MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF VISITORS
OF VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
September 20, 1973
A regular meeting of the Board of Visitors of Virginia Commonwealth
University was held on Thursday, September 20, 1973, at 9:00 a.m. in the
President's Dining Room.
Present were Drs. Blanton, Gwathmey and Thornton; Messrs. Dabney,
McGehee, Norris, Scott, Seaborn, Shumate and Turnbull, and Miss Keyser.
Mr. Obenshain, Mr. Sheffield and Mrs. Stone were absent. Also present
were Drs. Andrako, Brandt, Brooke, Neal, Smith, Sparks, Willett and Woods;
Messrs. Holmes and Imirie, and Miss Cosby.
Dr. Blanton called the meeting to order. On motion made and seconded,
the following minutes were approved: Regular Meeting of the Board of Visitors,
held July 19, 1973; Special Meetings of the Development Committee, held
July 20 , 1973, and August 24, 1973; and Special Meeting of the Property
Committee, held September 5, 1973.
The Board then went into Executive Session, with Dr. Brandt remain-
ing. Dr. Francis J. Brooke was appointed to the position of Provost, effective
immediately, and Mr. T. Edward Temple was appointed to the position of
Vice-President for Development and University Relations, effective early in
1974.
The Board agreed to cancel the October meeting because Dr. Blanton
and Dr. Brandt will be in Atlanta for a conference of the Association of
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Governing Boards.
Dr. Blanton mentioned that the State Fair will be opening soon and
expressed his hope that Board members would see the VCU exhibit and relay
comments on the exhibit to members of the administration.
Following the report of the President, Dr. Brandt announced that the
Building Naming Committee in its meeting of September 18 had recommended
the naming of a lecture room in the new science wing of the Oliver-Science
Hall in honor of Dr. Mary E. Kapp. On motion made and seconded, the
recommendation of the committee was accepted.
On motion made and seconded, Mr. Dabney, Dr. Gwathmey, Mr.
Sheffield and Mr. Turnbull were unanimously elected to the Executive
Committee.
Mr. McGehee, on behalf of the Finance Committee, recommended
the adoption of the 1974-76 Biennial Budget. A lengthy discussion ensued,
following which the budget was approved on motion made and seconded.
Mr. Imirie distributed copies of a letter from Mr. McCutcheon to
Mr. Holmes and a letter from Mr. Markow to Mr. Imirie regarding the Virginia
Hospital Laundry, Inc. Five hospitals comprise the corporation: Richmond
Eye Hospital, Crippled Children's Hospital, Retreat for the Sick Hospital,
John Randolph Hospital in Hopewell, and MCV Hospitals. The two main
reasons for forming such a corporation are to obtain better service and to
have laundry done less expensively. It was moved, seconded and approved
to enter into the Virginia Hospital Laundry, Inc.
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In response to a question, Mr. Holmes explained that regular collec-
tion procedures are followed when a hospital account is overdue. As long as
an individual maintains contact with the collection office, no pressure is
applied. If contact is not maintained, the account is turned over to an attorney
or a collection agency with the stipulation that a suit is never instituted
without approval from the institution. If an individual fails to respond to
any of the above procedures, fairly intensive pressure is applied. Dr. Blanton
suggested that the format of the Hospital Accounts report be examined in order
to determine if there is a better one available to describe more appropriately
the facts involved. On motion made and seconded, the Hospital Accounts
report was accepted.
Dr. Brandt noted the amount of gifts, grants and contract is about
10 percent higher than last year's figures. This is encouraging. Mr. Scott
mentioned that the University of Richmond notifies Board members when a
large gift has been received so that Board members are able to write personal
letters to the individual involved. Dr. Brandt writes letters to those who
contribute more than $100 to the Annual Fund Drive. If a large gift comes
to the University, Dr. Brandt will notify the Board members. On motion
made and seconded, the report of Gifts, Grants and Contracts was adopted.
On Page 18 of the Faculty Appointments and Changes of Status, the
name of Joan F. Thomas was deleted from the section on terminations. Dr.
