Statement from Helen E. Dragas to the University Community
Rector, University of Virginia
June 21, 2012
In my statement to the Board on Monday, I conveyed my heartfelt
apologies for the pain, anger and confusion that has swept the Grounds
over the last 10 days, and said that the UVA family deserved better from
your Board.
I also indicated that this University was entitled to a fuller
explanation of the Board's thinking for collectively taking the action
that we did, and explained that, as Visitors, we have the very highest
aspirations for the University of Virginia -- for it to reach its
fullest potential as a 21st century Academical Village, always rooted
firmly in our enduring values of honor, integrity and trust -- and that
we want the University to be a leader in fulfilling its mission, not a
follower.
Although I was reluctant to go into detail on our concerns, as I said,
we owe you a more specific outline of the serious strategic challenges
that alarmed us about the direction of the University. No matter how
you feel about our actions, these challenges represent some very high
hurdles that stand in the way of our University's path to continued
success in the coming decade, and they are going to remain front and
center for the next Board and the next President over the coming years.
Simply put, the UVA family must be clear-eyed about the shoals and
dangers that exist below the surface, and the hard work and strategic
planning it will take for this community to navigate them together.
While the UVA student experience remains premiere, though our faculty
creates dynamic newknowledge every day, and despite the enduring magic
of Mr. Jefferson's University, the bottom line is the days of
incremental decision-making in higher education are over, or should be.
For some time, the Board of Visitors has been concerned about the
following difficult challenges facing the University - most of which are
not unique to UVA -- and we concluded that their structural and
long-term nature demanded a deliberate and strategic approach, not an
incremental one.
1. State and federal funding challenges - Since 2000, state funding
per student has declined from $15,300 to $8,300 per student in constant
dollars. Governor McDonnell has done much to restore stability to state
funding, but the outlook for economic growth in this area over the long
term is bleak. Federal research funding and federal support of student
loans are both in decline, with no expectation of a recovery, putting
pressure on the University to replace these revenue sources with
sustainable alternatives. The University has no long-range plan to do
so.
2. The changing role of technology in adding value to the reach and
quality of the educational experience of our students. Bold
experimentation and advances by the distinguished likes of Stanford,
Harvard, and MIT have brought online learning into the mainstream,
virtually overnight. Stanford's president, John Hennessy, predicted
that "there's a tsunami coming", based on the response to online course
offerings at Stanford (one course enrolled an astounding 160,000
students). Michigan, Penn, Princeton, Yale, and Carnegie Mellon are all
taking aggressive steps in this direction. The University of Virginia
has no centralized approach to dealing with this potentially
transformational development.
3. A dynamic and rapidly changing health care environment. The UVA
Medical Center, while excelling at cutting edge patient care and
research, competes with competent and sophisticated private health
systems providing high quality health care in a market undergoing
substantive structural change. At the behest of the Board of Visitors,
the Medical Center undertook a strategic planning study in 2011 that
resulted in a well-articulated plan. Implementation will require strong
leadership and very ambitious interim steps.
4. Heightened pressure for prioritization of scarce resources.
Difficult choices will have to be made to balance competing demands for
financial aid (the University's generous, $95 million per year
financial aid program, AccessUVA, has consumed resources at an
unsustainable and alarming rate over the last five years, yet it is
considered necessary to compete with many elite private institutions in
attracting the best and the brightest students) and faculty and staff
recruitment, and retention. A wave of faculty retirements is coming
over the next seven years, and faculty retention is increasingly
difficult due to stagnation in faculty salaries. The College of Arts
and Sciences alone estimates it would take $130 million by 2016 to
provide competitive compensation and start-up costs to fulfill its
aspirations in the humanities and the sciences. Yet, the University has
no articulated long-range plan that prioritizes these competing demands
for resources.
