Interview with Dr. Eugene Trani

For its broadcast debut, VCU InSight had the honor of airing an interview with University President Eugene Trani. The following is a complete transcription of that exclusive interview.

Tiara Smith:
Today we're happy to have Dr. Eugene Trani joining us for some candid talk about budget troubles and what VCU hopes to get from the General Assembly this year.

Dr. Trani, first of all I want to thank you very much for being on our very first edition of VCU InSight. We appreciate it very much. I want to start off by asking you about the recent budget crunch. It affected VCU greatly during the fall semester. What are your plans on lessening the blow in the months ahead?

Dr. Eugene P. Trani:
Well, first of all I'm pleased to be with you, and I'm excited about the show. I think this is a great collaboration between public television and the school of Mass Comm. I look forward to a long run of the show.

We're obviously having budget problems throughout the commonwealth of Virginia. They reminded me when I first arrived in 1990, 91, and 92 we had comparable budget difficulties. We clearly have structural imbalances, and it's been unfortunate that higher education has had both significant budget cuts, and had to raise tuition and fees to help offset a portion of those difficulties. At the same time, we also were very pleased with the bond result that you reported on. Seventy-three percent of Virginians in effect voted for higher education, and I hope that's a message that everybody in the commonwealth understands. So, we'll work our way through the budget difficulties.

What we're going to try at Virginia Commonwealth University is to become less dependent on just general tax funds. For supporting the university, I've outlined a six-part prescription that we've got to pay attention to. We need to grow our enrollment, especially our out-of-state enrollment. We need to double our research budget. We need to focus on private fund-raising. We need to be entrepreneurial. We need to be efficient, and we clearly need to make sure that our hospital and our physician practice, our health system, stays strong, because the moment that gets into trouble, the university is going to be in even further budget difficulties.

So I'll be walking the halls of the legislature in the next [few] weeks, talking about the importance of higher education in a knowledge-based economy. You've got no more an important resource than universities. It's more important than airports, it's more important than highways. If Virginia is going to continue to compete, both within the United States and the worldwide economy, it has to reinvest more in higher education, not less.

Jeremy Crider:
And I know that you spent some time this summer in Ireland studying that same principle that you just mentioned about the economy, and how the education system there has really & increased their economy, and were you applying those things to your prescription, or have you already done that?

Dr. Trani:
Sure, I've written a report that I presented in Dublin in early December, to about 75 business and government leaders, and Ireland right now is the largest producer of software in the world, even larger than the United States. They have really moved ahead with the knowledge-based economy, concentrating in information communication technology on the one hand, and the life sciences on the other hand. They refer to Ireland as 'Ireland Inc.' and the last part of my report raises the question of should Virginia begin to apply some of the principles that have been so successful in Ireland, to a 'Virginia Inc.' where we would really systematically try to build the broad-based coalition they have between governmental leaders, business leaders, and educational leaders, as to where the investments in the future ought to be made in Virginia.

Smith:
So, is this having any effect on your priorities with the General Assembly?

Dr. Trani:
Quite clearly, it is to focus in developing the technological aspects of higher education. I'm very pleased that Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, George Mason, and Virginia Commonwealth University have come together to support a major life sciences initiative, called 'Virginia Life,' bringing four large research universities together. So yes, I will be concentrating on those kind of activities, in really trying to raise the issue of how can Virginia better use the dollars it has, as well as the powers the state has, to make sure that we bring a resurgence of the economy, and that we stay out of the kind of difficulties we've had for the last year.

Crider:
And quickly, this is beyond the budget issue. It's been a pretty good year for VCU. Dr. [John] Fenn, of course winning the Nobel Prize, and the national attention over the great care that the VCU Health System gave to the sniper victim. What do you see for 2003? What do you see for this year?

Dr. Trani:
Well, clearly we've come together as a university. Now we're a major research university, and recognized as being a major research university. And you can't read the New York Times, you can't read the Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post, without seeing some coverage of Virginia Commonwealth University. That's good for everybody. It's good for the students at Virginia Commonwealth University like yourself. It's good for the citizens of the commonwealth, as people recognize the high quality that Virginia Commonwealth University is, and I see more of them. It's really going downhill now, and clearly the recognition & we were obviously very excited about Dr. Fenn, and Dr. [Rao R.] Ivatury the trauma surgeon, in a very tragic moment to see the high quality of the VCU Health System displayed internationally.

Smith:
Well, thank you very much, Dr. Trani for being here. We appreciate it very much.