Leaders of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia presented a forum on campus June 2 to offer an overview of SCHEV's 1999 Virginia Plan for Higher Education, a new performance-based funding model and a revised plan for strategic planning and reporting.
"We adopted a new performance-based funding model for Virginia higher education that's been receiving a lot of attention in the media. We felt it important that we chat with you about it because in our conversations we have found that, because of some of the media attention, there have been some misunderstandings about it. There are also a lot of details that we hope to be working out with the members of the educational community in the near future, and so this is part of that dialogue," said John D. Padgett, SCHEV chairman.
Padgett notes in the preface to the 1999 plan: "The goals of the 1999 plan, taken together, aim to create a public policy environment that rewards institutions for innovation, high-quality outcomes and efforts at cost containment, while also ensuring systematic, participatory planning and vigorous accountability. The key to this plan lies not in prescriptions but in its planning to plan continuously and systematically."
William B. Allen, SCHEV director, agreed that a goal of the forums is to clear up misconceptions. The one held at Old Dominion, attended by nearly 70 administrators, faculty and staff members, and Board of Visitors members, was the sixth of 17 such forums being held at state colleges and universities.
One misconception, Allen said, "is that SCHEV has decided that the only education that matters in Virginia is undergraduate education for the B.A. Ð that SCHEV doesn't care about the community colleges, that SCHEV doesn't care about work force training, SCHEV doesn't care about [alleviating] the worker shortages in high technology, SCHEV doesn't care about part-time students, SCHEV doesn't care about nontraditional students, SCHEV doesn't care about research, SCHEV doesn't care about economic development. Well, you can probably continue the list . . . ." Allen went on to state, however, that, "Nothing is farther either from the literal reality . . . or the intentions of our council."
The new performance-based funding model proposal must gain approval of the governor and state legislature before it is implemented. It calls for the utilization of block grants to introduce stability and predictability in state funding, and would free colleges and universities from many regulations. The model is based on the following components:
Annually adjust the block grant to account for such technical issues as one-time expenditures, annualization of salaries, and Higher Education and Equipment Trust Fund and to exclude equity funding and Unique Military Activities funding.
Responding to a question from Board of Visitors member Lois Williams, Allen assured, "There will indeed be efforts to set things aright at the starting point of the new funding model. Every institution's current funding will be analyzed and subjected to the appropriate technical adjustments as well as any equity adjustments that are required in order to assure that each starts off on as strong a footing as possible."
As Provost Jo Ann Gora pointed out later to Allen, however, many specifics still need to be addressed in order to ensure equitable resources and requirements for all of the state colleges and universities. "The performance funding model is a fine model, but the devil is in the details," she said.
For more information about the 1999 Virginia Plan for Higher Education, access: www.schev.edu/wumedia/99vaplanfinal.pdf; for the performance-based funding model: www.schev.edu/wumedia/fundingmodel.pdf.
SCHEV also has established a List Serve to continue dialogue about the Virginia Plan, the funding model and their implementation. To subscribe to SCHEV's moderated List Serve, send the command "subscribe vaplan your name" in the body of an e-mail message to: listproc@monroe.schev.edu.
