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VSU Board Dissolves Faculty Council
Virginia State University's board of visitors voted in August to dissolve the university's faculty council. Relations between the board and the council had been tense for several years, and the faculty council had publicly criticized the university administration. According to the administration, the recent decision followed an incident in which the faculty council chair refused to provide copies of minutes, reports, and other documents requested by a committee charged by the board with evaluating the council. The board announced that a council consisting of faculty and staff will replace the dissolved faculty council.
At its first meeting of the 2001-02 academic year, the Faculty Senate of Virginia, which represents faculty members at all of the state's public and private two- and four-year colleges and universities, unanimously endorsed the following statement regarding the dissolution of VSU's faculty council:
The Faculty Senate of Virginia has followed with mounting concern and dismay the unfortunate events at Virginia State University in Petersburg, culminating in the dissolution of the peer-elected VSU Faculty Council by the institution's Board of Visitors on August 3, 2001. The Faculty Senate of Virginia deplores that action because it has eliminated at VSU one of higher education's most time-honored traditions: shared governance with peer-elected faculty representation, which has characterized and contributed significantly to the excellence of institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth of Virginia and in the rest of the nation for over a century. The Faculty Senate of Virginia urges the Board of Visitors of Virginia State University to restore the VSU Faculty Council.
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