The University lawyer has to review the bylaws because he has legal responsibility for them.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:30.
The next meeting is May 2 at 4:00 in the Student Commons Forum Room.
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Neil W. Henry, web editor
August 30, 2000