State researchers found Radford University, Virginia State University and the University of Mary Washington had “some viability risks,” according to a report released Monday, but none are in immediate danger of closing.
The good news from the report conducted by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, which conducts program evaluation, policy analysis and oversight of state agencies for the Virginia General Assembly, is that not one of the state’s 15 public, four-year higher education institutions rated as having a high level of viability risk, meaning there’s no immediate or near-term action required for the schools to continue operating.
Researchers focused on enrollment over the past decade and how schools are managing their finances, among other factors like institutional appeal to prospective students and age of buildings and other facilities.
In addition to the three colleges with “some risks,” JLARC analysts labeled four other schools — Christopher Newport University, Longwood University, Norfolk State University and the University of Virginia’s College at Wise — as “relatively low viability risk,” while each school has “at least one risk factor that should be monitored going forward.”
Colleges and universities across the nation face the “enrollment cliff,” an expected decline in the number of traditional college-age students because of lower U.S. birth rates over the past two decades, and the same is true in Virginia. Rising tuition and room and board costs, as well as impressions that four-year colleges are only for the rich, contribute to lower enrollment, too.
The JLARC report also notes a possible declining interest in attending four-year institutions, pointing to a Pew Research Center survey that found 49% of 5,203 U.S. adults polled feel “it’s less important to have a four-year college degree today in order to get a well-paying job than it was 20 years ago.”
In Virginia, full-time enrollment declined between 2014 and 2023 at nine state universities, including Radford, VSU and Mary Washington, while six other universities saw increases in enrollment over the same period, according to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).
Radford had the state’s highest loss of enrollment at 29%, followed by Mary Washington at 20%. VSU saw a 5% decline over the past decade.
According to the report, Radford’s decline in enrollment is its biggest challenge, particularly since first-year student enrollment has fallen even more sharply by 38%, although the school expects its enrollment to stabilize for the 2024-25 academic year, with first-year enrollment increasing almost 30% from 1,100 freshmen in 2023 to 1,400 this year. Mary Washington, too, has lower enrollment, but it also contends with less money because of heavily discounted tuition, the report says, and “the age and condition of Mary Washington’s campus facilities also complicate the school’s efforts to recruit and retain students.”
As for VSU, the Petersburg-based HBCU has recorded enrollment growth over the past eight years, but its tuition revenue has fallen about 26% since 2015. It, too, has older facilities that need maintenance and has a lack of student housing, the report says.
Schools respond
In response to the report, leaders at the three universities said that there are some positive movements already underway at their campuses.
In a Sept. 10 letter to JLARC Director Hal Greer included in the report, Radford President Bret Danilowicz wrote that he believes a designation of “low risk” would be more appropriate for the university. Danilowicz, who was hired as president in 2022, also argues that JLARC’s enrollment methodology “can be improved upon,” by including new transfer students as well as first-year college students.
Danilowicz added that the General Assembly could also authorize Radford to charge a reduced-rate tuition to out-of-state students that is not less than the tuition charged to in-state students, a change that “would allow Radford to offset recent enrollment declines, utilize available capacity on campus, and increase Virginia’s talent pipeline.”
In a statement Tuesday, Radford noted it “values JLARC’s analysis of our institution’s current practices and outlook.”
As for Mary Washington, which has discounted its tuition and fees for several years and cut its staff by 20% mainly through attrition, its largest risk is in its financial strength. But in the past two years, the report states, “Mary Washington has made several changes to its foundation and its governance in the past two years, which should improve its financial health ratios in the future.” The school also has nearly $200 million in capital funding to renovate three academic buildings and build a new theater.
In a memo to JLARC dated Sept. 18, UMW President Troy Paino wrote that the Fredericksburg university is grateful for the assessment. “Looking at indicators from the past … might leave one with the impression that UMW has done little to meet those challenges,” Paino wrote. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Paino goes on to note that the university has decreased institutional aid and is working to maintain its uniqueness as a “smaller, high-quality, primarily undergraduate institution.” He also points out in the memo that the university’s first-year enrollment has stabilized over the last three years and that enrollment of transfer students has increased.
Virginia State, one of Virginia’s two public historically Black colleges and universities along with Norfolk State University, has seen enrollment growth over the past eight years along with stable retention and graduation rates, according to JLARC. The report also notes that VSU has the highest percentage of students receiving a Pell grant of the state’s public four-year institutions.
A spokesperson provided a written statement from VSU responding to the report, which noted that the university’s leaders were not surprised by its findings.
“In fact, they underscore what we already know, that as an HBCU, VSU has historically been underfunded compared to our contemporaries,” the statement said.
“We recognize that while our cost has lowered our tuition revenue,” the statement continues, “it has increased access and contributed significantly to upward mobility and a more diverse workforce in the commonwealth. It has furthermore made us a highly sought-after educational option in Virginia as we remain one of the fastest-growing universities in the state.”
The rest of the pack
The report names Christopher Newport, Longwood, Norfolk State and U.Va. Wise as having “relatively low” viability risks, but that these four schools along with VSU, Radford and UMW should be monitored by members of OpSix, a state committee which reviews higher education institutions’ six-year operating plans.
The state’s other eight public universities — George Mason, James Madison, Old Dominion and Virginia Commonwealth universities; the University of Virginia; Virginia Military Institute; Virginia Tech and William & Mary — are all deemed as having “very low viability risk” and require no action from the state.
Although the JLARC study included only Virginia’s public four-year schools, some of the state’s private colleges and universities also have shown lower enrollment numbers since the pandemic and worsening finances, although some have responded by lowering tuition costs, including Roanoke College, the University of Lynchburg, Randolph College, Virginia Union University and Bridgewater College. SCHEV Policy Analytics Director Tod Massa noted earlier this year that most of the state’s private school enrollment growth is attributable to Liberty University, the influential Lynchburg-based Christian university.
Monday’s JLARC report shows a 6% overall increase in public university enrollment from 2014 to 2023, and enrollment increases of 20% and higher at JMU, Mason and Virginia Tech, which showed the most improvement at 22%.
Additionally, the JLARC report recommends that SCHEV make its approval process for reviewing new academic programs less bureaucratic, a project underway under new director Scott Fleming.
“He was interested in reducing the threshold to initial approval and to raising the threshold for productivity review so that we would be more active in discontinuing non-productive programs,” Joseph DeFilippo, director of academic affairs for SCHEV, said Tuesday.
The reforms will be discussed at council’s meeting on Oct. 22, DeFilippo added.
It’s been a big year for Paino and the public liberal arts university he oversees. In March, UMW received the largest financial gift in its 115-year history — a $30 million bequest from a 1959 alumna to support undergraduate research and scholarships. The month before, Paino received the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators’ 2023 President’s Award for his compassionate approach to strategic planning and decision making, his personal attention to student ideas and feedback, and his commitment to understanding diverse perspectives.
