<p>So my son received a likely letter and is very interested in UVA as an OOS. We live in the DC area, and we know lots of families with kids who have gone to and love UVA. I’m very concerned about the financial strength of virtually all state universities because of the economic crisis. My son just got into UCLA, and we’re particularly concerned about the California state system. The question is whether UVA is suffering from the economic crisis and, if so, to what extent is the quality of education suffering? I don’t want to worry excessively but I don’t want to be out of state tuition for a state school that is bleeding red. Thoughts?</p>
<p>I would think the financial info is all public info that could be found on-line.</p>
<p>I think your concerns are very well warranted. I am a TA for the computer science department and have been for the last five semesters. I have noticed, over this time period, a significant decrease in both professor teaching and TAs.</p>
<p>First of all, there is a hiring freeze. This means that if a professor quits or retires (which has happened in many departments), they’re not allowed to hire someone new. So all of the professors get an increased course load (without getting raises). For the ones that don’t even want to be teaching to begin with (remember, this is a research university) this means they put even less into each class. Then, for the professors who do care about teaching, they have less time to spend on each class so either they’re exhausted or there’s a hit to the quality as well.</p>
<p>So then you would think they could hire TAs to help them with this increased work load? Well that is obviously not true either. They are not admitting as many graduate students so that part of the labor force is out, since they have no money to fund them, and then they have no money to hire undergrads so either tenured professors have to spend money out of pocket to get help or else they just don’t hire enough. By enough I mean standards before they had more classes to teach, let alone the increase they are now dealing with. There’s just no money and it really negatively affects the students. I say this from first hand experience, there are not enough hours of help provided to the students.</p>
<p>There are also additional things happening, such as far away dorms being given to first years (and upperclassmen kicked out) – this is in part because of the dorm construction, but I think it’s also a tool by housing, since before this many rooms sat empty but now every room is full so they are making more money this way. Some majors that weren’t capped are now being capped, or for instance the Spanish department eliminated its minor because there weren’t enough professors to teach major classes with having to teach minor classes. The Engineering school has been capped since I have been here but it’s more of an issue to students now I think.</p>
<p>Some things that have remained great (or gotten better) would be dining (better food, no cut to hours), housing maintenance, and parking (no price increase, though they have started resorting to obnoxious ticketing to make money and a lot of parking lots are closed for construction that had free parking on the weekends previously).</p>
<p>Even with these cuts, public school education (and really any college education) is what you make of it. UVA isn’t in jeopardy or anything, but the quality is definitely not the same as the first year I entered here (but it’s still a great school).</p>
<p>Private schools are doing better? EVERY school out there, except for those with major endowments like HYPSM have taken a hit. If anythng, UVA’s endowment continues to be impressive for a state U. Face it, every university has taken a hit and is cutting corners these days. UVA continues to be a BARGAIN for the money in-state and its prognosis is probably better then UCLA’s. No one knows yet how California’s budget crisis will play out, but since UVA only gets about 7-8 percent of its budget from the state, it can weather this crisis much better then most.</p>
<p>The President pointed out that we’ve been shielded from some cuts because of the economic stimulus. What’s more, the funds for the South Lawn project and the new residence halls was dedicated to those projects, so they continue as planned. I think we’ve been extremely conservative with budgets at all levels for the last few years. </p>
<p>There is a hiring freeze, but there have been hires during this period. Perhaps there were some positions in the works when the freeze was announced.</p>
<p>obsessedparent,</p>
<p>This higher education budget information (just approved by the General Assembly) was in the Richmond Times-Dispatch this morning. Thought it may be of some interest to you.</p>
<p>“In higher education, which the Senate, in particular, was determined to shield from further cuts, the undergraduate financial-aid program for public colleges and universities was largely protected, but grants to Virginians attending the state’s private institutions would be cut $10 million.”</p>
<p>and…</p>
<p>"Higher education </p>
<p>Preserves existing undergraduate financial-aid formula. </p>
<p>Cuts $10 million over two years from a program that provides tuition aid to Virginians who attend the states private colleges and universities. </p>
<p>Increases from $10 to $15 per credit hour the fee paid by out-of-state students to support construction at taxpayer-supported colleges and universities."</p>
<p>Does anyone know when tuition rates for the 2010-2011 year will be announced? Is it announced prior to the May 1 commitment date?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/687413-tuition-increase-bov.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/687413-tuition-increase-bov.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks hazelorb!</p>
<p>State support is now so minimal it now has limited impact on the future of UVa. They need to beef up their research efforts which can generate as much if not more than the state gives for general purposes through the overhead cut to the UVA general fund.</p>
<p>I’m writing as someone who has been chairing a UVA academic department during the recession. We are trying very, very hard to minimize impact on direct instruction. This has not been easy because UVA’s budget did not have a lot of fat in it to start with, at least compared to the Ivy I taught at before coming to UVA. The hiring freeze has left faculty lines open in some cases and can make it harder for graduate students in some specialties to find the perfect advisor. Still, I doubt most undergraduates are going to notice a difference in the level of instruction. Every department I know about is continuing to offer all the courses students need, and although every semester some students get shut out of certain popular courses, they are able finish their requirements and graduate on time. A lot of “optional” enriching stuff, e.g. residencies by visiting artists and so on, has been cut severely. But compared to what I hear from colleagues in California, we are in pretty good shape.</p>