University of Virginia

2018 General Assembly Session Commences Wednesday

January 8, 2018 by David Toscano

The 2018 session of the Virginia General Assembly commences at noon on Wednesday, January 10, 2018. After the wave election last November, it appears that the partisan composition in the House will stand at 49 Democrats and 51 Republicans, numbers that many of us hoped for, but few would have predicted last summer. Picking up 15 new seats was an incredible and unprecedented feat, and its significance has not diminished even with the disappointments of the last few days. Not only are our very talented new Delegates entering the chamber this week, but dedicated candidates such as Josh Cole, Donte Tanner, and Shelly Simonds, who came so close and fought for every vote until the end, are to be commended. We expect these and others who ran strong campaigns to be back competing in the next election.

There has been much attention given to recounts and court cases, but on January 10 we put campaigns behind us and will reorganize and start working on the business of governance, the people’s business. There are many issues coming before us, not the least of which will be the two-year budget. In Virginia, the outgoing Governor proposes a budget at the end of his term, and Gov. McAuliffe has continued his focus on building a new Virginia economy and investing properly in education, health care, and job creation. His four-year record has been unparalleled: more than 207,000 jobs created, almost $20 billion in new capital investment, and an unemployment rate among the lowest in the nation. He was just chosen by Governing Magazine as the Best Governor in the nation. [Read more…]

Good Choices and Missed Opportunities

February 26, 2016 by David Toscano

The House and the Senate acted on their respective budgets on Thursday, February 25, 2016. The Governor’s proposed budget includes many good items, such as substantial increases in K-12 and higher education, and for the most part the House budget embraced the Governor’s approach. Many of us have pushed to dramatically increase our investments in public education and the House budget increases K-12 funding by $897 million. For Charlottesville and Albemarle, this means hefty increases in the monies going to the localities, and some increased flexibility in how money gets spent. The House budget includes a 2 percent pay increase for teachers, something I have been pushing for years. Virginia has lagged behind other states in K-12 teacher salaries, and we are finally rectifying this situation.

There is also good news in this budget for higher education. Funding for our universities has lagged behind during the last decade, and the House has now recognized the importance of further investment by increasing funding by $290 million over the biennium. University faculty and personnel can also expect a raise if the House budget is approved. Beyond that, there is substantial money designed to spur research and to encourage the commercialization of creative ideas generated from our universities. This is a tremendous opportunity for the University of Virginia to further increase its impact, particularly in the area of bioscience. Many of you know that Charlottesville has become a mini-hub for bioscience research, both at the University and in the private sector. A number of biotech firms have emerged over the last several years here in Charlottesville. There are many provisions in this new budget that will further encourage collaboration between public and private entities. We have the opportunity to take the first step towards making the Commonwealth a prime location for creative minds from around the country who want to develop therapies and scientific breakthroughs to treat a variety of diseases, from pancreatic cancer to brain disorders.

While the House budget presents good progress in a number of areas, it also includes some significant deficiencies. The most apparent is the failure to embrace Medicaid expansion. Once the House Appropriations Committee rejected that approach, it created a $157 million deficit in the Governor’s introduced budget that had to be replaced with other monies. If we had taken Medicaid expansion, this $157 million could have been allocated to other important budgetary items, such as environmental protection, public safety, or pre-K education. My floor speech on these missed opportunities can be viewed below.

At this stage in the process, the House will consider the Senate budget and the Senate will consider the House budget. Those budgets will then be placed into a conference committee and various issues will be ironed out. We will continue to advocate for Medicaid expansion to address this essential missed opportunity. While this is perhaps the best House budget that I have seen in the last ten years, it is my hope we will continue to work towards creating an even better one that can be supported at the end of the Session.

At UVa it isn’t all about Sullivan

October 16, 2015 by David Toscano

Last week, Del. David Ramadan suggested it was time for the tenure of University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan to come to an end. While we deeply appreciate our colleague’s concern for the university and his desire to combat sexual assault on college campuses, we disagree with his conclusion and are concerned that his focus on one person detracts from what is needed to confront the critical challenges our universities now face. In fact, we believe Sullivan not only continues to have the confidence of the university community and the Board of Visitors, but also enjoys a positive and productive relationship with the General Assembly as a whole.