Brooke answered a question on faculty salaries by noting there is no set
scale for any particular rank. Salary is determined by what the market will
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bear and the quality of credentials. It is negotiated by the prospective
faculty member and Dr. Brooke. Earlier this year, the Board had been
notified that three appeals were being made on tenure decisions. All three
decisions were upheld. On motion made and seconded, the Faculty Appointments and Changes of Status were approved, with Miss Keyser dissenting
because of the tokenism of women.
Dr. J. Curtis Hall, Dean of the School of Business, described several
exciting projects which have taken place during the past year in the School.
He then distributed a written report to the Board.
Dr. Brandt noted that he had replied to the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools regarding the Self-Study. Copies of the reply will be
sent to the Board soon. SACS is going to use VCU's Self-Study to teach
other institutions how to prepare a good study.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:15 p.m.
Secretary
APPROVED:
Report of the President to the Board of Visitors
September 20, 1973
The projected enrollment for Fall, 1973, was 17,000 students. As of
today, there are about 16,600 students. The biggest drop occurred in the day
special students. The projected enrollment for the MCV Campus was about
on target.
A number of women students have been housed in the Sheraton at the
corner of Belvidere and Franklin Streets. There is a planned over-filling of
dormitory rooms because many students leave within the first several weeks
of school. If the dormitories were not over-subscribed, rooms would be left
vacant all year and income would be lost. All of the students should be out
of the Sheraton within the next couple of weeks.
Dr. Brandt introduced Dr. John Andrako, the new Assistant Vice-
President for Health Sciences, and Dr. Howard L. Sparks, the new Assis-
tant Vice-President for Continuing Education.
The State Council of Higher Education is developing a new edition of
the Virginia Plan for Higher Education which contains a statement about each
institution and what each is trying to do. The mission statement was sub-
mitted to SCHEV, and they have paraphrased parts of it to use in the publi-
cation.
The case involving Mr. Richard Benson is due to come to court on
September 24.
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For the past year, we have been working with some other State
agencies regarding higher education and prisoners. One institution in the
state would be a clearinghouse for higher education for prisoners in order
to keep records on credit hours and courses taken by prisoners and to
award the degrees. We would like to be the clearinghouse institution
for this program.
We have also been working with people in the state to get a prison
ward for the hospital. The ward could occupy the top one or two floors of
North Hospital which currently houses the alcoholic program. Terrific
sensitivities would be involved in moving the alcoholic program. We are
eager to work with the state officials to get a prison ward, but they would
have to be the ones to move the alcoholic program.
The budget presentation will be made on October 8 at 4:15 p.m.
in the State Capitol. Board members are invited to attend if they wish.
Sanger Hall is progressing, and we expect to be in the building by
about March. This will require a large number of moves. The first piece
of construction for the new hospital is the supply building which has passed
the Art Commission. This will be located between North Hospital and the
new parking deck. The contractors are asking for more money on the parking
deck, but it is moving along. The Art Commission has also passed the
Health Sciences Building. Bids were opened last week on Science-Oliver
Hall, and the bids were $750,000 over the estimated cost. The Finance
Committee has agreed that we should take the equipment money for the
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building and put that into the construction money. Also, we would take
$200,000 from the Campus Development Fund and $300,000 from overhead
funds for construction money. We would then hope that the General Assembly
would reimburse the equipment money. This building did not have an escala-
tion clause in it which is the reason for having the bids so much higher than
the appropriated funds for construction. We hope to award the contract with-
in the next couple of weeks.
The library addition is going up quickly now. The architects are
making progress on the student union and the new dormitory. The White
House of the Confederacy has not yet obtained a clear title to the property
from the City of Richmond.
Last year, a student in the School of Dentistry was found guilty
of cheating on an exam by the Honor Court. This decision was upheld
by two appeal boards and approved by Dr. Brandt. She took it to court,
and the decision was upheld by Judge Merhige. This was the first court
challenge under the Rules and Procedures.
