Administrators reported the University has made significant progress in advancing three of the Board of Visitors' highest priority initiatives -- affordability for low-income students, diversity issues and higher education reform -- at the summer meeting that concluded Saturday.
The Board, which introduced Access U.Va. in February 2004, was told that the class of 2009 will include 193 students from families at or below 200 percent of the poverty line, representing a 45 percent increase from last year in the number of low-income entering students attending the University.
An additional 31 students transferring from the Virginia Community College System will also benefit from the program, which contributed to increasing the number of these admitted students who choose to enroll at the University from a previous 45 percent average to 63.7 percent.
The program was established to make the University population more reflective of the population as a whole. Access U.Va. guarantees meeting the full demonstrated financial need of both in-state and out-of-state students, provides grants to those with low family incomes, and caps the need-based loans of all students. The fourth component of the program, individualized counseling, was phased in this past school year.
"We were declining in economic diversity over the last ten years and wanted to turn that around and obviously we have," said Director of Student Financial Services Yvonne Hubbard. "This year we have an increase in students below the 200 percent level of poverty. This is the year that we've seen the turnaround."
Hubbard said she will work with the Board's Educational Policy Committee to set a firm target for achieving socio-economic diversity among students at the University by looking at the economic composition of the Commonwealth and nation as a whole. Low-income students will make up 6.2 percent of the incoming class.
There was also a significant increase in recruitment and retention of minority faculty, a key goal of the Board's Special Committee on Diversity and Equity formed in the spring of 2003. This past academic year, 73 percent of African-Americans and women who were offered tenure track positions accepted. representing a sharp increase from 31 and 54 percent respectively in 2003-2004. Of 15 African-American faculty members recruited by the University, 11 accepted positions.
"All of a sudden people know the Board cares," University President John T. Casteen, III said. He attributed the increase in minority faculty to emphasis from the Provost's Office, faculty and spousal support, and attention to the subcultures within departments.
"I think the faculty understands and absolutely accepts diversity," said Gertrude Fraser, vice provost for faculty advancement. "The measure is pushed up from the bottom and down from the top."
University Dean of African-American affairs M. Rick Turner said he has been pleased with the Board's attention to diversity issues.
"I think the Board has been very supportive -- it's been one of the most supportive Boards over the last 17 years that I've been here, particularly with their commitment and proactive steps towards diversity," Turner said. "I don't think any board has taken gigantic steps like this Board has, I commend them."
The Board also expressed optimism that higher education restructuring, previously known as Charter legislation, will allow the University to continue to make progress on key initiatives in the coming years.
The University achieves Level 1 autonomy under the legislation July 1. This allows the University greater independence in undertaking procurement and capital outlays, as the Board continues to work with the Governor's office to reap the full potential of the legislation.
The Board will need to decide whether or not to increase funding of existing programs or undertake new initiatives.
"There are some real policy decisions that we need to deal with as we establish the plan," University Chief Operating Officer Leonard Sandridge said.
Despite the progress some find room for further improvement. In light of Access U.Va, the Board has discussed the University's graduate student funding in recent meetings, yet improvements have been slow in coming, particularly in the humanities and social sciences.
"The tightness of funding is really a problem for us," said Gregory Hays, director of graduate study in Classics. "I'd say that our major problem is that we cannot offer enough graduate fellowships. This past year we were able to offer funding to three incoming students. In order to maintain our program in an average year we really need four."
The shortfall has the greatest effect on large undergraduate classes for non-majors which must endure larger sections. In the Classics department there were 60 applications last year, yet some of the best candidates did not even consider the University, Hays said.
"There were at least 12 applicants who were terrific, top notch people, who in some cases we weren't even able to get them to visit because we weren't putting money on the table," Hays said.
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