Since our inception four years ago, The Jefferson Council has relentlessly fought to implement our four founding pillars:
- Promote a culture of civil dialogue, the free exchange of competing ideas and intellectual diversity throughout the University
- Preserve the Jefferson Legacy
- Preserve the appearance of the Lawn as a UNESCO World Heritage site
- Support and reinvigorate the Honor System
Mr. Jefferson’s legacy cannot be preserved unless we ensure that the cost of a University of Virginia (UVA) education remains competitive with our peer universities. One of the many historical competitive advantages of UVA has been its 33% out-of-state undergraduate student body representation. This is a much higher percentage than our public university top-ranked competitors. The UVA undergraduate student body bears a close resemblance to quality private universities whose students come from states across America. As a result, we must be aware we are competing for middle class parents who desire a stellar education for their children but cannot afford comparable private college tuition.
You will see from the chart below that UVA is the most expensive top 50 public university in America. Perhaps more amazingly, a third and fourth year out-of-state undergraduate at UVA is charged more than his or her counterparts at Harvard.
COST OF ATTENDANCE FOR 2024-2025:
UNIVERSITY NAME |
IN-STATE COST OF ATTENDANCE |
OUT-OF-STATE COST OF ATTENDANCE |
US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT RANKING |
UNIVERSITY COST LINK |
|
Princeton |
N/A |
$86,700 |
#1 |
|
|
Harvard |
N/A |
$82,866 |
#3 |
|
|
Duke |
N/A |
$88,938 |
#7 |
|
|
Cal-Berkeley |
$48,638 |
$82,838 |
#15 (tie) |
|
|
UCLA |
$42,127 |
$76,327 |
#15 (tie) |
|
|
Vanderbilt |
$94,072 |
$94,072 |
#18 |
|
|
Michigan |
1st and 2nd year: $33,214 3rd and 4th year: $35,376 |
1st and 2nd year: $74,058 3rd and 4th year: $78,128 |
#21 |
|
|
UNC |
$27,036 |
$60,040 |
#22 |
|
|
Florida |
$23,530 |
$45,808 |
#28 |
|
|
Wisconsin |
$30,008 |
$61,106 |
#35 |
|
|
Georgia |
$28,862 |
$49708 |
#47 |
|
|
Virginia |
1st year: $39,494 2nd year: 3rd and 4th year: $43,558 McIntire: $52,420 |
1st year: 2nd year: 3rd and 4th year: $83,658 McIntire: |
#24 |
1 Michigan’s 2024-2025 costs not yet published; numbers are for 2023-2024
Quite simply, UVA is not competitive. I have no doubt we are losing well-qualified out-of-state students whose middle-class parents need to save money and are thus sending their children to less expensive quality state universities versus the private options. Of note is the University of North Carolina (UNC) which has been ranked higher than UVA for the past several years and is over $20,000 less expensive.
As of July 1, Governor Youngkin’s appointees now comprise the voting majority on the Board of Visitors (BOV). They must aggressively address the bloated administrative costs at UVA and slash expenses with a vengeance. The broadly defined middle class is being shut out since Access UVA scholarship aid stops at $125,000 in family income — excluding at least 40% of all families classified as “middle class” according to the Pew Research Center. The financial reality of our high tuition charges is that they prohibit deserving middle-class students from attending. The out-of-state student body is now comprised of the upper 5% family income portion of America or the poor/lower middle class. Where is the economic diversity in our student body?
Given the abysmal publicity the Ivies have received over their post-October 7 campus riots, Forbes and other media outlets are mentioning UVA as a “public Ivy” alternative. If we slash expenses and become truly competitive, we will benefit from this decision. If we don’t, UNC and the other “public Ivies” shown above will get top-drawer students who might otherwise attend UVA given the large cost differential. I spent four decades in corporate finance and would argue that the BOV needs to start forcing pragmatic business modeling philosophies on the very out-of-touch administrators who run UVA. You don’t beat the competition by pricing your product out of the market.
