MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF VISITORS OF
VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
February 15, 1973
A regular meeting of the Board of Visitors of Virginia Commonwealth
University was held on Thursday, February 15, 1973, at 9:00 a.m. in the
President's Dining Room.
Present were Drs. Blanton, Gwathmey and Thornton, Messrs. Dabney,
McGehee, Norris, Obenshain, Seaborn, Sheffield, Temple and Turnbull; and
Mrs. Stone. Miss Keyser, Mr. Scott and Mr. Shumate were absent. Also
present were Drs. Brandt, Brooke, Fleshood, Neal, Smith, Willett and Wilson;
Messrs. Holmes and Imirie; and Miss Cosby.
Following the report of the President, Dr. Blanton welcomed Mr.
Sheffield's return from his illness. Dr. Blanton also announced that he will
be leaving private practice on March 1 to become Vice President of Charter
Medical Corporation. Both Dr. Blanton and Dr. Brandt have spoken with the
Attorney General with regard to possible conflict of interest. If Charter
Medical Corporation does not buy any laboratory work from MCV, Dr. Blanton
would not be in any conflict of interest.
The meeting then went into Executive Session, with Dr. Brandt
remaining.
After the Executive Session, the following resolution was adopted on
motion duly made and seconded:
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BE IT RESOLVED, that the Vice President for
Finance is authorized to borrow $3,000,000 from
the State Treasury at the rate of 4% per annum.
These funds are to pay the construction costs of
the new parking deck for 1,750 cars, Capital Items
C-296 and C-297. The funds will be repaid when
bonds are sold to provide permanent financing for
the parking facility.
The proposed tuition and student fees as presented to the meeting
were adopted on motion made, seconded and unanimously approved.
Dr. Blanton mentioned that the Chronicle of Higher Education has an
analysis of the freshman class across the country in the latest issue. Dr.
Thornton requested that the Board members be sent the compliance report for
1969, 1970 and 1971, in addition to the analysis of the freshman class.
Mr. Turnbull requested that the Summary Recapitulation of the
Hospital Accounts Committee Report show 1972 and 1973 instead of 1971
and 1972. On motion duly made and seconded, the Hospital Accounts report
was adopted unanimously.
The Faculty Appointments and Changes of Status as presented were
approved unanimously, on motion made and seconded. It was noted that,
with expenditures of significant funds, VCU is beginning to get a fair number
of nurse anesthetists.
Dr. Arnold P. Fleshood reported on the Articulation of Community
Colleges. He stated that it would not be feasible to have a broad statement
concerning transfers from community colleges that could be used throughout
the State's four-year institutions. The policies and procedures of VCU re-
garding transfers from community colleges were described.
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Mr. Temple described his concerns over the problems involved in
transferring from a community college to a State four-year institution. Mr.
Temple stated that the original intent of the community college system was
to have a two-year institution where students could obtain an associate
degree and then automatically transfer to a four-year institution, provided
he had followed the prescribed curriculum and had made acceptable grades.
However, this has not happened and there are major problems in the system.
Dr. Fleshood stated that VCU is trying very hard to work with the community
colleges in order to help students transfer with ease to VCU.
Mr. Obensha in distributed copies of the resolution from the Executive
Session of January 18. Dr. Blanton asked that items 2 and 3 be postponed
until the March meeting of the Board due to the length of the meeting. Dr.
Brandt said that he would check with the State Council of Higher Education
as to postponing the report on the amplification of the mission statement.
If a committee is needed to work on this, the Academic Policy Committee
will be called on to do so.
Mr. Dabney commented on the intention of the Property Committee
to have an appraisal made of the Richmond Academy of Medicine property.
He has heard that a recent appraisal had been made. Drs. Brandt and Smith
do not have any information on such recent appraisal.
Mr. Temple asked that the Board formally express its appreciation
to the Governor, Mr. Craigie and others, for their leadership and assistance
in working successfully for the hospital bond issue. It was agreed that Dr.
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Blanton and Dr. Brandt would write appropriate letters of appreciation follow-
ing the final session of the General Assembly. Dr. Brandt stated that Dr.
Hibbs had written letters to members of the legislature asking for their
support in this project. Members of the Board, along with many others,
were very helpful.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:05 p.m.
Secretary
APPROVED:
Report of the President to the Board of Visitors
February 15, 1973
Before the meeting convened this morning, a member of the press asked for
permission to sit in on the meeting. The request was denied because of the
Board's action a few years ago to close the meetings. The bill currently in
the legislature would still keep Board meetings closed as long as actions of
the meeting were reported to the press within a few days.
Students are going to be given a choice of three different designs for diplomas
this year.
The Self-Study, site visit will be held February 25-28. A partial list of the
members of the site team has been sent to the Board, but changes have been
made since that time. Members of the Board are invited to attend a social
hour and dinner on February 25 to visit with members of the site visit team.