The university also received a National Science Foundation grant for STEM scholarships, congratulated its second Goldwater Scholar in two years, and announced plans for a lab school and a new theater building.
President since 2016, Paino previously was president of Truman State University in Missouri and holds doctoral and master’s degrees in American studies from Michigan State University, a law degree from Indiana University and a bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy from Evangel College. He serves on the boards of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and the Virginia Business Higher Education Council.
The University of Mary Washington named a new College of Business dean, Filiz Tabak, who will start July 10 at the Fredericksburg university, in an announcement this week. She comes from Towson University in Maryland, where she was acting associate dean of its College of Business & Economics most recently.
Tabak succeeds interim Dean Ken Machande, who led the business college’s AACSB International accreditation effort in 2018 during his first stint as interim dean. He has served as the college’s associate dean since 2012. UMW progressed from offering business degrees to establishing the college of business in 2010.
Tabak earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in environmental engineering and marine physics and chemistry at Istanbul Technical University and Istanbul University, respectively, and received an MBA from Turkey’s Bogazici University while working at Henkel AG & Co., the German multinational chemical and consumer goods company. Then, Tabak received her Ph.D. at Oklahoma State University’s College of Business Administration and became an assistant professor at Towson in 1995. She ultimately became a full professor and served as chair of the management department.
“I am excited about Dr. Tabak joining our leadership team,” UMW Provost Tim O’Donnell said in a statement. “She believes in our mission, is enthusiastic about our future, understands the important work that lies ahead and brings a range of knowledge, experience and a competitive drive that will benefit both the college and the larger university.”
Snacks and energy drinks are often the fuel for young entrepreneurs burning the midnight oil while perfecting their pitches and products. But for some University of Richmond students, snacks and energy drinks are their products.
Grace Mittl, a 2022 UR graduate, is co-founder and CEO of Absurd Snacks, a food allergy-friendly trail mix devised during Bench Top Innovations, a yearlong course that lets UR students guide a food or beverage concept from idea to commercialization. It “allows people to test their entrepreneurial itch,” Mittl says. “If you fail, it’s OK.”
Mittl’s nut-free snack, created during UR’s inaugural 2021-22 Bench Top Innovations course, is now sold at several Richmond grocery stores and convenience stores. Next up is TwinTail Brews, a sugar-free energy drink produced by the 2022-23 Bench Top class.
These are just two examples of the numerous ways that Virginia’s universities are providing students real-world experience with startups.
For instance, the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Economic Development offers a student entrepreneur education program, StartUpUMW, and the University of Virginia has several entrepreneurship centers across multiple colleges with focuses on technology, nonprofit startups, licensing inventions and more.
In past decades, higher education’s efforts to cultivate entrepreneurship were largely the purview of business schools or of university technology transfer offices. But these days, colleges and universities are casting a wider net in encouraging startup ventures.
For example, at the Old Dominion University’s Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, faculty, staff and students of any major can collaborate and start businesses.
Virginia Tech’s Apex Center for Entrepreneurs is also interdisciplinary and “provides any Hokie, from any major and any year the opportunity to engage in all phases of the entrepreneurship.”
In Mittl’s class, students worked in teams and presented their product pitches to a panel of judges who decided which project the whole class would work on.
“I was elected CEO of the class and had rights to the [intellectual property] as the original creator of the recipe,” Mittl says. She and class COO Eli Bank decided to continue running and growing Absurd Snacks after graduation in May 2022.
“That was super far off from my plan,” she says. “I had a job lined up in digital marketing. I had an interest in the food and beverage industry, but I wouldn’t say it was in the cards to start a business.”
Her company now has 25 accounts, primarily natural grocery stores in the Richmond area, she says, adding that Absurd Snacks plans to take on three student interns this summer.
Joel Mier, a lecturer of marketing in UR’s Robins School of Business, is creator of the Bench Top program. A number of factors led to the decision to focus the program on the food and beverage industry, he says. First, UR executive-in-residence Shane Emmett is the former CEO of the Health Warrior health food brand, which he and his co-founders sold for an undisclosed amount to PepsiCo Inc. in 2019. Also, the university has an industrial kitchen where students can test products and then scale up commercially. And, Mier notes, food is “one thing that everyone participates in every day.”
A former vice president of marketing at Genworth Financial Inc., Mier started his career in various leadership roles at three Silicon Valley tech startups. That’s the kind of environment that comes to mind when people think of startups, but Mier wants to demonstrate that “innovation happens everywhere,” not just in tech, and he enjoys hearing “students from all walks of life say, ‘I didn’t know what I was capable of.’”
At George Mason University, students and faculty are “a subset” of the people served by the Mason Enterprise Center, according to Paula Sorrell, associate vice president of innovation and economic development. The center offers programs, services and resources for entrepreneurs of all experience levels.
Students and faculty take part in the center’s Mason Innovation Exchange — the MIX for short — which is home to a makerspace and fabrication lab, a digital media lab and a startup incubator, offering everything from metal fabrication to business mentoring.
Another key part of Mason’s program is to connect students with entrepreneurship-related internships, Sorrell says. And through the National Science Foundation, it is part of a regional consortium aimed at providing experiential entrepreneurial training to academic researchers in science and engineering.
GMU is also a hotbed of biotech research; the Institute for Biohealth Innovation includes about 300 faculty and thousands of students focused on researching infectious diseases, cancer, reproductive health and other medical conditions.
One success story is Shrishti Singh, a postdoctoral fellow at GMU who plans to form a company to produce a photoacoustic imaging technology for doctors to visualize early-stage, precancerous tumors without resorting to invasive surgery — a development that Singh hopes will lead to the survival of more patients.
“This technology gives patients better diagnostics for colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer and more, and can improve their prognosis,” Singh said in a statement, adding that her goal was to develop technologies that “make it from the research bench to the bedside of the patient.”
A 1959 graduate of the University of Mary Washington has bequeathed $30 million to her alma mater — the largest donation in the Fredericksburg university’s 115-year history — to support undergraduate research and scholarships, UMW announced Thursday.
Irene Piscopo Rodgers, who died in 2022, earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from what was then called Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia, the all-women’s sister school to U.Va. She then earned a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Michigan. Rodgers started her career at the American Cyanamid Co. as a chemist and microscopist and Philips Electronic Instruments as an electron microscopist at a time when there were few women scientists in her field of electron microscopy, a technique for obtaining high resolution images of biological and non-biological specimens. She also was an independent consultant to FEI Co., a subsidiary of Thermo Fisher Scientific, which provides electron and ion beam microscopes and tools for nanoscale applications, according to her obituary.
Rodgers’ gift will grow UMW’s undergraduate research program. Students in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, earth and environmental sciences, computer science and math will have more opportunities to explore their research interests throughout the academic year and at the university’s Summer Science Institute, working alongside faculty mentors, according to a news release. The gift also supports the creation of four new Alvey scholarships, providing full tuition, fees and room and board for out-of-state undergraduate students for up to four years. Rodgers had already created eight Alvey scholarships.
