Article Tools
Share on Facebook
Seed Newsvine
Send Article
Print

Delegate proposes BOV election reform

25 January 2008 | By Sarah Owermohle, Flat Hat Staff Writer | The Flat Hat » news

According to Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William), there are more problems with the governance of the College than with all the other state schools combined.

Marshall has proposed a bill to the state House of Delegates calling for a majority of the Board of Visitors to be elected by alumni, as opposed to being appointed by the governor.
Acting upon numerous complaints from alumni in the state, Marshall has proposed this bill as “a long-range effort to amend paralysis in the current Board of Visitors.”

“Alumni love William and Mary first and foremost … they are in the best position to care for the school,” Marshall said. He argues that the current system could amount to simply rewarding political supporters of the governor.

“We need to find a system that does not depend on wealth and political connections but on people who benefited from the training of William and Mary,” Marshall said.

However, according to Brian Whitson from University Relations, this is already the case.

“The Alumni Association makes recommendations each year to the secretary of the commonwealth and the governor’s office. I actually believe we are one of the few schools where our alumni association is involved in the process this way,” Whitson said.

Though Marshall has yet to contact the College regarding the bill, Whitson remarked that “the current process has brought us terrific boards over the years.”

The bill calls for nine of the 17 BOV members to be selected by alumni and eight to be selected by the governor. Within each group there may be two non-state residents, resulting in a total of four non-Virginians in the BOV.

Yet the bill has received criticism from some in the College. Rector Michael K. Powell said that he did “not think having a set number of seats controlled exclusively by one segment of the college community is wise or workable,” according to Tuesday’s Daily Press article.

However, Marshall disagrees.

“[Powell] seems to be arguing that everyone that comes out of William and Mary is from the same cookie-cutter mold, when in fact they come from a wide variety of majors, a wide political spectrum, ethnic spectrum … and their point of unity is William and Mary,” Marshall said. “And since when is unity a bad thing? What ever happened to one nation, under God? You only disagree with [unity] when you disagree with the purpose of oneness.”

In the past, Marshall has openly criticized College President GeneDelega Nichol, at one point proposing to have the state-funded portion of Nichol’s salary – about half of the total – withheld in the midst of the Wren cross issue.

This was following what Marshall believed to be a violation of the Freedom of Information Act, when Nichol told a different story from what the information in the e-mails regarding the withdrawal of a $12 million donation reported.

Today, Marshall sees Nichol’s actions as part of the problem of “paralysis” at the College.

“A College president is not supposed to be a friend; he’s supposed to be a director,” Marshall said, using recent College events as an example. “His paralysis with this stupid sex show … why don’t you just get drug dealers to come in and talk about how to make money there? William and Mary is a public forum, but there are restrictions.”

The bill has been referred to the Committee on Education and awaits further action.

  1. “The Alumni Association makes recommendations each year to the secretary of the commonwealth and the governor’s office. I actually believe we are one of the few schools where our alumni association is involved in the process this way,” Whitson said.

    Did you bother to ask yourselves or anyone else, just who it is that controls the alumni association? When was the last time the Alumni Association asked the alumni who they would like to see appointed to the BOV?


    — Greg    Jan 25, 03:11 PM    #

  2. 1. The Alumni Association is controlled by the President’s office. He controls their buildings and a large part of their budget.
    2. As an Alumni, I don’t EVER recall being asked my opinion.
    3. The Alumni Association is a closed clique. Try getting personal information published if you’re not close friends with your class representative. I wrote to the AA for years and they never published my marriage, the birth of my children. It wasn’t until I refused to write my check to the endowment that they gave me the time of day.
    4. So I question how the “Alumni” will elect these folks. It will never happen. It’ll be Gene’s hand-picked AA leadership picking the people he wants to review his performance. May we all be so lucky.


    — WJS    Jan 25, 06:02 PM    #

  3. So Brian Whitson thinks that James Murray’s non-alumni BOV cronies like Phil Herget and John Thomas are acceptable (Herget is a former Murray co-worker and Thomas was at UVa with Murray)? What about Jim Ukrop’s non-alumni friend on our BOV, Tom Capps (they live next door to one another in Richmond)? I’m not sure who championed non-alumni Charlie Banks and Jeff McWaters to our BOV but you can bet that Murray and/or Ukrop had something to do with it.


    — MacSuile    Jan 25, 07:32 PM    #

  4. What a GREAT idea to allow alumni to have more of a voice in the election process of the BOV. Not all of us make great amounts of money (hello! WM encourages public service…) So to have the chance to have a more direct voice is I think something very consistent with the college’s value. This is going to be resisted because it’s a threat to the current power structure, but it’s a necessary reform!


    — Alberto Hurtado    Jan 26, 11:12 AM    #