For two days, the group will examine the campuses thoroughly. The third
day, Dr. Brandt will attend a meeting with them to discuss their observations
before they leave town. Copies of the Self-Study Report will be mailed to the
Board as soon as they are received. A Self-Study is made about once every
ten years. The main benefit comes from having the faculty discuss what is
being done now and what should be done to improve the institution. There is
tremendous involvement of the entire institution.
Architects from VCU and from the White House of the Confederacy have met
regarding the Ruffner property. The main points of discussion are that VCU
will buy the Richmond Academy of Medicine, demolish it and trade the vacant
land to the White House, along with some parking spaces and/or money in
return for the Ruffner property. The entire Academy must vote on whether or
not to sell the building to VCU.
Two identical bills are in the General Assembly on the hospital bond issue.
One has passed in the House; the other has been passed in the Senate. Now
one of the bills must go through the other body before it can be sent to the
Governor. We do not think there will be any problems.
The Wives of State Officials recently visited the VCU campuses. They were
very appreciative of the tour.
The Hospital Auxiliary is continuing to grow rapidly. It is making signifi-
cant contributions to the hospitals.
We have been working with Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Lewis for some time for a
large donation to VCU for the Cancer Research Center. There will be a meeting
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with them and their lawyer on February 21. Mrs. Lewis feels that they might
like to make a gift for something other than cancer. Dr. Lyons has been
working with the Lewises and their lawyer. Dr. Thornton expressed his hope
that Community Hospital would be contacted about any satellite clinic that
may be opened in the East End.
Mr. Otis Brown was on campus lately for a follow-up conference on the Allied
Services Conference that was held in Williamsburg.
Dr. Herbert Stein spoke at a luncheon at the John Marshall Hotel recently
and announced that VCU is going to be the materials' center for economic
education in the country. This is certainly a tremendous step forward.
The first $5,000 of a gift from Mr. F. D. Gottwald, Jr., to endow a fund to
help pay for indigent care was recently received. It was announced recently
that VCU is tenth in the country for the amount of funds for research and gifts.
Dr. Brandt explained that this is in the American Association of State Colleges
and Universities which is composed of colleges most of whom do not engage
in a great deal of research.
Federal funding is a big topic of discussion for colleges across the country
due to President Nixon's proposed budget. Mr. Holmes was asked to prepare
a summary of what is happening to research funds. Dr. Wilson noted that
financial aid for students could become a problem.
Students seem to be fairly quiet with the peace in Vietnam, but their "dissident
energies" may be channeled in another direction.
Tenure rationing will probably be initiated at VCU. This might have 60-65%
of faculty on tenure. As we head into a no-growth period for new faculty,
we need to be able to provide a limit as to the number of faculty that are
tenured. We will send this document through the University review procedures
and bring it to the Board for approval in the future. Many institutions have a
tenure rationing policy of some sort.
Dr. Blanton and Dr. Brandt have met a couple of times with the officers of the
MCV Foundation and the MCV Alumni Association regarding fund raising. The
relationships between those two groups and the University have improved
greatly, and all are looking forward to working more closely. The MCV Alumni
Association invited the officers of the other four alumni associations to the
MCV Alumni House to hear a presentation on the hospital project.
VCU has the only four-year program in the state in Administration of Justice
and Public Safety. Last year, the amount of funding nationally for this program
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increased. However, in Virginia, the funding decreased. This happened
at the recommendation of the people in the State Division of Justice and
Crime Prevention. Messrs. Harris and Brennan of the Division have dis-
tributed a Master Plan for Higher Education for Criminal Justice Personnel.
The Master Plan is totally inconsistent with VCU's plans in this area. It
does not agree with what the State Council has said about VCU's program.
Dr. Brandt has expressed his concerns to Earl Shiflet and Ed Temple.
New student applications for next fall are still running behind last year by
about 15 percent. We will not be at the level of enrollment that we projected
for next year. This is our first bout with the leveling off of enrollments. We
took the liberty of changing the enrollment projections that the Board approved
by keeping the enrollment of the last two years at the same level. Within a
month, the next three years of enrollment projections will have to be revised
because the capital outlay requests must be submitted by March 15.
A professor is saying that he is being unjustly treated by the University on
the basis of his salary. Dr. Brooke is working on the situation. VCU has
taken the position that salary figures of faculty members are personal informa-
tion. The professor wants us to make the salary data available to him. The
professor has no evidence that his salary is not what it should be.
There has been a series of articles in the Commonwealth Times on Dr. James
Alexander who used to be in the School of Business. Dr. Brooke is talking
with people in the School of Business. Three department chairmen wrote a
letter to the Commonwealth Times supporting the Dean.
Service awards have been presented this week to approximately 1,000 employees.
Both faculty and staff seem to respond warmly to this type of thing.
Construction is proceeding in the usual manner. The James Branch Cabell
Library addition will consist of three more floors.
