MINUTES OF A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF VISITORS
OF VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
May 18, 1977
A special meeting of the Board of Visitors of Virginia
Commonwealth University was held on Wednesday, May 18, 1977,
at 6:00 p.m. in the Sanger Hall Board Room.
Present were Drs. Blanton, Gayle and Gwathmey; Messrs.
Bliley, Dabney, McGehee, Norris, Obenshain, Scott and Seaborn;
and Mesdames Satterfield and Stone. Absent were Messrs. Grey
and Shumate and Mrs. Thalhimer. Also present were Drs. Beller,
Brooke, Hall, Neal, Willett, Wilson and Woods; Messrs. Cribbs,
Holmes and Ross; and Mrs. Price.
Dr. Blanton called the meeting to order. He asked members
of the Board to consider the new format for Board meetings which
included an evening meeting before the regular Board meeting.
An attempt would be made to keep the day meeting to one-half day
with lunch for those members of the Board who wished to stay.
Mr. Cribbs, Budget Director, presented the steps relating
to budget development, request, review, appropriation, and adoption
of the financial plan.
Dr. Beller made a visual presentation of the four major
areas affecting the budget. These are faculty salaries, faculty/
administrative salaries, classified personnel costs and other
operating expenses. These four areas are basically established
through formulae, fixed percentages, etc. which are given to the
individual institutions by other State agencies (i.e., State
Personnel, State Budget, SCHEV, etc.). In each instance, the
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individual institution can appeal certain points based on special
circumstances, but basically the guidelines are predetermined and
given to the institutions for formulation of their budgets.
Mr. Cribbs reviewed the 1976-77 operating budget and the
preliminary 1977-78 operating budget. A detailed discussion
followed.
In response to a question, Dr. Willett pointed out that,
once the funds are appropriated, the Board of Visitors can
determine which departments receive which amounts. There was
discussion relating to a possible ten percent reserve fund which
would be taken off the top of the operating budget. The various
schools and departments could then justify their need for addi-
tional funds from this reserve fund. However, it was suggested
that the administrative supervision of such a process would be
difficult.
It was also pointed out that the administration, in formu-
lating the VCU budget, has assumed that the State would pick up
the total cost of faculty salary increases. If it did not, in
view of the five percent reversion requested by the Governor and
the one percent requested by the Legislature, VCU would have severe
budget problems and would have to seek some type of relief.
Dr. Willett also reported that the administration had been
working on goals and objectives, and priorities for the University.
At one time, it was believed that the budget would be formulated
through budget targets. However, because of the time constraints,
the State Budget Office has now stated that VCU would get a six
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percent increase the first year of the biennium and a four per-
cent the second year. Additional discussion followed.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Approved:
