Two dozen Virginia Commonwealth University students and faculty wore red bandanas and held up handwritten signs at Friday’s board meeting to protest the university’s plan to terminate 14 professors.
Emma Draga, a VCU senior, told the board of visitors it’s the professors who determine the quality of a student’s education, not the construction of new buildings.
“Professors are our lifeline,” she said.
The university is cutting $25 million from the budget this year, which resulted in the reduction of at least 76 positions. VCU employs close to 10,000 workers.
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One employee said the shrunken staff has deflated morale.
The $25 million cut represents about 5% of the budget, said David Allen, an associate vice president for budget and treasury. VCU has lowered expenses by not renewing some professors’ contracts, eliminating travel and trying to save money on purchases such as academic journals.
Amanda Simmons, an associate director of facilities and VCU’s staff representative on the board, said morale is low because there are not enough employees to get the work done. When one employee leaves, he or she is not replaced, Simmons said.
“There’s not enough time in the day to get done everything that needs to,” she told the board.
Focused Inquiry faces cuts
Last summer, VCU notified 14 members of the department of Focused Inquiry that their contracts would not be renewed for the school year that begins this August. Focused Inquiry employs about 60 full-time employees who operate mostly on one-year contracts. They teach small seminars for first- and second-year students.
Students spend an entire year with their Focused Inquiry professor, and they tend to develop closer relationships, said Kristin Reed, a professor in the department. When students face a problem, they usually go first to their professors. Recently, a student facing homelessness turned to Reed for help.
VCU has posted job openings for postdoctoral teaching fellowships in Focused Inquiry. The positions, which pay $50,000, are two-year jobs for recent graduates to teach four classes per semester.
Hiring postdoctoral scholars diminishes the quality of the faculty and makes the staff “permanently temporary,” Reed said. The move does not save money, either. The professors whose contracts are being terminated make about $50,000, Reed said. About 1,500 members of VCU’s faculty are term employees, meaning they work on renewable one-year contracts and are not eligible for tenure.
Valerie Robnolt, the board’s faculty senate representative, said faculty members support keeping the 14 professors and that the classes are “critical courses” for students.
Draga, the VCU senior, said many students struggle to afford the cost of tuition and housing. Draga works about 30 hours a week at two jobs, one as a research assistant, and another as a barista at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. That’s on top of a full load of classes. It’s the professors who help the students when they face problems and who make the difference in students’ education, she said.
Mark Wood, an associate professor of world studies, said VCU has become too enamored with buildings, technology and things and not enough in its people.
“It’s the people first and last, the faculty and staff, who make VCU the special place that it is,” he said. While there’s always enough money to erect the next building, the funds to pay employees seem to be always running dry, he said.
The state funds employees and capital projects differently. The state generally pays for the construction of academic buildings, and it funds about one-third of VCU’s education budget, which pays faculty salaries. Tuition pays the rest. Almost all money donated to VCU is earmarked by the donor for specific causes.
Dorms, athletic facilities and student assembly buildings are paid for by VCU, either through the university’s budget, donations or public-private partnerships. School leaders say the quality of facilities is a determining factor for attracting new students.
The college that houses Focused Inquiry, called University College, was told to reduce its costs by the end of this academic year, said D’Arcy Mays, interim dean of the college. Because the vast majority of the college’s expenses are employees in Focused Inquiry, professors were essentially the only place the college could cut, Mays said in an interview. University leadership gives departments the autonomy to decide how to meet their budgets.
Rao cites VCU’s ‘momentum’
In separate remarks earlier Friday, VCU President Michael Rao told the board of visitors that “2023, by all marks, really was a fantastic year. And we’re continuing that momentum.”
The university set a record for fundraising and ranked 35th in the country among all colleges for donations received. The school’s research funding increased, too, as it received the 50th most research funding among public colleges in the country. After struggling for more than a year, VCU Health System completed a financial turnaround last year and its operating margin is its best since the 2021 fiscal year.
A new fiscal year begins in July, and VCU expects to face about $47 million in new expenses, which could lead to further cuts or a tuition increase.
The university expects to pay an additional $22 million in maintenance and service contracts, faculty promotions and state-required waivers for members of the military, said Meredith Weiss, the interim chief financial officer and the school’s vice president for administration. VCU expects to pay an additional $8 million for state-mandated raises for employees. The university also wants to spend $18 million more to invest in research, applied learning and artificial intelligence.
To pay for those costs, the university can cut expenses, ask for more funds from the state, recruit more students or increase the cost of tuition. In the fall, Karol Kain Gray, then the chief financial officer, said VCU intended to keep tuition flat. Gray retired this year.
Weiss said the administrators will propose a range of options this spring for the board of visitors to approve, which could include a hike in tuition. She said increasing tuition is the last remedy the university seeks to bring in more revenue.