Longwood University hosted its governor-appointed Board of Visitors on campus from March 23-25, entering a succession of both public updates and discussion as well as closed executive committee meetings in typical fashion.
Each of the three days held one executive session, but Friday, March 24 also included a morning full of reports from Longwood University President W. Taylor Reveley IV, each of his vice presidents, the alumni board, the Longwood Foundation and representatives of the students, faculty and staff.
Friday afternoon included lunch with students handpicked by Dr. Tim Pierson, followed by a review of construction and updates on the results of the General Assembly session. Virginia’s General Assembly was in session from Jan. 11-Feb. 25 this year.
Reveley began the morning reports by summarizing some of the highlights in each area - academic affairs, student affairs, administration and finance, institutional advancement, strategic operations and athletics.
“In a way that sort of belies the climate outside on this beautiful spring day, the climate around higher ed is pretty cloudy and pretty frisky these days in Virginia, around the country and that ought to make us all the prouder of all the progress Longwood has made,” he said.
Academic Affairs Report
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Joan Neff who reviewed the progress of her department and focus moving forward.
“We’ve been moving forward with our academic endeavors in spite of the fact that there are some challenges that we are going to face,” said Neff, again referencing the uncertainty in funding and legislation from the state and federal government.
Within her overview, Neff stated chemistry professor Melissa Rhoten, who served on the Academic Core Curriculum Committee charged with developing the new core curriculum, was recently named the director of the program. The Core Curriculum’s new interdisciplinary and single disciplinary courses will be piloted in Longwood’s curriculum in the fall to start the university’s transition with the class of 2022.
“No students that are currently here will be penalized by the changes to the Core Curriculum,” said Neff. The provost added she will work with Rhoten to develop a plan to help students finish their general education requirements while the new students begin the Core Curriculum.
Outside of the Core Curriculum, Neff announced a new dean of the College of Business and Economics has been selected after former Dean Paul Barrett stepped down after spring 2016. Dr. Timothy O’Keefe will begin his first term in July, leaving his position as executive director and chair of the School of Entrepreneurship at University of North Dakota.
Neff said the university is also waiting to receive results from the Delaware study, which will show how they compare to other schools on several levels. The results should arrive by December.
According to Neff, the school applied to multiple grants through the Office of Sponsored Programs, including one from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ grant may get cut depending on decisions made in the federal budget. She said if the grant is awarded, though, it will go toward creating programs developing a “coordinated community response” to instances like sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking on campus.
Office of Student Affairs Report
Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Tim Pierson summarized the recent initiatives by students on campus, including the creation of the Dining Services Committee to provide Grant Avent, the director of Dining Services, more organized feedback.
Pierson also said the campus has recognized a “big need” for student, faculty and staff diversity training regarding international students or students of color and dealing with cultural differences.
“It is critical that they feel accepted and part of here,” said Pierson, emphasizing international students. He added that there has been a rise of student activism on campuses around the nation, including Longwood.
Board of Visitors Rector Robert Wertz, Jr. questioned whether the Longwood University Police Department was still short-staffed, previously down five officers and two dispatchers.
Pierson said some of the positions have been filled; he added that the issue was in part due to the salary competition. In addition, he said the university force saw new recruits dropping out of the police academy before finishing, wasting the school’s investment in their training.
Office of Administration and Finance Report
Vice President of Administration and Finance Ken Copeland reviewed the two ongoing and two upcoming constructions projects as well as stated the year’s financial audit was underway.
Copeland also said a team of university staff are in training to transition to the Cardinal Project payroll system developed by the state, which will allow Longwood to start paying wage, miscellaneous and adjunct employees every two weeks by April 16.
According to Copeland, the university plans to expand the biweekly payments to student workers by the next Board of Visitors meeting agenda, rather than keeping the students’ monthly paydays.
"Right now, our student workers are being paid once a month, and that's got to change,” he said.
As the fiscal year nears its end in June, Copeland said the university is encouraging the faculty and staff to be “conservative” with their discretionary funds after numerous factors, including the lower enrollment, smaller number of credit hours taken and faculty salary increase without state assistance, drove some uncertainty into the 2016-17 budget.
While Copeland was confident the university wouldn’t face a shortfall, he said, “Those things added together, we could end up in a budget deficit by the end of this year.”
Regarding Dining Services, Copeland said their 10 year contract with Aramark will be up for renegotiation in a year or two, depending on whether the university decides to extend it by a year.
Longwood Athletics Department Report
For the athletics department, director Troy Austin said their most important update was preparing for the Big South softball tournament to be hosted at Longwood from May 10-13.
Office of Strategic Operations Report
Director of Strategic Operations Victoria Kindon said they are continuing to focus on retention and increasing their four-year graduation rate, currently sitting over 50 percent.
On the admissions side, Kindon said the university received over 6,000 applications and are making “tremendous strides” in moving prospective students into the acceptance phase faster. She said Longwood sent out financial aid packages two months earlier for the first time and are almost to their goal of 150 high school students committed by April 1. The deposit deadline is May 1.
Kindon said more students with 3.75 GPAs or higher are applying, but her team recognizes they have a lot of competition to appeal to those students. She said they mainly target high school students in the 3.2-3.3 range, as they usually are successful at Longwood, in response to a board member’s question regarding the quality of student her team is recruiting.
Following the 2016-17’s smaller freshman class, Kindon said they are treating the unexpected anomaly in last year’s cycle as the new trend in order to be better prepared.
Office of Institutional Advancement Report
Vice President of Institutional Advancement Courtney Hodges said the university has raised over $10 million so far this fiscal year, a untouched milestone for over a decade. According to her report, it was a huge jump from the $4.18 million raised in 2016.
“Love your Longwood Day” raised over $126,000 from current students, alumni, faculty and staff donations, according to Hodges.
Alumni Board of Directors Report
Alumni board president Kendall Lee began his report by reminding the board of visitors about the alumni awards taking place that evening at 6 p.m. in the Lee Grand Dining Hall. He also said he would introduce the new president, who will replace him at the end of his term this year, at the next meeting.
Faculty Representative Report
Lissa Powder-DeFur said professors are submitting their proposals for fall core curriculum classes and also provided an extensive overview of the professors who are also doing work in the Prince Edward County community.
Student Government Association President Report
Student Government Association (SGA) President Dillon Yonker, a Longwood criminal justice senior, said the 2017 SGA elections had received the more participation so far than previous years. He added that students brought up issues they cared about at the SGA Presidential Debate held on Monday, March 20, including security, the protest policy and improving engagement with transfer and first year students.
The next Board of Visitors meeting will be held from June 8-10. Follow The Rotunda for stories looking further into some of the issues in the meeting.
- Office of Academic Affairs: Core Curriculum director named, university to see how grant funding will be affected based on federal and state budgets
- Office of Student Affairs: Progress made on diversity training, students created a dining services committee, Longwood police no longer short-staffed
- Office of Finance and Administration: Contract with Aramark to be up in the next one or two years, new payroll system will allow student workers to receive bi-weekly pay
- Office of Strategic Operations: Admissions received over 6,000 applications, treating last year's enrollment cycle anomaly as the new norm
- Office of Institutional Advancement: Hit $10 million mark in money raised for the first time in over a decade
