The Virginia Informer
The Virginia Informer
Restructuring for the Common Man
An in-depth look at the future of our College
By Stephanie Long, Layout Assistant
Many have heard of the illustrious Restructuring Initiative since former President Timothy Sullivan introduced it in a letter to faculty and staff on January 6th of this year. But many are still unclear as to what restructuring will entail and what it will mean for William & Mary students.
Because trying to get a direct explanation from one of our campus administrators and reading the entire draft of the charter on www.wm.edu/restructuring/draftplan.php may be too taxing for the average William & Mary student, here is a summary of the Restructuring Initiative in layman’s terms.
History
Due to underfunding by the state for Virginia’s higher education system, last year William & Mary wound up with a $21.4 million deficit. The combined debt of the College along with University of Virginia’s and Virginia Tech’s, the Virginia state higher education deficit amounted to $145 million. Such inadequate funding has forced our college to come up short in pertinent areas such as faculty and staff salaries and student financial aid. Also, because all financial transactions for the school must be approved by the General Assembly, it has been very difficult for the school to advance on its own.
In an attempt for greater independence and more localized delegation of funds, William & Mary aligned with UVA and Virginia Tech and created the Restructuring Initiative. President Nichol stated at the Restructuring forum on September 12th that the purpose of this initiative is so that “we can run our shop more efficiently without bureaucratic hurdles.”
Overview
The draft of the new system is broken into three sections: an academic plan, a financial plan, and an enrollment plan. The plans included in the draft each extend over a six-year period. Ultimately the goal is for the three colleges to receive a greater amount of independence, to better fund areas that the schools deem necessary, and to maintain the high quality of education found on the campuses. But as Provost Geoffrey Feiss stated, “In the legislation the state decided that if we’re going to give the universities some flexibilities and the ability to do some things on their own, we want something in return.” Thus the three schools must all complete what is called the “State Ask,” the General Assembly’s list of requirements, in order to receive greater financial freedom.
State Ask
Currently there are nine goals in the legislation for the State Ask which generally strive to organize the new system of control within the Virginia state higher education system as well as to maintain a level of excellence among the campuses. See box.
1. To allow all citizens within the Commonwealth the opportunity to receive a higher education; this includes a projected freshman class of 1350 and an in-state to out-of-state ratio of 65/32.
2. Ensuring that higher education remains affordable includes the goal of meeting 100% of need-based financial aid for in-state students which will be facilitated by Gateway William & Mary, a program to ensure that those who need aid and whose family income is less than $40,000 per year will graduate with no loans.
3. Offering a broad range of graduate and undergraduate courses requires that William & Mary continue its tradition as a liberal arts school with specialized areas in education, pre-med, and the physical and mathematical sciences. These are areas within the Commonwealth with numerous job openings, and the hope is that the colleges will produce qualified workers into these job markets.
4. The colleges must maintain their high academic standards. There are few who fear that the standard grading system at The College of William & Mary will ever be too easy, rendering this “restraint” arbitrary.
5. An improvement in student retention ratings must be reached. This acknowledges not only that students return each year but, as is stated in the draft of the Restructuring Initiative, students reach “a timely graduation.”
6. It is required that the three institutions begin communications with community colleges, allowing those students enrollment upon completion of their two-year schooling. Currently William & Mary is in contact with the Virginia Community College System and Richard Bland College, rewarding junior standing to students who graduate from those institutions.
7. The college should play a major role in the greater community. Through community service and employment the school will make a positive impact on the economy of the Commonwealth.
8. In order to increase the amount of externally funded research, as is required by the state, William & Mary is looking to expand both the number of students in the sciences as well as the infrastructure and facilities for its research.
9. The School of Education must work with Virginia state schools and effectively provide more teachers into the area.
These requirements, though, do not cover all of the areas in which the school would like to expand its independence, but without meeting these William & Mary will be unable to improve in the ways originally envisioned by former President Sullivan. Like Provost Feiss said, “There is an audience for this document, and that audience is policymakers in the Virginia Commonwealth.”
The Future of William & Mary
Provost Feiss explained, “Those aren’t the only things we want to do but it’s what the state wants us to report on.” So what else is in store for the college?
At the beginning of the draft for the Restructuring Initiative there is a mission statement for The College of William & Mary which highlights a school with the same academic excellence that our school has upheld for the past 312 years but with an ever expanding and improving student body. This implies that very little changes will occur in terms of the community here at William & Mary. The major changes will be taking place in the financial plan for the school which is to be submitted to the General Assembly for approval by October 1st of this year. This makes sense considering that the reason for former President Sullivan’s pursuit of this revolution was financial issues that were not being met by the state. The financial plan, however, is what the Provost reported to be “the piece we really haven’t put together yet.”
None of the schools involved in the Restructuring Initiative will be receiving greater funds from the state, but financial planning will be localized and conducted on an administrative level. Therefore, more money is still necessary in order to decrease the annual deficit of our college. President Nichol is confident that the school will not experience a loss of funds from the state. “It won’t work if the state took the position that they were going to wash their hands of us.” He went on to say, “Restructuring can work if the state remembers its obligations to public higher education and public higher education remembers its obligations to the state.”
Therefore the solution to this financial situation, as acknowledged by both President Nichol and Provost Feiss, is the inevitable increase in tuition. For those in-state students who will soon be lucky enough to receive 100% need-based financial aid this may seem trivial but for the rest of the student body including the 34% out-of-state students who are already paying roughly three times as much as the average in-state students, this news is potentially devastating.
Why, then, doesn’t the school go private? Well according to President Nichol, “This is a good institution which is meant to be accessible to all…If it were to be abandoned it would be a great loss to the public.” He also reassured those in attendance at the forum that, “the heart and soul of this university is the small-scale liberal arts experience, and there’s nothing we’re going to protect more zealously.”
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