Aug. 22, 1999 Thanks to givers can vary Fund raising can reflect a college president's style and mission at a particular point in time. By MATT CHITTUM THE ROANOKE TIMES The University of Virginia president hands out UVa Jefferson cups. Virginia Tech's friends and donors get baseball caps and James "Bud" Robertson's book on Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson from the school's president. Radford University's chief isn't much of a gift giver at all. Virginia Military Institute Superintendent Josiah Bunting III bestows everything from T-shirts to framed prints. Bunting's spending habits - and whether some of it has been for his personal aggrandizement - have been the subject of an investigation in recent weeks. He has retained an attorney, former Virginia Attorney General Richard Cullen. Cullen is a partner with McGuire, Woods, Battle and Booth, the Richmond law firm that represented VMI in its battle to stay all male. Bunting's spending also has become a source of consternation for alumni donors. But in these days when college presidents are one part manager, one part fund-raiser and one part alumni schmoozer, varying amounts of gift giving, cocktail chatter and glad handing are the norm. "Reasonable people know that universities have to do this type of thing," Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said. How much they do it, how much they spend on it and how they go about it tends to reflect the president's mission at a particular point in time. It also can reflect a president's style. UVa's John Casteen, who is in the midst of a $1 billion fund-raising campaign, gives 50 to 100 tokens to donors, visiting dignitaries and some of UVa's 170,000 alumni each year, according to UVa officials. Ninety-five percent of them cost $25 or less. They are not bought with taxpayer money. To UVa Chief Financial Officer Leonard Sandridge, that says Casteen believes "that it's much more the thought, the recognition, than the dollar value of the gift. I think it reflects a recognition that we don't need to be frivolous in order to express our appreciation." Bunting's 1998 gifts ranged from $12 for a couple of employees who had babies to $147 prints he gave to five guests at the institute. Gov. Jim Gilmore's sons got $34 in T-shirts. Eight VIPs from the company that published Bunting's last book received more than $400 in gifts. Bunting still declines to comment on his spending, but VMI board member Waite Rawls said a gift "has to be appropriate with regard to the recipient." A major donor shouldn't be given a trinket. "I've gotten gifts before that I said, 'What a cheesy gift,'" Rawls said. "I'd rather get nothing than get something that looked like someone was pinching pennies. The gift has to send a message." Most of Virginia Tech's 160,000 living graduates do get nothing. Tech President Paul Torgersen has spent relatively little on gifts and flowers - about $9,600 last fiscal year, according to Hincker - even though he is working on a $350 million campaign. Torgersen and Tech's development office spent $600 on flowers last year, Hincker said. All told, Torgersen's giving habits reflect his frugal nature, Hincker said. Radford president Douglas Covington's giving, however, reflects his lesser involvement in fund raising and alumni relations, compared to his counterparts. Covington is more apt to attend development office events than to travel around raising money, Radford spokesman Rob Tucker said. Covington spent slightly more than $2,000 last fiscal year on gifts and flowers, according to Radford. Bunting's critics argue past VMI superintendents have not spent like Bunting has. His defenders say Bunting has a different mission - seeing that alumni alienated by VMI's 1996 decision to go coed return to the fold and continue to donate money. "If there was ever a time for outreach from the school to its alumni base, it's the last three years," Rawls said. Given that, Bunting's spending on gifts, entertaining and travel is expected, Rawls said. Sandridge, UVa's financial officer, said the same thing occurred at UVa when Robert O'Neil, who had no capital campaign and consequently traveled and entertained less, was succeeded by Casteen. Casteen used a $350,000 entertainment account to play host to 175 events for 16,350 guests at his home last year, according to figures provided by UVa. The flowers for those occasions cost $10,700. Casteen's travel costs for state and fund-raising purposes were just under $70,000. Each college in Virginia sets its own policies for its president's spending. State Auditor of Public Accounts Walter Kucharski says that's as it should be. Schools need flexibility to allocate their resources to accomplish their individual missions. At the same time, strict accounting procedures are a must. "If you don't put in those checks and balances," Kucharski said, "you end up with a story like the one about VMI." VMI has policies that govern all its accounts, including prohibitions on using college money for gifts, flowers and alcohol. At the same time, there was always the understanding that the superintendent's office needed to spend money on those things, so the rules were bent when necessary, VMI's business officials say. But the superintendents preceding Bunting were more conservative with college money, according to VMI's head of purchasing, Ron McManus. John Knapp, whom Bunting succeeded, was a longtime state employee with a clear understanding of purchasing rules and laws, McManus said. Bunting, however, buys gifts and flowers and entertains in a volume far greater than Knapp did. Bunting also buys books for his own reading and for gifts, something past superintendents never did with the discretionary account, VMI's business people say. Bunting also frequently uses a state-issued American Express card, which means his purchases can't be scrutinized until they've already been made, VMI Business Executive John Rowe said. While an unwritten understanding about those kinds of purchases did the job in the past, with Bunting in office - and especially with the state investigation - it has become clear to VMI that more detailed policies are necessary. VMI Controller Bob Gilbert said he and Rowe already have proposed new regulations that specify what kind of giving is appropriate. Kucharski recommends UVa's model, which uses the same purchasing procedures for both taxpayer money and university money donated by alumni and others. Even individual flower purchases are reviewed by business officials before they are made, said Sandridge, the UVa financial officer. An illegal purchase "would bounce like a rubber ball" on the controller's desk, he said. Sandridge said Casteen often consults with him before making a purchase to make sure it's OK, something VMI's business officials say Bunting has not done. Virginia Tech's Torgersen uses a $50,000 account held at Tech's private foundation - and out of reach of state spending rules - to buy his gifts, but Tech's chief financial officer must approve the purchases. Kucharski said a college's board also should set up a mechanism for the people who review their president's spending to say, "We've been cautioning the president that he's going too far ... and we think you need to sit in and have a chat with him." "You've got to be very cautious," Kucharski said. "Nobody wants to take the president on." At Radford, awareness of the president's spending has been heightened since the departure of Donald Dedmon in 1994 after he used his discretionary account for about $7,000 in personal purchases. Dedmon reimbursed the university. Now, the business affairs committee of Radford's Board of Visitors reviews all of Covington's purchases every three months, according to Radford's internal auditor, Bill Shorter. "They are going to make sure they never read their name in the newspaper again," Kucharski said. "If I were in their shoes, I'd do the same thing."