Campaign for the University of Virginia
>Campaign Update
The Campaign for the University of Virginia > Why this Campaign? Why Now?

The campaign begins at a critical juncture in the University's history.

It comes at a time when we are closer than ever to fulfilling Jefferson's vision of a great public university of national scope and character. It also comes at a time when we are forging a new relationship with the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The state has long struggled to provide adequate funding for its public colleges and universities. In 2005, it passed Higher Education Restructuring legislation that will help the University overcome this challenge by making it more autonomous, more efficient, and more self-reliant.

While taking measures to remain affordable to all students, regardless of their means, the University will depend more than ever on tuition and fees, which will increase at a measured and predictable pace. The University also will depend more than ever on support from alumni, parents, and friends.

The purpose of this campaign, however, is not simply to replace state tax dollars, which currently provide only about 8 percent of the University's $2 billion annual operating budget and only 14 percent of the Academic Division budget. Rather, its purpose is to create a new model in American higher education: a privately financed public university with the means to chart its own course toward global excellence.

Through the campaign, U.Va. will elevate and maintain programs equal to the world's best. It will build a foundation of support so strong that wide swings in public finance cannot shake it from its position among the nation's premier public universities or deter it from securing its place among the nation's finest, public or private.

The University of Virginia will demonstrate that a public institution, given the freedom and the resources to shape its own destiny, can fulfill its public mission, achieve true distinction, and transform the course of learning and inquiry, all at the same time.

The University of Virginia mattered in Jefferson's time, it matters today, and it will matter even more in the future. Never has there been a greater need for what the University represents:

  • intellectual rigor,
  • the free and open exchange of ideas,
  • collegial collaboration in the pursuit of knowledge,
  • dedication to the public good, and
  • honor and integrity in all endeavors.

Never has there been a greater need for the University's most important product: enlightened and ethical leaders who leave the Grounds prepared for public life — in their communities, in their professions, in the world at large.

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