UVA Board of Visitors discuss belonging, athletics, at first day of June 2024 meeting

The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors began their June meeting Thursday afternoon with a meeting of the Academic and Student Life Committee, but first Rector Robert Hardie explained why the schedule for this particular meeting has been changed.

“The reason for the altered schedule this afternoon and tomorrow is that I have an unavoidable conflict tomorrow morning until 11:30 a.m. so [Vice Rector Carlos M. Brown] will be sitting in on my behalf and Jim Ryan has a conflict that will cause him to miss a couple of hours tomorrow afternoon,” Hardie said. “His daughter Phoebe has a semi-final in the state soccer championship so I thought that was a good enough excuse.”

Hardie said another board member’s schedule was adjusted due to a meeting with Governor Glenn Youngkin, but did not identify which one.  Provost Ian Baucom was also not at the meeting but Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Brie Gertler presented information instead.

Gertler acknowledged that it has been a difficult year for universities across the United States, but pointed out that one good thing was that Final Exercises took place despite the rain. 

“It was especially memorable because most members of the undergraduate class of 2024 did not get to celebrate their high school graduation with their classmates in the early months of the pandemic,” Gerter said. 

Another highlight mentioned by Gertler is that 13 UVa graduates and alumni were awarded Fulbright scholarships in the last year. 

The Academic and Student Life Committee also heard from the chair of the Task Force on Religious Diversity and Belonging. The group was set up to study the presence of anti-semitism and anti-Islam at UVA.

“The current moment of crisis that we’re in is marked by some very strong feelings that impact individuals and shared experiences of belonging and respect,” said Christa Acampora, the Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. “And members of the UVA community highly value maximizing free expression while also longing for clear understandings of limits and seeing that reflected in institutional action.” 

Acampora said the “moment of crisis” gives UVA some opportunities to try to do things better. There is no written report but here are some highlights: 

• Religious identification and related cultural connections could be “explicitly integrated” into UVA’s practice and academic offers
• Jewish and Muslim students might perceive UVA differently and more efforts should be taken to explore why outside of moments of crisis 
• UVA could provide more support, courses, and academic events 
• There could be more review of reporting policies when someone experiences prejudice 

“The good news from my perspective is that I think we’ve learned a lot from this process and undertaking the work of the task force has had the effect of creating forums for people to share their experiences and to share their aspirations for the type of community they want,” Acampora said. 

There was no time for questions at the end of the Academic and Student Life Committee. 

The Advancement Committee went next and after hearing a presentation on the Clark Scholars Program, President Jim Ryan acknowledged Hardie and his wife Molly Hardie for their major gift connected to the new football operations center. The Buildings and Grounds Committee and the full Board of Visitors are expected to vote to name the center after them today. 

“We thought it was important to share this news now given that we are headed over to the ground-opening of the football operations center,” Ryan said. “As I’m sure many of you all know, Molly and Robert have been extremely kind and generous with their time and their resources for more than three decades.” 

Ryan said the Hardies have also been involved with several projects across multiple departments at UVA. 

“It’s amazing to see how much we have been able to accomplish over the last seven years including the incredible and unbelievable transformation of the athletics complex and we could not have done it without Robert and Molly Hardy,” Ryan said.

That transformation includes the demolition in May 2019 of University Hall. 

Hardie said he and his wife believe in the future of UVA. 

“We believe that great universities need great athletic programs and so we’re going to do everything we can in this changing landscape to support athletics programs to ensure that we continue to compete at the highest level,” Hardie said. 

Hardie also expressed support for Ryan as UVA president. 

“We think he’s the best president in the country, especially as it pertains to athletics,” Hardie said. “We’re fortunate to have him right now in this changing landscape. Jim understands that athletics is the front porch of the University.”  

There was also an update on fundraising from Mark Luellen, UVa’s Vice President for Advancement. UVA has already met a major fundraising goal. 

“We have a month to go in the fiscal year but we are already $570 million in this fiscal year in total commitments since July 1 of last year,” Luellen said. “That is a 14 point year over year increase so if we thought we were slowing down at all once we hit the $5 billion number, we are not.” 

Luellen said fundraising for the campaign is now over $5.2 billion and added that an organization called the Council for Advancement and Support of Education will name UVA as its 2024 Circle of Excellence Award for North America. President Ryan will collect the award. 

“There was a lot of conversation and points in the nomination about how important the 2030 Strategic Plan was to helping our donor base understand what the priorities were for the University and driving their inspiration for philanthropy,” Luellen said. “The second point that was highlighted was how much time he spends not only in large group settings but also individually meeting with donors and prospective donors around the country.” 

The UVA Board of Visitors meeting continues today and if you want to watch it,  you’ll have to watch live because the archive is not kept open to the public. (click here)

The terms of Mark T. Bowles, Elizabeth M. Cranwell, Thomas A. DePasquale, and Babur B. Lateef, M.D. expire at the end of June. None are eligible for reappointment and Governor Youngkin will select new members. before the end of the month.

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