New UVa president among several key leadership changes

Teresa A. Sullivan, the former provost of the University of Michigan, will become the University of Virginia’s eighth president today.

Sullivan’s appointment is the first of a coming wave of changes at the top echelon of UVa’s leadership.

Leonard W. Sandridge, UVa’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, is retiring next June. Sandridge had planned to retire at the end of this year, but Sullivan asked him to stick around for another six months to help with the transition and the search for his replacement.

“When President Sullivan asked me to give her a few more months to select my replacement, Jerry and I discussed it and quickly agreed that my answer would be yes,” Sandridge said, referring to his wife. “It is important to me to do all I can to make the transition smooth and effective — the university deserves nothing less.”

Sandridge has held his current position since 1990, overseeing all non-academic aspects of UVa, including the architects for the university, student affairs, management and budget, human resources, police, emergency preparedness, financial and management oversight of the Health System and more.

Sandridge also agreed to serve as a part-time adviser to Sullivan for the year following his retirement in June.

The university’s provost, Dr. Arthur “Tim” Garson Jr., is also stepping down to become senior vice president for health policy and health systems at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Garson, a pediatric cardiologist and widely recognized health policy expert, joined UVa in 2002 as dean of the School of Medicine. He became the university’s provost — which oversees all academic operations — six years later.

Garson will leave UVa in May. Details of a search to find his replacement have not yet been announced.

Beyond the top three officials at UVa, the university’s Board of Visitors is also about to undergo a significant amount of change.

Over the next two years, at least six members of the BOV — including the university’s rector, John O. Wynne — will leave the board because their terms will be up and they will not be eligible for re-appointment.

An additional two members, Helen Dragas of Virginia Beach and Robert Hardie of Charlottesville, will be eligible for re-appointment in July 2012.

Their re-appointment, however, is far from certain because they were appointed by then-Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat.

Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, decided in June to not re-appoint the university’s vice rector, Daniel R. Abramson of Alexandria, who had been eligible for another term. Abramson was a major contributor to the campaigns of Kaine, Mark R. Warner and other Democrats.

Hardie, similarly, has given nearly $190,000 to Democrats since 2001, including $46,000 to Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, McDonnell’s opponent in last year’s gubernatorial race. Dragas has contributed more than $15,000 to Democratic candidates and political action committees over the years, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

“You’ll see a whole new group of people coming on. Possibly half of the 16 members [of the Board of Visitors] will be ending their terms,” said L.F. Payne, a former Democratic congressman and member of the board whose terms ends next June. “The other half are relative newcomers. But that’s a good thing. They’ll have some fresh new ideas.”

All the coming changes to UVa’s leadership, Payne said, will mark a “time of great change and great opportunity for the university.”

Sullivan, who declined to comment for this story because she was busy moving last week, recently outlined at a board retreat in Virginia Beach a few of her priorities she plans to tackle as UVa’s president.

Among these priorities, she said, are to find ways to keep UVa’s salaries competitive as other universities begin to recover from the recession; to increase transparency in the university’s budget process; and to ramp up UVa’s “productivity” when it comes to academics. To “get more bang for its education buck,” she said, the university could implement measures such as adding classes on Fridays or Saturdays.

Gweneth L. West, chairwoman of UVa’s Faculty Senate’s executive council, said much of the faculty is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead under UVa’s new leadership.

“We’re primed. We’re ready for this kind of change,” said West, a professor of costume design in UVa’s drama department. “I’m very optimistic about the changes and opportunities ahead. I’m chomping at the bit.”

West said she and others would like to see Sullivan put UVa on a path toward greater internationalization and increase funding for graduate students.

Aiding the transition, she said, will be UVa’s numerous deans hired relatively recently. In the last couple of years, the university has hired seven of its 11 current deans, a new dean of admission, a vice provost for the arts and one for international programs.

“We have a bunch of great new energetic deans,” West said. “They’re ready for new visions and ideas for the university.”

While most universities undergo such dramatic shifts in leadership periodically, UVa has not seen such changes since Casteen became president two decades ago.

“When President Sullivan assumes her duties on Aug. 1, I will have worked with five of the eight presidents of the university,” Sandridge said. “During that 43-year period, I have seen a lot of change. The changes we are experiencing now seem significant in part because so many of us have worked together for a long time. John Casteen gave the university 20 great years — that is almost unheard of for a president of a major university. I have no doubt that President Sullivan and her team will achieve a seamless transition.”