UVa officials oppose admissions quota

Four University of Virginia Board of Visitors members have come out against a proposal to require the state’s public colleges and universities to up the percentage of Virginia residents they admit.

The members’ concerns are addressed in a letter to Del. David Albo, R-Springfield, who this year sponsored a bill, HB 1696, that would have required an 80 percent in-state quota. That bill was left in committee.

In the letter, dated last Friday, the four board members worried that establishing a quota would hurt UVa’s finances and diversity.

“I am deeply concerned that unless the state and the General Assembly are ready to make a substantial financial commitment to higher education in Virginia ... that what you propose will place all of our public institutions of higher education in jeopardy,” W. Heywood Fralin, the board’s rector, wrote.

Two additional bills sponsored this legislative session — one requiring a 70 percent quota and another that called for 75 percent — were also left in committee. Those bills were sponsored by Del. Clay Athey, R-Front Royal, and Del. Timothy Hugo, R-Centreville, respectively.

Over the last decade UVa has averaged 69 percent in-state students 31 percent out-of-state, the letter said.Co-signing the letter with Fralin were Helen E. Dragas, Robert D. Hardie and Glynn D. Key.

In letters sent late last month to each of the four board members Albo expressed concern that “the House of Delegates allots a certain amount of money to each university but has no control over how the university spends it.”

“Thus,” Albo wrote, “the only control I have is to appoint Boards of Visitors that share my vision for the school.”

The letter, dated Jan. 30, continues by asking the members how the number of slots for in-state enrollment could be increased and how the school could be run “more efficiently.”

The letter ends by saying, “Before I vote on your appointment, I would appreciate if you sent me an informal email or letter addressing my concerns” before Feb. 9. Similar letters were also sent out to five people appointed to the College of William & Mary’s Board of Visitors.

Both Dragas and Hardie were appointed to the board for the first time last summer, while Fralin and Key were re-appointed to serve a second four-year term.

While the governor appoints boards of visitors, those choices are confirmed by committees in the House of Delegates and the Senate. Albo serves on the Privileges and Elections Committee, which confirms the appointments in the House.

Albo could not be reached for comment on whether he had received responses from UVa’s board members.

This year UVa’s student body is 69.3 percent in-state and 30.7 percent out-of-state, according to UVa officials. A rise to 70 percent in-state would cost the university $1.9 million per year. Were it to raise an entire percentage point it would mean $2.8 million in lost revenue.

“Currently, our entering in-state students pay $9,490 a year and fees, while our entering out-of-state students pay $29,790,” Fralin’s letter said.

Fralin’s letter adds that out-of-state student account for 63 percent of the university’s undergraduate tuition revenue. 

Under the bills that sought to raise the in-state portion to 75 percent and 80 percent, UVa would have lost $16 million and $30.1 million, respectively.

“It’s all a concern,” Carol Wood, UVa’s assistant vice president for public affairs, said of any mandated move.

Wood said the concern among the administration has been that implementing quotas in the face of having lost millions in state money the last two years would further burden students who could see tuition raised by as much as 10 percent next year.

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia has opposed legislation introduced in previous years that called for quotas on the number of in-state students and did not support the measures this year.

Kirsten Nelson, SCHEV’s director of communications and government relations, said schools are “really in the best position” to decide what percentage of their students should be from in-state and out-of-state.

The university has not yet taken a position on the 70 percent measure added to the House’s proposed budget on Sunday, Colette Sheehy, UVa’s vice president for management and budget, said. Although, Sheehy said the university generally would not support a quota.

Because the House’s 70 percent language does not appear in the Senate’s proposed budget the matter will be decided on by Conference committees before the final budget is sent to the governor.Patrick Dorsey, chairman of the UVa Student Council’s legislative affairs committee, said Student Council would likely vote to oppose quotas when the council approves this year’s legislative agenda tonight.

Dorsey said students were worried that any legislation requiring quotas would hurt the university’s finances and diminish its reach.

“We think the reason the university is so good is that it has a national profile,” Dorsey said.