Today marks the final day of the Board of Visitors' September meeting. Although the Board has not announced any major news, its gathering should serve as a reminder to students of its importance in setting the policies and making the decisions that structure much of University life. Understanding the Board's approach to governing the University, however, requires an adequate grasp of the body's composition and authority. Therefore, students should take this opportunity of the Board's convening to familiarize themselves with its operations. Doing so will allow students to differentiate it from the governing bodies at other universities.
Learning about the Board is not a merely academic exercise since its decisions have tangible consequences for students and other members of the University community. Perhaps most important, the Board sets the tuition rates that students and their families pay. In addition, it approves the enrollment plans that determine the size of the University's student body. Students should appreciate the significance of both these responsibilities given the steady increase in the cost of attending the University, as well as the overcrowding in dorms that has forced some first years to live three to a room. Furthermore, students concerned with on-Grounds construction should be aware that not only does the Board's Building and Grounds Committee initiate all projects, but also that much of the work has been necessitated by enrollment decisions the Board has made in recent years.
The Board also sets policies that more broadly affect the University's quality of life. For example, it is the entity charged with approving pay scales and benefits packages for University employees. This means organizations such as the Living Wage Campaign that seek pay increases for low-level University workers, as well as LGBTQ groups that advocate for the expansion of benefits eligibility to the partners of gay and lesbian employees, should aim to communicate their goals to the Board. Although it also is important to reach out to the administrators who design and implement these policies, as well as the state-level politicians who determine the resources that are available for undertaking them, it is impossible for such initiatives to succeed without the Board's blessing.
Students must recognize the specific constraints facing the Board, however, if they hope to reform certain aspects of University policy. With regard to benefits eligibility, for example, the Board does not have the same freedom to operate as does the Board of Regents at the University of Michigan, President Teresa A. Sullivan's former home. Many consider the University of Michigan to be at the vanguard of equal treatment for employees since it amended its benefits policy to create a new category of eligible individuals known as "other qualified adults," which can include the partners of gay and lesbian employees.
That the University does not have a similar policy is not necessarily because of the Board's ideological makeup, but rather because of its relationship with the state government. According to the state of Michigan's constitution, the University of Michigan regents have the authority to set institutional policies independent of any legislative or executive oversight. This allows the regents more latitude in their decision-making since they do not have to worry about being overruled by laws that the state government enacts.
Moreover, the regents are elected directly by the state's citizens to eight-year terms rather than appointed by the governor to four-year terms as is the case in Virginia. This insulates the regents from political backlash since they have longer terms, while also keeping them accountable to the Michigan citizenry.
These differences help explain why the University of Michigan has been able to go further than the University in its attempts to promote fair compensation practices. Although the University offers generous benefits packages and other attractive incentives to employees, it is unable to provide the same level of treatment to its gay and lesbian employees as a direct result of its Board's position with respect to the state government.
Students must recognize there are limits to the Board's authority and seek to work within them to make needed changes. This effort can begin today if students read the Board's governing documents online at www.virginia.edu/bov and attend one of the open committee sessions being held in the Board Room of the Rotunda.
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