Month: August 2008

Few members of the Board of Visitors have been as influential as Gordon Rainey, who this year steps down from the BOV after two four-year terms. He was rector during restructuring, and since 2006 he has been chairman of UVA’s $3 billion capital campaign, which he will continue to lead.

“I just love the place, from the first moment I arrived in 1958,” says Rainey, a graduate of both the college and the law school. C-VILLE stole a few minutes of Rainey’s vacation time in Jackson Hole to get some reflection on his BOV experience.

C-VILLE: You’ve been on other boards at UVA. How different was this one?

Gordon Rainey: I thought I knew a good bit about the University when I was serving on the Alumni Board, but after I was appointed to the BOV, I pretty quickly realized I knew very little. It’s a very complex operation, lot of moving parts, a $2 billion plus operation budget, and just a lot to say grace over. It took a while to understand it.

Former BOV member Gordon Rainey is confident about the future of the University—and the world at large. “I would see a lot of young people in the course of being chair of student affairs and athletics committee. I can tell you, the world is not going to hell in a handbasket.”

Also, it took a while to understand, learn and appreciate the almost myriad constituencies the University of Virginia has. It’s obvious, but it’s students, parents, patients, faculty, administration, and the various foundations around Grounds. Every one of those constituencies is extremely important to the smooth operating of the University.

What were some difficult decisions that pitted some constituencies against others?

Everything that came before us was, in the minds of some constituencies, controversial, including the alumni engagement initiative and spinning off our investment management operation into a separate corporation. The charter legislation that we were able to get through the General Assembly that created greater autonomy for the University—it wasn’t easy to get it adopted, but I think it’s going to prove in time to be tremendously important to the University.

Every major decision that was made was made with the concurrence of the Board of Visitors, and frequently there was not full agreement [initially]. That sometimes was the case with projects, such as the South Lawn Project. We went through three or four iterations of that before we all got comfortable with that. It’s very much a hands-on board.

There’s a tension sometimes between serving Virginia residents and being a world-class university. How did you approach that?

The University hasn’t forgotten, and never will forget, that it has a strong public mandate in Virginia, so there will always be a significantly lower tuition for Virginia residents than it is for out of state residents.

The Board is very sensitive to not pricing the cost of an education at the University of Virginia beyond the reach of middle-income families. We implemented the AccessUVA program, which I think has been an enormously important thing to have done.

What are some of the biggest decisions coming down the pike for the Board of Visitors?

The University has, for a hundred years, had a wonderful reputation in the humanities, but we have never been anything as well known nationally or internationally in science and technology and in the arts. Those are both areas of emphasis. I expect this Access UVA program to rise, in the number of kids enrolling under it.

The other thing is the service component. It was Mr. Frank Batten’s gift that enabled us to establish the school for public policy and service. It’s a tremendously important thing.

How difficult will it be to replace President John Casteen and Chief Operating Officer Leonard Sandridge?

I think those two have formed a partnership that is the envy of higher education in America, and it’s going to be a very tall order working through the transition to new leadership. I’m confident the University will manage through that process in a splendid way like it always does.

How daunting is that $1.3 billion you still have to raise for the capital campaign?

We’ll raise that. We have so many wonderful people working on it, and we have a wonderful national organization. I spend a lot of time going around the country trying to raise money for the University and I see alumni groups all around the country, and every one of them is the same. It is the power of that student experience they never got over.

Many of Virginia’s elected officials showed greater support for conservation bills promoted by the Virginia League of Conservation Voters (VALCV), according to its 2008 conservation scorecard. The league recognized a record number of delegates and legislators supporting all bills it endorsed as legislative heroes, totaling 40 delegates, including Charlottesville Del. David Toscano, and one senator.

Percentages on the scorecard reflect how closely legislators’ voting habits coincided with the opinions of VALCV, according to Lisa Guthrie, the league’s executive director.

“I think citizens need to be informed impartially on how a delegate is voting so they can hold their legislators accountable,” Guthrie says.

While VALCV is based in Richmond, Guthrie says they work with many groups to decide which bills they should support and try to act as an impartial bipartisan third party. Guthrie says many of this year’s legislative heroes are Democrats, but that Republicans held the majority of heroes in last year’s report, according to her opening letter to the scorecard. She says she hopes that the scorecard will provide a way for community members to learn about their legislators’ voting habits and take action to promote conservation as an important political issue.

Rob Bell isn’t shedding any tears over a lower conservation-vote score than he got last year.

