The Story
William and Mary's New Direction
It’s no secret that the economy hasn’t been in the best shape lately. The effects have been felt in nearly every area of American life, from the stock market to the political arena, and William and Mary is no exception.
With the Commonwealth strapped for cash, Virginia’s public universities have recently seen substantial cuts in state funding.
This year, William and Mary will have to endure a $3.4 million mid-year budget cut, about seven percent of its total state funding, while the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences will lose another $1.48 million. This follows last year’s $2.4 million cut, and College officials expect even more cuts for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009.
Since public funds comprise about 18 percent of William and Mary’s total budget, the cuts are, in the words of President Reveley, “a very serious reduction.” The College has already cut its operating costs five percent across the board, instituted a hiring freeze, and delayed planned salary increases until next year.
With more budget cuts likely to come in the future, even these steps may not be enough. The job of charting the College’s course through these rough times falls, at least in part, to the people on the Planning Steering Committee.
William and Mary went without a central strategic planning body since 1993. According to Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Ginger Ambler, “the realities of our financial situation” made this arrangement untenable and, so, this summer President Reveley put together a preliminary committee to explore how other, comparable institutions handled their financial planning processes and how to manage William and Mary in this situation.
The Planning Steering Committee, made up of 27 members of the College’s faculty and staff and two non-voting members of the student body, began meeting last September. They have met about two hours a week every week since.
Ambler says the job of the Planning Steering Committee is to help the College maintain its “level of excellence” despite adversity. The Committee will attempt to identify a series of “grand challenges” the College faces while laying out a vision that will help maintain the “core tenets” of William and Mary.
“We have to look at how we maintain the personal environment, the small classes, the tenured faculty teaching undergraduates, our infrastructure, our opportunities for research,” and the other factors which make William and Mary what it is, Ambler said in an interview.
One of the main goals of the Planning Steering Committee, of course, will be to guide the College through its current financial difficulties. “We all know,” said Ambler, “that one of the major challenges moving forward is how we continue to fund what we do.”
“You can only absorb budget cuts for so long,” Ambler added, “before you’re not the place that you were.” Part of that includes increasing William and Mary’s “branding” in the eyes of the public.
“We have to remember that we have tremendous market capital,” she said, referring to the College’s rich history, strong academic reputation, beautiful campus and “vibrant sense of community and campus life.”
In order to stay competitive in the midst of uncertainty about the availability of state funding, the College hopes to increase its revenue from private sources, according to Ambler. They are hoping for increased funds from individual donors, alumni giving, corporate giving, and its endowment.
And if the College can’t pull it off? “We have to,” Ambler said.
Is it even possible? “I think so,” she said, “though it’s going to take a lot of work.”
Throughout the process, College officials have sought out student opinions on what makes William and Mary unique. “We work here,” Ambler said of the College’s faculty and staff, “but the students live here.”
“The students have a unique and important perspective about what our priorities should be,” Ambler explained. “We can’t make our best decisions without their input.”
To this end, multiple forums were planned to allow students to voice their opinions and concerns - two for the undergraduates and one for each of the College’s graduate schools. Ambler said that the Planning Steering Committee received “incredibly thoughtful feedback” from students, and that the students’ vision of the College had been “very similar” to that expressed by the faculty and staff.
About a dozen students, including Nubia Dickerson (’09) and graduate student Bridget Gilmore, the two student representatives on the Planning Steering Committee, attended one such meeting in the York Room of the Sadler Center on Nov. 16. Vice President Ambler and another member of the Planning Steering Committee, Professor of Geology Chuck Bailey, were also in attendance.
Students at the meeting expressed happiness about William and Mary’s emphasis on the undergraduate experience. “There are tremendous opportunities for undergraduate research,” one said.
Students also discussed William and Mary’s culture of service. “Almost everyone is a leader in some sense,” said another student. Two students who had served as orientation aides for transfer students said that their charges were “surprised by the emphasis on community” at William and Mary.
Students also mentioned William and Mary’s diversity, but seemed to feel that sometimes diversity was reduced only to factors like race or ethnicity - to the exclusion of other types of difference.
“We have a lot of diversity,” one student said, “and the way I mean diversity is not just racial.”
“I’m worried about the divisiveness of the community,” she added, referring to divisions along racial, ethnic and religious lines as well as things as simple as what extracurricular activity one happens to be involved in.
Another student agreed, expressing hope for an “increasing dialogue” about the subject of diversity at the College. “It’s important to have a sense of unity between everyone,” he said.
“We need to ask, are we proud of the whole school, or just part?” one student said.
“I just wish that students could appreciate more of what their peers were doing,” another added. “You don’t always see this sense of, ‘I truly want to give back because this school has helped me.’”
Other students expressed concern that, even where there was a sense of unity between students and faculty, there was “some disconnect” between the student body and the blue collar workers who keep the College running by doing things like serving our food and cleaning our dorms.
One student felt that the disconnect might be reduced by increasing wages and benefits for the workers.
“Of course, if people worked here were paid a decent wage they’d be happier” and more willing to make friends with students, he said.
Students also expressed concern that privatizing the school - which some have suggested, due to the decreased state funding - could serve to homogenize the student body.
“Financially, a lot of things push towards privatization,” one student said. “But at the same time, as soon as you start charging everyone 36 to 40 thousand dollars, there’s going to be a lot less diversity.”
Students also supported the College’s recent sustainability initiatives, expressing hope that William and Mary might become a leader in sustainability in Virginia.
“Sometimes sustainability efforts can be expensive up front,” said one student, acknowledging the College’s financial situation, “but usually, they pay off in the long run.”
Students expressed dismay at the fact that many of their classes had recently gotten more crowded, while at the same time, paradoxically, many classes they wanted or needed to take were harder than ever to get in to. One student spoke of a senior seminar designed for 10 people which wound up having 24 students, thanks to the large number of people who needed overrides to get the credit they needed. Others told of difficulty fulfilling requirements for their majors or GERs.
On the whole, the tone of the meeting was positive, but students also had many suggestions about how the College might be made better.
In addition to seeking input from the student body, the College has also looked to parents and alumni for ideas. Vice President Ambler said her office had received more than 300 e-mails from parents and more than 700 from alumni. When this article went to press, there had not yet been time to sort through them all.
The Planning Steering Committee will identify six to eight pressing “grand challenges” facing the College and present them to President Reveley by Dec. 8. In January and February of next year, according to the school’s Strategic Planning website, “the president and provost will task the deans, vice presidents and others to develop plans for meeting the challenges and opportunities and provide reports,” and “the PSC will discuss progress with the Board of Visitors.” Leaders of individual operating units will present their answers on March 1.
By next April, the Planning Steering Committee will produce a 10-12 page report “that highlights ‘who we are,’ provides comparisons to the peer group, describes the baseline financial projection, identifies major institutional challenges, highlights proposed organizational contributions to meeting those challenges and identifies key gaps and financial challenges.” The report will be approved and distributed in May and June 2009.
For students who would like to have their voices heard but weren’t able to attend one of the meetings, officials are planning to implement an electronic feedback system.
This piece originally appeared in the December 2008 issue issue of The DoG Street Journal.