Author: Kathleen Smith

Since University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan was fired—and reinstated—in 2012, there have been calls for change in both how the Board of Visitors is governed and who is on the board. With Governor Terry McAuliffe’s last round of five appointees, critics say there’s still too little diversity in who gets appointed. And one tradition—that BOV members usually are supporters of the governor that appointed them—holds true for four of the new visitors.

Walter Heinecke, associate professor in the Curry School of Education and immediate past president of the American Association of University Professors, UVA Chapter, claims the system of appointing people from the corporate class to boards of public universities is problematic.

“The whole structural problem in how we appoint BOV members, which was raised during the ouster, has not been addressed or resolved,” Heinecke said.

On June 2, McAuliffe named donors Tammy S. Murphy of Red Bank, New Jersey, Whittington W. Clement of Richmond, Jeffrey C. Walker of New York City, and Mark T. Bowles of Richmond to the board, along with James V. Reyes of Washington, D.C., director of a leading food and beverage wholesale distributor who has not endorsed any of McAuliffe’s political campaigns. Three of the incoming members—Clement, Walker, and Murphy—also are graduates of UVA.

Walker, current vice chair in the United Nations Envoy’s Office for Health Finance and Malaria and former COO of a private equity firm, contributed $50,000 to McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign and another $10,000 to his inaugural committee, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

He was also involved in a 2013 effort to reform the Board of Visitor’s selection system by appealing directly to McAuliffe, who was a gubernatorial candidate at the time.

According to the Washington Post, Walker, then chairman of the UVA Council of Foundations, led a group of notable UVA alumni who wanted to implement a system in which 8 of the 17 voting members on the board were chosen from a group of candidates compiled by alums and other supporters of the school, and he encouraged the alums to contribute to McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign.

In the Post interview, Walker denied using money to gain influence. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment by C-VILLE.

Walker isn’t the only one who gave to McAuliffe. Tammy Murphy is co-founder of a New Jersey state policy think tank and has given him $13,000. In 2015, Whittington Clement, a partner at Hunton & Williams LLP and founding trustee of the UVA College Foundation, contributed $1,500.

Mark T. Bowles is a partner at legal powerhouse McGuireWoods, as is current board member Frank Atkinson and outgoing Rector George Martin. Bowles gave McAuliffe $225 in 2009 and $1,500 in 2013.

With state support to UVA now about six percent of the school’s budget, that means revenue must be generated from tuition, philanthropy and research dollars, says Heinecke, adding that high net-worth individuals serving on the board may be less likely to push the state for higher levels of funding because that would require high corporate and wealth taxes.

Recent increases in tuition and a reduction in funding for AccessUVA, the university’s financial aid program, are two examples Heinecke cites as evidence of a shortsighted board.

“At the end of the term, the BOV increased tuition significantly for the next two years, so what you don’t see is an understanding by board members of what this means to low-income students in the commonwealth,” Heinecke says. “They buy into the high-tuition, high-aid model for funding of public education, which is problematic for all sorts of reasons.”

And Dr. Edward Miller resigned from the board in March, citing the tuition increases and lack of transparency in the decision as reasons for his early departure.

UVA Alumni for Responsible Corporate Governance member Richard Marks says he believes McAuliffe has succeeded in selecting competent candidates for the BOV.

“[McAuliffe] understands that what happens at UVA is important in the commonwealth and throughout the country,” Marks says. “The university’s BOV has, frankly, been a weak component at the university and since it is at the apex at the university it needs to be corrected. I think Governor McAuliffe is determined to do that, so just speaking for me, and not for our group, I’m very encouraged.”

Despite the foundational problems within the BOV that have surfaced in recent years, Heinecke said some successful measures have been taken to reform the composition of the board. Additionally, the full board must now agree in accepting a president’s resignation and a non-voting faculty member was added to the BOV.

Although Heinecke considers these modifications to be a step in the right direction, he said they are merely governance issues.

“In terms of actual policy, you can see the impact of the board selection process,” Heinecke said. “I am troubled by the lack of attention being given to solving systemic problems that created the ouster itself. If this is a public university, shouldn’t the governing board reflect the community it serves?”

Bill Goodwin, current vice rector on the BOV, replaces Martin as rector. The five incoming UVA BOV members start their four-year terms on July 1.

Clarification July 1: This story has been modified to note that Teresa Sullivan was reinstated after her abrupt dismissal in 2012.

Correction 7/6/2015: The story has been edited to show that Walt Heinecke is the immediate past president of the UVA chapter of the American Association of University Professors, not the current president. And it now takes a meeting of the full Board of Visitors to hire and fire a president, not the executive committee as originally stated in the story.

A former member of the University of Virginia swim team has filed a lawsuit against five of his former teammates for incidents including hazing, false imprisonment, and assault that occurred last fall.

Anthony Marcatonio’s suit, filed in federal court on June 26, alleges that in the late night/early morning of August 27/28, Marcantonio and other first-year members of the swim team were summoned to a house on Wertland Street known as the “Swim House.” The underclassmen were subjected to false imprisonment, forced drinking of alcohol and other beverages, verbal abuse, forced sexual contact, and intimidation strategies, including the threat of forced sodomy.

The suit was filed against Kyle Dudzinski, Luke Papendick, Charles Rommel, David Ingraham, and Jacob Pearce, all upperclassmen Virginia swim team members at the time of the alleged events.

After head coach Augie Busch decided that Marcantonio’s “physical safety could not be guaranteed” on September 15, Marcantonio was forced to swim when other members of the team were not present, according to the suit. Unable to maintain his regular swimming routine, Marcantonio was forced to transfer and nullify his contract with the university.

Marcantonio is suing the four seniors and one junior for assault, battery, false imprisonment, hazing, tortuous interference with a contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and two counts of conspiracy to commit those acts. He’s also seeking punitive damages, the amounts of which would be decided at trial.

Marcantonio now swims for Northwestern University, according to The Daily Progress.

The University of Virginia Board of Visitors voted May 19 to extend President Teresa Sullivan’s contract until July 31, 2018. Her current contract is set to end on July 31, 2016.

A provision in the newly passed contract stipulates that Sullivan’s successor could assume office as early as November 1, 2017. If the board has not selected a replacement by the end of Sullivan’s term, or if the incoming president cannot assume office by August 1, 2018, her term could be extended until May 31, 2019.

Sullivan told reporters that the contract extension upholds her original decision to stay with UVA for up to 10 years.

“When I came to the university, I promised the search committee I’d stay seven to 10 years,” she said. “I feel when I’ve completed seven years, I will have held up my end of the bargain.”

Not everyone was thrilled with the extension. UVA alum Brock Muir’s problem with Sullivan is “a lack of passion,” he said. “I just think she’s mediocre. There’s no leadership. Virginia deserves better. I’m totally baffled about why they extended her contract.”

According to a report by the Cavalier Daily, the board also agreed to a $15,000 salary increase for this fiscal year and a $25,000 salary increase that will go into effect in August. Sullivan’s current salary is $647,000.

Board member Helen Dragas told The Daily Progress that she did not agree with the proposal to increase Sullivan’s salary after the board voted to increase in-state students’ tuition over the next five years. Dragas said she abstained from voting, rather than voting against the extension, so it would not appear she had any personal resentment against the president.

Sullivan became UVA’s eighth president upon assuming office in August 2010 and is the first female to hold the position. She will be named university professor and president emerita when her contract expires.