<p>Of the best colleges in the country, W&M possesses relatively limited financial resources. How does the College suffer from this general lack of funding - does it cut into the undergraduate experience significantly? Also what is being done to secure more plentiful revenue streams? It would seem that for the College to be able to compete it would need to be able to keep up financially with the likes of UVA and Georgetown, both of which have much larger endowments.</p>
<p>Keep in mind the per student endowments too. W&M isn’t tops still, but it narrows the gap substantially.</p>
<p>While the Commonwealth of Virginia is often criticized for its lack of funding for its two flagship schools, this is partially an illusion. For W&M about 16% of the operating budget comes from the state. On the other hand, about (this is my guesstimate) half of the funds for buildings comes from the state - which is a huge amount for W&M which is in the middle of what President Reveley calls the College’s “third building boom.” This includes all new or renovated science triangle, renovations and expansions for the physics building, a new ed school, renovations on old campus, new dormitories, a planned expansion across Richmond Road from the Bryan Complex, a planned humongous new arts center, the renovated and reworked Lake Matoaka Amphitheater, renovations and expansions to the rec center, (this was a 8 years ago) building McGlothlin-Street Hall on old campus, a new parking deck, they are currently putting artifical turf down on the IM field, the privately financed new and amazing business school, and the privately financed new sports center. Tearing down Morton Hall might be in there somewhere if we get lucky.</p>
<p>In that aspect, the relatively low endowment has no measurable effect on student life with regards to physical plant resources. Having the 8th best university library helps a lot too!</p>
<p>The Dean or treasurer or whatever gave a presentation on how the College’s endowment was fairing with the economic crisis, and it seems we took a lighter blow than most other peer institutions thanks to some tight maneuvering. The endowment for Gateway W&M, the new financial aid project, has continued to grow - so there is little effect in that category either. As for revenue streams, President Reveley says that the College is transitioning from a State school to a State supported institution, and actions are being taken to make the monetary situation sustainable. An large unused plot of land in downtown Hampton that the College has owned for decades (through land transfer from the State) is looking to be sold to a developer. More donations from alumni would help too =D. And of course the amount of money coming in from the outside for research funding has been continually expanding I have heard. The expected Faculty/Staff wage increase was put on hold and a temporary hiring freeze was instituted (it may be over already). The Federal Stimulus helped make up for losses in State funding, but that’s a one time deal. Last year students voted to charge themselves $30 more a year in fees to go toward a Sustainable Green Fund. This fund is being used to create a Green Endowment and to finance sustainable research projects on campus. For instance, automatic lights were installed in the library which will save tens of thousands of dollars in utility bills. A study by undergrads and professors is being done this summer to address water runoff issues, students were hired to help make dining services more sustainable (meaning even more local and organic foods), students researchers were hired to look into our recycling program and the results of this should help to eventually save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year as well - and all of this is being done through a joint committee of students, faculty, and staff called the Committee on Sustainability. In addition, the schools switched to 30% recycled paper - which turned out to be cheaper! Being Green is Gold =D. Basically, if anything, financial difficulties and the desire for environmental sustainability have only increased faculty-student interaction to an even higher high. The international environmental and economic crises have also increased interest in international aid, especially with the Copenhagen negotiations coming up (to design the successor to Kyoto - hopefully with the US this time). This has led to huge funding increases from outside sources for research with our international relations department, part of which specializes in international aid and its effects. And this in turn leads to even more faculty-student interaction. Its almost as if all these bad things are beneficial to the College! =</p>
<p>I feel like there was something I missed there… I’ll think it over and get back to you.</p>
<p>Here<em>to</em>Help… what is W&M trying to do with the other side of Richmond Road? And, is the new dormitory going to be a 3rd Jamestown residence? When they built the first I was convinced they were designed so that the triangle could be completed with a 3rd building.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve not heard of expansions of the Bryan Complex, or any new dorm additions at all (the elusive Jamestown “East” included).</p>
<p>They were talking about building a new dorm somewhere in the next five years (a relatively short time with building timelines). The state does NOT provide money for dorms, as its not a “primary capital edice” or something like that. It would not be as fancy as the Jamestown dorms. The locations they were considering are the 3rd Jamestown dorm or someplace near Dupont.</p>
<p>As for the Richmond Road project, they were going to tear down a little used College owned house near Wawa and a big project would go in with College-friendly stores (including food) on the first floor with res life apartments above, College Apartments style. If I remember correctly, this was being done through the sale of the Hampton property (which is going to take some time as zoning has to be changed, and that means it has to get through the local gov there, which does not want it to change at the moment. It would bring in an estimated 20 million dollars) and/or through the private endowment (is that the one called “The Fund for William and Mary”?) in which case the apartments would be cheaply rented to res life and the profit from the rent of the retail space would go into the private endowment.</p>
<p>ah, thanks for the info.</p>
<p>I did find this, if people are interested: <a href=“http://www.wm.edu/about/administration/vps/adminoffice/construction/documents/2010-16capitalplanNarrativeResolution.pdf[/url]”>http://www.wm.edu/about/administration/vps/adminoffice/construction/documents/2010-16capitalplanNarrativeResolution.pdf</a></p>
<p>includes:
</p>
<p>and renovations for Tucker, Tyler, Blow, Ewell, dorms, WM Hall (including a new roof… they have money for a new scoreboard, but the current roof won’t support it. lol) And new IT center and Arts building/complex… among other things.</p>
<p>The renovations in Tucker come just in time for its 100th year anniversary! </p>
<p>And great find soccerguy, that’s really helpful!</p>
<p>also, it does not include the ~$7 million career center that is supposed to open in Fall 2010 (construction starting Fall 2009)</p>
<p>so… in conclusion… W&M does pretty well with the money it has. I’m sure somewhere there are some people employed by W&M who basically just look for ways to increase revenue.</p>