Rodgers gave her first $50 donation to UMW in 1980, and over the next 40 years, she donated a total of $39 million, including the gift announced Thursday.
In 2004, she donated a transmission electron microscope to UMW and trained students and faculty to use it. Ten years later, she earned an honorary doctorate of humane letters for her service and contributions to UMW. She named a microscopy lab and several scholarships after her late parents. She died in July 2022 in New York.
“Students who benefited from Irene’s generosity welcomed her into their lives, so she was able to observe firsthand the transformative power of her gifts,” UMW President Troy Paino said in a statement. “This unprecedented donation guarantees that exceptional students will continue to have access to a UMW education that delivers the kind of high-impact learning experiences that Irene valued so much.”
To date, 85 students have earned awards through Rodgers’ generosity, including 15 Alvey scholarship recipients and 28 research fellowships Rodgers funded. Seven students received other scholarships and 35 students received scientific presentation grants for conference travel, also established by Rodgers, according to UMW.
“The university is so grateful to have been the beneficiary of Irene’s generosity during her lifetime and now as a lasting part of her legacy. This gift was made possible through relationships built over decades by numerous members of the Mary Washington community,” UMW Vice President for Advancement Katie Turcotte said in a statement. “Everyone who knew Irene knows how much she loved Mary Washington and helping our students pursue opportunities to conduct research.”
The University of Mary Washington has hired Craig Erwin as vice president for administration and finance, effective Jan. 10.
Erwin replaces Paul Messplay, who retires on Jan. 20.
Erwin comes to UMW from Southwestern University, a private liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas, where he was vice president for finance and administration and chief financial officer. While there, he oversaw the annual operating budget and was responsible for financial statements, tax returns and related functions. He led more than 100 employees in fields including human resources, information technology, facilities management and finance. He also handled risk management, legal and emergency response issues and facilitated the most recent campus master plan and financial strategic plan.
“Craig’s experience in the private sector can bring added value to UMW as we collectively navigate the university through a time of great change and a challenging market,” UMW president Troy Paino said in a news release.
Erwin majored in biomedical engineering at Louisiana Tech University and received his MBA from Texas Christian University. He also worked for Bellevue University in Nebraska.
“Both the University and Fredericksburg feel like a really good fit,” Erwin said, “a great place and position for the next phase of my professional career and also a wonderful community for my family to fully engage and enjoy life.”
In the late 1990s, Jennifer E. Clift was working as a secretary when her supervisor encouraged her to continue her education. She began taking business classes at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg.
“I wasn’t in a settled place,” she says. “I was not a traditional student. I was working full time, plus pretty much going to school full time. I was a young mother. For a while, I was arriving at 8 a.m. for classes, then I went to work, then I went back to school in the evening.”
UMW’s professors, she says, were very understanding of her needs and “so encouraging and supporting. They were not going to let me give up.”
These days, Clift, who graduated from UMW in 2000 with a business administration degree, is senior scientific technical manager and chief technology officer for the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division in King George County. She holds a master’s degree in engineering systems from the Naval Postgraduate School and is pursuing a doctorate in engineering at George Washington University.
Nehemia Abel, who earned a degree in marketing from UMW’s College of Business in 2020, is pursuing a career at the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. Photo courtesy University of Mary Washington
In the years since Clift graduated, the university’s business education program has advanced as well. Though Mary Washington has been offering business studies for the last 100 years, its College of Business was not established until 2010.
“It’s a startup and a growth story in and of itself,” says Brian Baker, executive director of the business college’s Center for Economic Development (CED), which focuses on topics such as entrepreneurship, small business development and innovation and competitiveness.
UMW’s College of Business, he says, grew out of “a vision for discovering how the university could better engage with the broader community.”
Founded in 1908 as a normal school, or an institution for training teachers, the University of Mary Washington has a long history of teaching business and related subjects.
In 1919, at the direction of a state education board, the Fredericksburg campus began specializing in teaching “commercial” subjects. It graduated its first business teacher in 1924, the same year that commercial courses were offered in the evening to “interested townspeople.”
Over the next century, business education at the university evolved to meet the changing needs of both students and the community, school officials say.
Provost Tim O’Donnell says one reason the College of Business was established “was because our alums told us we weren’t doing enough to prepare them. Work is different now, more competitive.”
Students “need to learn to talk in the language of employers. They need to be real-world problem solvers,” says O’Donnell, who became UMW’s permanent provost in June 2022.
He praises the strong relationships that the College of Business has built with the local business community through the CED and the college’s Center for Business Research (CBR), which researches topics including issues impacting the Fredericksburg region’s economy.
“Faculty often are doing research projects in cooperation with Fredericksburg Regional Alliance,” O’Donnell says. For example, a CBR project for the alliance and the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce assessed the growth and decline of jobs across industry sectors in the region over a 10-year period.
The CBR, which is headed up by David Henderson, an associate professor of accounting, also has conducted a study on the demographics of commuters living in the Fredericksburg region and an analysis of the costs imposed on commuters by area traffic congestion on Interstate 95.
Entrepreneurial perspective
UMW’s College of Business is “a startup and a growth story in and of itself,” says Brian Baker, executive director of the college’s Center for Economic Development. Photo by Caroline Martin
CED programs include the EagleWorks Business Incubation Center and StartUpUMW, an entrepreneurial education program.
“Everything we have added has made sense from an entrepreneurial perspective,” says Baker, the CED’s executive director.
EagleWorks offers business development services to local startups and early-stage companies. Entrepreneurs have access to professional networks, office facilities, consulting services, peer engagement opportunities and other business resources.
StartUpUMW is designed to teach students how to start and run a business. Students have access to research databases, business consultants and office space to grow their own business ideas. They’re given tools to write their business plan and guidance from the CED team. Students can receive an experiential learning credit or internship experience for participating.
UMW’s College of Business has helped place 776 interns into the community workforce over the last five years, with 223 of those interns coming directly from the CED through initiatives like StartUpUMW.
“Those interns are doing some pretty heavy lifting in the areas of accounting, marketing, sports management, strategic planning and business analytics,” Bakersays. For example, several years ago, Baker and a team of students partnered with the Stafford Regional Airport to produce a written strategic marketing plan. The process included hands-on work with the Stafford Regional Airport Authority.
Taking part in StartUpUMW, “students will understand the process of preparing an idea to go to market. They will be able to do it forever. It’s like riding a bike, but it’s a tough bike to ride,” Baker says.
The CED also sponsors Eagle Innovation, a business pitch competition open to all UMW and Germanna Community College students. Three winning teams receive seed capital for their company or startup, Baker says. The grand prize is $2,000.
Through the various College of Business programs, “students benefit, faculty, businesses, the community — everybody benefits in some way. They synthesize together well,” Baker says.
