UVI Board of Trustees Picks David Hall as Next President

The University of the Virgin Islands Board of Trustees ended its quarterly meeting Saturday on St. Croix by announcing that the University will soon welcome a new president.

At the conclusion of its executive session, Board Chair Alexander Moorhead said the Board approved a 5-year contract for David Hall beginning August 1, 2009.

Hall is a professor at the Northeastern School of Law, where he has led a distinguished career as an administrator in the law school and the University. He was appointed Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Northeastern University in July of 1998 and served in that capacity until July 2002. Hall held the positions of associate dean of academic affairs and later dean of Northeastern's law school and had previously been a tenured professor at the law schools of the University of Mississippi and the University of Oklahoma.

"He is eminently qualified for the position," Moorhead said. "He has a deep interest in the University and we look forward to a long and mutually rewarding relationship."

Hall holds both a doctorate of juridical science and a master's degree in law from Harvard Law School, a juris doctor and master's degree from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor's degree from Kansas State University.

In other business the UVI Board of Trustees authorized legal counsel to continue with an objection to the election that was filed with the Public Employee Relations Board last Tuesday.

On Saturday the Board also approved a technology fee increase from $50 to $90. The increase will be phased in over two academic years, with increases of $25 and $15 in the Fall 2009 and Fall 2010 semesters, respectively.

UVI Chief Information Officer Tina Koopmans outlined the technological improvements that precipitated the increase, including wireless network access in all of the University's residence halls, free student access to Microsoft Office applications, 24-hour access to computer labs, and the addition of videoconference and smart classroom facilities. A student Technology Fee Committee will be established to decide how best to use the $150,000 that will be generated by the technology fee increase, Koopmans said.

The University's Fiscal Year 2010 V.I. Government appropriations request for $34,500,000 was approved by the Board, as was UVI's Fiscal Year 2010 operating budget of $49,019,463.

Winona Hendricks, chair of the Board of Education, was welcomed to her first meeting as a member of the UVI Board of Trustees.

A change in the date of the Board's annual retreat, from fall to June, was approved and a change to the bylaws was adopted that will create an Audit Committee of the Board. A Statement of Expectations, which was proposed by the Board's Committee on Trustees, was adopted as a guide for current and potential Board members.

The next meeting of the UVI Board of Trustees will be held in June on the St. Thomas campus.