UDC President Urged Toward Fundraising, Modernizing

Pollard also has been unable to persuade the city government to raise the university's allocation for next year by anything more than a cost-of-living increase. UDC administrators and faculty say the school is underfunded by the city; this year, it received $120 million from city and federal funds, Andrews said.

Critics question how money is spent at UDC. For example, the university has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past decade on plans for buildings that were never funded. A $500,000 contract was recently awarded to an architecture-engineering firm to design a student center, even though no money is available to build it.

And although more than $12 million has been spent on maintenance and improvement of facilities since Pollard arrived, major repairs are still needed. The school's main plaza floods every time it rains, with water seeping into the underground parking garage, where whole sections are crumbling, school officials said.

D.C. Council members said it was time for the city to pay more attention to UDC.

"We have quite a lot of work to do to make the university relevant to the workforce development needs of the city," said member David A. Catania (I-At Large). "Change is not happening as quickly as we like, but President Pollard is moving in the right direction to move the university."

Financial troubles nearly cost UDC its accreditation in the late 1990s, but it won reaccredidation in 2005 under Pollard, who had been a longtime dean at Syracuse University.

As UDC president, Pollard reached the first collective bargaining agreement with the faculty union in a decade; forged cooperative agreements with other institutions, including one with the Lombardi cancer research institute for a master's degree in cancer biology; and established a counseling and career services center for students.

In January, Pollard hired Stanley Jackson, a former D.C. vice mayor, as chief of staff and senior vice president for operations. Last month, he brought on board David Watts, a former deputy mayor and administrator at George Washington University, as vice president for real estate and facilities management. Both were hired at the urging of the trustees, sources said.

Neither Dyke nor Pollard would discuss the hires, and Jackson and Watts did not return phone calls.