Faculty Senate Planning and Development Committee 2005-2006

End-of-Year Report

Committee roster (* Senator)

*Marcia Day Childress (Medicine), chair
George Cohen (Law)
Robert M. Grainger (Arts & Sciences)
*Ann B. Hamric (Nursing)
*William Jesser (Engineering & Applied Science)
*William Kehoe (Commerce)
*Rebecca Kneedler (Education)
Michael Levenson (Arts & Sciences)
*Elizabeth Powell (Darden)
Reuben Rainey (Architecture)
*Timothy Wilson (Arts & Sciences)
Houston G. Wood (ex officio)

Committee charge

Present committee charge

To consult with the Senior Vice President for Development and External Relations, the President, and other Vice Presidents concerning academic plans and philanthropic goals and priorities, especially pan-University initiatives; to act as a liaison for the faculty to the Office of University Development; and to marshal faculty resources to assist the University toward its fundraising goals.

Proposed revised committee charge

To consult with the Vice President and Provost and the Senior Vice President for Development and External Relations, the President, and other Vice Presidents concerning academic plans and philanthropic goals and priorities, especially pan-University initiatives; to act as a faculty liaison for planning and development purposes to the Office of the Provost and the Office of University Development; and to marshal faculty resources to assist the University toward its fundraising goals.

Activities

Most of our activities have been undertaken with full participation of Provost Gene Block and/or Senior Vice President for Development Bob Sweeney. Gene Block has taken part in the majority of our meetings. The committee's work is opening new opportunities for communication and consultation in areas of academic planning and fundraising among faculty, academic administration, and development professionals.

Faculty dinner/discussions

Three dinner/discussions (16 February, 25 April, 2 May), hosted by Provost Gene Block at Pavilion V, at which faculty offered and engaged ideas about U.va. in the future. The first event featured junior faculty, the second senior faculty; the third a mix of junior and senior faculty; all three events were also attended by Development Office personnel and selected members of this committee. The first two events generated ideas, while the third asked participants to work with themes that emerged on the two earlier occasions. These faculty perspectives on the university's future concentrated especially on U.va. developing or enhancing academic strengths that also meet public need, generating targeted interdisciplinary and interschool collaborations in research, teaching, and service, and improving working conditions in order to assure greater faculty productivity. We expect to host a further conversation in the early fall for "alumni" of these events.

Case statement review

This winter the committee read through and commented on preliminary case statements for the university-wide capital campaign. We did not look at the various schools' case statements, though individual committee members may wish - and probably should be urged - to do that.

Endowment opportunity proposals review

This spring the committee reviewed but has yet to discuss lists of endowment opportunities for all the schools (compiled by the deans) and also for the university as a whole (compiled by the provost).

Academic plan review

The committee has just begun reviewing and commenting on the draft ten-year academic plan being developed by the provost's office to meet the request of the Board of Visitors for ten-year plans.

A Faculty Senate Vision for U.Va.

As a result of all our (ongoing) activities, the committee has drafted a statement that represents U.va.'s academic priorities and goals from a faculty (or, more precisely, a Faculty Senate) perspective. Faculty recognize and support many goals identified by earlier envisioning processes and more recent academic plans prepared within schools and at the university level. We seek in this statement to propose specific targets by which the institution could measure progress toward goals. We bring this statement to the full Senate for adoption as its own.

Respectfully submitted,

Marcia Day Childress