The Board of Visitors's Finance Committee on Thursday discussed the University’s six-year plan, which includes the possibility of faculty pay increases.
Helen Dragas was the only Board member not to vote for the University’s six-year financial plan. She objected to the plan's tuition increases.
“I think that we are missing an opportunity to take a more leadership role in addressing affordability in higher education,” Dragas said.
Much of the meeting focused on the debate over increasing salaries for faculty. Thomas Katsouleas, University executive vice president and provost, presented the latest numbers how gradual salary increases could improve the University’s ranking by the Association of American Universities.
“There’s a tension between higher faculty salaries and keeping the cost of education low, but you have to strike that balance,” Katsouleas said.
With the exception of the 2012-13 academic session, the University in the past few years been below the AAU salary median by about 4 percent.
Katsouleas presented ways to close the gap, but was met with resistance by Board members who pushed for more specific statistics. Board member Frank Genovese questioned whether the University should devote resources to improving its AAU rating.
Additional tuition increases would not take effect for a few years, meaning the University would need to find the funds to support faculty salary increases elsewhere.
In the next five to seven years, the Board predicts to hire over 500 tenure-track faculty.
The Finance Committee also heard a report from the University's investment management group, the University of Virginia Investment Management Company.
The UVIMCO report was overall positive, showing a 7.7 percent return on investments in the last 12 months.
The volatile market environment of the past year affected the return, but the University will still rank in the upper quartile when compared to its peers, said Lawrence Kochard, UVIMCO's chief executive officer.
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