5. Issues of faculty workload and the quality of the student
experience. The ratio of students to faculty is deteriorating. This
change has not occurred as a part of a thoughtful process and planned
strategy to integrate technology into introductory courses while
extending importantsmall group and individual interactions between
faculty and students. Rather, it reflects the stresses of increased
enrollment and insufficient resource prioritization.
6. Issues of declining relative faculty compensation. In a letter
dated May 11, 2012, the College of Arts and Sciences faculty issued a
letter to the Board almost identical to one it issued to the
Presidential search committee in 2009. It demanded urgency in
addressing the decline of UVA in faculty compensation from 26th to 36th
since 2005 among Association of American University peers, and noted our
relatively poor performance vis-à-vis key public competitors such as
UCLA, Berkeley, Michigan, and UNC.
7. Drifting engagement direction - The securing of philanthropic
gifts and grants from a broader base of supporters is critically
important as our devoted volunteer leadership attempts to finish the UVA
capital campaign. Large gifts received over the last year include much
appreciated, donor-driven funds for international squash courts and
contemplative sciences (the confluence of Eastern thought, yoga,
meditation, etc.). Central institutional priorities should be
articulated and highlighted for engagement, but cannot be without
development of a specific vision and plan.
8. Research funding and activity - Research funding has been in
decline, and we have decreased in federal higher education research
rankings in the past five years. In 2008, we were #70 in the nation
overall (compared to Virginia Tech's #43 ranking). These statistics are
incongruous with other characteristics of the University that suggest we
should be a research powerhouse. Mr. Jefferson's vision for his
University and his early encouragement of the sciences suggests the
same. In areas of applied research, UVA often is not the first
institution in Virginia that governmental units and businesses go to
when they need a partner.
9. Increasing accountability for academic quality and productivity.
These issues are foremost on the minds of students, family, and
legislators. The Board well understands that curricular programming is
the responsibility of the faculty, and the Board has never suggested any
specific curricular adjustments. It is the Board's responsibility,
however, to ask for evidence that the current curriculum is meeting its
stated goals and also to ask how well anyparticular curriculum or
program actually prepares UVA graduates for the increasingly complex,
international world in which they will live and compete. There is no
long-term program in place for assessment, reporting, and improvement in
many disciplines.
10. Increasing importance of a proactive, contemporary communications
function. The recent events unfolding at UVA have proven a demonstrated
need to fortify university communications functions with updated
technologies. We need faster, multi-platform communications including
cutting-edge use of mobile, digital and social media to complement a
more traditional media-relations function and press outreach to tell the
UVA story.
This is but a partial list. Put together, these challenges represent an
extremely steep climb, even if the University were lean and on top of
its game. Yet in the face of these challenges, the University still
lacks an updated strategic plan.
Believe it or not, the last time the University developed a concrete,
strategic plan was a decade ago - in2002. We deserve better - the rapid
development of a plan that includes goals, costs, sources of funds,
timelines and individual accountability. And, without micromanaging
details such as calling for the elimination of specific programs or
mandating distance learning, the Board did insist, and still insists,
that the University leadership move in a timely, thoughtful, and
organized fashion to address these and similar issues. Failing this,
the University of Virginia will continue to drift in yesterday.
At the time of President Casteen's retirement, the search process should
have included a thoughtful assessment by uninvested third parties who,
in collaboration with the institution's stakeholders, would have
examined everything from academic programs, faculty assignments, student
services, research activity, technology, tuition and admissions
strategies, administrative expenditures,public service and outreach,
private support, the Medical School and hospital, and, yes, governance,
both at the administrative and board levels.
With this said, I agree with critics who say that we should have handled
the situation better. In my view, we did the right thing, the wrong
way. For this, I sincerely apologize, and this and future boards will
learn from our mistakes. However, as much as our action to effect a
change in leadership has created a wave of controversy, it was motivated
by an understanding of the very stiff headwinds we face as a
University, and our resolve to push through them to forge a future that
is even brighter than imaginable today.
Helen Dragas, Rector approved distribution of this message.
