Remarks to the Educational Policy Committee of the Board of Visitors

11 June 2005

Marcia Day Childress

Immediate Past Chair, University of Virginia Faculty Senate

Just before our May Faculty Senate meeting, I learned that my successor as Chair, Aerospace Engineering Professor Houston Wood, would be out of the country the first two weeks of June. He asked me, and I gladly agreed, to substitute for him today. He sends you his regards and looks forward to working with you in the new academic year.

I have framed this brief report to be a bridge between this year and next. It's thus a summary of some Senate accomplishments but also a look ahead at issues that will and should carry forward.

Faculty Senate as sounding board and advisory body

As a forum representing faculty from all schools, the Senate is advisory to the administration on academic issues and other matters affecting the welfare of the university. We're a sounding board for the President, the Provost, and you, the Board. We welcome and value serving in this capacity. We have worked especially closely this year - and productively, too, I think - with Provost Gene Block on all manner of academic issues.

Our Research and Scholarship Committee reviewed research-related policies. Committee members and officials from the office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies alike valued their rich conversations about subjects from sensitive research to faculty conflicts of interest or commitment, to university rules about patents and faculty relationships with industry, and how policies and practices governing university-based research might best be shaped.

Our Academic Affairs Committee undertook several degree program reviews and also brokered a sustained conversation among students, faculty, and administrators about faculty perspectives on the Honor System.

As you'll recall, we assembled an ad hoc faculty committee late last fall to arrive at a consensus faculty position on the proposed restructuring of Virginia's colleges' and universities' relationships with the state. Our position statement - a statement on behalf of public higher education, access to and affordability of a U.Va. education for a socioeconomically diverse student body, faculty and staff excellence, and faculty representation in governance - helped make a difference in what the General Assembly passed and what Governor Warner signed into law. Now, the Senate's new Development Committee has representatives on the Provost's committee that is, first, crafting the academic plan that will go to SCHEV this fall in partial fulfillment of requirements for U.Va.'s management agreement with the state and, second, defining the academic vision for the new capital campaign.

Our advisory activities with the administration along these lines will continue into the new year, some with greater urgency as a result of the SACS reaffirmation process and the short timelines for arriving at the management agreement with the state and setting the University-wide academic goals for fundraising.

If this year has taught me anything, it's that, for the good of the University, faculty must care about and remain engaged in policymaking and planning activities as these relate to U.Va.'s core academic mission, and that the administration should continue to bring us meaningfully into the deliberative and decision-making processes about academic matters.

Faculty advancement and mentoring

Faculty development and advancement deserve careful attention if we're to sustain the excellence and enhance the diversity of U.Va.'s faculty. Faculty excellence is a prime priority for the Board, and the faculty thanks you for that. The Senate partnered this year with the Women's Leadership Council, the Women's Center, and Gertrude Fraser's Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement to champion mentoring of all faculty, women and men, especially new junior and minority appointees. Last winter, the Senate joined these other organizations in sponsoring a dinner and discussion for women faculty new to the University. In late spring there was a follow-up reception as these women completed their first year here. Such events for women faculty will continue in future years, and I trust the Senate will continue to participate. These gatherings really do help newcomers to get their bearings as faculty. They also help those of us who've been here awhile to see the place with new eyes and identify anew what still challenges U.Va. as we strive for equity among all faculty.

In addition, the Senate's Executive Council was this year involved in discussions about certain recommendations of the Diversity and Equity Report, and I expect the Senate to contribute faculty interest and expertise to helping design and implement specific diversity initiatives.

Harrison awards and dissertation fellowships

Two programs conceived and nurtured by the Senate - the Faculty Senate Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards and the Faculty Senate Dissertation-Year Fellowships - have matured sufficiently that we must now "codify" award competition guidelines and selection processes and develop sound management plans for program operation, funding, and administration. We need to assure these programs' quality and perpetuation through careful planning and productive alliances between the Senate and key administrative offices. Potentially, because they showcase some of our best students, both programs can be magnets for fundraising on behalf of undergraduate research, faculty-student research partnerships, and graduate study leading to appointments as college and university faculty. For this reason, too, these award programs also merit our conscientious management and our strategic investment of institutional resources. In late spring, the Senate initiated discussions to these ends, and I expect that by the time we advertise the award competitions in late fall we will have management plans and some new cooperative administrative arrangements in place.

Faculty in University outreach

The Senate was party this year to conversations about changes in University outreach to alumni and about opportunities for faculty to represent the University to both the public and potential donors. We contributed speakers to the highly successful Engaging the Mind series, and we also run a speakers' bureau. We see great value in faculty helping to conceive and then participating in alumni regional events that have an academic focus and perhaps build on interdisciplinary themes that interest our alumni (who are, after all, our former students). Possible themes that come to mind are American history, law, and public policy; ethics, business, and the challenges of professional life; environmental choices that partake of science, law, literature, music, medicine, and architecture; and aging - the biology, bioengineering, and biotechnology of growing old. As we see it, faculty can memorably personify and personalize the academic mission of the University for a variety of audiences beyond Grounds, and, provided such activities don't take us away too far or too often from our teaching and research, we are ready to contribute in this way. One priority of the Senate's new Development Committee is outreach to alumni, the public, and donors.

Board of Visitors

It's been my privilege this year to speak about and on behalf of faculty before the Educational Policy Committee. The purpose of my reports has been to keep you apprised both of the Senate's work and of faculty views on the state of the University. It's reassuring to faculty that this committee and, indeed, the full Board recognize that overseeing U.Va.'s academic enterprise is not entirely synonymous with running a business. And we are reassured that the Board knows how much faculty excellence contributes to and correlates with the excellence of the University, and that this knowledge informs your actions.

As you know, more than half of Virginia's colleges and universities now have one or more nonvoting faculty representatives on their boards. In my view and in the view of several of my predecessors, including Politics Professor Michael Smith, who made an eloquent case before the Board a couple of years ago, U.Va. should be heading in that direction. As I leave, let me respectfully submit something for your consideration as a preliminary step: what if you named a nonvoting faculty representative to the Board committee most concerned with academic matters, Educational Policy?

Conclusion

It has been an honor to serve as Faculty Senate Chair. The year was busy and sometimes demanding but more than worthwhile.

In closing, let me thank President Casteen, Executive Vice President Leonard Sandridge, and Provost Gene Block and their staffs and all the Vice Presidents and Deans: the Senate and I have valued our interactions with you. Let me acknowledge here the very good work and wise counsel of the Senate officers, Executive Council, and committee chairs, and the conscientious efforts of our administrative assistant, Frances Peyton. And I commend to you our eighty Senators and their good service to the University. Finally, I ask you to welcome and give your attention to the new Senate Chair, Houston Wood, as you have so graciously welcomed and listened to me.