The CED is also home to the U.S. Small Administration’s regional Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which serves the greater Fredericksburg area, the Northern Neck and the Middle Peninsula. This SBDC served 2,436 business clients over the past five years and “4,587 jobs have been created and retained” by those clients, says Baker, who started at UMW in 2002 as executive director of the SBDC’s forerunner. The center has also provided management education to 2,467 entrepreneurs in the region.
Recognizing that a large part of the business conducted in the Fredericksburg area is driven by federal contracting, the SBDC hosts one-on-one personalized government contracting assistance consultations with advisers from the Virginia Department of Business Assistance and the Central Virginia Procurement Technical Assistance Center.
The university has a strong partnership with one of the biggest employers in the area, the Naval Surface Warfare Center, notes O’Donnell. “We were tasked about a dozen years ago to build an education center for on-base individuals,” he says. Today, UMW’s Dahlgren Campus delivers science- and engineering-focused postgraduate courses taught locally and via distance learning from Virginia’s state universities. The campus hosts a broad spectrum of training events for the Navy, local government and private industry.
Success stories
Nehemia Abel, who graduated from UMW’s College of Business in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, says students benefit from the college’s emphasis on internships and hands-on projects. During his senior year, Abel collaborated with a team of classmates to assist an environmental and education research center with communications, marketing, business development and operations services.
Now, Abel is a U.S. Agency for International Development Payne International Development Fellow and is pursuing a master’s degree at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Also a policy and advocacy fellow for the International Rescue Committee, Abel plans to work at USAID when he graduates from Georgetown in May.
Abel says he continues to benefit from lessons he learned about critical thinking and project management from UMW’s College of Business. He’s especially glad that the business college placed an emphasis on writing, noting that it’s a skill that comes in handy for the many policy memos, reports and case studies he produces.
As a UMW undergraduate, Abel, a Burundian refugee born in Tanzania, was involved with UMW’s James Farmer Multicultural Center, which promotes awareness and knowledge of diversity issues. He also co-founded an organization to assist Burundian refugees in the Fredericksburg region pursuing higher education and preparing for the workplace. The university honored him with its 2019-20 Citizenship Award for Diversity Leadership. Since graduation, he has remained involved in promoting diversity and mentoring students at UMW. “When I go back,” he says, “I try to make sure those students are taken care of and have a voice.”
UMW’s business teachings also made a difference in Jennifer Clift’s career at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, she says.
“I work in a science and engineering organization, where there’s a lot of technical work. I’m unique at Dahlgren. A lot of scientists and engineers don’t have a business background,” she says. “I got a strong foundation with the business lessons at Mary Washington. The path that I took has been very beneficial. It’s allowed me to look at things differently.”
In particular, Clift recalls her senior capstone program. Students were tasked with profiling a business, and she chose Southwest Airlines Co.“I interviewed the businessmen and women there about what made their business successful. It was very hands-on,” she recalls. “Getting students out of the classroom is extremely beneficial. … I remember a lot of the things I learned 20 years ago.”
Last October, Clift was inducted into the UMW College of Business Hall of Fame. “An innovator and technology expert,” the college said in recognizing Clift, “she drives advancement of [Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division’s] technical capabilities through investments, partnerships and education, including academic partnering.”
In helping the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division forge partnerships with UMW, Clift, not surprisingly, says, “I started at the College of Business,” but she’s also helped established partnerships with UMW’s College of Education and College of Arts and Sciences. Last October, the NSWCDD sponsored its second robotics competition for high school students, in partnership with the university.
“It’s a well-integrated university,” says Clift, who also stays involved with UMW through efforts such as sharing her career experiences with women business students. “It’s not a stovepiped organization. We bring in everybody’s perspective.”
University of Mary Washington At a Glance
Founded
Established by the state government in 1908 as an all-women’s school to train teachers, Mary Washington, which was named after the mother of the nation’s first president, is a public liberal arts university. From 1944 to 1972, it functioned as the women’s college of the University of Virginia, becoming co-ed in the early 1970s and reorganizing as an independent college, later becoming a university in 2004. UMW’s College of Business was founded in 2010.
Campuses
UMW’s 176-acre Fredericksburg flagship campus is set in a mostly residential, historic part of the city that was the site of the 1862 Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg. The self-contained, brick-lined campus is within walking distance of downtown Fredericksburg and the Rappahannock River. In recent years, the university has expanded to campuses in Stafford County, which includes graduate-level and adult degree programs, and Dahlgren, which offers continuing education and professional development courses for the region’s engineers, scientists and administrative professionals.
Enrollment1
Undergraduate: 3,493
Graduate: 264
Virginia residents: 90%
International students: 2.4%
Racially or ethnically diverse students: 29%
Employees
UMW has nearly 850 workers, including approximately 650 full-time faculty and academic professionals.
The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation has named a new chief of public transportation.
Zach Trogdon will begin his new role Oct. 25. He has worked as executive director of the Williamsburg Area Transit Authority since June 2017, according to his LinkedIn, and has spent the past two decades working in the public sector.
Trogdon will be responsible for a $4.7 billion portfolio of public transportation, commuter assistance and congestion management programs throughout the state. While at the Williamsburg transit authority, Trogdon managed progress of capital projects, including acquiring real estate, and worked with its fiscal agent to establish a capital fund.
“We are thrilled to welcome Zach Trogdon to DRPT as its next chief of public transportation,” DRPT Director Jennifer DeBruhl said in a statement. “His track record of success as a public sector executive will be valuable at DRPT during a transformative time in the public transportation industry with opportunities to improve services for Virginians.”
Trogdon has also served as county administrator in Charles City County and as town manager of Wilkesboro and Boiling Springs, in North Carolina. He has a bachelor’s from the University of Mary Washington, a master’s degree in public administration from the College of Charleston in South Carolina, and is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s Senior Executive Institute.
“I am honored to join DRPT as the next chief of public transportation and lead this agency through a pivotal time in the future of public transportation,” Trogdon said. “There have been many great advances in public transportation over the last several years and I look forward to working with all public transportation partners to deliver safe and reliable services that meet the needs of Virginians.”
In the most recent round of dueling gubernatorial poll results, Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin has a five-point lead among likely voters against Democrat Terry McAuliffe, Virginia’s former governor seeking a second, nonconsecutive term, according to a University of Mary Washington statewide survey conducted earlier this month.
In UMW’s poll of 1,000 Virginia adults conducted Sept. 7-13 by Research America Inc., Youngkin held 48% support of likely voters — 528 out of the total polled — against McAuliffe’s 43%. Third-party progressive candidate Princess Blanding had the support of 2% of likely voters, while others said they were undecided. The story changed among the 885 registered voters surveyed, with 46% favoring McAuliffe and 41% for Youngkin, followed by 2% for Blanding, who is running under the Liberation Party’s banner.
UMW called it a “tight contest,” with the differences between the two major-party candidates falling within margins of error, giving neither a clear lead. The margin of error for likely voters is 4.1%, while the margin for the total sample is 3.1%.
