BLACKSBURG -- The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors approved a policy Monday for sponsoring applications for permanent residency -- or green cards -- for foreign faculty and staff.

The university had no set policy for the practice, though 180 faculty and staff members at Tech are immigrants with permanent residency status and another 257 employees are in the country on H1-B visas, good for only six years. Virginia Tech employs about 6,400 people full-time.

The decision to create a university-wide policy is in response to a growing number of foreign scholars at Tech, particularly in science and engineering.

To receive sponsorship, employees must be applying for a full-time, salaried position that has the potential to keep them at the university for several years. The position must be considered "significant" by the department and requires the approval of the particular department head, dean or other senior managers, depending on the position.

The topic was one of several the board discussed at its quarterly meeting on campus Monday:

The board's building and grounds committee reviewed architectural renderings for an 8,600-square-foot building adjacent to Henderson Hall near the intersection of College and Draper avenues. It will provide academic space for the school of arts and will include a flexible theatre for teaching and performances.

The board's academic affairs committee heard from Wayne Scales, an engineering professor and chair of Tech's Taskforce on Race and the Institution. Scales announced that the task force -- formed in the wake of student protests against on-campus racism last spring -- would release a preliminary report in January and a final report late next spring.

Greg Sagstetter and Ennis McCrery, the undergraduate and graduate representatives to the board of visitors, both mentioned student interest in making Virginia Tech a more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly campus. Students have suggested self-imposed "green fees" to provide for recycling programs and more efficient water and electricity use.

Jacob Lutz, rector of the board of visitors, said he'd like to see the item on the board's agenda for its March meeting and instructed Sagstetter to continue working on the issue with the administration.