UVA’s Strategic Plan to Cost More than Half a Billion Dollars

Derek Quizon at the Daily Progress reports that the University of Virginia is looking to spend well over half a billion dollars in the next few years.

Implementing the University of Virginia’s five-year strategic plan could cost more than a half-billion dollars, much of the money going to faculty, according to school estimates.

UVa’s administration has avoided publicly discussing the plan’s cost, calling it a fluid and unpredictable figure. But a 44-page analysis obtained in an open records request put the estimate at $564 million, almost a fourth of that amount covering faculty pay raises and net salaries for more than 400 new professors, mostly to cover an anticipated wave of retirements. Faculty startup packages — or research seed money — would total almost $200 million.
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The analysis said about $330 million would go toward faculty. The university expects to replace 295 retiring faculty with 425 new hires. Additional faculty is needed to account for projected enrollment growth, Sullivan wrote in her letter to the board. Enrollment is expected to increase by 1,089 over the five years of the plan, starting next fall and ending in 2019, according to the analysis.

Pouring that much money into the Charlottesville area is likely to have a positive effect, but I’m curious as to what the impact will be on tuition and housing. What plans are being made (if any) to accommodate the new students? Presumably the slew of new apartments on West Main Street will house some of these students. Any plans for new parking garages?

I’m curious too why it took a FOIA to extract these numbers from the University.Are they factoring this concept into their strategic plan?

Is it any surprise that Gen Y can't pay down student loans, save for a house, invest, or have families? It's total insanity.

— Jesse Colombo (@TheBubbleBubble) December 10, 2013