“To borrow from Mark Twain, the reports of the end of Virginia’s status as a swing state are greatly exaggerated,” Stephen J. Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington and director of UMW’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, said in a statement. “The large number of undecided voters at this stage demonstrates that either major party candidate can become the next governor of Virginia.”
Liberation Party candidate Princess Blanding
Significantly for the gubernatorial race, UMW’s poll shows only three points difference between Youngkin and McAuliffe in Northern Virginia among likely voters — 48% to 45%, with the former governor ahead. However, Northern Virginia is considered a heavily blue region of the state that Democratic candidates usually carry easily.
Of three major nonpartisan polls taken the same time in Virginia, the contest definitely appears to be up for grabs. The Virginia Commonwealth University L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs reported Monday that McAuliffe has a nine-point lead over political newcomer Youngkin, as well as 23% of respondents saying they were undecided. The Washington Post-George Mason University poll released Saturday reported that McAuliffe led with 50% against Youngkin’s 47%.
UMW’s poll also showed down-ticket Republicans with narrow leads over Democrats among likely voters surveyed. Winsome Sears, the GOP candidate for lieutenant candidate, had 47% support over Democratic Del. Hala Ayala’s 41%, while Republican Del. Jason Miyares held 46% over Democratic incumbent Mark Herring’s 42% in the attorney general’s race. Those surveyed also expressed disapproval of the direction the country and the state are headed, with 48% saying they disapprove of President Joe Biden’s job performance and 44% approving of it.
“This is an electorate in a very foul mood,” Farnsworth said. “We shouldn’t be surprised. COVID has created the biggest health care and economic shocks to the world in decades, and we prematurely thought the crises were over. So it is no wonder that voters are expressing high levels of frustration.”
Early voting began last Friday and continues through Election Day on Nov. 2.
One of the state’s two land-grant universities, Virginia State was originally chartered in 1882 as the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. From an initial class of 126, the Petersburg campus now has 4,385 undergraduate and graduate students.
Since arriving in 2016 from his role as provost and senior vice president of Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida, Abdullah has transformed the once-sleepy farm school into a full-service university. The curriculum at the HBCU (historically Black college and university) now ranges from computer science and bioengineering to managerial economics.
Among other initiatives, the Chicago native has overseen the opening of VSU’s Academic Center of Excellence, a resource stop for first-year students. Abdullah also established an advisory board for LGBTQIA+ inclusion.
VSU was named 2018 HBCU of the Year by HBCU Digest, which also designated Abdullah the 2017 Male President of the Year. He earned his undergraduate degree from Howard University and his master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering from Northwestern University, where he was the youngest African American to receive an engineering Ph.D.
JAVAUNE ADAMS-GASTON
Adams-Gaston
PRESIDENT, NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY, NORFOLK
Adams-Gaston was hired last year, just in time to usher in the 5,616-student school’s new NSU Innovation Center (NSUIC), a business incubator designed to help the historically Black university establish job and training pipelines in the Hampton Roads area. Known as “Dr. J,” the Washington, D.C., native came to Norfolk State armed with experience in how to connect with students. As senior vice president for student life at Ohio State University, she expanded the school’s campus living focus, implementing the national Second-Year Transformational Experience (STEP) program and dramatically increased student organization activities. She also assisted in some of Ohio State’s biggest construction projects — such as a $350 million, 3,200 bed student housing area — and helped the university raise $29 million toward an advanced student affairs development program. Adams-Gaston is a graduate of the University of Dubuque. She holds a master’s degree in psychology from Dubuque, Iowa’s Loras College and her Ph.D. from Iowa State.
WHAT WOULD A COMPETITOR SAY ABOUT YOU? “She is a collaborator who works for the
greater good.”
FIRST JOB: Lifeguard
Alger
JONATHAN R. ALGER
PRESIDENT, JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY, HARRISONBURG
At JMU, it’s a time for both growth and reflection. The school’s new $72.1 million College of Business building will open this fall, and the 8,500-seat Atlantic Union Bank Center is slated for 2021. At the same time, in June, Alger recommended to the board of visitors that JMU remove the names of Confederate leaders from three university halls.
Hired in 2012 as the sixth president in Madison’s 112-year history, Alger received his B.A. in political science with a minor in history at Swarthmore College and earned his law degree from Harvard. As assistant general counsel at the University of Michigan, he was a key adviser in two successful U.S. Supreme Court cases on diversity in college admissions.
In July, JMU’s College of Education announced it would partner with the Virginia Department of Education to form the Virginia New Teacher Support Program, providing coaching and professional development to 750 first- and second-year teachers. Alger also spearheaded JMU’s Valley Scholars program, which offers full scholarships to first-generation Shenandoah Valley college students from low-income backgrounds. The university partners with 22 middle and high schools and had 196 participating students last year.
PETER BLAKE
Blake
DIRECTOR, STATE COUNCIL OF HIGHER EDUCATION FOR VIRGINIA, RICHMOND
Blake, the state’s point man for higher ed, is currently working to acclimate Virginia college students and faculty to the “new normal” of reopening this fall. That means more online courses, smaller class sizes, staggered schedules and new approaches to large-scale events. SCHEV will review each school’s reopening plan to make sure it complies with the state plan. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and still a big Reds fan, Blake came to SCHEV after serving as vice chancellor of the Virginia Community College System and spending four years as part of Gov. Mark Warner’s administration in the roles of deputy secretary and secretary of education. He was also a fiscal analyst for the Virginia House Appropriations Committee. Blake holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University and completed The Executive Program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
BEST ADVICE: Say yes. If you say no, you might not be asked again.
I ADMIRE: My parents, Bill and Miriam Blake, for all the reasons you know.
RECENT BOOK: “The Big Fella,” by Jane Leavy
WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA? Our tax structure needs to be modernized.
Broderick
JOHN R. BRODERICK
PRESIDENT, OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY, NORFOLK
Broderick announced in May that he would retire in 2021. With nearly 25,000 students, ODU has raised more than $1 billion in public and private dollars during his 13-year tenure, including a $37 million donation (the school’s largest ever) from Richard and Carolyn Barry for ODU’s Barry Art Museum. Broderick also oversaw construction of a $75.6 million chemistry building and the $20 million Student Success Center and Learning Commons. Football returned to the school, too, and the S.B. Ballard Stadium underwent a $67.5 million renovation.
He’s also helped to launch, among many other initiatives, the Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding, the Center for Global Health and the Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Broderick came to ODU in 1993 as the university’s public information director, later becoming associate vice president and acting vice president. He is the former chair of the Council of Presidents of the Southeastern Universities Research Association and is a past chairman of the Virginia Council of Presidents of public colleges and universities.
Retirement or not, he’ll always be a part of student life — the Broderick Dining Commons is named for him and his wife, Kate, honoring the couple’s commitment to inclusion and student success.
