George,

The UVA Faculty Senate yesterday issued an official statement on the Charter Initiative. The statement, which is attached, identifies "four areas of concern":

1. UVA should remain "a premier institution of PUBLIC [emphasis in original] higher education."

2. Tuition rates should be kept low enough so that students of modest means are not dissuaded from applying because of the well-documented "sticker-shock" effect.

3. Under charter, the compensation and benefits of classified staff should not be permitted to fall below those of state employees. Also, employees hired post-charter should not be given benefits that are worse than those of employees hired pre-charter. Otherwise, UVA may find it difficult to recruit and retain high-quality staff.

4. Under Charter, faculty should have a voice -- such as by means of a seat on the Board of Visitors -- "in matters that affect the public academic mission of the University."

The above concerns have been raised by the ad hoc Faculty-Staff-Student Alliance on the Charter Initiative since October, and the Alliance is of course delighted that these concerns are now also the official concerns of the UVA Faculty Senate.

Best,

Jeff Rossman (electronic mail, January 12, 2004)