March Board of Visitors Meeting
John Ivey - Rotunda Reporter
On Fri., March 26 and Sat., March 27, the Longwood University Board of Visitors (BOV) met in Lancaster Hall to discuss a range of topics from changes to the Student Handbook, the university’s financial situation, athletics and many other important topics to students.
The BOV is comprised of business professionals, Longwood alumni, faculty and staff representatives, President Patricia Cormier, and President of the Student Government Association (SGA) Cameron Patterson. They listen to updates from many campus departments and vote on policies that can impact virtually every aspect of student life, from policy on smoking, to tuition cost and everything in between.
The BOV’s Friday session began with reports from Rector Helen Warriner-Burke and Longwood President Patricia Cormier, then moved into the business portion of the meeting.
Among the items discussed and voted on was an approval for funds from the Auxiliary Reserve Budget. The request was for $140,000 to repair the Longwood Bed and Breakfast storm gutters. Also included in the request was $255,000 to make repairs to the infrastructure of the Longwood House, which is where the university president resides. The total of these repairs will be $395,000, the action was approved.
During the Comprehensive Campaign Report it was announced that the recently created nursing program has received multiple grants to help fund the program. The program received three large grants: $151,000 from the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation, $200,000 from the Virginia Tobacco & Indemnification & Community Revitalization Commission’s Reserve Fund, and $150,000 from the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation. These grants add up to more than $500,000.
In the revisions to the Student Handbook, the first policy change request was for guidelines regarding scavenger hunts on campus. The rational for the guidelines was “some scavenger hunts recently disrupted university business and residence hall communities.” This is a big change because prior to this scavenger hunts were unregulated. Guidelines for scavenger hunts include: participants should be “learning about their organization, field of study, or the University”, “not exceed two hours in length”, and “participants should not work alone.” Requirements for scavenger hunts will now include: mandatory registration of the scavenger hunt with the Student Union Office, must be conducted between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday or between 10 a.m. and midnight on Friday and Saturday. Further requirements specify that the boundaries for scavenger hunts is limited to main campus only and that going off campus or to university managed communities is not permitted and travel via a vehicle is not permitted. This action was approved.
In addition, the Community Standards Committee, in conjunction with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life recommended that the Greek Judicial Board and Student Arbitration Board be removed from the Student Handbook. The reasoning behind the change was that “the number of Greek organization incidents has significantly dropped” in the past six years. Also, “Greek involvement and membership on the Honor and Judicial Boards increased.” This means that all cases formerly handled by the Greek Judicial Board and Student Arbitration Board will now be handled by the Judicial and Honor Systems. This action was approved.
Further revisions to the Student Handbook included a revision of the alcohol policy in fraternity chapter rooms. The changes affect events hosted in chapter rooms. These events must be hosted as “Bring Your Own Beverage (BYOB)” and “there are no more than four alcoholic beverages per attendee of legal drinking age.” The policy further states that the number of attendees present is limited to one guest per fraternity chapter member. Also “one alcoholic beverage is defined as a 12 oz. beer, a 4 oz. glass of wine, or 1 oz. of hard liquor.” The rationale for the policy change “is intended as a limitation on the amount of alcohol available per person, not as a guideline…” This action was approved.
During the Report on Student Housing the current student statistical data was presented. The statistics showed that the total number of students living in university housing is over 2800, which represents more than 60 percent of total student enrolment. The total headcount for spring 2010 is just over 4500, less than a one percent increase from last year.
The Report on Athletics Academic Progress Rate included data for the academic years 2005 to 2009. The report showed that nine out of 14 teams reached the maximum number of points possible by NCAA benchmarks in a single year with 1000. Women’s golf is the only team to reach 1000 points over multiple years. However, men’s basketball was the only team to not meet the NCAA benchmark, which is 925 points, falling short by five points in a single year.
The final information item discussed was an Update on Intercollegiate Athletics. Director of Athletics Troy Austin gave an oral update on the universities athletics, including the recent move by the athletic department into the newly renovated Tabb Hall. In addition, Austin hinted at the fact that Longwood University is pursuing membership in the Big South NCAA conference.
The next BOV meeting will be held in June.
No comments:
Post a Comment