LANCE R. COLLINS
Collins
VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VIRGINIA TECH INNOVATION CAMPUS, ALEXANDRIA
Collins started his new job in August, heading up Virginia Tech’s $1 billion Innovation Campus, currently underway in Alexandria, with its first academic building scheduled to open in 2024.
The first class of tech-savvy graduate students is slated to enroll this fall and will attend classes in other Northern Virginia spaces. Eventually, the campus, which was a key component in landing Amazon’s nearby $2.5 billion HQ2 East Coast headquarters, will house programs in computer science, artificial intelligence and data sciences for 2,000 students per year.
The campus will foster innovative partnerships with the tech industry and will include space for startups and corporate facilities.
Collins, who previously served as dean of engineering at Cornell University, was on the leadership team that successfully partnered with New York City to build Cornell Tech, which opened in 2017. He’s a graduate of Princeton University and earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
“We will build an education that integrates corporate America onto the campus in ways that you don’t see in a traditional campus,” Collins says.
Crutcher
RONALD A. CRUTCHER
PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, RICHMOND
In an April open letter to the student body, Crutcher compared his 4,023-pupil university’s COVID-19 shutdown to a fermata — an orchestral term denoting an unexpected pause before the music continues.
It’s only fitting that the Cincinnati native, a world-renowned musician who became the first cellist to receive a doctor of musical arts degree from Yale, would employ musical terminology to convey his message. The Fulbright scholar has performed recitals across the world and could be found streaming classical pieces on Facebook Live during the quarantine. Before he came to Richmond in 2015, Crutcher was president of Wheaton College for 10 years. He sits on the boards of the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the American Council on Education.
ODE TO JOY: “Ode to Joy” by Beethoven
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE RECENTLY: Axe throwing. I really loved it!
I ADMIRE: My father, Andrew James Crutcher Jr. He was forced to quit school in the eighth grade to work on his family’s tobacco farm in Kentucky. … He eventually became the first Black manager at the world’s largest machine tool company.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: As a leader, not to take myself too seriously and, in particular, how not to internalize or personalize criticism.
GLENN DuBOIS
DuBois
CHANCELLOR, VIRGINIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM, RICHMOND
DuBois has overseen the state’s 23 community colleges and 40-plus campuses for 19 years. Under his care, the colleges have become Virginia’s leading provider of workforce development services, while diversifying their funding approaches with more private investment. The colleges have also maintained a highly affordable tuition rate.
Considered an authority on the dynamics of community college education, DuBois raised eyebrows last year with his warnings that, by 2026, college enrollment will drop dramatically and schools will be competing so hard for students that it will feel like “The Hunger Games.”
His focus at present is on the safe reopening of Virginia colleges this fall, with new social distancing measures and remote classroom options in place.
DuBois announced in May that Virginia’s Community Colleges launched CollegeAnywhereVA.org, an online portal connecting students with affordable online courses and advisers who can streamline the application and course enrollment processes.
DuBois earned his doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Massachusetts and received his master’s in juvenile justice and criminology from Eastern Kentucky University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Florida Atlantic University.
Falwell
JERRY FALWELL JR.
PRESIDENT AND CHANCELLOR*, LIBERTY UNIVERSITY, LYNCHBURG
A controversial, conservative political icon, Falwell is one of Virginia’s top newsmakers. In August, he made headlines after taking an indefinite leave of absence from Liberty at the request of the Christian university’s board, whose chair is now acting president.
The move came following an Instagram photo Falwell posted showing his arm around a woman he said was his wife’s assistant. Their pants were unbuttoned and Falwell was holding a glass of dark liquid, which he wrote was “black water” and “a prop.” He later apologized in a radio interview, saying, “I promised my kids I will try to be a good boy from here on out.”
Falwell Jr. has built the university his father founded into one of the world’s largest Christian universities, with assets exceeding $3 billion. It’s also Lynchburg’s largest employer and Virginia’s largest college by enrollment, with more than 115,000 students, about 100,000 of whom are online-only.
This summer, several Black staff members and students left Liberty, citing racial insensitivity, including Falwell tweeting the infamous blackface image from Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook. Before he took his leave, Falwell hired former Liberty football coach Turner Gill and 1986 alum and former NFL player Kelvin Edwards to lead diversity efforts at the university.
*Editor’s Note:When the Virginia 500 issue went to print, Jerry Falwell Jr. had taken indefinite leave from his leadership positions at Liberty University. Falwell resigned from Liberty on Aug. 24, amid mounting media reports of a scandal involving his wife’s extramarital affair with a former friend and business partner.
TRACY FITZSIMMONS
Fitzsimmons
PRESIDENT, SHENANDOAH UNIVERSITY, WINCHESTER
Fitzsimmons became Shenandoah’s first female president in 2008 and oversees 4,000 students and 900 faculty and staff in Winchester with satellite campuses in Loudoun, Fairfax and Clarke counties. She originally served as Shenandoah’s dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, vice president for academic affairs and senior vice president. She earned her undergraduate degree in politics from Princeton and her master’s in Latin American studies and her doctoral degree in political science from Stanford. Like many schools, Shenandoah also is dealing with its checkered past. In June, the university’s board of trustees voted unanimously to remove the name of the late U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., a key Massive Resistance supporter, from its School of Business.
WHAT WOULD A COMPETITOR SAY ABOUT YOU? “She works hard to get to a ‘win-win’ for all
parties involved.”
FIRST JOB? In high school, I worked the opening shift at a convenience store/gas station from 5:30 to 7:30 a.m.
FAVORITE VACATION DESTINATIONS Italy, Bhutan, Tanzania, Panama
FAVORITE SONG: “I Will Survive,” plus anything by Silvio Rodriguez
Harvey
WILLIAM R. HARVEY
PRESIDENT, HAMPTON UNIVERSITY, HAMPTON
Harvey is one of the nation’s longest-serving university presidents, and arguably one its most successful. The 152-year-old historically Black private university — which will hold online-only classes this fall — has grown from 2,700 students to 6,100 since the Alabama native’s 1978 arrival. He’s upped the former Hampton Institute’s endowment from $29 million to $310 million and grown the academic offerings of Virginia’s oldest HBCU to more than 90 different degree programs, with eight doctoral programs. The university has added 28 campus buildings, and the $225 million Proton Therapy Institute for cancer treatment. The school also purchased the downtown Harbor Center, the area’s tallest building, and began a partnership with NASA.
Harvey and his wife, Norma, own a Pepsi Cola bottling franchise in Michigan, and the couple has donated $8.5 million to Hampton University over the years. Hampton’s William R. Harvey Leadership Institute bears his name, the main thoroughfare through the 314-acre campus is William Harvey Way and the library is named for the Harveys.
Despite his successes, a Hampton alumni group circulated an online petition in June asking Harvey to step down, citing, among other things, the school’s slow response to COVID-19.
