For the first time the BOV representative designated students to attend the Board of Visitors committee meetings, because I can not be in four places at the same time. Below are a summary and comments from Shaimaa Abdallah, Ali Tamijani, and Derek Whisman about their respective committees. Thank you for your help Shaimaa, Ali, and Derek!
The meeting minutes for the November Board of Visitors meeting are available at www.bov.vt.edu. I will post highlights once they have been posted to the website.
Shaimaa Abdallah – Graduate Student at the Electrical & Computer Engineering
Academic Affairs Committee Meeting
I have had the chance to attend the Academic Affairs Committee with the Board of Visitors (BOV). For me that was a really exciting experience, to be able to see and communicate with all of those senior administrators who are responsible for a great deal of what is going on in our campus, especially decision making. It was a very informative meeting and I will try to point out what caught my interest throughout the three hours talk:
* Diversity issue within the university is still of concern to the BOV, they showed great interest in a new program that have been going on for the past three years which offers real chances to underrepresented minority. I think that issue is really important since one of the best things about VT is the acceptance of its community to the variety of students , especially gradates, that come from around the globe or even from inside the USA coming from different races
* Graduate School Report
1. There is an increase in the number of students admitted in VT both males and females exceeding the expectations target set for the year 2012. However the graduate females’ percentage is still below 50% compared to that of graduate males in both Master and PHD degrees. And for me as a female PHD student I found that this last percentage agrees with what I have noticed around my department since engineering is not that attractive field for graduate females. I think because of the long commitment and pressure that most females find it hard to keep up with if we consider their other obligations in life such as having a family especially if there are children involved. Especially that in VT there is no effective family programs supporting them along their long journey in school.
2. There is a trend to move more toward Graduate Research Assistantships (GRAs) opportunities to compensate for the budget cuts in Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTAs) offers around the schools. I hope that will work even though I think the chance of being able to teach is a great opportunity to those who are considering academic career later. I would hope that they can give those who want that career to spend some time teaching as well.
3. I was surprised to know that the percentages of graduate students in VT Blacksburg Campus are not as equivalent to those in the extended VT sites. I wondered why is that the case but throughout the discussion only more questions came up
4. Prof. Karen Depauw showed her hopes for increase in the inter-disciplinary studies which she believes will give more flexibility and innovation to the existing programs offered by VT.
* Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS-COC) reaffirmation of accreditation is soon to come to the VT campus. This visit takes place every 10 years and it is so important for the VT campus as a whole. From what I have heard it is more difficult this time as “the university is now required to address 86 core, comprehensive and federal regulation statements with written narrative justifications and supporting documentation”*. *For more information http://www.sacs.vt.edu/
* Mentoring networking that last topic on their agenda I found was really interesting. I hope that this idea will be generalized all over the graduate schools and not only in the undergrad level as intended. I believe that this will play a major role in improving the mentoring process that almost doesn’t exist except within few cases and not in all the disciplinarians around VT. This new idea exceeds the Traditional Mentoring to create a network of peers, senior faculty members, writing coach, administrators, extended mentor and the Center for Instructional Development and Educational Research (CIDER) FDI program.
Ali Yeilaghi Tamijani – Graduate student in Engineering Mechanics
Finance and Audit Committee Meeting
* The board talked about the priorities in the university projects. It was discussed that we need to look for our research priorities not just adding buildings.
* There were also some people from capitol who checked the account at Virginia tech to monitor if we are on the right path.
* Different reports have been presented in the meeting. The first report was about audit IT support. It was shown that there has been a significant improvement from paper to electronic. However some vendors are not very willing to use electronic invoices instead of paper version and controller office is working with them.
* Also there was a report about research grant at Virginia Tech. It was presented that how the research grants at Virginia Tech are monitored to be sure that the PI of research does not run out of money before the contract finishes.
* The reduction was discussed in the meeting. It was reported that there has been 68.5 million dollars reduction in our budget since 2007. This year reduction is about 25 million dollars; however there is a 12 million dollars stimulus fund which the university has not received yet.
* The insurance report was presented too. The chair of health insurance committee answered the board members question. The board was interested to know if there has been any improvement in the health insurance.
* The fifth report was about faculty salary. It was mentioned that we have one of the highest faculty salary in the nation. The chairman made the point that why the salary is very high. He mentioned that with respect to expense in different states we need to think more carefully about our faculty salary.
* The next part was the projects that needed to be approved by the BOV. The MBA program fee, financial performance report, capital projects (Major construction, Parking and Lane stadium), Pratt fund were among the projects that BOV approved.
* The board also decided that there should be a revision in the university servant policy for eligible faculty and university staff. It was discussed that how a retired faculty or staff can still have a position at Virginia Tech.
Derek Whisman – Graduate Student in English
Student Affairs and Athletics Committee
Tom Gabbard presented the Board with the Athletic Department Quarterly Report. Here are the highlights:
* As a “spin-off” of funding for the new basketball facility, the Castle has be rewired for better media support. Television crews for basketball games will have an easier time accessing media ports, drastically reducing set-up time from around 10 hours down to 2.
* The big project currently underway is the construction of the new football locker rooms. In addition to housing these locker rooms, the facility being built will include a player’s lounge, football offices as well as locker rooms and offices for the wrestling program. This 37,000+ square feet facility will be completed in 2-3 years. Money for this project will mostly all come from the contributions of donors.
* Due to this shuffle, several other programs will be impacted as well. The old football locker room will be broken into three separate locker room facilities for the men’s soccer, track and baseball teams. The softball team will move into the old baseball facilities, lacrosse into the old track space and the old wrestling locker rooms will be converted into an extra guest team area.
* Mr. Gabbard assured the Board that our facilities will sit among the top in the ACC when everything is finished.
* The next major project will be updating the Field House and other projects will emerge as necessary.
Rachael Budowle and Robert Coffey gave a presentation on the sustainability programs in housing and dining at Virginia Tech. Their efforts include the following:
* Shifting the products students use to more environmentally friendly options such as low flow showerheads, low VOC paint, reusable water bottles and bags for takeout.
* Reducing waste by adding additional recycling methods and cutting down on the overproduction in food preparation.
* Composting. Ms. Budowle noted that she is currently overseeing a project in conjunction with a Riner composting facility. Her hope is that the compost will eventually return to the grounds at Tech, creating a positive cycle instead of creating waste. Over time, this will also reduce cost and save the school money.
* They are also looking into local, sustainable food sources which can be incorporated into the daily food plan at Tech, including the herb garden currently maintained on campus. She encouraged everyone to seek more information on the “Farms and Fields Project” website at http://farmsandfieldsproject.wordpress.com
Rebecca is the 2009-2010 Graduate Student Representative to the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. You can contact her via email or by leaving a comment.
