At its regular quarterly meeting held Monday in Blacksburg, the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors took action on several academic and administrative issues.

The board adopted the FY2007-08 fiscal year budget of $967 million, a 7 percent increase over the $900.6 million budget last year.

The budget reflects a $17 million increase in state support—which will be used, in part, to support a 4 percent increase in faculty and staff salaries and several capital construction projects. University leadership continues the quest toward achieving the state goal of the 60th percentile for faculty salaries. Virginia Tech faculty salaries currently stand at the 33rd percentile.

The university also projects increases in revenue from sponsored research grants and auxiliary programs.

The board approved the 2008-14 Capital Outlay Plan, which proposes $1.58 billion in future construction and renovation project funding requests to the Virginia General Assembly.

A resolution to start of the design phase of a $42 million academic and student affairs building for the north side of campus was approved. The proposed five story building would be used to for both classroom and Student Affairs programming activities and address a long standing space shortages for student programming and general purpose classroom space.

The board also approved a resolution that will provide greater consistency across departments in annual and pre-tenure faculty evaluations. Departmental promotion and tenures committees will be required to thoroughly review each pre-tenure faculty member at least twice during the usual six year probationary period and provide written and verbal feedback to the faculty members on progress toward tenure.

In addition, the board approved a career track for instructors consisting of three ranks: instructor, advanced instructor, and senior instructor. The new designations will recognize the achievements and professional development of non-tenure-track faculty members dedicated to undergraduate education.

A new Ph.D. program in Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought was approved by the board and will be forwarded to the State Council of Higher Education for review and final approval. The proposed program will prepare students to undertake problem-centered, multi- and interdisciplinary analysis at the intersection of the humanities, social sciences, and cognate professional fields.

Wayne Scales, professor of electrical engineering and chair of the Task Force on Race and the Institution, presented the group’s final report to the Academic Affairs Committee. The report can be found on the Provost’s website.

The board adopted five resolutions related to the tragic events of April 16. The resolutions, which were read at the meeting by five board members, include a Resolution of Commendation to the students of Virginia Tech, and Resolutions of Appreciation for Virginia Tech administration, faculty, and staff; to the law enforcement and emergency response agencies; to the greater Virginia Tech community; and to Governor Tim Kaine and the Virginia Tech Review Panel.

In addition, the board approved the designation of “Honorary Distinguished Faculty” to honor the legacy of the five teachers—German Instructor Jamie Bishop, Engineering Science and Mechanic professors Kevin Granata and Liviu Librescu, Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor G.V. Logananthan, and French Instructor Jocelyne Couture-Nowak—who lost their lives that day.

Gary Downey, professor in the Department of Science and Technology in Society in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, was honored with the rank of Alumni Distinguished Professor. Hanif Sherali, the W. Thomas Rice Professor in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Michael Hochella, professor of geosciences in the College of Science, where honored with the rank of University Distinguished Professor.

Donna W. Dunay, professor of architecture in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, was named the G. Truman Ward Professor of Architecture.

The next regular quarterly meeting of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors will be held August 26-27, 2007 on the Virginia Tech campus.

==> Please note: Board minutes, resolutions, and other background information may be found at the Board of Visitors website.

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