Ramadan is right that Sullivan and U.Va. have faced a series of unique and unprecedented challenges in recent years. The abductions and murders of Morgan Harrington and Hannah Graham, both of which occurred off-Grounds; the two unfortunate and in hindsight obviously avoidable incidents involving the Alcohol Beverage Control and university students (again, these incidents occurred off-Grounds); and the sensational controversy over the now retracted Rolling Stone article would unsettle even the steadiest of ships.

But instead of being unsettled and retreating, President Sullivan, the Board of Visitors, and leaders at the university joined with the community and the legislature to act. Sullivan and the Board convened stakeholders throughout the university to address sexual assault, a serious problem that afflicts not just this university, but college campuses across this nation. During the past year, the university launched training and awareness campaigns on Grounds, added a police substation at the university corner to enhance safety, improved lighting and camera systems, hired more staff to provide proper counseling and support to survivors and implemented online education modules on alcohol and sexual violence.

Once the Rolling Stone allegations were discredited, it would have been easy for the university to withdraw, arguing that the problem was overblown. Instead, Sullivan, the Board and the university community pressed on, working with the legislature to produce three new laws that will likely be seen as national models of how states can navigate the complexities of federal law to produce an environment where survivors get appropriate support and control their own destiny while reporting serious offenses.

We know how difficult these bills were to construct because we worked with a number of our legislative colleagues on all three; they were extremely complex undertakings, took countless hours and could never have been done without the complete cooperation of the university and its president. While no legislation is perfect, we believe these laws will make a difference.

We encourage Ramadan to reflect on the statement of Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights, writing in the summary of the Department of Education’s recently completed compliance review of the university, that “President Sullivan’s leadership in crafting an exemplary new policy to address sexual violence and sexual harassment and in confirming her continuing commitment to comprehensive work to assure a safe learning environment at U.Va. sets just the right tone for her students.”

Clearly, work remains to be completed to combat sexual assault on our campuses. But we should give credit where it is due, and our colleague simply missed the point in his criticism.

Finally, it is also important to remember the role the General Assembly plays with respect to higher education governance. We help set policy, provide funding and have an important oversight role; but, it is not our role to micromanage the affairs of our colleges and universities. We appoint and ensure that the most qualified and capable leaders are at the helm of each school’s Board of Visitors. U.Va. has an outstanding Board comprising some of the commonwealth’s most distinguished citizens in whose wisdom and judgment we have tremendous confidence. This Board recently extended President Sullivan’s contract by two years without a single dissenting vote. The university has a new strategic plan in place, whose implementation will further enhance its reputation as one of the best universities in the country. Demanding the resignation of the president is not the right thing to do, will do nothing to advance the strategic plan and only complicate our efforts to improve higher education at U.Va. and our other universities!

by David Toscano and Jimmie Massie

Jimmie Massie represents the 72rd District in the Virginia House of Delegates, is chairman of the Higher Education Subcommittee and may be reached at deljmassie@house.virginia.gov.

Toscano issues call for legislative hearing on campus sexual violence

November 24, 2014 by Carmen Bingham

CHARLOTTESVILLE – Delegate David J. Toscano (D-57th District) today issued a call for a legislative hearing to examine the reporting practices of sexual assault at Virginia universities and colleges in the aftermath of the recent gang rape allegations at University of Virginia in the RollingStone article of November 19, 2014. The call came in a letter addressed to the Chairs of the House and Senate Courts of Justice Committees, Delegate Dave Albo, Senator Tommy Norment, and Senator Mark Obenshain, respectively.

“This is a serious problem at UVA, but it is larger than just one institution,” said Toscano. “We have a special role as legislators to do what we can to attack this problem. We fund public and private institutions of higher education in Virginia, both directly and indirectly through TAG grants. More importantly, it is our children and grandchildren who attend these institutions and who deserve our protection.”

