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2000 SESSION

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SB 423 Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center.

Introduced by: William C. Wampler, Jr. | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS PASSED: (all summaries)

Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center. Adds the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center (SVHEC) to the list of those entities characterized as "educational institutions" and "governmental instrumentalities for the dissemination of education." Current law designates as "educational institutions" the Commonwealth's four-year public colleges and universities, the Virginia Community College System, the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center, the Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, and the Eastern Virginia Medical School. This classification as an educational institution will enable SVHEC to issue bonds with the approval of its governing board and the Governor (§§ 23-15 and 23-19), acquire property (§ 23-16), be eligible for its bonds to be purchased by the Virginia College Building Authority (§§ 23-30.24, 23-30.25, 23-30.27, and 23-30.28), establish a campus police department, and authorize such campus police to purchase their service handguns (§ 23-232). This designation will not empower the SVHEC to establish unfunded scholarships (§ 23-31), nor will it place the Center under the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), the coordinating council for two- and four-year public colleges and universities. In addition, the designation does not require SVHEC to submit an annual report to SCHEV regarding financial statements (§ 23-1.01). The term "educational institution" appears in a variety of contexts throughout the Code. The term, for purposes of § 23-14, does not necessarily include all entities described as "institutions of higher education" or "institutions of higher learning" elsewhere in the Code of Virginia. "Educational institution" is used broadly in Code provisions addressing matters such as employment, prohibited contracts, and certain field permits. "Educational institutions" may also sell real estate (§ 13.1-901); establish educational television stations (§ 15.2-966); have students excluded from certain toll payments (§ 22.1-187); and have governing board members reimbursed for travel expenses (§ 23-3). Public "educational institutions" receiving state funds may not discriminate against persons with disabilities (§ 51.5-43). Not referenced in § 23-14, nor subject to SCHEV as a coordinating council, are these designated "educational institutions": the Miller School of Albemarle, the Board of Regents of Gunston Hall, the Frontier Culture Museum, the Science Museum of Virginia, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, and the Library of Virginia. The term has also been used in reference to private correspondence schools (§ 22.1-319). Designation as an "institution of higher education" has been applied to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, (which is not designated as an "educational institution") as well as the Science Museum of Virginia, and specifically makes these entities eligible to receive property and funds from localities (§ 23-3.1) and to maintain their state appropriations, despite any increases in endowment funds (§ 23-9.2). This measure is identical to HB 610.


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