UVa Rector James B. Murray, Jr. said the past year was rough, noting that 250,000 Virginians lost their jobs, including many students and their families. He also noted UVa’s $44 million in unrecoverable COVID costs.He said the school also needs to find another $16 million to cover unexpected and unfunded state mandates that raise employee salaries 5% in the next school year. The state provided about 25% of the pay raise for next year but has not earmarked money to sustain the raise, meaning the university will have to fund all of it in the future.
Ryan argued that the tuition freeze puts the University of Virginia at a competitive disadvantage compared to peer institutions. UVa charges about $30,000 less per student than the top 25 private colleges in the country to which UVa compares itself -- about $361 million less in tuition each year. "We're at a competitive disadvantage when you compare our in-state tuition to the tuition of our private peers, not matter how you slice it," he said.Bacon's bottom line: If the goal is to boost UVa's national ranking as one of the "best colleges" in the United States, Ryan has a point. All elite universities are stuck on an endless treadmill in the race for status, which has driven spending and tuition relentlessly higher. But the added spending, one can argue in economic terms, has diminished marginal utility. In layman's terms, once you've already achieved a certain level of academic excellence, every added dollar of inflation-adjusted spending delivers less bang for the buck.One also might inquire why UVa, the flagship public university of Virginia, is comparing itself to elite private universities. Shouldn't UVa be comparing itself to top public universities? One of the top goals of a public university should be to provide an affordable education to the citizens of the state in which it resides.One more question: Since when did the bench mark for increasing tuition become the Higher Education Price Index -- pegging costs to an economic sector notorious for its inability to control costs -- plus one percent? Where did that plus-one-percent come from? How is that justified?If UVa wants to develop a competitive advantage in the national educational marketplace and prestige sweepstakes, perhaps it should try a novel strategy adopted by almost no other institution (possibly excepting the University of Chicago). Position itself as an institution noted for its intellectual diversity, a place where students and faculty from all races, creeds, and walks of life are welcome but where no topics are taboo, all (non-seditious) viewpoints are tolerated, and a vibrant and stimulating exchange of ideas takes place. Create an institution that's not hostile to the 40% of the country that considers itself conservative... in sum, an institution, gasp, that is true to the ideals of its founder Thomas Jefferson.
