Faculty Salaries to Benefit
U.VA. ALUMNI ASSOCIATION TO GIVE $1 MILLION TO UNIVERSITY

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., April 8 -- Concerned about marked
declines in University of Virginia faculty salaries compared to its
peers, the U.Va. Alumni Association has pledged $1 million to the
University to help attract and keep the best professors.
	"The alumni of this University understand that its national
stature stems directly from the quality of its teachers and scholars.
We are committed to doing whatever we can to maintain that
excellence," said Roby Robinson, Jr., of Atlanta, president of the
Alumni Board of Managers.
	He said that while the donation is unrestricted, the
association's intent is that most or all of it be used to improve
faculty salaries.
	The alumni gift complements a series of recent decisions by
the U.Va. Board of Visitors to restore its faculty salaries to
nationally competitive levels.
	In November the board voted to supplement state-funded raises
with funds from private sources, aiming to return salaries to 1989
peer ranking levels within three years.  A more detailed plan,
approved by the board in February, calls for $9 million in non-state
funds to be spent catching up, followed by about $4.5 million annually
in privately funded supplements.
	"We are enormously grateful to the Alumni Association for this
generous gift," said U.Va. President John T. Casteen III.  "It
continues a long tradition of alumni support for critical University
needs, and it underscores in the most fundamental way the Alumni
Association's commitment to the University's core academic mission.
	"By this gift, the association has provided essential support
to the Board of Visitors in its effort to bring faculty salaries back
to where they were before 1990," he said.
	As part of the University's current $750 million capital
campaign, the Alumni Association also is building an endowment for
Alumni Hall, its headquarters on Emmet Street, and is raising funds to
support expanded services for alumni in honor of long-time alumni
director Gilly Sullivan and his wife, Ann.
	"While we are still well short of our Sullivan Fund goals, our
early success gives the Board of Managers confidence that we will be
able to achieve those goals to improve service to our alumni and
fulfill this pledge to help address the University's most urgent needs
as well," said Jack Syer, executive director of the association.
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April 7, 1997
	For more information, call Carol Wood, director of U.Va. News
Services, at (804) 924 6189.  Television reporters should call our TV
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