Board of Visitors holds first meeting with new appointees

Jack Glagola, News Editor

Annabel Granger, Contributing Writer

Four new members joined the Board of Visitors for its first meeting of the semester on Sept. 5 at Scott House on Franklin Street.

The Board is the highest-ranking body at VCU. It is composed of university administrators, like the provost, vice presidents, the president and 16 governor-appointed members.

It is charged with reviewing and approving institutional plans, programs, budgets and policies for the university’s operation such as the annual budget or the academic repositioning initiative, according to its website.

All board meetings and records are public. Minutes and materials are maintained on the Board’s website. The Board will reconvene at 1 p.m. on Sept. 12 and 13 at the James Branch Cabell Library in room 303, according to VCU News.

The new members were appointed by Governor Glenn Youngkin and confirmed by the General Assembly for four-year terms in July. They are, according to VCU News:

• Dr. Siobhan Dunnavant, a former member of the Virginia Senate from 2016 to 2024. Before that, she practiced obstetrics and gynecology in Henrico.
• Kenneth Lipstock, the owner and director of Lipstock LASIK and Cataract Center, and an assistant clinical professor at the VCU Department of Ophthalmology.
• Randolph N. Reynolds Jr., a founding partner at Reynolds Development Company, a real estate and development company.
• C.J. Sailor, director of the Stand Together Foundation, a “philanthropic community that helps America’s boldest changemakers tackle the root causes of our country’s biggest problems,” according to its website.

They will replace H. Benson Dendy III, Carmen Lomellin, Keith T. Parker and Tonya Parris-Wilkins whose terms in the BOV have ended, according to VCU News.

The meeting served as an orientation for the new members and focused on what the Board does and what their responsibilities are.

Todd Haymore, rector of the Board, said serving the university community has been “inspiring” to him over his rectorship.

“Whether it’s talking to students, whether it’s talking to faculty, staff, administration, just knowing that we’re here to help push the university forward and help these people succeed — particularly, our students,” Haymore said.

Haymore also said it is important for the Board to “speak with one voice” and come to conclusions collectively.

Anthony Bedell, a member of the Board, said last year’s tuition increase — 2.7% at the beginning of 2024 — was necessary.

“We needed to do that to make sure the students were having the kind of experience they needed to have here,” Bedell said. “That’s the most important thing, is making sure we are producing quality graduates.”

The increase came after three years of flat tuition rates. The university handed out scholarships to keep tuition and fees below inflation in 2023, according to VCU News.

Grant Heston, VCU’s vice president of enterprise marketing and communications, warned the new members to monitor their social media presence, as anything they say can reflect on the Board’s public image.

“Just remember that when it comes to social media, there is no personal social media anymore. Anything you post can and will come back to your service as a VCU Board member,” Heston said.

One board member appointed in 2023, Rooz Dadabhoy, was criticized by students and faculty for social media posts decrying critical race theory, according to The Commonwealth Times.

Michael Rao, the president of VCU, discussed how 2024 is looking to be the university’s “strongest year ever” after being ranked a top 50 public research university by the National Sciences Foundation in their 2022 survey. It was also recognized by US News and World Report as a top 20% university globally in 2024.

He said it is important to remember that VCU was chartered as a research university and to “stick to that.”

“We’re in a complex environment — we do lots of things,” Rao said. “There are a lot of folks who want primacy with those things, and there is primacy with those things, but not at the exclusion of others.”

Rao said he is focused on ensuring students have multiple professional experiences while still undergraduates.

“I used to say I wanted every student to have an internship. I used to say I wanted every student to have a problem-solving experience with a real company, or a real professor who’s really solving real problems,” Rao said. “Now I say that needs to be multiple experiences.”

Provost Fotis Sotiropolous said his focus is the student experience, including enrollment, their success, retention, careers and connecting with alumni.

“Students and the student experience are what I spend most of the time thinking about when I’m awake — and when I’m sleeping as well,” Sotiropolous said.

Sotriopolous said one of the top priorities for the provost’s office is shared governance with faculty and staff. Shared governance is different from shared decision-making, which is the purview of the administration, he said.

“But for every major change, whether it is new programs, whether it is new policies, we have a very inclusive consultative process,” Sotiropolous said. “And I can tell you that, in most cases, we adapt with the consensus.”

Sotiropolous said VCU is the first university to offer a “revolutionary” practical AI minor to provide students the opportunity to be an “AI leader.”

“This is not intended to turn students into computer science geeks,” Sotiropolous said. “It is intended to introduce them to the power of the technology, the ethical challenges and help them understand how they can use AI in everything they do.”

Sotiropolous said the outcome of the academic repositioning initiative will be announced to the public at the next Board of Visitors meeting on Sept. 12 and 13.

“It is leading to new schools and colleges,” Sotiropolous said. “It is leading to a new way of teaching our students and the basic process in that vision for the future is — number one, cultivating and expanding work-based experiential skills from internships to projects.”