UVa to recruit professors with real-world leadership

Titans of business, public life and the arts may soon be teaching at the University of Virginia.

The Educational Policy Committee of UVa’s Board of Visitors on Thursday unanimously backed the establishment of a new non-tenure-accruing faculty rank for “eminently qualified leaders who have made major impacts on fields and disciplines important to [UVa’s] academic programs.”

The “professors of practice” will be individuals who are accomplished in their field but not necessarily in academia. Such professors, the thinking goes, could convey their real-world experiences in the classroom.

“Most of us feel it’s an opportunity for people who are really distinguished in their fields, but not in the academy,” said Ann Hamric, the immediate past chairwoman of UVa’s Faculty Senate.

One example, Hamric said, might be a Tony Award-winning actor who could teach drama classes at the university.

UVa Provost Tim Garson said that 22 of the 63 member institutions of the Association of American Universities — including Harvard, Duke and the University of Maryland — have similar special faculty positions.

Garson gave the example of William George, former chairman and CEO of medical technology firm Medtronic, who is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School.

UVa will recruit its professors of practice, rather than having people apply. Each school at UVa may have no more than five professors of practice at one time.

The idea at UVa originated with Harry Harding, dean of UVa’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. The first professors of practice, Garson said, will be offered appointments for the Batten School.

Harding said the Batten School has proposed the appointment of several professors of practice, though he declined to provide any names.

“While there’s therefore nothing specific I can announce yet,” Harding said, “we expect to have several professors of practice on board at some point in the coming academic year.”

Professors of practice will serve annual, renewable terms with a maximum limit. “Their relevance with current practices in the field is what makes them appealing as professors of practice, so it is expected that they will return to their respective field after serving at the university,” a Board of Visitors document explaining the idea said.

Fundraising update

In other business, the university’s governing board received an update on UVa’s progress toward completing its $3 billion fundraising campaign that is set to conclude Dec. 31, 2011.

As of April 30, UVa had raised $2.149 billion, representing 72 percent completion with 79 percent of the campaign’s time elapsed.

For the current fiscal year, UVa’s philanthropic cash flow — which does not include pledges or future support — stood at $169.1 million. That is a 17.4 percent decrease from the same time period in fiscal 2009 and a 29.9 percent decrease from fiscal 2008.

“It’s obvious that these numbers reflect the continued uncertainty of this economy,” said Robert Sweeney, UVa’s senior vice president for development and public affairs.

Sweeney added that the cash flow decline is not as bad as it appears because major contributions came in during fiscal 2008 and 2009 to support the newly established Batten School.

In many areas of the university, fundraising efforts are exceeding expectations, said UVa President John T. Casteen III. The School of Nursing, the art museum, the Miller Center of Public Affairs and the Virginia Athletics Foundation are all exceeding their targets, he said.

Thursday’s meeting was the first day of the two-day Board of Visitors meeting that will be the last for Casteen, who is retiring Aug. 1 after serving as UVa’s president for 20 years.

Casteen thanked the board members and their predecessors for the two decades of service and support.

“Together we have sustained the university through some bad times and we’ve made some progress,” Casteen said.