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Remarks to the Educational Policy Committee

Marcia Day Childress

Chair, University of Virginia Faculty Senate

I'm happy to provide a brief update at the midpoint of the academic year. My report offers faculty perspectives on three topics:

  • charter (or, more precisely now, the effort for this University and others in Virginia to become "covered institutions")
  • honor and
  • undergraduate research

Covered institutions

The "covered institutions" proposal has brought questions of higher education funding and operations to the forefront of legislative and public debate in Virginia. While many faculty attended information sessions through the fall, a committee of Senate members and other faculty worked late last semester and over semester break to consider carefully the potential impact of the proposed changes on U.Va.'s core academic mission and on what we do as classroom teachers, scholars, and researchers. Under the leadership of English professor and Senator Alison Booth and history professor Herbert "Tico" Braun, the group's efforts were distilled into the statement adopted by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and released just ahead of the opening of the legislative session.

Recognizing that all was still in negotiation, faculty looked beyond any particular draft legislation to the good possibility that U.Va. will be given more control of its own affairs and to the process by which the University will accomplish this. We value and support our administration's efforts to create a new model for a premier public university. Our statement reaffirms the faculty's commitment to the University's public academic mission and calls attention to four points that need to be addressed as U.Va. enters a new relationship with the Commonwealth and realigns its internal operations. From a faculty perspective,

  • It's important that U.Va. is a public institution serving the Commonwealth and its citizens, and that we can and should be a flagship of public higher education nationally, even as the financing of public higher education changes.
  • It's important to us that U.Va. remain accessible and affordable to all Virginians - many faculty are passionately committed to teaching at a public school that enrolls a bright, talented, and socioeconomically diverse student body. This means that generous financial aid needs to keep pace with tuition - we applaud Access UVA, especially, and its recent expansion, but also cite the critical importance of nationally competitive graduate-level funding.
  • It's important that we have the best staff possible, for faculty and administration alone cannot make and keep this University great.
  • Finally, in matters affecting U.Va.'s core academic mission and our accountability to the state on academic matters, it's crucial that we all - administration, faculty, staff, governing board - work in partnership.

Through our committee's deliberations and as the legislation has made its way through the General Assembly, we have had positive, productive discussions with administration. We look forward to working with President Casteen and Provost Gene Block, with the other vice presidents, and with you as this new venture in public higher education proceeds.

Honor

The Senate's Academic Affairs Committee this fall continued last year's consideration of faculty perspectives on the Honor System. We have viewed the Senate's role as one of brokering conversation about honor and the Honor System among student groups and faculty. The Subcommittee on Faculty Honor Perspectives includes the chair of the Honor Committee, other student representatives, faculty from the Honor System's Faculty Advisory Committee and from the Senate, and, in an advisory capacity, Board member Glynn Key. In open, collegial discussions late this fall, the subcommittee developed interest in surveying faculty about the Honor System. However, this decision rightly belongs to the students, whose system it is, so the survey proposal has been conveyed to the Honor Committee, for their consideration later this month.

Undergraduate research

The Faculty Senate has led in promoting independent research among U.Va. undergraduates, especially research that pairs students with faculty mentors and has potential to deepen students' engagement in their education and perhaps establish their career directions. The Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards program, a brainchild of the Senate, has been championed by President Casteen and is now generously supported by the family of the late David Harrison and the Provost's office. These awards allow at least 40 undergraduates each year to receive up to $3000 each to pursue independent research with faculty supervision; faculty mentors receive a $1000 research account for their contributions. Harrison Awards were initially handled entirely by the Senate office, but, for the second year now, even as the awards have grown in popularity and competitiveness and as we have institutionalized the awards' policies and procedures, we are partnering with the Center for Undergraduate Excellence, which takes care of award administration. Harrison Awards are enhancing the quality of the undergraduate experience for scores of students - Honor Committee chair and philosophy major Meghan Sullivan, for example, who has won two Harrison Awards during her time at U.Va., credits her research experiences with helping her to win a Rhodes Scholarship for study at Oxford next year.

Just this week, we received the 2005 round of Harrison Award proposals. They come from all corners of the University - from six schools, from first-, second-, and third-year students, a total of 100 submissions in fields ranging from architecture to microbiology, from philosophy to engineering, from music to politics. Faculty engagement in all phases of the awards process is gratifyingly strong and enthusiastic. This year's award winners will be announced by mid-March.