Dear Editor,
This letter is in response to an item published on September 23, 2009, titled, Voiceover: Come on Down! In this article you invited several officials in Virginia’s higher education system to “make their way to Radford University as soon as possible—unannounced to the administration—and start having conversations with the faculty, staff, and students at RU.”
As the Executive Director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), I was among those you specifically mentioned. While I appreciate your invitation, I think it would be more effective for me to explain how Virginia’s system of higher education works in order to help those who hope to affect change.
SCHEV is the Commonwealth’s coordinating board for its system of over 100 colleges and universities. According to the State Code of Virginia, the agency’s mission is “to promote the development and operation of an educationally and economically sound, vigorous, progressive, and coordinated system of higher education in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
SCHEV does many things including administering $70 million in grants and appropriations, evaluating new academic programs, and submitting an annual tuition and fees report. SCHEV also acts as a source of reliable and accurate information and policy expertise for institutions, legislators, the Governor’s Office, national organizations, the media, and the public.
One thing SCHEV does not do is intervene in the administration of individual institutions. That is because section 23-9.6:1 of the Code of Virginia explicitly prohibits SCHEV from taking part in personnel decisions on college and university campuses. This prohibition is echoed in the code language of every public college and university in Virginia, including Radford University.
This language makes clear the General Assembly’s intent when creating SCHEV as a systemwide advocate for higher education in Virginia. It is not appropriate for SCHEV to get involved in the administration of an individual institution just as it is not appropriate for SCHEV to put any single institution’s needs above another.
Sincerely,
Daniel J. LaVista, Executive Director
State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV)
101 North 14th Street
Richmond, VA 23219
(804) 225-2627
3 responses so far ↓
1 Susi // Sep 30, 2009 at 10:48 am
So this could be the very reason that Radford is in its current state of affairs. Wow.
2 Brian M. Erskine // Sep 30, 2009 at 10:51 am
With all due respect to Mr. Lavista, there is no statute or code of decency that prohibits SCHEV from making formal inquiries into the finances of any of the public higher education institutions here in the Commonwealth.
It’s unfortunate that he felt the need to respond to your article by effectively calling you a misinformed idiot.
Defensiveness is an expected response from someone who, even if indirectly, is a party to corruption. ” There is nothing I/we can do” is not the response we deserve.
3 one other voice // Sep 30, 2009 at 2:03 pm
“One thing SCHEV does not do is intervene in the administration of individual institutions. That is because section 23-9.6:1 of the Code of Virginia explicitly prohibits SCHEV from taking part in personnel decisions on college and university campuses.”
It seems that this begs the question, then, of who (if anyone) does have the authority to intervene in individual institutions?
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