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The University of Virginia’s Faculty Senate this week voted, 27 to 18, to table a motion on changing how the faculty selects its representative to the Board of Visitors. The university’s governing board has been pushing the Senate to send it three faculty names from which to choose, instead of the current process, whereby the Senate elects a single faculty representative to the board. Some on the faculty believe it’s best to acquiesce to the board and preserve the faculty seat, since state law requires a student representative to the board but not a faculty one, and the visitors have signaled that they’ll cut the faculty seat if they can’t help pick who takes it. Other faculty members say that the board has given no clear reason as to why this change is necessary, and they object to the visitors threatening to revoke the faculty representation granted in the wake of the 2012 shared governance crisis triggered by the board’s attempt to remove then president Teresa Sullivan.
The Faculty Senate of Virginia Association, a statewide faculty governance group, has weighed in, saying that it supports “the accepted practice that faculty representatives to the Board of Visitors should be elected by the faculty.” The full Senate meets again next month, and it’s likely the proposal will be discussed anew at that meeting.
