U.Va. Board of Visitors Will Add Non-Voting Faculty Member

A recent resolution of the Board of Visitors approved the addition of a non-voting faculty member to the University of Virginia’s governing body.

The board will appoint someone by next semester to serve a one-year term, with a limit of two consecutive terms. The resolution says the board will appoint a non-voting advisory faculty representative at the late spring meeting every year. The selection process has yet to be finalized.

“The addition of a faculty member provides an opportunity to strengthen communications and the working relationship between the governing board, our excellent faculty and the University community,” Rector George Keith Martin said.

Faculty Senate chair Joe Garofalo, an associate professor in the Curry School of Education, said adding the faculty member demonstrates that “we are all on the same team.”

“A faculty member’s teaching, mentoring and research provide relevant experience in board discussions and decisions that affect the entire University community,” he said. “This representative will give faculty a stronger voice, and also will bring useful institutional knowledge to the table.”

Since a 2007 resolution, the past chair of the Faculty Senate has served as a consulting member to two Board of Visitors committees, Educational Policy and External Affairs, and to a special committee on diversity (now a standing committee), to promote closer ties between the faculty and the board, as well as faculty involvement in the deliberations of the board.

In 2012, the board expanded the faculty consultant role to all nine of its standing committees.

The Faculty Senate is the representative group for faculty input on planning and governance in academic matters.

“Faculty representatives already participating at the committee level have provided valuable insight, and my colleagues and I look forward to the benefits of working with a faculty representative at the full Board of Visitors level as well,” Martin said.

A non-voting student member also serves on the 18-member Board of Visitors.