Here you will find texts and streamed videos of recent speeches and writings by John T. Casteen III, president of the University of Virginia. You can request copies of older speeches by writing: Office of the President, P.O. Box 400224, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904–4224.
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I write to ask for your support as we build one of our University's most important programs for students. AccessUVa is the financial-aid program that allows us to meet 100 percent of every undergraduate student's demonstrated need. Full Text.
As you know from the news, Virginia's collections of tax revenues are now so far below the predictions on which the General Assembly built the current year's state budget that state officials are planning for allotment reductions that will be even larger than those implemented in Spring 2009. In addition, unemployment in Virginia has almost doubled in the last year. The Virginia Employment Commission's chief economist predicted in a news story published today that unemployment in the state will continue to rise until, at earliest, the first calendar quarter of next year. Full Text.
For several months, the Rector and Visitors and I have discussed how best to manage my retirement from the position of President. The issues are complex, both because I have served longer than most presidents do and because the Board will eventually need also to find successors for several of our senior administrators and managers who have worked with me, some since as early as the late 1960s. Full Text. Watch Video.
In the middle of all of the bad news about the nation’s economy that we have been hearing and reading in recent months, we received some good news in January when The Princeton Review named U.Va. the nation’s No. 1 best-value public university in its annual "100 Best Value Colleges" list. The best-value ranking would be a noteworthy recognition in any year. During this deep recession, it is especially good news because students’ families and elected officials alike have recognized anew that affordable excellence in colleges and universities has to be a major national priority. The president and Congress have built the concept into several elements of the stimulus package. Even state elected officials who have neglected the issue for more than 20 years while siphoning funds from colleges and universities to other priorities have begun to talk about their responsibilities to higher education. Full Text.
All of us lost two great friends in January when first Gilly Sullivan and then Jack Blackburn died. Both of these men helped build and shape our modern University through deep and long-standing commitments to their respective roles in University life—Gilly as director of the Alumni Association, and Jack as dean of admission for the undergraduate schools. Full Text.
President John Casteen delivered the annual State of the University Address on February 4, 2009. Listen to the State of the University online broken into chapters, or downlad for later listening. Watch the State of the University online. Read UVA Today's news article about the event. Go
Calling America's institutions of higher education uniquely capable of producing "the people, ideas, tools, solutions, and knowledge infrastructure our economy needs to regain its momentum and to set a new trajectory," a group of public higher education leaders have issued an open letter to President-elect Obama and his incoming administration urging them to invest in higher education in general and in public higher education in particular, along with their sister private higher education institutions. Full Text. | Download PDF of Letter.
Thomas Jefferson's identities as statesman, author, architect and founder of our Republic and our University lead many to overlook his lifetime preoccupation with the environment as a naturalist, botanist, horticulturist and incessantly inquisitive student of nature. In 1790, he wrote to his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph, "There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me." Full Text.
The overall reduction for the University of Virginia is $10.6 million, which equates to 7 percent of our General Funds. In addition, the state's Equipment Trust Fund has been frozen, which means the University is unable to spend its $10 million allocation for the purchase of equipment needed largely for research. Full Text.
All of us are feeling the effects of the global economic crisis. I write to let you know how this crisis is affecting the University and how we are working to protect and sustain our operations. Because press (and blog) speculations about what the crisis is doing to universities, including us, have been both numerous and generally mistaken, I want also to respond to a few misstatements about the impact of the financial meltdown on our endowment. Full Text.
This fall is a season of change in leadership here at the University. Retirements, departures for senior positions elsewhere and other transitions have created conditions for a remarkable transformation, and one whose scale and swiftness may be unprecedented in our history. The changes provide useful insights into where we are going, and how. Full Text.
One of the pleasures of living and working in the University and the surrounding community is daily engagement with buildings whose rich histories are sewn into the University's and our nation's fiber. That engagement is both as physical as touching bricks and timbers, and as visceral as seeing newfound subtleties of shape or shadow that make these buildings such powerful images for all of us. Full Text.
One day in November 2007, total pledges and gifts to the Knowledge is Power capital campaign passed $1.6 billion. Owing to the customary flow of business and the pressures of fall travel for Bob Sweeney and his staff, that day came and went without notice, but the day and the number mark milestones that point the way to our University's future. Full Text.