• Virginia transportation bill.
• 4% salary increase for faculty will bring us to the low 50/high 40 towards 60th percentile. Wants to do better.
• Construction worldwide drove up costs of campus construction. General Assembly provided money to cover unexpected cost overruns.
• 20,000 applications. >600 students accepted over our expectations, i.e., historical trend.
• Steger met with the governor. First Kaine budget will have 2 bills for higher education.
• Bond issues for classrooms and infrastructure. The state funds only 30% of construction.
• Will keep this a walking campus. Perry St. parking lot will be built on.
• Parking structures coming include: near Perry St., Litton Reeves, Shultz connected to performing arts center—could include faculty club.
• Leading Edge Energy Design—commitment to mid-level energy conversation.
• End of April—public phase of campaign: goal is $800 million. Will have already raised >$500 million.
• Commencement speaker will be General John Philip Abizaid (Ret.) who resigned because he disagreed with the Bush strategy. 4 stars. Speaks Arabic. These speakers don’t get paid; it’s an honor to be asked.

Steger invited questions on any topic. Q&A:

• With new buildings need more custodians, toilet paper, etc. Steger: reserve maintenance is at the top of the budget. Last year energy costs went up more than legislature gave to cover it. With 23% budget cuts in 2002, cut 428 positions, incl. >100 faculty. Steger made cuts that could be more easily rebuilt, e.g., recycling but not academic departments. Trying to make the university more independent of state funding.
• With changed relationship with the state, is there any hope of cutting cost of construction? Steger: With new autonomy can cut 12-18 months off the process, i.e., real money savings. With non-state funded projects, he just has to advise the state. [follow up question] Can we build as inexpensively as in the open market? Steger: probably not due to HE requirements. CRC buildings meet different requirements. Chicken Hill will get some academic buildings because 2/3 cost of on campus construction.
• Deficit in classroom space. Is there a clear plan to catch up? Steger: 80,000 sq ft building is coming. Classroom renovations – always lose seats. Capitol plan has classrooms 4-6 years away.
• Plans for $500 million to be raised? Will state, therefore, give less? Steger: state is not supposed to consider private funds. But, of course, it influences their decisions. 14 members of the BoV have committed ~$25 million, 30% scholarship, some faculty, rest facilities. Not enough is going into the endowment. “VT is on the move.” Success breeds success.
• Opportunities for 6-7% raises due to restructuring—has it fallen through? Steger: restructuring savings hasn’t always helped. Planning now on 4% to faculty, staff.
• Down turn in out-of-state acceptances—have we reached a price point? Steger: yes, they pay 138% of costs; provide 50% of tuition revenue. Branding campaign, projecting reputation of university to intercept. VT is 23 out of 24 of our peers, and 13 out of 14 of state peers in tuition, i.e., we’re still almost the least expensive institution.
• Concerned about research money at the federal level due to wars. Higher education faculty will lose jobs if not successful at grant getting. Lobby in Congress? Steger: NASULG lobbies. VT is not a member of AAU. A lobbying firm in DC works for VT.
• Faculty are taking on more responsibility. What if federal government money for research stagnates or diminishes? Steger: trying to get more private money. 2/3 of our $ comes from Feds. Diversifying and trying to increase yield on Foundation’s assets. Hotel Roanoke made $2 million last year. 11.4% made on investments last year. Will raise tuition 50% over next 5 years but also raise scholarship money. He doesn’t get complaint letters about tuition being too much. Supplemental fees for engineering next year. $177 more per WCR than the rest of the university. A way of getting around the cap.
• Tuition. Will there be other sources of funds? Steger: aiming at health insurance, childcare, rather than defraying tuition. If sponsors won’t pay overhead, then VT won’t do their work.
• What about existing labs that are 20 years old, safety issues, outdated equipment—any money for renovations? Steger: $27 million for Davidson Hall is likely to come, at least in a bond issue. $300 million needed for renovations. Tremendous value for the dollar in terms of faculty. $320 million funded research. $150 million increase in 5 years. VT is very well managed; better than some fortune 500 companies.

Came to present final product and answer questions. Federal funding agencies require that we have such policies. We haven’t updated this document in response to problems. Highlighted 5 key things in the policy that they revised.
- Brought policy into compliance with federal regulations—faculty driven, fair, transparent
- Greater consistency by assign oversight to Research Integrity Officer (RIO)—a new position, will report to BW’s position, rather than having college dean’s handle this. Mandated.
- Better integrate Faculty Senate committee on ethics.
- Adopted more detailed procedure – see flow chart.
- Formalize policy and revise text in Faculty Handbook (2.7 re faculty misconduct).

