FACULTY SENATE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
COMMITTEE MEMBERS (* Senator)
*Marcia Day Childress (Medicine—Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities), chair
David Brautigan (Medicine—Microbiology)
George Cohen (Law)
Walt Davis (Medicine—Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation)
Robert Grainger (Arts & Sciences—Biology)
Jessica Feldman (Arts & Sciences—English)
*Ann Hamric (Nursing)
Bruce Holsinger (Arts & Sciences—Music and English)
*William Kehoe (Commerce)
*Rebecca Kneedler (Education)
*Kevin Lee (Medicine—Neuroscience)
Michael Levenson (Arts & Sciences—English) [on leave, 2006-2007]
*Pamela Norris (Engineering)
*Elizabeth Powell (Darden)
Reuben Rainey (Architecture)
Larry Thomas (Arts & Sciences—Mathematics)
Diane Parr Walker (University Libraries)
Richard Warner (Arts & Sciences—Drama)
Michael Weber (Medicine—Cancer Center)
*Timothy Wilson (Arts & Sciences--Psychology)
*Houston G. Wood (Engineering)
*Kenneth Schwartz (Architecture), ex officio
*Ricardo Padron (Arts & Sciences—Spanish), ex officio
The committee grew in size at mid-year when additional representatives were appointed from the sciences, performing arts, and libraries.
COMMITTEE CHARGE
COMMITTEE WORK
Most of the committee's activities have been undertaken with full participation of Provost Gene Block and/or Senior Vice President for Development Bob Sweeney. Provost Block has taken part in many meetings. The committee's work this year built on foundational activities undertaken in 2005-2006: finalizing and gaining provisional Senate approval for A Faculty Senate Vision for UVA; organizing three idea-generating dinners for selected faculty, hosted by Provost Block at his pavilion; and choosing three novel, interdisciplinary programmatic ideas (a College of Global Studies or global academical village, a reinvention of the Center for Advanced Studies, and an all-university annual theme) from those dinner conversations to explore further. In 2006-2007, we sought new ways to help broker communication and consultation in academic planning and fundraising among faculty, academic administration, and development professionals, as follows:
A Faculty Senate Vision for UVA
At its September 2006, the full Senate approved the final version of A Faculty Senate Vision for UVA. This statement articulating the Senate's perspective on future institutional directions and resource needs was then publicized to the university community, posted on the Senate's website, and distributed at meetings and events where academic planning and fundraising were topics. The Commission on the Future of the University is using this statement as one of its guiding documents.
28 November Reception/Discussion
Through the summer and early fall, small groups within Planning and Development drafted brief descriptive statements about the three ideas carried forward from the spring 2006 faculty dinners. The committee then planned and hosted a reception/discussion about planning for the university's future for all faculty who had attended the spring 2006 events, plus the deans, Provost Block, Senior Vice President Sweeney, and President Casteen. This was held on 28 November at the Colonnade Club. Discussion was less about the three particular ideas and more about the challenging process of shepherding new ideas, especially those that implicate more than one school, from their points of origination to presentation before potential donors and implementation. Issues raised included school-based academic planning vs centralized all-university planning, administrative hurdles/disincentives to doing interdisciplinary teaching and research, deans' roles in fundraising for multi-school or all-university programs, and cultivation of ideas to appeal to particular donors vs cultivation of donors to fund particular ideas.
20 February Dinner/Discussion
Members of the Senate's Executive Council and the Planning and Development Committee were themselves guests at Pavilion V on 20 February 2007. The group was joined again by Provost Block and Senior Vice President Sweeney but this time also by Vice President and Dean Tim Garson and Executive Vice President Leonard Sandridge, newly appointed co-chairs of the Commission on the Future of the University. This evening's discussion advanced the earlier faculty conversations to a higher strategic level by focusing on the distinctive, enduring identity and purposes of the university as a whole and testing new, forward-looking ways to reframe the university's story for the future.
While Planning and Development had anticipated taking the three ideas from spring 2006 further this year, other developments, notably formation of the Commission on the Future of the University, took precedence. Our brief writeups of the three ideas have been forwarded to the Commission's Committee on Programmatic Initiatives, as has A Faculty Senate Vision for UVA and a preliminary proposal for a faculty endowment suggested by the Senate's Committee on Faculty Recruitment, Retention, and Welfare. This April, the Provost's office asked Planning and Development to begin developing its three ideas further, including resource requirements and cost estimates, and we will begin this process shortly, in consultation with others around the university.
In winter, Planning and Development received from Provost Block the draft ten-year academic plan. Committee members undertook a preliminary review and agreed that the draft plan is more a needs assessment—a necessary step in the planning process—than an aspirational or visionary blueprint for the decade ahead. The document points to substantial core institutional needs—for new faculty, new programs in the sciences and arts, space for teaching and research, graduate funding, and information services and systems—that will need to be both funded and made part of a coherent, visionary plan for institutional change. While there had been discussion about Planning and Development and the Executive Council together taking the lead for the Senate on responding to the academic plan, President Casteen's announcement of the Commission on the Future of the University occurred before this process could get underway. It was then unclear how this Commission—with its several committees on school plans, faculty and student life, "big ideas," and academic support services—would itself be addressing the academic plan, and unclear too if (and if so, how) the Commission would enlist this committee's help. While Planning and Development could have proceeded through the spring with its own analysis of the academic plan, it was unclear just what such work could contribute, especially since the academic plan's future status seems uncertain (that is, will it be absorbed into and/or superseded by the report of the Commission on the Future of the University?). As a result, the committee has held off on moving beyond preliminary review of the draft academic plan.
Commission on the Future of the University
Several Planning and Development Committee members, a few Senators, and some faculty who participated in last year's Pavilion V dinner/discussions have been appointed to committees and subcommittees of the Commission on the Future of the University. The work of the Commission, underway since March, includes addressing matters that this committee has identified as needing attention, including how the university characterizes itself and articulates its purposes and goals; processes for academic planning and setting academic priorities; a coherent process for bringing "big idea" and "transformative" endowment opportunities before donors; and ways of facilitating and rewarding interdisciplinary and interschool collaboration. Planning and Development anticipates taking an active role as a faculty sounding board as the Commission's first reports are made available for review and comment. Also, already, the Commission co-chairs have mentioned asking the Senate, or a Senate group like this committee, to take the lead in drafting a new university statement of purpose and goals.
As mentioned above, Planning and Development anticipates contributing to the work of the Commission on the Future of the University as that body issues reports and finalizes recommendations through the fall semester; this committee's most substantial contribution may be to draft a new statement of institutional purpose and goals. The committee expects to develop further its proposals for the global academical village, a reinvented Center for Advanced Studies, an all-university annual theme, and a faculty endowment. There is interest too in partnering with the Office of University Development to offer "Development 101" workshops that can help faculty better understand the practical business of higher-education philanthropy and prepare to participate in fundraising.
As chair, I thank the committee members, busy people all, for their investments of time, careful thought, imagination, and good institutional citizenship in our work this year.
The committee thanks Provost Block and Senior Vice President Sweeney for their generous partnership with us this year, and we look forward to working next year with newly appointed Vice President and Provost Tim Garson. We especially thank Provost Block for so graciously hosting the events in Pavilion V and the Colonnade Club, and we wish him well as he heads for Los Angeles and the chancellorship at UCLA.
Respectfully submitted,
Marcia Day Childress