BRIAN O. HEMPHILL
Hemphill
PRESIDENT, RADFORD UNIVERSITY, RADFORD
In June, Radford’s board of visitors granted Hemphill broad powers to cut the university’s budget in anticipation of declining enrollment and a dramatic $8.1 million annual cut in state funding — the source of 40% of Radford’s educational dollars. The options look dire for the next two fiscal years, including salary and budgets cuts and programs and academic departments being consolidated or eliminated.
The situation has placed considerable pressure on Hemphill, who previously served as president of West Virginia State University.
Hemphill joined Radford in 2016. He received his bachelor’s degree from St. Augustine’s University and his master’s from Iowa State University. His Ph.D. is from the University of Iowa. Last year, Radford merged with Jefferson College of Health Sciences to establish the Roanoke-based Radford University Carilion (RUC), a health sciences educational center.
FIRST JOB: Working on a farm in rural North Carolina
I ADMIRE: My mother for her sense of humility, compassion and tenacity to persevere through challenging life situations
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “College Unbound,” by Jeffrey J. Selingo
Kress
ANNE M. KRESS
PRESIDENT, NORTHERN VIRGINIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE, ANNANDALE
Kress took the reins at NOVA in January after serving for 10 years as president of Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York. Prior to that, she worked for two decades in various positions — from English instructor to associate vice president to provost — at Florida’s Santa Fe Community College. She sits on the board of directors of the American Association of Community Colleges and earned two bachelor’s degrees, a master’s and a doctorate from the University of Florida.
Founded in 1964, NOVA is the largest community college in Virginia, employing 3,500 staff and faculty. More than 75,000 students attend classes on campuses in six Northern Virginia localities, and through its never-more-important online Extended Learning Institute. Reacting to COVID-19 concerns, Kress announced in June that the college would mostly offer virtual learning this fall.
FIRST JOB: Babysitting (for 50 cents an hour!)
HOBBY: Quilting
I ADMIRE: Malala Yousafzai. After an act of horrific violence, a young woman who simply wanted to attend school became an extraordinary global leader who continues to fight to ensure that all have access to the transformative power of education.
JAMES F. LANE
Lane
SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, RICHMOND
The ongoing Black Lives Matter protests are sparking debates about racism and institutional white supremacy, but public education czar James Lane, appointed in 2018, has already been engaged in that discussion. Last February, the superintendent sent a strong message to local school divisions that racism would not be tolerated and in July he announced that Virginia is considering requiring K-12 teachers to receive teaching certificates in African American history.
Lane was previously a division superintendent in Chesterfield, Middlesex and Goochland counties — at the latter, he was recognized as the 2017 Virginia Superintendent of the Year by the Virginia Association of School Superintendents. As state superintendent, Lane assumes an executive officer role at the Virginia Department of Education and also serves as secretary of the Virginia Board of Education.
He was instrumental in developing Gov. Northam’s reopening schools plan, which was released in June.
In July, Lane announced that VDOE, along with James Madison University’s College of Education, would be initiating the Virginia New Teacher Support Program, which will provide coaching and professional development to more than 750 first- and second-year teachers across Virginia.
McDonnell
KARL McDONNELL
CEO, STRATEGIC EDUCATION INC., ARLINGTON
Online colleges Strayer University and Capella University are poised to make real inroads during the COVID-19 crisis. McDonnell oversees both for-profit companies as head of SEI, an education services holding company that, in the first quarter of this year, took in $46.5 million in profits.
Strayer and Capella merged in 2018 under SEI but remain separate entities with combined corporate governance. Collectively serving more than 80,000 web students, the schools still face questions about low graduation rates and students’ job preparedness. The Brookings Institution found that Strayer’s graduation rate ranged from 3% to 27% and many students were burdened with approximately $8 billion in loan debt, one of the nation’s highest rates. The New York Times reported that only 11% of Capella undergraduates earn a degree within eight years.
McDonnell, a graduate of Virginia Wesleyan College and Duke University, previously served as president and CEO of Strayer. Before that, he was COO of InteliStaf Healthcare and vice president of investment banking for Goldman Sachs & Co. For five years, McConnell was the general manager of Walt Disney World Resort. During his off time, he volunteers as a wedding photographer.
TROY PAINO
PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON, FREDERICKSBURG
Paino
Paino came to Virginia in 2016 from Missouri’s Truman State University, where he served as president for six years. Since arriving at UMW, he’s concentrated on student and faculty diversity — creating a vice president position in charge of equity and access — as well as construction. Under his watch, Fredericksburg has seen the $3 million renovation of Mary Washington’s historic amphitheater, a $28 million expansion to Jepson Science Center, a $19.3 million renovation of Willard Hall and the establishment of Mary Washington’s Digital Pedagogy Lab.
Paino earned his doctorate and master’s degree in American studies from Michigan State University and holds a law degree from Indiana University.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: Unless you are an arrogant S.O.B., life humbles us all.
I ADMIRE: Nelson Mandela — jailed for 26 years, yet could lead South Africa without bitterness or
revenge in his heart [and] led a racially divided country through a process of reconciliation.
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: Adapting a residential liberal arts university to meet the existential threat of the COVID-19 pandemic
FAVORITE SONG: “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness,” by John Prine
Qarni
ATIF QARNI
SECRETARY OF EDUCATION, COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, RICHMOND
As education secretary, Qarni provides guidance to the Virginia Department of Education, the Virginia Community College System, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, 16 public colleges and universities, 23 community colleges and five research centers, and offers support to seven state-funded arts/cultural institutions.
He helped to develop the state’s COVID-19 school reopening plan, released in June. He’s also charged with devising new guidelines to promote diversity. In the wake of this summer’s social justice protests, he announced that Virginia may soon require K-12 teachers to receive teaching certificates in African American history.
Appointed by Gov. Ralph Northam in 2018, the Pakistan native, whose family moved to Maryland when he was 10, has run for elected office twice, in unsuccessful bids for the Virginia House of Delegates in 2013 and the state Senate in 2015. He holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from George Washington University as well as a master’s in history from George Mason University. He was deployed to Iraq in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom as a U.S. Marine Corps sergeant and, earlier in life, taught civics, economics, math and history at Beville Middle School in Prince William County.
MICHAEL RAO
Rao
PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY, RICHMOND
The highest-paid state official, making $1.02 million annually, Rao fronts a 30,000-student university that is the largest employer in the Richmond area, with more than 20,000 employees. He’s also president of VCU Health Services, which includes the VCU Medical Center, ranked as the No. 1 regional hospital by U.S. News & World Report.
Arriving in 2009 after serving as president of Central Michigan University, Rao has overseen the construction of the $158.6 million James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Medical Education Center and a $50.8 million renovation of Cabell Library. In 2018, VCU opened the $41 million Institute for Contemporary Art, which was named in February as one of the top new museums in America by USA Today.
