At his first meeting of the University of the Virgin Islands Board of Trustees, newly installed UVI President David Hall spoke about expanding coordination with public, K-12 education, a goal he emphasized when applying for the position last year.
Noting that UVI produces many of the public school teachers in the territory, Hall said he has met with Education Department officials to see what UVI can do to improve their programs and better meet the needs of the territory. At the same time, UVI can help the department focus its curriculum to better prepare students for college.
"As you know, many of our students come in and have to take remedial courses," he said. "Speaking with them, it became clear they would like a better understanding of what we were looking for in our testing, so they could better prepare the students."
Offering more opportunities for high school students to take college-level courses through UVI in advanced placement classes, and having UVI "play a more active role in training not just teachers but administrators," are other areas where UVI could improve public education outcomes and the readiness of incoming students, he said.
Meanwhile, he said he has begun an initiative to increase student retention and graduation rates.
"The first three months have been intense, but I think we are moving in the right direction," he said.
UVI Research and Technology Park director David Zumwalt and former director Malcolm Kirwan gave an update on the status of the long-awaited project, announcing the RTPark had begun generating revenues, with $355,000 so far for 2009 from tenants at its “64 West,” e-commerce collocation center north of Frederiksted at Global Crossing’s fiber optic trunk cable hub.
Trustee Donald Sussman asked how the e-commerce hub would benefit UVI, about the status of plans to build a facility on the UVI campus, and whether the RTPark would be asking for "more money from UVI."
Alex Moorhead, a member of both the UVI board of trustees and the RTPark’s board, said the tech park had not and would not be taking funds from UVI, but was funded by the Legislature, federal grants and private investment. Zumwalt said the business plan for the park envisioned that once the park was up and generating revenue, half its net income would flow to UVI, so in time it would be a financial boon.
The RTPark put much of its recent attention toward the "64 West" project rather than pushing forward with construction of the on-campus facility because that e-commerce hub was the best, shortest route toward generating revenue and moving toward its goal of achieving financial self sufficiency, he said. But the on-campus project was in the final design stage and was on schedule to be constructed in 2011, he said.
In other business, the trustees voted to indefinitely table plans to explore a hotel development adjacent to the St. Thomas campus, due to the current economic conditions. They also voted to approve posting all official board votes and actions onto the UVI website, to further transparency and to approve UVI senate bylaws, along with several other minor items.
All votes were without objection. Present were Sussman, Moorhead, Juanita Woods, Jennifer Nugent-Hill, Yvonne Thraen, Wesley Williams, Audrey Thomas, Kyza Callwood, Deanna Rogers, Winona Hendricks, Henry Smock, Bernard Paiewonsky (by telephone) and Patricia Rhymer-Todman.
