Publisher’s Profile:
Eugene Trani
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stories:
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Cooper
by
Doug Forshey
Virginia Business
April
2004
What
brought you to VCU?
I was the vice president of academic affairs at the
University of Wisconsin and decided to look for a presidency
position with a university. My wife set the first criteria
after suffering through Madison (Wisconsin) winters
— the job would be in a warmer climate. And I
set my own criteria —it had to be in a metropolitan
city with a medical center and a research budget of
at least $60 million (VCU's research budget is
now $185 million). The university also had to have a
tradition of involvement with the community.
What
major initiatives are you proudest of?
There are four major initiatives that have profoundly
affected both VCU and the region.
When I first got here (in 1990) the Chamber of Commerce
encouraged me to look into an engineering school and
develop a research park. At the time, Richmond was the
largest metropolitan area in the country without a school
of engineering. I'm very proud of how far our
school has come under the direction of Dr. Robert Mattauch.
We now offer undergrad, master's and Ph.D. degrees,
and this year we will have more than 1,200 students
in attendance.
The Virginia Biotech Research Park is another accomplishment.
Located next to our medical center, the research park
has eight buildings and 600,000 square feet of occupied
space and 1,350 people working there, all built on what
was underutilized surface parking. Major tenants include
German-based BI Pharmaceuticals and BI Chemicals, a
French company called Infilco Degremont that does municipal
water treatment and the national headquarters of the
United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS). There is also
the state forensics lab and the state medical examiner
labs, as well as university-based research.
Early on we went to the legislature to take our clinic
operations out of the state agency. In 1996 we asked
the state to set up a public authority to run our hospital
and clinics. Then in 2000 we merged it with the physicians
group and that is the VCU Health System Authority. Not
being part of the state system gave us greater flexibility
in contracting personnel and capital outlay. To give
you an example — on Eleventh Street we have our
$26 million ambulatory care center, and it took eight
years to build that building (under the state's
authority) when we had the money in the bank. As a public
authority we built the $62 million Gateway building
in only three years.
The VCU Life Sciences is a major national leader in
the 21st century — the century of the life sciences.
How does our university, from surgery to biomedical
engineering, pull all of its assets together to take
a closer look at the life sciences? That's what
we are doing, and it's generating a number of
small startup companies at the research park. Right
now we have 2,100 students in the program.
What
advantages does VCU offer college-bound Virginia students?
Our location is one of our greatest assets. Many students
come from Fairfax or Hampton Roads looking for an education
in an urban setting, and they get that at VCU. In fact,
it's an urban setting like no other in Virginia.
These kids want to be away from home but they don't
necessarily want to be 800 miles from home, and Richmond
is very central to most areas of Virginia.
Students are also looking for a quality program. We
have six “top ten” programs, as ranked by
U.S. News and World Report. Sculpture is number one
as well as nurse anesthesia, graphic design is number
four, health services administration is number five,
our master of fine arts program is number six, and painting
is number 10. They want academic quality.
Cost is also a consideration. To go out of Virginia
is going to cost about three times what an in-state
school will run. And we are about half the price of
an in-state private school.
How
has our higher-education system changed over the years?
Higher education is much less isolated today, much less
“a city upon a hill.” Certain universities
had great traditions of involvement in their community.
At the University of Wisconsin we had a program that
dated back to the nineteenth century, but that was more
unusual. Basically universities walled themselves off,
and there were bad feelings between the universities
and their surroundings. So that's a major change
as they have come to understand the need to interact
and support the communities around them. For example,
we have invested $100 million on Broad Street, and the
business community has also put another $100 million
into Broad Street. That would not have happened but
for good relationships between VCU and the community.
How does VCU compare to other urban universities
in terms of growth and development?
I think we are one of the leaders in this type of investment.
But a lot of the investment is self-generated through
dormitory fees, parking, or health systems operations.
We've also been very lucky with state support
through two bond bills (1992 and 2002). Our growth has
coincided with the growth of our student population.
In the time I have been here we have grown from 21,000
to 27,000 students. And the new Monroe Campus will have
capacity for another 2,500 students in business and
engineering when it is fully developed.
Lately,
the cost of higher education has been outpacing the
cost of living. As a public university, what trends
are you seeing?
In the last couple of years we have in fact increased
tuition. But there was an eight-year period prior to
that where our tuition went down, not in inflated dollars
but in real dollars. The state froze tuition, and there
were years where we had no increase and one year where
we actually reduced tuition by 20 percent.
Then when the recession hit we started raising tuition,
because the state had no money and they were in fact
cutting our budget. But we cannot keep raising tuition
dramatically — the state has to step up and start
putting aside more money for higher education.
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