UVa developing strategy for increasing enrollment

The University of Virginia is considering a move to accelerate the pace of its student enrollment growth, but only if the state agrees to pony up to help the university cope with the added costs.

UVa President Teresa A. Sullivan has proposed the addition of 1,400 more undergraduate and 100 more graduate students beyond the university’s existing enrollment growth projections, to be phased in over four or five years.

“We assume the [Board of Visitors] will not condone this growth without assurances that we have adequate housing, dining, recreation spaces, need-based financial aid and faculty and staff to serve the new students and protect the undergraduate experience,” Sullivan said. “Furthermore, we expect the state to provide appropriate funding for the additional Virginia students, and we made this clear in our suggestions to the commission and in our discussion with members of the General Assembly.”

Sullivan’s proposal comes as Gov. Bob McDonnell’s Commission on Higher Education Reform, Innovation and Investment is preparing to issue its policy recommendations, which are expected to include a call for increased enrollment of in-state students at Virginia’s colleges and universities.

UVa’s enrollment has grown very gradually in recent years, increasing by 1,500 students over a 10-year period that will conclude in 2013. Sullivan’s proposal would grow the student body by a similar amount but in half the time.

“This is substantially a commitment to accelerate slightly, but not greatly, the growth we’ve had over the last decade and even the decade before that,” said Leonard W. Sandridge, UVa’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Adding 1,400 new undergrads and 100 grads, Sandridge said, seems to be the “right thing for the university and the right thing for the commonwealth.”

For the 2010-11 academic year, UVa has 14,297 undergraduate and 6,598 graduate students.

The university has sufficient facilities, he said, to accommodate the extra students. UVa is in the process of replacing a number of dorms built in the 1960s, thereby expanding its capacity for first-year students. Observatory Hill dining hall has already been expanded. The dining area of Newcomb Hall is slated for renovation. And a number of new offices — such as in the South Lawn buildings — have expanded the university’s facilities for faculty and staff.

“We feel very comfortable that we would be able to accommodate [Sullivan’s proposed number of new students],” Sandridge said.

Like all public universities in Virginia, UVa is anticipating more budget cuts in the foreseeable future, having already sustained upwards of $50 million of state reductions over the past four years.

McDonnell, however, has signaled that he’ll ask lawmakers to commit to boosting funding for higher education as part of his goal to increase the number of degrees awarded in Virginia by 100,000 in the next 15 years.

McDonnell’s press secretary, Stacey Johnson, said the higher education commission will soon be issuing a preliminary report and will meet Friday with McDonnell and administration officials to hammer out the components of higher education reform legislation that McDonnell will propose to the General Assembly.

His reform proposal, she said, will include a recommendation to boost funding.

“As part of the campaign and commission meetings, the governor is ready to make a down payment on reform-based investments across the Virginia higher education system,” Johnson wrote in an e-mail.

In October, the commission released a preliminary list of its “major recommendations.” These included its call for expanded enrollment of Virginia students, as well as a recommendation that public schools place a greater emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math degrees. It also called for optimized use of college facilities, more research collaboration between colleges and universities, and greater use of technology-enhanced instruction to reach a greater number of students.

UVa made a number of recommendations to the commission that it believes are in line with the commission’s goals. For example, UVa has suggested increasing the enrollment of in-state students, particularly those who enroll to study math, science or engineering; offering programs that allow students to obtain a bachelor’s degree in three years, with the option of achieving a master’s degree in a fourth; and expanding the use of the university’s facilities year-round, including during the summer and January terms; and increasing enrollment of adult students.