The Board of Visitors will hear from a number of high level University administrators and vote on a series of topics ranging from tuition increases to new student housing locations at its annual December meeting which will take place between Wednesday and Friday.
The Board is the University’s governing body responsible for overseeing major projects and plans related to the University’s long-term future. It is composed of 17 voting members appointed by the Governor, one non-voting faculty representative and one non-voting student member. This week’s meeting marks the Board’s final regularly scheduled assembly of the calendar year, having convened in March, June and September.
The Full Board will meet Friday for both closed and open sessions, where they have only two consent items on the agenda. First, they will vote to approve revisions to the Critical Incident Management Plans — guiding documents for how the University should respond to major events and crises — to be in accordance with state requirements that public colleges and universities update their emergency management plans every four years. The Board will also vote to assign Pavilion IX on the West Lawn to Malo Hutson, dean of the School of Architecture, who will have a lease over the residence for five years beginning in January.
After the Full Board’s closed session, it will reconvene in open session and vote to adopt all action items brought forth from Committee meetings.
The Finance Committee will meet Friday morning and will vote on several action items, including increasing rates for graduation, professional and special programs tuition and fees for the University’s main campus. According to Board documents, these increases will help the University provide merit salary increases for faculty and staff, in addition to advancing investments in academic programs.
Notably, the Board will also vote on proposed increases of between five and six percent to housing and dining costs for students both at the main campus and the College at Wise. Board documents cited a need for these increases to price housing with competitive market rates, as well as to cover substantial cost increases in food, personnel, utilities, custodial and maintenance and other operating expenses.
The Committee will also vote to approve financing for multiple construction projects, as well as approving the issuing of bonds, the allocation of investments and signatory authority over Medical Center contracts.
The Buildings and Grounds Committee will meet Thursday and will vote to approve several planned projects, mostly centered around the Ivy Corridor. The Committee is slated to discuss a proposed addition to the Major Capital Plan — construction of new student housing on the Ivy Corridor. The Board approved the planning for this new development June 2023, and will vote this week to authorize construction and proposed schematics. The plans are for three buildings, expected to contain 750 to 800 beds, as well as dining, programming and retail spaces.
Board documents say that the new housing developments are part of the University’s larger plan to house all second year students on Grounds by 2030 — and that having housing on the Ivy Corridor will create “vitality” in the area, which is also set to feature the currently under construction Karsh Institute of Democracy, a Center for the Arts and a guesthouse. The School of Data Science which opened in April is also in this area.
For the construction of the new student housing, the Board will have to approve the demolition of a former bank building at the location, having already approved the demolition of two other structures in the area at last December’s meeting.
The estimated cost of the housing developments, according to Board documents, is $150 million to $160 million, with occupancy for the buildings projected for Fall 2027.
The Committee will also review proposed schematic designs for a new parking garage at North Grounds, near the already existing John Paul Jones arena parking. According to Board documents, the garage will contain 1030 parking spaces, feature a transit hub and a lawn for events and be accessible both by Copeley Road and Massie Road.
The Committee also has plans to review schematics for the planned Center for the Arts, though there are no action items pertaining to that project.
The Academic and Student Life Committee will vote to change and create several endowed professorships, and will also deliberate over the creation of two new Bachelor’s degree programs in the School of Education and Human Development — a Bachelor of Science in Education in English as a Second Language Education and a Bachelor of Science in Education in Secondary Education.
The Committee will then hear several reports and presentations, including reports from two student leaders — Laura Howard, chair of the Honor Committee and fourth-year College student, and Harper Jones, chair of the University Judiciary Committee and fourth-year College student — who will talk about the state of their respective Committees.
The Committee will also receive a report on the new undergraduate major in Data Science, as well as an update from Michael Lenox, Business Administration prof. and the chair of the Pan-University Entrepreneurship Initiative. Lenox will discuss U.Va. Innovates, a program that aims to foster a culture of entrepreneurship on Grounds and support student and faculty-led startups. U.Va. Innovates recently opened a location on Elliewood Avenue, intended to serve as a resource for students interested or involved in entrepreneurship.
The Health System Board will meet Thursday morning, and will receive reports from a handful of speakers, including Melina Kibbe, dean of the School of Medicine, Medicine professor and chief health affairs officer, Craig Kent, chief executive officer of U.Va. Health and Marianne Baernholdt, dean of the School of Nursing. It will also hear a report from Medicine Prof. Stephen Borowitz on the use of artificial intelligence in medical record documentation.
The Board’s Advancement Committee will meet Thursday afternoon to discuss fundraising initiatives, including the Honor the Future campaign — which sits at 110 percent of its initial goal, as of Nov. 25. University President Jim Ryan will also thank major donors and recognize their contributions to University projects.
The Audit, Compliance and Risk Committee will meet Friday morning, and will receive updates on an ongoing audit by the Auditor of Public Accounts of the Commonwealth of Virginia — including the status of individual projects under the broader process.
The Committee on the College at Wise will meet Friday afternoon, and will discuss its own fundraising progress, as well as hearing reports on enrollment and academic projects at the College. The Committee itself does not have any action items, though the financial plans that the Finance Committee will discuss do include rate changes for the College at Wise.
All meetings that take place in the Rotunda — which includes all individual committee meetings, besides the meeting of the Health System Board — will be livestreamed online. The Health System Board will meet at Boar’s Head Inn.
After its December meeting, The Board will next convene in March, though it is possible that there will be off-cycle meetings between the two meetings.
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