If expenses were slashed and savings applied to tuition reduction, we would see a huge increase in highly qualified out-of-state applicants. That’s just common sense, and frankly, the right thing to do. Massive expense reductions must be a high priority for the new BOV in the September Board meeting.
Rest assured that The Jefferson Council will continue to highlight these expense realities to the Board. We will not relent until hundreds of millions of dollars are slashed from the University’s bloated overhead expenses and applied directly to tuition reductions, making UVA the most competitive elite state university in America.
If you share our values and concerns, please join us in this battle with your financial support — we are stronger together.
Mr. Neale – let’s hope BOV Orientation includes finance because you have hit on a large contributor to UVa’s declining academic rankings (from #2 to #5) in US News & World report. My concern is fiscal discipline will become politicized because of your group’s antagonistic relationship with UVa administration. UVa would lose out if that happens. Your arguments here are math-based. Unmentioned however is the unintended consequences of UVa’s needs-blind admissions policy resulting in fewer tuition dollars to recruit and retain top faculty. Recruiting strong students who can’t pay helps UVa and helps these students. As an alum and as someone who took out loans for UVa – I love the policy. And the only way to ensure its survival is to cut costs. As for Athletics – they would benefit massively since their costs are full tuition scholarships – mostly for out of state student athletes. That is the math. We need to cut costs yesterday.
“My concern is fiscal discipline will become politicized because of your group’s antagonistic relationship with UVa administration.”
The politicization is not from TJC. Look at our 4 Pillars. Real diversity of thought and real free speech is…political? Preserving Jefferson’s legacy and the honor code? THOSE ARE IN THE BOV Manual! Preserving the UNESCO World Heritage site?
Seriously, how could anybody claiming to love UVA be opposed to those things?
One would think leadership of Jefferson’s University would welcome such a group. The question is why not? And the answer is the leadership doesn’t really mean the “unequivocal” support for free speech.
There are tons of costs that can be cut. I think 1/3rd of the course catalog is worthless… Maybe more. Examine how Purdue has had a freeze for 13 years.
What Purdue continues to do shows it can be done. If there is will. To measure how much cost – UNC (only other public U that is needs-blind) and VA Tech each have cost/student 40% lower than UVa. And UNC receives > 2x funding (absolute not per student) from state than does UVa. This should tell you that UVa needs to cut costs more than 40%. Instead – BOV just approved $100mm increase to academic budget or 7%. Who can educate BOV on the math?
You just pointed out more. So if outsiders can see this low hanging fruit, why isn’t it being plucked?
HooDaMan, it appears we agree on the larger issue that costs need to be cut. TJC has been imploring the BOV to rein in costs for years since the Ryan Administration continues to spend with impunity. Administrative staff – DEI and other staff overhead across all academic departments – has ballooned under Ryan.
How is pointing this out repeatedly creating an “antagonistic” relationship with the UVA administration? What do you suggest we do, just chat among ourselves and shake our heads in disgust?
We will continue to forcefully but respectfully speak up and hope that the new Youngkin appointees’ controlled BOV can finally take the concrete actions to drastically cut expenses that Rector Hardie and President Ryan have steadfastly refused to do themselves. The BOV majority has to force them to do so.
Mr Neale. If you have the bandwidth – educating the BOV on how its current cost structure imperils academics and shuts out middle class families – is a good start. What a great service to UVa. Thank you.
HooDaMan,
Agree and thanks.
By the way, I entered UVA as an out-of-state student and like you put my way through on a scholarship, student loans, and part-time work on the Corner (mostly at the old Lucky Seven, if you recall that).
I practiced what I preach today.
I’m curious how many out of state students receive financial aid. In other words, how many parents actually pay the rack rate? Unexplored in these discussions is the increasingly small percentage of higher income families that pay the inflated rates and therefore subsidize everyone else.
Please reread my article. I was one of the parents whose 2 daughters were out-of-state. I am NOT a top 5% income earner. I paid full freight for both of our daughters.
If your family income is > $125,000 you are SOL. That’s my entire point.
As to priorities, let’s stop beating around the bush! Ryan is the very root of all these problems, pure and simple, full stop! Get rid of him!!!
