The University Board of Visitors Committee on the College at Wise met Monday via Zoom to discuss the Chancellor’s report. The report was created by the Chancellor of Wise’s office and included updates on enrollment, state budget funding requests, capital project funding requests and an overview of academic and student life.
In addition, the Board also welcomed Gary Johnson, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, to discuss updates to the first-year experience, most notably its revised “Be Wise” first-year seminars aimed at increasing retention rates.
This committee is composed of 10 members, including Chair Marvin Gilliam Jr. and Vice Chair Amanda Pillion, as well as Daniel Brody, Robert Byron, the Honorable Paul Harris, John Nau III, David Okonkwo M.D. and Ex-officio Carlos Brown. The committee also includes Faculty Representative Jeri Seidman and Jackson Sleadd, student representative to the Board and fourth-year College student.
College at Wise Chancellor Donna Henry began the meeting by presenting Board members with a five-year comparison of its fall enrollment statistics. Total enrollment at Wise has increased to 1,802, up 21.4 percent from the Fall 2022 semester. The number of currently enrolled students who are degree-seeking is 1,368, which is also up 27.9 percent from that semester. Wise also saw its largest graduating class for the 2025-26 academic year, with 339 degrees being given to 318 graduates.
New students also increased 29.3 percent from fall 2022, with 529 new students enrolling during the Fall 2026 semester. This figure resulted from increases in first-time freshmen from 246 to 283, transfers which increased from 89 to 151 and new graduate students which rose from zero to 26, as the College had no graduate programs in 2022. Further, freshmen retention rates increased from 70.4 percent in the fall 2021 cohort to 75.4 percent in the fall 2025 cohort. Henry said she anticipates continued growth in both total enrollment and new students in the coming years.
“If we continue on this trajectory … we could accommodate clearly 1,600 degree-seeking [students],” Henry said. “[We can prioritize] a growth that’s sustainable and that would help the College to be successful.”
Henry then discussed the College’s revised six-year plan, which includes new academic programs, broader enrollment marketing and an innovative technology program. Additionally, Henry reaffirmed the College’s commitment to keeping tuition affordable. She cited statistics where 70 percent of U.Va. Wise students take on no debt, and of the 30 percent who do, the average is around $10,000 over four years.
Henry then listed state budget funding items for Wise for 2026-28, which included $35.9 million in funding for the Darden Hall renovation as well as separate funding for additional financial aid and factoring in state-wide minimum wage increases. General funding requests also included a $1.1 million request for Student Mobile Technology, which would eliminate student fees for iPad technology used in classrooms.
The College at Wise is also seeking approval for three 2026-28 capital projects. These include a Technology Classroom building with an estimated project cost of $87.8 million and a multi-use facility, which Henry said would serve as an accompaniment to the David J. Prior Convocation Center — a 78,000 square foot building used for concerts and other convention activities — in order to expand programming, with an estimated cost of $94 million. The last project is a Zehmer Hall renovation with an estimated cost of $33 million. State capital funding requests are subject to gubernatorial and state General Assembly passage to be included in the annual Appropriation Act and have not yet been approved.
The presentation of the Chancellor’s Report wrapped up with a discussion of the four pillars of Wise’s Strategic Plan to be adopted in spring 2027. These include student success and engaged citizenship, technology and infrastructure stewardship, operational and teaching excellence and community engagement and sense of place. Each of these pillars will have a working group which will be co-chaired by a senior leader and include faculty, students and staff as well as one community member and a representative from the College board.
“We’re pulling together four working groups … so that we can get to a place where we have our goals together in the fall. We can prioritize those for the strategic plan, share our planning with our College Board and with you, and then move on to complete the strategic plan in the spring,” Henry said.
Johnson then presented updates to the first-year experience, notably comparing the current model of first-year seminar with the revised “Be Wise” first-year seminar. He said the revised seminar will increase retention rate, and the old model was perceived as unimportant by both students and faculty.
“We had identified retention as something that we needed to address in the first-year program … [and] the first-year seminar in particular seemed like a good opportunity to do that,” Johnson said.
The updated first-year seminars, implemented this fall, have increased from a one-credit hour to a three-credit hour course, and they are now taught almost exclusively by full-time faculty under their regular contract. Prior, the regular faculty who taught the seminars were compensated with a stipend. Additionally, first-year seminar instructors serve as the first-year advisor for students in their section, and a peer mentor works closely with the main instructor to provide support to the students.
“Our overarching goals for ‘Be Wise’ include fostering curiosity through academic and civic engagement, supporting belonging and building meaningful relationships,” Johnson said.
Year in Wise students — a program where in-state students waitlisted for U.Va. can go to the Wise campus for a year then transfer to the U.Va. main campus, provided they meet a set of requirements — will continue with the one-credit version, and according to Johnson, the new seminars have generally earned positive reviews.
The next meeting of the full Board will be held Wednesday through Friday.
Solomon Ross-Milligan is a staff writer on the news desk from Charlottesville. He is a second-year College student.
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