Scores show Senator Creigh Deeds increased to 89 percent in the most recent report from 60 percent last year. The voting patterns of Charlottesville area delegates Toscano and Rob Bell differ markedly from one another: Toscano was named a legislative hero, showing an increase from receiving a score of 75 percent last year; however, Republican Bell supported only half of the bills VALCV took positions on this year. Those bills included support for fertilizer regulation, natural resources funding and state LEED buildings, as well as opposition to uranium mining.

Bell says he is not terribly concerned with this year’s results and the scorecard is one of dozens of reports coming out this time of year. Last year, Bell voted in agreement with VALCV on 80 percent of the league’s supported bills, and holds an overall percentage of 48.

Bell says scorecards are not very representative of how citizens feel about his voting patterns and, “in terms of whether people are happy, it’s going to be based on individual bills,” rather than general reports.

As with most bills, Bell says legislators try to get as much information as possible and sometimes receive quite a bit of it, but other times the process is very fast and decisions need to be made quickly. Also, Bell says, he was not responsible for any of the bills VALCV supported this year.

“I don’t draw any big things from this,” Bell says. “I’m not any different this year.”

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.

Devin Schneider is proudly sporting dark khakis, a blue tie and a big smile the morning of July 31. It is an important day for him: He is drug-free and has been for a whole year.

Roughly a year ago, Schneider was arrested for possession (he would not tell this reporter the substance) while studying at the University of Mary Washington. He pleaded guilty and was admitted to the Charlottesville/Albemarle Drug Court Program, where he submitted to daily drug tests, made weekly court appearances, attended intensive substance abuse rehabilitation and got a full-time job.

Schneider struggled at the beginning, getting sanctioned for using alcohol, thus prolonging his stay in the program. But one night, as clichéd as it may sound, his life changed when he met Jimmy.

James E. Crenshaw III helped inspire Devin Schneider as they both quit drugs and alcohol to avoid jail time for drug offenses.

“Jimmy and I were in the same treatment group, and he needed a ride home, so I drove him and we just clicked,” says Schneider. James E. Crenshaw III is a fellow graduate of the program, and, unlike Schneider, was an inspiration to drug court officers from the start. Crenshaw kept an eye on Schneider, pushing him to stay positive and encouraging him to follow the strict rules. They became close friends and depended on each other to stay sober.

Crenshaw’s stellar performance was attributed to his determination to be a good father and son. His drug court officer shared his journey, praising his courage to admit he felt isolated, alone. At a very early age he started smoking marijuana and his use only increased with time.

Now he wants to go back to school and get a degree in computer science. “I plan on staying out of trouble and catching up on my child support,” says Crenshaw. He is currently working as a full-time cook at the local IHOP.

On July 31, they both stood tall in front of a packed courtroom receiving praises from Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Edward Hogshire and featured speaker, Bob Gibson, former Charlottesville reporter and current executive director of the Sorensen Institute.

The drug court program is an alternative to incarceration, and a more successful one at that, says Jeff Gould, drug court administrator. Schneider and Crenshaw were among the four graduates of the program, which enrolls 45 to 50 people. Gould is proud to say the program is not only more efficient in recovery rates than incarceration, but also in its cost: The state spends on average $22,000 on a year of incarceration versus a quarter of that in drug court. In this year’s General Assembly session, House Republicans made an effort to cut funding to the program, though drug court ended up escaping the legislative scalpel.

After graduating, Crenshaw and Schneider walked out of the courtroom hugging family and friends. Both graduates are already planning their future.

“I am going back to Mary Washington and [will] study economics,” says Schneider. “But my dream is to be a sports journalist.” Crenshaw’s dream, on the other hand, involves traveling—if not physically, at least in his thoughts. “I want to go on an island and hang back in the sun.”

Worked for the library for: 3 years

Resides in: Albemarle County

Job title: Circulation assistant. Downing checks books in and out, organizes books on the shelves, and issues library cards.

Best of times: Being around others. “I’m able to help people. I love to see the children in here over the summer. It’s better that they’re here—they could be doing anything else.”

Worst of times: People’s complaints against others using the library. “People don’t remember that it’s a public library and not private. They’ll come up and complain that they don’t like that there are people at a table in the back who are homeless sitting there. That actually annoys me.”

Amanda Downing

Strangest moment on the job: Finding unusual items on the bookshelf. “Sometimes when I’m shelving a book, I won’t always find books. I’ll find maybe a loaf of bread.”

If she were a superhero, she’d be: A superhero from her own imagination, Bookbinder. “I’d be able to move books without using a cart, be able to be the bookmobile without wheels.”

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.