U.Va.'s Board of Visitors Invites Faculty Representative to Join Three Key Committees

Kenneth Schwartz headshot

Kenneth Schwartz

June 13, 2007 -- The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors has passed a resolution inviting a faculty representative to be a nonvoting member of three key board committees.

Citing a desire “to promote closer ties with the faculty and more faculty involvement” with its deliberations, the board took the action during its meeting on Friday, June 8.

Beginning July 1, the immediate past chair of the Faculty Senate will sit on the Educational Policy Committee, the External Affairs Committee and the Special Committee on Diversity. The first faculty representative will be architecture professor Kenneth A. Schwartz.

“Faculty members’ insight will be invaluable in setting educational policy, assisting in the capital campaign, and in attracting and retaining a diverse faculty and student body,” said rector Thomas F. Farrell II. “We are very pleased to take this important step to enhance the future of the University.”
   
The chair of the Faculty Senate has routinely given reports to the board during meetings of the Educational Policy Committee. The board’s resolution pointed to the “close and productive relationship” that exists between the board and faculty members and indicated that the aim is to have “faculty and the board working together to advance the goals of the University.”

Faculty Senate chair Ricardo Padrón said he was pleased by of the board’s vote. “From now on, the faculty will have a voice at the table of these committees, participating fully in their deliberations,” said Padrón, an associate professor in the department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. “Although the Faculty Senate will continue to advocate for full representation on the Board of Visitors itself sometime in the future, it also welcomes this development as a significant enhancement in the role that faculty play in the governance of U.Va.”

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