With private funds surpassing state funds in the University's operating budget and the prospects for a significant infusion of higher education dollars meek across Virginia, the University plans to ask for fewer state tax dollars in the future in exchange for more fiscal and procedural autonomy.
The College of William & Mary and Virginia Tech, in conjunction with the University, also are negotiating similar proposals with the Commonwealth.
The schools could be labeled "Commonwealth-chartered colleges and universities" under any new agreements forged.
Aiming for more autonomy from the complicated state bureaucracy to improve efficiency and decrease fiscal waste, the proposals being floated could result in the three schools no longer being subject to some personnel, procurement and capital project regulations, as well as less state intervention on the setting of tuition rates, University spokesperson Carol Wood said.
Wood added that the current effort closely resembles a similar move in 1995 to obtain "codified autonomy status" from the state for the University's Medical Center. Cost savings garnered from that effort enabled the Medical Center to survive tough fiscal conditions when many other public universities were forced to sell or close their hospitals.
"Today's legislation is a natural next step [to] earlier decentralization legislation that have all proved to work well and to help not only the University, but the entire state," Wood said.
William & Mary spokesperson William Walker said the proposal likely would grant his school long-term financial stability, something severely lacking at schools across Virginia in the recent past due to a combination of tuition freezes, rollbacks and budget cuts.
"We could establish, let's say, a five-year plan that would give us and our students and parents the opportunity to do a little more efficient planning," Walker said.
According to Wood, other less-endowed Virginia schools which cannot become "Commonwealth-chartered" could potentially benefit from the new proposals as well.
"One of the ideas -- and this is not set in stone -- is that the University might be willing to take 10 percent less [of future higher education appropriations] and that money would go back into higher education and could help other institutions that don't have the same resources as our three institutions have," she said.
Although Wood said some legislators have shown great support for the project, local Del. Robert Bell, R-58, said more details are necessary before he can comment on whether he fully supports the proposed new relationship between higher education and state government.
"The details are not yet out, and for something like this details are everything," Bell said. "Sometimes a bill sounds like a good idea, but when you get into the details it doesn't fix a lot of problems -- it just makes everything worse. We'll just have to see."
An assistant at Del. Mitch Van Yahres' office, D-57, said Van Yahres could not comment on any school decentralization proposals because he has not seen a completed bill yet.
One thing, however, that both Wood and Walker were adamant about expressing is that these proposals do not represent any attempt or desire on behalf of state universities to go private.
"We're not talking privatization," Wood said. "All three [schools'] presidents are very emphatic that this is not any effort to become private. We will always be a state institution. We were founded by Jefferson as [a public institution] and that's something we would never walk away from."
Read More
Students have federal internship offers rescinded due to hiring freeze
By Nina Broderick | 17 hours agoUntil July 15, no presently vacant federal civilian positions may be filled, and no new positions may be created.
Man dies from self-inflicted gunshot wounds at the Rotunda
By Ford McCracken | 22 hours agoThe investigation is ongoing, and additional details are not available at this time.
Virginia primary elections feature contested race for Democratic Lt. Gov. candidate
By Nicolas Biernacki | YesterdayEligible voters can find more information about early voting by consulting the City Department of Voter Registration & Elections website or the County Department of Elections website.
