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UVA FUNDRAISER AWARDED PAVILION HOME-THE DAILY PROGRESS, JULY 12, 2007

Posted: Thursday July 12, 2007

UVa Fundraiser Awarded Pavilion Home

By Brian McNeill / bmcneill@dailyprogress.com | 978-7266
July 12, 2007

In a move that critics say reverses nearly 200 years of tradition, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors has awarded one of UVa’s prestigious Pavilion homes to the university’s top fundraiser.

The board’s executive committee unanimously approved a request by Robert D. Sweeney, the university’s chief fundraiser, to be assigned to Pavilion VI, which was designed by Thomas Jefferson and built in 1824.

The coveted Pavilion residences dot the Lawn, the historic heart of Jefferson’s Academical Village. Since Jefferson’s time, the Pavilions have been assigned to distinguished UVa professors and deans.

One other Pavilion is filled by a non-academic. Patricia M. Lampkin, vice president for student affairs, lives in Pavilion III. Some of those critical of allowing Sweeney to live on the Lawn have said that Lampkin was an appropriate choice because of her connection to the student body.

As senior vice president for development and academic affairs, Sweeney is responsible for overseeing UVa’s $3 billion capital campaign. Under his leadership, UVa’s philanthropic cash flow jumped from $50 million in 1990 to $200 million in 2000.

“Mr. Sweeney has long been an active member of the university community, contributing on a daily basis to making the university’s current level of excellence possible and to envisioning our goals and aspirations for the future,” said UVa Rector W. Heywood Fralin, who sits on the BOV’s executive committee.

Sweeney, who is on vacation, could not be reached for comment.

Sweeney and his wife will move into Pavilion VI in the coming months. Its current occupant, former medical school Dean Dr. Robert Carey, is leaving the residence because he is having a home built in the area.

As the BOV considered Sweeney’s request for Pavilion VI last spring, it provoked the ire of many UVa students living on the Lawn.

At the end of March, roughly 30 students taped on their doors red signs that read: “For Sale. Inquire with BOV. Cozy, Rustic, Jeffersonian! No interaction with students necessary.”

Mike Slaven, a UVa student who graduated in May and lived on the Lawn, said he opposed Sweeney’s bid to live at a Pavilion because the Lawn has traditionally been a place of teaching, learning and the free exchange of information between academics and students. The acceptance of Sweeney, he said, shows that fundraising has become as important to UVa as academia.

“This is a complete change of precedent,” said Slaven, who was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, the Cavalier Daily. “It says this is not the Academical Village anymore.”

Slaven added that he thought it was “petty” the BOV waited until the summer, when most students are out of town, to consider such a controversial issue.

The six-member executive committee of the BOV approved the measure in a telephone vote that took place between June 19 and 21.

“The assignment’s made by the executive committee,” said BOV Secretary Alexander G. Gilliam Jr. “I’d have scheduled it for the June [public] meeting, but frankly they were swamped.”

Despite the brouhaha last spring, Fralin said Sweeney will fit in nicely with his Lawn neighbors. Other residents of the Lawn’s Pavilions are Larry J. Sabato, a professor of politics and director of UVa’s Center for Politics; Karen Van Lengen, dean of the School of Architecture; Carl Paul Zeithaml, dean of the McIntire School of Commerce; and David W. Breneman, dean of the Curry School of Education.

“Bob and his wife, Peg, will bring a great deal of enthusiasm and engagement to the Lawn community and will be good citizens and neighbors,” Fralin said.

Pavilion VI, which has six bedrooms and four bathrooms, boasts at least one historic feature that sets it apart from the Lawn’s 10 other Pavilions. In the original professor’s parlor on the second floor, there are fresco murals that celebrate French and American relations. On the ceiling is a 1929 trompe l’oeil painting called “The Apotheosis of Liberty” by artists Robert and Marthe La Montagne St. Hubert. The room also features several other works, including fresco portraits of Jefferson and the Marquis de LaFayette.

“It’s unique,” said Brian Hogg, senior historic preservation planner for UVa. “None of the other Pavilions have anything like it.”

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UVA FUNDRAISER AWARDED PAVILION HOME-THE DAILY PROGRESS, JULY 12, 2007

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