Virginia Tech Board of Visitors to adopt new committee structure this fall
Beginning with its September meeting, the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors will adopt a new committee structure that will enable board members to have a greater understanding of the work of all committees beyond the one they are assigned and will enhance communication and collaboration among board members and university leadership.
This marks the first significant change in committee structure in more than two decades. The board will also implement changes that will enable them to address routine matters more expeditiously in order to spend more time focused on matters of significance affecting the university and higher education in general.
Under the new structure, the board will continue to organize around five standing committees.
The Academic, Research, and Student Affairs Committee will focus on matters and policies pertaining to academic affairs, student life and conduct, and the research mission and goals of the university.
Specific responsibilities will include admissions, enrollment management, promotion and tenure policies and candidates, faculty salaries, new degree programs, changes to the faculty and student handbooks, conferral of honorary degrees and titles, consideration of faculty leave requests, learning technologies, high-performance computing, research policies, the Hokie Handbook, and student life experience.
The executive vice president and provost with assistance from the vice president for research and innovation and the vice president for student affairs will support this committee.
The Buildings and Grounds Committee will be is responsible for the oversight of campus safety and security, the maintenance and development of the physical plant and infrastructure, land use and planning, and review and development of capital outlay requests. The university building official reports to the board of visitors through this committee.
The vice president for operations will support this committee.
The Compliance, Audit, and Risk Committee will be responsible for oversight of enterprise risk management, adherence to the audit charter, reviewing audits conducted by Internal Audit and external bodies, and for providing guidance on auditing concerns to the full board. The committee will also oversee university compliance with all federal, state, and local laws and executive orders; and policies promulgated by academic and athletic accrediting bodies, regulatory agencies, funding agencies, and the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. This committee will conduct an annual review of the Audit Charter.
This committee will be supported by the director of internal audit in consultation with other vice presidents as needed.
The Finance and Resource Management Committee will be responsible for oversight of all fiscal resources, revenues, and expenditures of the university. This committee will review and evaluate budgets, expenditures, financial performance, and funding sources, and will provide guidance on financial issues to the full board. This committee will also review changes to the Commemorative Tributes Policy and requests for commemorative recognition.
Among its specific responsibilities, the committee will focus on fiscal planning and oversight of the execution of fiscal plans as well as the development of all revenue sources. In addition to general and non-general funds, this oversight includes advancement, sponsored programs and other sources of research funding, auxiliaries, and public-private partnerships, among others. The committee will review financial statements, capital outlay plans and expenditures, the financial aspects of employee compensation, and alternative sources of funding, and recommends approval of affiliation agreements for related corporations and renewals of these agreements.
The vice president for finance will support this committee.
The Governance and Administration Committee will be responsible for board engagement, protocols, by-laws, and annual self-evaluation. This committee will also oversee administrative functions and nonacademic areas of the university, including, but not limited to, human resources, communications and marketing, administrative computing, and athletics. It will be responsible for reviewing new or revised charters of all committees prior to their adoption. Among this committee’s specific responsibilities will be advancing the Principles of Community throughout all aspects of the university.
The secretary to the Board of Visitors will coordinate the actions of this committee.
A Nominating Committee, to be composed of three members appointed by the rector, will convene annually to present its nominations for all officers of the board. The rector will invite any additional nominations from the full board before voting on nominations at the organizational meeting.
The new committee structure will replace the existing structure organized around the Academic Affairs Committee, Buildings and Grounds Committee, Finance and Audit Committee, Student Affairs and Athletics Committee, and the Research Committee.
The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors Executive Committee met in June and approved the new committee structure. The full board met in retreat last week and approved a resolution defining the new committee structure.
