September 21, 2005

By Dan Heuchert

Rising demand for medical care will continue to alter the landscape in the University’s medical precinct, as a Board of Visitors’ committee advanced plans for a 70-bed expansion of the Medical Center and a second building for the School of Nursing.

Meeting on Sept. 16, the Buildings and Grounds Committee also heard several reports on other issues, including historic preservation and a faculty statement about the University’s architectural style and new building plans. In addition, the board’s Student Affairs and Athletics Committee heard an update on the athletics department’s goals.

The Buildings and Grounds Committee approved preliminary plans for a $78 million hospital expansion, to be accomplished by building out onto the porches and terraces on the façade of the building that faces Lee Street. Currently, that part of the complex is W-shaped; the additions will fill in most of the valleys between parts of the façade that extend toward the street.

The price tag for the expansion also includes an update of Medical Center infrastructure, some of which is 20 years old and nearing the end of its useful life, said R. Edward Howell, chief executive officer of the Health System. The board’s Finance Committee still must review the plan.

Howell explained that the optimal occupancy rate of the 556-bed hospital is 85 percent. Currently, the hospital exceeds that rate five days a week on average, and demand is expected to rise 2.6 percent annually through 2013, when the Medical Center will have a projected shortfall of 111 beds.

The hospital will gain some beds by reconfiguring its current space, but not enough to make up the entire shortfall. Officials considered adding beds to the planned Children’s Hospital or building another tower alongside the Medical Center, but decided that the expansion plan was the most affordable — about half the cost of the other options on a per-bed basis, said Leonard W. Sandridge, executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Should health-care demand continue to grow, the other options could remain on the table, Howell said. If demand slows, the expansion can be slowed as well, he noted.
Asked whether the Medical Center will be able to hire enough staff to service the new beds, Howell said the new spaces will be designed to be attractive to nurses, and that the residency program could be expanded.

That proved to be an irresistible segue for School of Nursing dean Jeannette Lancaster, as she followed Howell to the floor to discuss the new building slated to go up across the street from McLeod Hall.

“He can’t have a single [intensive care unit] open without a nurse, or fleet of nurses,” she said. Her school’s new building will allow it to expand enrollment by about 25 percent.

The current national nursing shortage is not caused by a lack of student interest in nursing, she said; rather, nursing schools nationwide lack the capacity and faculty to educate all of those who are interested in nursing careers. U.Va. had only enough capacity to accept 17 percent of first-year applicants and 20 percent of transfer applicants this year, Lancaster noted.

The $12 million building, to be located directly across 15th Street from McLeod Hall, was designed with the input of focus groups that included faculty, staff and students. School officials also visited other nursing schools to elicit their ideas.

The schematic design approved by the committee consists of a four-story structure housing classroom, office and student-support spaces. The building will capture natural lighting and include a grand staircase and several environmentally friendly design features.

During construction, 15th Street will close for 18 months and re-emerge as a narrower, more pedestrian-friendly lane, said David J. Neuman, the University architect.

BOV welcomes faculty critique

Chairman Mark J. Kington took time during the Buildings and Grounds Committee meeting to address concerns raised by two dozen faculty members from the School of Architecture. The faculty took out an advertisement in the Cavalier Daily to criticize the design of new construction on Grounds, calling it “mediocre” and “faux Jeffersonian … confused between style and substance.”

Kington, whose committee reviews and approves designs for new buildings, responded by addressing Architecture dean Karen Van Lengen, who attended the meeting. “I just wanted to say in public that we welcome the dialogue,” he said. “It can’t possibly be hurtful and can only be helpful.”

He asked Van Lengen to convey the board’s appreciation to the faculty members for raising their concerns.

Historic preservation report nears completion

Brian Hogg, senior preservation planner in the Office of the University Architect, offered the Buildings and Grounds Committee a sneak preview of an upcoming report that grades the historic value of 120 University buildings and 24 landscapes, all at least 40 years old.

The final report — the culmination of a three-year effort funded in large part by a Getty Foundation grant — is due next month. It will serve as a basis for future preservation efforts and land- and building-use decisions, Hogg said.

The report will grade buildings on four criteria: association with people or events important to University history; quality of the original design; integrity of the design; and condition of the building or site.

Original Jeffersonian buildings are labeled “fundamental to University history and present character.” The remainder will be tagged as “essential,” “important,” “contributing” or “not contributing.”

A sixth category includes mostly off-Grounds buildings acquired by the University, including the Birdwood estate, the Miller Center of Public Affairs and Stacey Hall.

Foster family gravesite update

After this summer’s discovery of 20 additional grave shafts, thought to date to the 19th century, in an area adjacent to the planned South Lawn Project, no additional graves have been found, Hogg reported. The total number of grave shafts identified is 32, he said.

Investigations continued until archaeologists established a 25-foot-wide buffer determined to be free of additional burials, he said.

Archaeologists theorize that the site served as a cemetery for a free black community on the University’s outskirts known as “Canada.” The graves themselves were not disturbed, so it was not possible to date them more accurately or determine who was buried there.

The University has said intends to memorialize the site as part of the South Lawn Project.

Hurricane refugees enroll

As of Sept. 6, 125 Gulf Coast-area students whose educations were disrupted by Hurricane Katrina had enrolled at U.Va. as visiting students, Patricia M. Lampkin, vice president and chief student affairs officer, told the Student Affairs and Athletics Committee.

The University invited students from Virginia whose schools were closed by the catastrophic cyclone to enroll. Most of the visiting students are Northern Virginians enrolled at Tulane University in New Orleans, Lampkin said.

U.Va. students have been extremely welcoming, she said, adding that one student-led group raised $60,000 for hurricane relief outside the University’s home football game with Western Michigan.

Athletics report: Proud, not satisfied

Despite finishing 13th among NCAA Division I universities in one important ranking of athletic departments, Cavalier sports has more to accomplish, Dirk Katstra, executive director of the Virginia Athletics Foundation, told the Student Affairs and Athletics Committee.

Katstra delivered the Department of Athletics’ annual report in the absence of director Craig Littlepage, who was out of town.

“We’re proud of the year, but certainly not satisfied,” he said.

For 2004-2005, U.Va. placed 13th in the annual United States Sports Foundation Directors’ Cup, a points competition based on team performances in NCAA championship events. That ranking tied for the University’s second-highest ever.
Katstra reported on the University’s progress toward a series of 10-year goals adopted in 2002.

• Academically, student-athletes graduated at an 83-percent rate, tops among Division I-A public universities, but short of the stated goal of 100 percent. Ten teams and 45 percent of student-athletes posted grade-point averages of 3.0 or higher.

• Cavalier teams claimed five Atlantic Coast Conference championships, but no national titles, behind the pace needed to reach the 10-year goal of 70 ACC and 12 national championships.

• Financially, the VAF attained its goal of fully funding the number of scholarships allowed by NCAA rules for all 25 varsity sports. Already this year, the VAF is close to its $12 million fund-raising goal, and men’s tennis is the first team to have its entire scholarship allotment fully endowed.

• Construction of the John Paul Jones Arena remains on schedule, and $93 million has been raised. Construction is also on schedule for a fully funded practice facility at the Birdwood Golf Course, and fund raising is under way for an expansion of the indoor tennis facility at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. A new sports medicine facility will open Oct. 1.