The Board of Visitors met Friday to discuss alternatives to enhance access and affordability and the financial impact these alternatives would take on the University’s $2.2 billion Strategic Investment Fund.
Partway through the meeting, a group of student protesters disrupted the session by storming the boardroom and demanding board members work to make the University a safer place.
Rector William Goodwin asked protesters to leave the room because it was filled past capacity. Conversation then resumed on the scheduled topic of access and affordability.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration announced Nov. 1 that Virginia’s public colleges and universities can expect 7.5 percent decrease in funding for the next fiscal year. The University is also under pressure from state legislators and others to increase in-state enrollment.
Last year, admission was offered to 5,762 Virginians. Of that, 2,461 first-years and 552 transfers enrolled. The board spent time going over these numbers and reviewing two alternatives for increasing in-state enrollment.
The first alternative would be to increase in-state undergraduate enrollment by 400 students, which would have a financial impact of $3.8 million from fiscal year 2018 to fiscal year 2021 with an estimated ongoing cost of one million per year.
Phoebe Willis, the student BOV member and Law student, said it was worth noting that the cost of additional housing was not factored into this estimate.
“The increase of 400 students is going to require additional housing for first-years — that cost isn’t even factored in,” Willis said. “That would definitely bump that cost up a lot more because the cost to build dorms is pretty significant.”
The second option reviewed by the board involves exchanging 100 out-of-state students for 100 in-state students. This option seemed to be less popular, as some members of the board said they felt comfortable with the current ratios of in-state to out-of-state students.
The BOV then moved to discussing affordability, and members discussed the nine alternatives presented. The board showed the highest interest in the options which involved adjusting the estimated family contribution calculation to address the cost of living, reducing loan caps for in-state middle-income students with need and establishing an AccessUVA endowment with money from the SIF.
Establishing an AccessUVA endowment would be funded with a $100 million distribution over five years from the Strategic Investment Fund as a challenge grant which would then be matched by donations.
“The ultimate goal is to build a $1.2 billion endowment of financial aid and keep it so all financial aid comes out of that,” Willis said. “That’s kind of how the Ivies are able to do what they do and offer the aid packages that they do — because it’s not predicated on their tuition.”
Willis also said the proposals put before the board on Friday were centered around “short term thinking” — something the BOV doesn’t normally deal with. She said the board looks at proposals while considering if they will hurt future students.
“The board is used to thinking long term, and some of these are very short term thinking,” Willis said. “As a student member thinking about this … it’s not just the short term, but the long term — what’s going to happen in five to 10 years.”
In September, the board approved approximately $26 million from the SIF to be allocated over the next three years between 13 research scholarships. They will reconvene in December to continue discussions on the access and affordability proposals.
Correction: This article previously stated incorrectly that the Board of Visitors will be voting on the access and affordability proposals in December.
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