In June, Rao joined University of Virginia President James Ryan and Virginia Tech President Tim Sands in urging the state to set aside $200 million in federal relief to increase campus coronavirus testing. At the same time, despite an expected 10% admissions drop due to the pandemic, VCU’s board of visitors approved a $1.4 billion annual budget that avoided staff furloughs and kept tuition prices from rising.
Responding to social justice protests, Rao also announced a restructuring of VCU’s police force.
Reveley
W. TAYLOR REVELEY IV
PRESIDENT, LONGWOOD UNIVERSITY, FARMVILLE
Reveley is a rarity: a third-generation college president. The Richmond native’s grandfather, W. Taylor Reveley II, was head of Hampden-Sydney College for 14 years, and his father, W. Taylor Reveley III, was president of William & Mary for a decade.
Reveley IV clearly inherited some aptitude for the job. Longwood has received more than $100 million in grants and donations since he came to the 5,096-student public liberal arts university. In 2019, Longwood received its largest-ever donation, a $15 million gift from alumna Joan Brock, which will go toward the construction of a new $40 million convocation and events center slated to open in 2022. In accordance with the school’s ambitious 2025 master plan, the school also renovated its iconic Frazer and Curry residence halls.
In April, Reveley announced that a new COVID-19 planning task force had been assembled from the campus community and Farmville to help Longwood reopen safely in the fall.
A graduate of Princeton University, where he played on the football team, Reveley also holds a master’s degree from Union Presbyterian Seminary and a law degree from the University of Virginia. He previously was managing director of U.Va.’s Miller Center of Public Affairs.
M.G. ‘PAT’ ROBERTSON
Robertson. AP Photo/Steve Helber
CHANCELLOR AND CEO, REGENT UNIVERSITY, VIRGINIA BEACH
Nonagenarian televangelist Robertson, a longtime player in Republican politics, is best known for his Christian Broadcasting Network show “The 700 Club,” but Regent has broad influence as well. Known as the “Harvard of the Christian Right,” it has a student enrollment of more than 8,600 and its alumni include former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, actor Tony Hale and radio host Jay Sekulow, who is also one of President Donald Trump’s lawyers.
The Lexington native originally founded Regent as CBN University in 1977 on his television network’s Virginia Beach campus. It has grown to include eight academic schools, offering associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in more than 70 study areas. Robertson established the Regent School of Law in 1986 and the university’s accreditation was reaffirmed last year by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
Regent plans to reopen this fall with coronavirus-sensitive study options, including online courses, gap year alternatives and early college possibilities for high schoolers.
Robertson, whose “The 700 Club” TV show claims to reach 1 million viewers worldwide each weekday, has long been a controversial public figure, using his televangelism pulpit to denounce gay and lesbian people, Muslims, liberals and feminists.
Rowe
KATHERINE A. ROWE
PRESIDENT, WILLIAM & MARY, WILLIAMSBURG
Discussing the university’s fall reopening plans, Rowe came across as a comforting voice of optimism during her June appearance on CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
Hired in 2018, the former Smith College provost and dean of faculty has already put her stamp on the 328-year-old university, America’s second-oldest learning institution.
A former entrepreneur who co-founded Luminary Digital Media and received her master’s and Ph.D. from Harvard, Rowe spearheaded an entrepreneurship hub next to the Miller Center at the Mason School of Business, partnering with Launchpad, the region’s business incubator, and James City and York counties.
William & Mary has already received some large gifts during Rowe’s tenure — a $10 million donation from alumna Jane P. Batten to expand online programs, a $19.3 million anonymous gift to establish the Institute for Integrative Conservation and the donation of alumna Sybil Shainwald’s prestigious art collection, including works by Picasso and Matisse.
BEST ADVICE: Cross-train
HOBBY: Playing and coaching the sport of Ultimate
FAVORITE SONG: “Feeling Good,” by Nina Simone
ONE THING YOU WOULD CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: The humidity
JAMES E. RYAN
Ryan
PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, CHARLOTTESVILLE
In December, the 24,000-student U.Va., founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, kicked off the public phase of the largest-ever capital fundraising campaign by a Virginia university, with a goal of raising $5 billion by 2025. Ryan, who took the helm at U.Va. in 2018, is already more than halfway there.
In January, U.Va. received the largest single private donation in school history, a $120 million gift from alumni couple Jaffray and Merrill Woodriff to start a School of Data Science. And, in October 2019, Darden School alumnus David Walentas and his wife, Jane, gave $100 million to fund scholarships for first-generation students.
Previously dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, Ryan graduated summa cum laude from Yale and earned his law degree from U.Va., graduating first in his class. He clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.
There have, however, been some bumps in Ryan’s tenure: He was criticized for supporting the appointment of President Trump’s legislative affairs director, Marc Short, to U.Va.’s nonpartisan Miller Center for Public Affairs. (Short is now Vice President Pence’s chief of staff.) And a coalition of students was unhappy with Ryan’s initial response to Black Lives Matter protests, decrying violence by protesters.
Sands. Photos courtesy Virginia Tech
TIMOTHY ‘TIM’ SANDS
PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA TECH, BLACKSBURG
On the job since 2014, Sands is still basking in the glow of Tech’s planned $1 billion Innovation Campus, which state officials have said sealed the deal in landing Amazon’s $2.5 billion HQ2 headquarters.
A celebrated scientist and expert in the field of light-emitting diodes, Sands oversees a university founded in 1872 that serves 34,850 students in 280 undergraduate and graduate degree programs and has a research portfolio of $522 million.
Sands earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering physics and his master’s and Ph.D. in material science and engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He came to Blacksburg from Purdue University, where he served as acting president and executive vice president and provost and was director of Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center.
Sands announced in June that Tech will blend in-person and online teaching this fall and make COVID-19 testing available to thousands of students in university housing. He also joined VCU’s Michael Rao and U.Va.’s James Ryan in urging the state to set aside $200 million in federal relief to increase testing on the state’s college campuses.
Washington
GREGORY WASHINGTON
PRESIDENT, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY, FAIRFAX
With 38,255 students, GMU is Virginia’s largest four-year public university. It’s also the state’s most racially diverse and financially inclusive, as nearly a third of Mason students qualify for Pell Grants and 40% are first-generation college students.
It’s only fitting that Washington, who became the university’s eighth president in July, is the first African American to lead GMU, originally established in 1949 as a Northern Virginia satellite of the University of Virginia. He was also the first person in his family to attend college.
After earning his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University, Washington was a faculty member and then interim dean of Ohio State University’s engineering college. He then became dean of the Samueli School of Engineering at University of California, Irvine, where he was the first African American dean to lead a California state engineering school. Washington also helped Irvine land a $9.5 million donation for scholarships and established a STEM education outreach program. He also diversified the faculty, hiring more Black female instructors and staff and chaired the University of California’s UCI Task Force on Ensuring Positive Campus Climate for the African American Community.
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