Approved by Committee on Faculty Ethics and University Counsel.

Q&A:
• RIO is new position in the university, but will be an internal hire.
• Whose perspective was University Counsel viewing the document from? If not faculty, that needs to be done. BW: at least from the point of view of the institution.

Redican called for comments. Moved to approve. 2nd. All in favor but 1 no. No abstentions.

Redican: Hardcastle attended. Principles of Community (PoC) need to be better incorporated into faculty life. Faculty Senate can be proactive and not wait to be instructed by Board of Visitors. Suggestions made include: in department hallways where PoC are framed, add another with faculty signatures. (2) Incorporate PoC into teaching syllabi, like the honor code. (3) Do nothing and see what BoV does. Let’s take control like we did with post tenure review (framing our own policy). This is on the BoV’s radar screen. Let Redican go to June meeting and say we’re on top of it.

Q&A:
• Let’s address the problem, like the honor code in the syllabi rather than famed signatures in halls that students will likely ignore.
• No. Faculty should have discretion about their syllabi. Lip service at best, coercion at worst. We must all agree to live by this rather than signing or syllabi.
• As mature adults, we feel this is a good goal. The point is to let the students know we support decent behavior. The syllabi is the one place that students will see it. Have dept. heads encourage this.
• What consequences for not adhering to PoC? Syllabi would have a statement without an enforcing medium.
• For the Commission on Diversity Pat Hyer integrated PoC in various university documents. We don’t need to duplicate her good job. Redican: University Counsel can send this e-doc to us.
• Include PoC in faculty teaching evaluations.
• Syllabus has similar statements for some faculty, i.e., do not include consequences.
• PoC are pretty tame so why is there resistance? BoV is concerned because student and staff sides of the house are being asked to abide by these principles. Perceived that there is a bubble around the classrooms, so they want the institution as a whole to uphold the same principles of community throughout. It is a simple thing for the faculty to demonstrate that they take the PoC seriously.
• Let’s demonstrate that we support the PoC.
• The PoC are not trivial and faculty adhere to them even before they existed. What are the faculty’s responsibilities when they don’t see the problem in their classrooms?
• Students report that having the PoC presented initially in class, they feel better knowing the ground rules. Similar to calling attention to the honor code. Students say that they perceive faculty don’t care/aren’t accountable when faculty don’t address the PoC.
• Include PoC in Blackboard because this is a place where there is some misconduct.
• Have a flier like those that say there’s help at the Women’s Resource Center. Add it to the Faculty Senate Web page also. Also when you click on “faculty” on the university homepage.
• Faculty education is the real issue.
• It is becoming part of a department handbook.

Redican: BoV has PoC on its radar and he wants to address it at the next meeting to demonstrate faculty endorse them.

Reilly: Faculty Senate should carry this to their constituencies. Have this conversation within departments.

Motion: include endorsement of PoC in our syllabi—encourage. 2nd. All in favor but 1 no, 1 abstention.

BOV Report: Many things already covered in Steger’s report. Risk is a hot topic on BoV and they keep pushing it.

AY/CY Salary Update: All got a survey in the mail. Faculty Senate workgroup a few years ago dealt with this, e.g., work 9 months and get paid in 9 months. Change to this would cost $16 mil. Cost prohibitive at this time. Do faculty really want this option? Link to survey is open until April 21. 332 responses from 1200 emails.

ORP Update: Optional Retire Plan—All about risk, again. Ultimately VRS oversees it all and they’re trying to protect people from themselves. The university could be liable, so it will probably not become an option. Case law is not well defined.

Department elections for Faculty Senators: appeal that they be held. Will be invited to dinner meeting next month, if possible. Send names to Redican or any officer.

Update on Faculty Senate Representation on University Commission/Committees: Tell Reilly if you are continuing on a committee/commission.

Reilly: Thanks for great responses so far. One more university counsel, honor sys review board, trans/parking.

Rinehart: “Girls Gone Wild” is coming to Blacksburg. They’re coming to film our students April 20th. A heinous operation. Profit is $30 million/year in getting them drunk and filming them in compromised positions. This film has unlimited distribution. Our students are vulnerable as are high school students. Educate our students. She will send more information to the Faculty Senate listserv.

Sam Reilly re Steger and salaries: $300 tuition increase would fund 5% salary increase. Talk to Steger about this.

None.

NCAA self-study report becomes public this Friday.