BOV update: approved budget for 2019-2020
May 10, 2019
Dear VCU community,
At its meeting today, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Board of Visitors approved a $1.3 billion operating budget for the university. The budget prioritizes our commitment to access and excellence by including no increase to base tuition or to education and general (E&G) mandatory fees for undergraduate students for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Additionally, the budget:
- Invests $12.5 million in student financial aid and support. Additionally, our Make It Real Campaign for VCU has created 298 new endowed scholarships and student support funds. Together, these funds will continue supporting our students in performing at levels comparable to any university in Virginia, including 4- and 6-year graduation rates that now exceed the national average.
- Increases non-E&G mandatory fees by $106 ($53 per semester). These fees fund career and counseling centers, student disability and services centers, health services, recreational sports, and similar programs. Fees are not increased for Student Activities or for Capital Outlay, which covers facilities improvements.
- Increases non-mandatory fees, such as for housing and dining, to meet mandated costs for outside contracts. Notably, this includes increased pay for dining services workers. We are pleased to do the right thing for these workers while continuing to offer our students a dining plan that is the second-lowest priced of any Virginia university.
- Includes pool merit raises for members of our faculty, university and academic professionals, and classified staff who meet the eligibility criteria as follows:
- 4 percent pool merit-based salary increase for faculty and university and academic professionals. This also includes raises for adjunct faculty. These merit increases are in addition to those earned this year.
- Classified staff, who received no raise this year, will receive a 2.75 percent base salary increase with satisfactory performance. Those with at least 3 years of continuous service are also eligible for increases as part of a 2.25 percent performance-based merit pool.
If you would like to see the full budget as approved by the BOV, please visit https://budget.vcu.edu/budget-plans/.
We are pleased to move forward with a budget that prioritizes our accessibility and helps ensure our students will have a nationally premier educational experience. This is possible in part because of increased investment in VCU from the Commonwealth of Virginia. During the recently completed legislative session, the General Assembly granted VCU $6.8 million in permanent operations support, $2.3 million in one-time operations support, and $3.4 million for student financial aid.
The General Assembly made these investments—among the largest to any public university—in us because they recognize the enormous positive impact we make on the Commonwealth. We are grateful for their support, which profoundly enhances VCU’s own commitment to access and the excellence of our student experience.
Our shared obligation is to continue building on our strong record with a budget that allows us to invest in our mission. This includes making strategic cuts and reallocations when necessary to balance our budget. We will continue investing in recruiting and retaining faculty to enrich our students’ educational experience. And we will continue investing in things like academic advising that we know improve student success. In other words, we will keep building on our strengths as one of America’s nationally prominent urban public research universities.
This budget continues to reinforce our shared promise of access and excellence for our students and those we serve. Our commitment remains steadfast: VCU will always be a path to your American Dream.
Thank you for all you do for VCU.
Sincerely,
Michael Rao, Ph.D.
President, VCU and VCU Health System
Categories 21st-Century University, News, Periodic update, To VCU