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VTGuitarMan's picture VTGuitarMan
🎸OG LEG KING 🎸
| 9 months 2 weeks # | VT BoV Approves increase of athletics budget by $47.1m this year, growing to a total budget of $212m in 2029

With some slight off-the-cuff revisions (because I was speaking after passage of the resolution), here was my prepared statement:

I will keep my remarks brief but wish to convey the sentiment of the faculty on the resolution at hand. I am a long-time Hokie, someone who has ardently cheered on just about every team we put on the field, court, or pitch. Many of the highlights of my undergraduate career were experienced in Lane Stadium. I know many of my colleagues are passionate supporters of college athletics, and more importantly, the student-athletes themselves. Faculty were largely supportive of the university's response to the House settlement, as the revenue sharing directly supported student-athletes and was communicated well. Today, I bring you concerns from the faculty about the current proposal.

For years, whenever the issue of faculty salaries was raised, we were told that there was no money, and that the university's hands were tied. We recognize and appreciate the work that President Sands and different Boards, including the current one, have undertaken over the years to bring faculty salaries up, but we still sit in the middle of our academic peers. Today, we see that when the athletics program comes asking, the response is swift and decisive. Years of faculty requests went largely unanswered, but within a month, a substantial plan for reinvigorating athletics was delivered, a plan that positions us not in the middle of peers, but toward the top. Faculty have asked me, when has the Board taken such an action to support faculty when not otherwise mandated by state appropriations?

Over the past decade, while the success of our athletics programs has been uneven, enrollment has grown strongly, and faculty research expenditures and grants awarded have gone steadily up. The vitality and durability of this institution, the global distinction we seek, is not dictated by success on the field of play, but in the classrooms, laboratories, fields, and the communities served by the faculty and the students we have the privilege of educating and mentoring. We hope the Board will balance the desires for athletic prominence with the necessity of academic support and success as it moves forward.

Thank you.

VTGuitarMan's picture VTGuitarMan
🎸OG LEG KING 🎸
| 9 months 2 weeks # | VT BoV Approves increase of athletics budget by $47.1m this year, growing to a total budget of $212m in 2029

If we are struggling to retain our best faculty, then I don't care about the big flashy new buildings. The people matter more than the rooms.

100% with you. And underlying this whole academic/athletic thing, I don't view it as either-or. I see it as both-and. We just have to balance it properly. That's why I made the concluding remark I did. I'm not trying to chide the Board for the decision they're making. I'm asking them to recognize a competing concern and to be as willing to consider it in the future, given that they have clearly shown that they can quickly adapt to a critical need as they did here.

I will state for the record that folks like Amy and Simon are absolutely incredible at what they do and VT is lucky to have them. Look what happens when you get really good financial experts in the conversation - stuff gets done.

VTMikeO's picture VTMikeO
| 9 months 2 weeks # | MLB 2025

I'd take him, I'd be OK with Walt Weiss (he got a raw deal in Colorado) and I would be in favor of calling Eric Young to see if he'd want to come manage since it looks like Ron Washington's time is short in California.

Alum07's picture Alum07
🦃 LEG KING 🦃
| 9 months 2 weeks # | VT BoV Approves increase of athletics budget by $47.1m this year, growing to a total budget of $212m in 2029

You said what was needed to be said. As much as people sometimes don't want to admit it, VT athletics and especially the football program are thoroughly intertwined within the fabric of the VT culture. Anyone who has graduated within the last 30 years will inevitably have some kind of football story to tell about their time there.

But we can't leave the faculty out to dry. Personally, I would say that there's a lot of other areas we can look to make that money back, such as the continued push to keep building new. If we are struggling to retain our best faculty, then I don't care about the big flashy new buildings. The people matter more than the rooms.

VTGuitarMan's picture VTGuitarMan
🎸OG LEG KING 🎸
| 9 months 2 weeks # | VT BoV Approves increase of athletics budget by $47.1m this year, growing to a total budget of $212m in 2029

That's very true. Sometimes, the chair can get focused on the list of to-do items and forget the details. We have a lot of newly elected faculty senators this year, so I've been intentional in meetings thus far to remind folks of the little things. We need a motion, a second, then discussion, etc. Processes for passing resolutions. All the stuff that makes most people's brains leak out their ears, I'm here for it haha

VTGuitarMan's picture VTGuitarMan
🎸OG LEG KING 🎸
| 9 months 2 weeks # | VT BoV Approves increase of athletics budget by $47.1m this year, growing to a total budget of $212m in 2029

I appreciate the support, it's always a little nerve-wracking to speak in front of the Board (they're all genuinely nice folks in casual conversation so I don't know why it seems different when in front of everyone!) and I hate to be the wet blanket on what is otherwise a rather monumental decision that's been made. The other reps and I had a conversation yesterday and I offered to go first, to deflect any negativity that might be directed at others. I don't mind being the "bad guy" in the conversation, as long as what I'm saying is honest.

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