The Board of Visitors Finance Committee hosted and livestreamed a tuition workshop and public comment session Monday morning, in which Jennifer Wagner Davis, University executive vice president and chief operating officer, and College at Wise Chancellor Donna Henry proposed tuition increases for the 2026-27 academic year.
Both Davis and Henry cited nondiscretionary expenses — including faculty salaries, financial aid and utilities — as reasons for the tuition increase. During public comment, fourth-year Engineering student Alexander Church spoke out against the proposal, noting the University’s budget should be limited to mitigate the need to increase tuition.
For the 2026-27 academic year, the proposed tuition increases to the University include a $113 to $170 increase in mandatory fees. These include fees which go towards student services, including Student Health and Wellness fees, athletic fees and University transit fees. Additionally, there is a proposed 3 to 4.5 percent increase in undergraduate tuition and fees for the University. The College at Wise proposed a $125 to $190 increase in its mandatory fees, and a 2 to 3 percent increase in undergraduate tuition and fees.
The Finance Committee reviews and approves the annual budget and tuition rates to be recommended to the Board. According to §23.1-307 of the Code of Virginia, public institutions of higher education cannot approve an increase in undergraduate tuition or mandatory fees without first holding a public comment meeting and providing students and the public with a projected range of the proposed increase. Individuals were permitted to provide public comment to members of the Board during Monday’s workshop, given they had registered to speak prior to the meeting. Church was the only individual to speak during public comment.
Finance Committee members did not speak Monday, though they were present to listen to the proposals. Rector Carlos Brown and Vice Rector Victoria Harker both sit on the Committee and both were appointed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) in January. Brown serves as an ex-officio member of the Committee.
Davis opened Monday’s workshop by emphasizing the value of the University — she noted high retention rates, a low student-to-faculty ratio and the University’s statistic of meeting 100 percent of need-based financial aid as reasons to justify tuition increases. She attributed this “value proposition” of the University to what she said is sustained investment across academic enterprise, but said that looking ahead to fiscal year 2027 — which begins July 1 — there are going to be increases in nondiscretionary finances which calls for an increase in tuition.
“We continue to see upward pressure from inflation, market competitiveness and the need to support new and existing facilities,” Davis said. “We’ve taken enormous steps over the last eight years to manage costs internally and prioritize resources … This proposed tuition and fee ranges reflect a measured approach to addressing these pressures while maintaining access and institutional quality.”
Davis looked back at the history of University tuition, again justifying the proposed increase for the 2026-27 academic year. She said the University held undergraduate tuition lower than inflation for five years — meaning the cost of tuition rose slower compared to overall inflation rates. She said further steps were taken during FY2026 to minimize spending with strategies such as “curtailing hires to true needs” and decreasing the number of granted budget requests.
Monday’s presentation additionally touched on the Consumer Price Index and the Higher Education Price Index to highlight that average salary increases across the University and the College at Wise are lower than average inflation over the past few years. Davis pointed to these indexes, showing that since the 2019-20 academic year, inflation has risen, on average, 3.7 percent. However, the average salary increase is 2.5 percent and 2 percent for the University academic division and the College at Wise, respectively. Both the University and the College at Wise included plans for a 2 to 3 percent salary raise for all faculty and staff in FY2027 to meet inflation rates.
“Our operating philosophy … has been [to] typically look at the tuition range at HEPI, plus one — typically, that would be about 1 percent above whatever HEPI is,” Davis said. “That would, on average, put us at 4.5 percent … you could see the academic division is 2 full percentage points lower for this year.”
Henry echoed many of Davis’ sentiments, highlighting enrollment growth at the College at Wise and overall expansion of its programs in recent years. She cited efforts to mitigate tuition increases as including reallocating the budget within departments and reducing discretionary spending.
However, similar to Davis, Henry said that College at Wise will face projected inevitable expenses, including salary increases, undergraduate and graduate program expansions and a minimum wage increase which she said will cost the College at Wise $77,000 in 2027.
“Our cost drivers are very similar to the cost drivers of the University,” Henry said. “We’re looking at a potential 2-3 percent merit increase for faculty and staff for [FY2027]. This will result in a total of $938,000 in base compensation and benefits cost increase.”
The public comment portion of Monday’s meeting followed Davis and Henry’s tuition increase proposals, in which Church spoke against the proposals. He said the University often compares only its tuition for the College of Arts and Sciences against peer universities — other selective public universities — and that he wanted to compare tuition for the School of Engineering and Applied Science to peer universities. He noted that the University has higher tuition for its engineering programs, and he said that peer universities with lower tuition and fee costs offer the same resources.
Specifically, for the 2025-26 academic year the Engineering School costs $26,938 for in-state, undergraduate students. In comparison, Church said that engineering tuition for in-state, first-year students at the University of Michigan, the University of California, Berkeley, Georgia Institute of Technology and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University are $19,132, $13,602, $10,512 and $13,934, respectively.
“These peer institutions are not offering less services, so they must be doing something differently with their budget that I think we should seek to replicate in order to lower our costs,” Church said. “I definitely understand … that costs go up but in the long term, I do believe we need to take a serious look at our spending and ask …‘is it sustainable to continue to be increasing at this rate, especially [at a rate] like the price index plus one?’”
The Board is holding a special meeting April 16 in which it will consider tuition and fees for the 2026-27 academic year, according to a March 16 notice from the Board.