A focus on student debt
Across the nation, public universities such as VCU face more competition for fewer resources.
Though The Great Recession has officially ended, 48 states are still spending less per student on public higher education than they did before the recession began in 2008. Only 10 states increased funding for higher education last year compared to 2012, while eight states actually reduced funding. In Virginia, a recent budget shortfall means that VCU must plan for $21 million in public appropriation cuts over the next two years.
Nationwide, the reduction in state support to universities often means students and their families unfortunately must pay higher tuition, and sometimes that means incurring student debt.
Yet higher education remains a worthy, often necessary, investment. America’s universities — particularly public universities like VCU — are still the greatest path to success for people from all backgrounds, not just those born into privilege. We continue to “replace an empty mind with an open one,” as Malcolm Forbes said, because students come to us not only for a degree and a job but for perspective and meaning.
Universities owe it to students to help them achieve whatever future they have imagined. Dreams cannot be pressed under the weight of debt, or rendered inaccessible by rising costs.
We have a commitment to affordability and to offering a unique educational experience.
Even with pending budget cuts, VCU will always be a university that is accessible to diverse and internationally competitive students and uncompromisingly committed to helping them succeed.
But we can — and will — do even more.
While we must ensure that we have the resources to operate as a nationally premier public research university, we must also be certain that earning a VCU degree means upward mobility, not crippling debt.
Our students represent the future of our nation. As such, they must have the chance to live the life and reach the potential for which their VCU education has prepared them.
That is why we dedicate more than $1 billion every year to advancing our educational and research mission at VCU. And it is why I want to make certain that we are using those resources well.
As we begin to build a new strategic budget model, we will be crystal clear that all of our resources are advancing our mission. That includes strategic investment and reallocation to what matters most, and boosting our endowment so that revenue streams are more sustainable.
It also includes increasing student financial assistance, helping ensure better access and retention, more timely graduation and more graduates who can begin their professional lives without the specter of debt.
We will continue to accelerate our progress while becoming a national model for transparency, focus and efficiency in higher education. And we will do this without shackling our students with unreasonable debt.
They deserve that chance.
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