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Matt
Kelly
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| President
John T. Casteen III |
People
at core of realizing the vision
Casteen rallies U.Va. community to work toward future excellence
By
Anne Bromley
President
John T. Casteen III reminded members of the U.Va. Community at
his State of the University address April 18 that the primary
reason for the fundraising of the past decade and the Virginia
2020 planning efforts is to support the University’s human
capital, its most precious asset.
“When
all is said and done, and we’ve looked at the numbers and
considered the progress and talked about the challenges, the University’s
most important investment is not in its buildings, not in its
history or its Grounds … or its stadium. The investment is
in students and in faculty and in staff,” he told an audience
of several hundred.
He
recounted a Chinese proverb: “If you are planning for one
year, grow rice. If you are planning for 20 years, grow trees.
If you are planning for centuries, grow people,” saying the
University’s purpose is the latter — to grow people.
Casteen
reaffirmed the commitments binding together the members of the
University community: “I think the commitment made is that
what has been done in the last decade is simply the foundation
for what we will do in the next three or four decades. The purpose
is large and we understand the obstacles are serious, but the
obstacles are simply not going to stop what we have begun.”
During
his talk, Casteen reinforced the University’s programs, as
well as function as a resource generator for Virginia 2020 initiatives,
and eventually other projects.
“This
entity is committed specifically to seeing that our fundraising
purposes and accomplishments are tightly tied to the academic
vision that we try to build with these strategic plans that we
develop,” he said.
Virginia
2020 projects
In
addition, Casteen also reported on some key Virginia 2020 projects
that are already under way.
•
Edward L. Ayers, the Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History, is working
to establish a Center for American Studies, a recommendation from
the International Activities Commission. “Its goal is to
make the University of Virginia the worldwide center for American
Studies and to bring to this institution scholars from abroad
to work with American scholars on issues of common interest having
to do with the development, the role and the culture of the United
States,” Casteen said.
•
Another international project, based primarily in the School of
Medicine, is the new Center for Global Health. Dr. Richard Guerrant,
the head of the Division of Geographic and International Medicine,
[ID WHAT HE’S DOING] has proposed this interdisciplinary
center to study diseases that are common to countries in which
poverty is a major factor.
•
William Quandt, vice provost for international affairs, is working
on setting up international exchange programs in Lyon, France,
and several cities in Russia that would be multidisciplinary and
involve both instruction and research.
•
The ongoing Outreach Virginia Web site, which links to electronic
resources, part-time educational opportunities, health care screenings,
seminars and other programs, lists more than 300 of the University’s
programs and is working to extend knowledge of these efforts around
the state.
•
The Center for Nanoscopic Materials Design has already received
$5 million from the National Science Foundation. Casteen said
“that one of the pending proposals in the governor’s
budget bill is for the state to provide the entire cost of a nanoscale
design building for the School of Engineering and Applied Science.”
Funding
strategies
The
University needs to determine some different funding strategies
to support some of these initiatives, by reallocating central
funds and combining private fundraising with debt service.
“I am optimistic that either we will see a major bond initiative
from the state, or that we will gain the capacity to do business
as business is done, or both,” Casteen said. “And for
that reason, I do not [think we] face the prospect of failure
with regard to the science initiatives. Instead I think what we
face is the need to figure out, as we did a decade ago, another
way to do what has to be done.”
To
read the full text of the State of the University address, see
http://www.virginia.edu/president
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