Toscano suggested that the legislative panel hear first from the Governor’s Task Force on Combating Campus Sexual Violence chaired by the Attorney General, and receive information on protocols that colleges and universities have in place to encourage reporting these crimes to law enforcement. Toscano requested the hearings take place during the first week of the 2015 General Assembly, scheduled to convene on January 14, 2015.

A copy of Delegate Toscano’s letter to the chairs is available here.

A copy of Delegate Toscano’s statement of November 21 is available here.

Delegate David J. Toscano represents the 57th District in Virginia’s House of Delegates, which consists of the City of Charlottesville and parts of Albemarle County. Since 2012, Delegate Toscano has also served as House Democratic Leader, elected by his fellow Democratic delegate peers.

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Contact: Carmen Bingham, (434) 220-1660, carmen@davidtoscano.com
Office of Delegate David Toscano, 57th District
House Democratic Leader
211 East High Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902

Addressing and Combating the Issue of Sexual Assault

November 21, 2014 by David Toscano

Comments on the Rolling Stone article and sexual assault

The events described in the recent article in Rolling Stone magazine are deeply disturbing and should prompt us to redouble our efforts to combat sexual assault. I have conveyed my serious concerns to University administrators and believe it is proper that they have turned this case over to the Charlottesville Police Department.

While sexual assault is not a problem unique to UVa, that fact should not obscure our responsibility to confront this problem directly. Our great University should not and cannot become a poster child for inaction. UVa and the Commonwealth should be leaders in addressing a problem that is increasing in severity. The 2014 report from the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault study reported that:

One in five women is sexually assaulted while in college.
Undergraduate women are most likely to be raped during the first six weeks of their first semester of college.
Campus assailants are often serial offenders. This is perhaps the most shocking fact of all.

President Teresa Sullivan and Rector George Martin have both issued statements decrying the epidemic of sexual assault on college campuses. But, as they acknowledge, words alone will not suffice. UVa is one of twelve schools in the country under a U.S. Department of Education Compliance Review; it will immediately need to increase its efforts to combat this very serious problem within the community. This includes both continuing to challenge its students on the need to report sexual assault and requiring university officials to report offenses when made aware.[1] It means encouraging these allegations to be handled as criminal misconduct rather than treating them as “honor offenses”. It means continuing to confront and eliminate a culture of alcohol and drug abuse. It means taking swift and firm action against individuals who engage in these activities, as well as the organizations such as fraternities and sororities who condone such behavior. If the facts of this case are supported, there should be serious criminal and civil sanctions directed at the fraternity and the members who were involved.

As a city and region, we should increase our police presence in the Rugby Road area. The University should also increase its own security measures. And as a Commonwealth, we should seek changes in law that will encourage victims and universities to report this behavior and expel students guilty of this egregious activity. The Governor recently established a Task Force on Combating Campus Sexual Violence, and they will begin reporting recommendations very soon. We should enact legislation that requires universities to develop vigorous reporting policies involving sexual misconduct and requirements that universities mark the transcripts of students convicted of sexual misconduct so that if they seek to transfer, the next institution would have the benefit of this information. Another option involves legislation or regulation designed to crack down on fraternities which are operating as “de facto” clubs without liquor licenses.

The Charlottesville Police Department is now involved investigating these allegations; we should let them do their work expeditiously and unencumbered. But while they do, we need to examine new policies. And I will continue to encourage the University to do much more to address this problem.

As always, I am honored to represent this community and encourage individuals to contact me at david@davidtoscano.com.

[1] UVa’s policy on Student Sexual Misconduct provides information for victims and encourages reporting. It is designed to encourage a culture of reporting. It only tangentially mentions the obligations of others at the University to report. Many do not realize that as of August, 2014, many UVa employees became mandatory reporters of sexual misconduct. This would include most members of the faculty and administration, and the reporting would be to UVa’s Title IX Coordinator through a secure website. Ironically, the University published a new Student Sexual Misconduct Policy on November 19, which is now open for comment. Comment period ends December 5, 2014.

Comments on the Rolling Stone article and sexual assault

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