The issues have been exhaustively revealed and identified. And they all go back to him. Enough talk, time to act! Send him off now!!!
Agree, but the Jefferson Council cannot make that happen. Only the BOV can. We will continue to point out his egregious errors.
Trust me, the key BOV members are listening, and I think will take action. We have been doing this for 4 years.
Support us and we will continue the battle.
The Leftists in control of Academia are certainly successful at the redistribution of income. Just keeping pace with inflation from 1969 would have resulted in instate tuition at $7,000 and out of state at $11,000 at Virginia. U,C. Berkeley was free when I went to grad school 1972/73 for in state. Take the lead BOV!
Thomas Jefferson’s legacy has been seriously challenged by the widespread belief that he fathered the slave Sally Hemings’ children and that he supported the continuation of slavery. This narrative has been so widely accepted that historians assert it without even bothering to support the assertion with citations. Efforts to tear down the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., have been widely supported by the very individuals this organization seeks to counter.
This organization claims one of its prime goals is to “preserve the Jefferson legacy”. It claims the support of Dr. Turner, one of the country’s leading experts who has reviewed the evidence and rejects those allegations. Yet this organization, since its founding, has done absolutely nothing to
attack this false narrative. As the Cavalier Daily sees it, this organization has primarily attacked a single issue, the question of current efforts to undo a long history of discrimination. What did Mr. Jefferson say or do about that topic 200 years ago?
Now that this organization is satisfied with the Board of Trustees, it is time to get the University to examine critically these myths, blindly taught and believed by some of the faculty.
Why not encourage the University to study these narratives to see if they are supportable? Like Dr. Turner and others, I have done so. As a trial lawyer for half a century, I assure you that even a cursory review of the facts explodes these myths. Mr. Jefferson did not father Sally Heming’s children and took steps to end slavery, so much so that his actions almost cost him his political career.
And why have the Heming’s descendants refused to allow DNA testing on those Heming descendants living as well as those dead? The only DNA test they permitted did not prove Mr. Jefferson fathered one of her children, a child conceived when Mr. Jefferson was 64 years old. Yet the myth tries to assert the contrary. Can’t the University encourage the Heming descendants to submit to DNA tests supervised by impartial university staff?
Movement in this direction by this organization should receive wide support by everyone interested in the truth and will go far to “preserve the Jefferson legacy”. I, for one, will assist in any way I can.
Joseph, I agree. We are trying to do just that. We need a UVA organization to sponsor this debate but none has stepped up to do so. If you have connections to one that will, please notify us and we will pursue the debate.
Meanwhile, we will continue to try to get the debate scheduled.
Your connections on the Board of Visitors, including with Bert Ellis, are far stronger than any connection I might have, What good is that Board if they can’t help you get something going on this issue at the University? Not to take a position, just to start an academic inquiry. The Cavalier Daily could no longer dismiss you as a one-trick pony.
A debate is only one form of inquiry. How about a speech from Hyland or someone who has studied the question? Or a class in Law School devoted to separating reliable facts from hearsay and other unreliable evidence, using this as an example? Or a DNA study focusing on Heming male descendants conducted by the medical school? Let’s get creative.
I haven’t checked this thread for a while, so am just seeing this.
The lies about Jefferson/Hemings are intentional, and by design. And the refusal to have any kind of a showcase featuring prof Turner’s Scholars’ Commission is also intentional.
Meanwhile, UVA was only too happy to brag about the Woodson Institute putting on 6 podcasts about Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia. The series stopped after episode 2. I think with an order from on high as that episode basically promoted Jefferson as the father of all 6 of Sally’s children…with a heavy dose of rape not just implied, almost as inevitable. Truly outrageous.
I’ll make it easy for you – here is a link to Episode 2 from the Woodson Institute – https://soundcloud.com/user-133055772-512244604/coming-to-terms-with-sally-hemings?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fuser-133055772-512244604%252Fcoming-to-terms-with-sally-hemings
Listen and be outraged!
Agree 100%! Well said.