John Casteen records greatest hits and "missed opportunities"

How to look at UVA President John Casteen’s 20th State of the University Address—his last before the task falls to incoming president Teresa Sullivan in August? On one hand, it’s a chance for one of the country’s longest serving college presidents to run through a few greatest hits. 

 

On the other hand, 20 years of hits—and what Casteen called “missed opportunities” during his 90-minute speech last week at Old Cabell Hall—can be heavy on recent material. Which make some of the oldies from Casteen’s 35-page script  more and more surprising to remember.

 

An example? The University of Virginia hired John Casteen roughly a year before the start of the World Wide Web. Or, in the words of the Cavalier captain: “In 1990, a blackberry was something you picked off a bush and ate.”

 

Casteen took to finances first, and praised UVA’s successful efforts to develop diverse revenue sources—also a focus of Chief Operating Officer Leonard Sandridge’s contribution to the 2008-2009 President’s Report. He noted the improvement of UVA’s endowment from a low point of $3.76 billion in February 2009, saying that UVA “is a long-term investor—it expects ups and downs.”

 

In fact, Casteen noted that UVA anticipates a 15 percent reduction in its general fund for Fiscal Year 2012, when stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act runs out. Between 2009 and 2011, former Governor Tim Kaine directed a total of $27.5 million towards UVA to offset state budget cuts.

 

Casteen also criticized Kaine’s proposal for a one-day furlough for state employees as a short-term solution—one which would produce $906,000 for the state, but cost the UVA Hospital $978,000 in staffing for essential services for patients. According to the 2009-2010 budget, patient revenues are the largest source of funding for the university at $990 million, or 43.9 percent of total funds.

 

AccessUVA continues to function as it was intended, said Casteen, who added that the current class of first-year students supported by AccessUVA totaled 1,052—24 percent of the total number of AccessUVA students currently enrolled. After expanding the student body came expanding the university: Casteen said the scale of UVA could feasibly be broadened by looking beyond the 250 Bypass. “That’s not impossible work. It can be done,” he added, and emphasized planning and pursuit of state funding.

 

President-elect Teresa Sullivan will inherit a capital campaign that is nine days behind schedule, according to Casteen. “To be nine days behind on a $3 billion campaign in this environment is a success,” he said, before asking those who know Bob Sweeney, UVA’s Vice President of Development, to pat him on the back.

 

Casteen took a few minutes to remind the audience that, while Charlottesville is “considered to be a safe community,” incidents like the death of Morgan Harrington—the daughter of a faculty member, Casteen pointed out, referring to Dan Harrington’s work with the Carillion Roanoke Memorial Hospital—function as reminders that “bad things can happen and do happen. 

 

“If you see a person in need of help or intervention, offer,” said Casteen.

 

Following mentions of a 7 percent reduction in course offerings in the College of Arts and Sciences and what he called the “dubious distinction” of UVA’s multiple “Best Value” rankings—which mean that UVA’s tuition is “priced below market,” said Casteen—it was on to “missed opportunities.” Some were curricular—foreign language competency made the list, along with the school’s “need to build vigorous experiences in mathematics.” Casteen explicitly addressed the university’s shelved Arts Gateway project, and said UVA remains the largest university in America without a concert hall.