Return to Virginia Business - April 2004

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by Doug Forshey
Virginia Business
April 2004

What brought you to the University of Richmond?
I was working at Georgetown (University), living in McLean, Va., and had a great life there. But when Richmond called I was struck by how exceptional the place was. The university had a very strong financial profile and it was still in motion, still aspiring to greater heights and that's what really attracted me. This is also how we recruit top faculty and students here.

What are some of the business initiatives the university is involved with?
Our role was pivotal in helping attract the national headquarters of Philip Morris USA. The deal was done in two stages. First, Reynolds Metals was bought by Alcoa and they needed to maintain a small work force here, but they didn't need to be in the real estate business. We did a gift-purchase agreement in 2001 for their 250,000-square-foot office complex and paid $8 million for a $21.4 million building. Then we needed to figure out what to do with this building. In the long run it could be the site of executive education or a school of high technology. But in the short term we needed to rent this space out.

Last year at this time we landed the big tenant — Philip Morris USA — providing us with a source of revenue and a home for hundreds of highly paid Philip Morris USA executives. This has had a tremendous economic effect on the entire region.

Our educational programs, including our School of Leadership Studies, our Management Institute and our School of Continuing Studies are involved in many partnerships with an array of Virginia businesses to either train their managers or customize whole programs onsite. We are exploring opportunities in which our educational enterprise works well with what local businesses are trying to accomplish.

We also have a special degree program for firemen and police officers who did not earn their undergraduate degrees, which is very important as they take on new management responsibilities. We are taking on a major role in helping shape their work force with an emphasis on the emerging field of emergency management services.

What are some of the major changes you've seen in higher education in the last decade?
Education is ever changing. It's one of the great cauldrons of humanity in a sense that it's at the leading edge of most societal changes that take place, and 10 years is a long time in higher education. Ten years ago we didn't have the Internet and that's changed everything. We have to hire professors and attract students who are even more engaged in cutting-edge research and creative enterprises. Expectations are much greater by today's undergraduates and we have to be on that edge to provide knowledge that isn't on the Internet. That's where we add value.

Another change has been greater mobility across state lines, dramatically changing higher education in the last quarter century. Students will go with their parents to visit Tulane in New Orleans or Stanford in California as they make their decision on which colleges to apply to. That didn't happen 30 years ago. The ease of travel has had a real impact on education. To compete, we offer our fair share of scholarships to attract Virginians, and we assert that any Virginian can get a world-class education right here without having to leave the state.

What is Richmond doing to keep up with technology?
We're spending a great amount of money upgrading our computer network to increase the speed and efficiency of information transferal. And we're adding more wireless opportunities than ever before. We do this because of the growing demands of faculty and student research. Technology is so much more user-friendly than it was 10 years ago for faculty and students to work on different pieces of a problem in collaboration. There is an effortless nature to technology that just wasn't true when I was a student.

Our professors are using technology as an integral part of the learning process. Several of our chemistry teachers are producing software that can create 3-D models, allowing students to study organic chemistry in a much more exciting way, rather than the old way where they see it on a page and try to imagine it. This kind of technology is incredibly powerful and if we can grow it here, it has worldwide transportability (via the Internet) that wasn't previously available. Now universities can share best practices from all over the world to teach the next generation.

What type of outreach programs do you have internationally?
Our dean of international programs and her staff are experts at identifying opportunities for establishing partnerships and exchanges around the world. She selects ones that are true to their home culture so our students get more of a real international experience at some of the smaller cities. We have a lot of international students coming here, and nearly half of all of our undergraduate students go abroad for a semester or the whole year. We're very big on international studies, because in today's global economy that's part of doing business.

The exciting part is that our students go abroad and study, and then bring that experience back to Richmond. In addition, about 7 percent of our full-time students are international coming from 60 different countries. This is an enormous source of diversity for us and the Richmond region. They love Richmond and the whole metropolitan area. And it's great for a student from Hampton Roads or the West End to have a roommate from Pakistan or Peru. They both learn so much. Private universities such as ours tend to offer more opportunities to attract international students. This allows for a more diversified undergraduate student body.

You recently kicked off a new capital campaign. What are some of the goals?
We're looking to raise $200 million with the goal of boosting our overall academic quality and national reputation. Universities are all about their people who are the main growth engine for improving quality. The campaign will raise money for endowed chairs for additional eminent faculty members and increase our financial aid capability — a big part of our operation. We strive to maintain a policy that is “need-blind” and meets the full financial needs of our undergraduate students. This policy is expensive. We have 2,900 undergraduates and about 450 law students and are nowhere near the size of VCU. Our mission, however, is to offer the highest quality of education to our students. The game plan is to stay our size and continue to raise the level of quality through the roof.

Facilities are also a major part of the campaign. We're building a state-of-the-art science facility and an expanded library and that takes money. As a private institution we don't benefit from state money and are completely dependent on endowments, tuition and gifts, plus other revenue sources through business partnerships.

We don't want to just be a very good small university; we want to be a great university serving all of Virginia, the nation and the world.

Return to Virginia Business - April 2004