Parents Committee Grants Make a Difference in the Student Experience

October 29, 2011 — Think of the University of Virginia's Parents Committee as an investment club – except instead of stocks and bonds, the members invest in U.Va.'s student experience.
 
That's why many families, who are already paying tuition, fees and room and board, are willing to chip in another $2,500 or more to join the committee, which not only raises funds from its members and other parents, but decides how to allocate them.
 
"People, if they are going to give to one thing, are going to give to an experience to benefit their children," committee co-chair Charles McDaniel of Fredericksburg said Friday morning as the committee members gathered at Alumni Hall for their fall meeting. (He and his wife, Tricia, are the parents of a fourth-year daughter and first-year son.)
 
The group's control of the funds it raises makes it "pretty unique" among colleges and universities, he said.
 
One day earlier, the group doled out nearly $300,000 to 50 different University entities – the vast majority being student groups – in amounts ranging from $200 (to the National Society of Black Engineers) to $30,000 (for the Second-Year Council's Dinner Series Committee). In addition, the group earmarked $50,000 to be used as a discretionary fund for the Office of the Vice President and Chief Student Affairs Officer.
 
The group spent "hours and hours" reviewing the more than 60 applications for funds, said co-chair Jim Rutherfurd [cq] of Bronxville, N.Y., (who, with wife Tracy, is the parent of a third-year daughter and a son who graduated in May and is headed to the School of Law in 2012). It continued to fund several of what Tracy McDaniel called the group's "signature projects," such as the Second-Year Dinner Series, Days on the Lawn ($4,000), the Lighting of the Lawn ($3,500) and the Fourth-Year 5K ($5,000).
 
New initiatives included a voter registration drive ($1,000); a student group, Sustainable Transportation Advancement and Research Team, exploring the feasibility of on-Grounds charging stations for electric vehicles ($2,000); and another group called Spread the Love, which received $245 to make peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches for the homeless.
 
The committee backed dozens of requests from niche student groups, from club sports to cultural and arts organizations. When one relatively large grant proposal from a group that lists just 26 student members prompted some debate, "someone raised their hand and said, 'That's what we do,'" Tricia McDaniel said.
 
"We're trying to make a big university small," by supporting organizations that help students find peers with common interests, Jim Rutherfurd said. The committee is particularly interested in supporting those groups' outreach efforts – for instance, the Muslim Student Association's festive Eid Al-Adha banquet to which non-Muslim students and faculty are invited.
 
The committee doesn't only act on applications, he said. It also identifies needs and seeks to give where it will make a difference.
 
A task force has backed more than $200,000 in safety expenditures over the years, supporting "blue light" phones and flat-screen messaging monitors, among many items. Concerns over off-Grounds housing, including safety issues and the pressure that some students feel to sign leases for the next academic year within weeks of arriving for the fall semester, has led to support for the Off-Grounds Housing Office. 
 
Recently the Parents Committee has taken an interest in refurnishing study areas in the libraries, which Jim Rutherfurd noted were not originally configured for study groups sharing modern technology. This year's line items include $22,000 and $10,000 for new furniture for the Clemons and Physics libraries, respectively.
 
"That's an example of something that just wouldn't get done" without committee support, Charles McDaniel said.