William & Mary President Katherine A. Rowe sent the following message to the campus community on June 22, 2022. – Ed.
Dear William & Mary Community,
I write to update you on the university’s FY23 budget and the Commonwealth’s biennial budget for FY23 and FY24.
This year’s budget process differed from past processes. Typically, the Board of Visitors (BOV) considers and approves the university’s budget at its regular April meeting with the Commonwealth’s final budget in front of them. This year the General Assembly required an extended special session to finalize the budget. Hoping to have final state budget numbers, the BOV deferred action until its Executive Committee meeting on May 19. Given the Commonwealth’s budget remained outstanding, the Executive Committee delegated final decision-making around balancing the budget to me and my administration pending the final action by the General Assembly and Governor.
The university’s budget for FY23 focuses on our people: the faculty and staff who support our students in their academic endeavors. Highlights include funding for a merit-based salary increase, an increase to bring our minimum wage to $15.50 per hour and limited other market adjustments in critical areas. The budget also restores a portion of the pandemic-era reductions to key areas of the university, bolsters resources for our numerous areas of academic support and student services and accelerates progress toward our Vision 2026 objectives.
In addition to approving the university’s FY23 budget, the Executive Committee also voted to hold tuition flat for all general undergraduate and graduate students. W&M remains committed to access and affordability, especially during continued economic uncertainty for our families. Tuition is our largest source of revenue, so holding tuition steady continues to put pressure on the university’s budget. This decision underscores our need to remain focused on core services and deliver those services efficiently. To meet the budget passed by the BOV, we will need to balance investments in our people and programs while also absorbing unavoidable cost escalations in a high inflationary environment. Those efforts will be eased, in part, by the state’s recent actions. Yesterday, the Governor signed the biennial budget bill that authorizes additional base operating funds recommended by the General Assembly in the next biennium.
Below my signature, you will find a summary of key budgetary items.
Sincerely,
Katherine
Katherine A. Rowe
President
Compensation:
· William & Mary’s FY23 budget establishes a merit increase pool partially funded by the Commonwealth to fund 5% merit increases on average for employees including adjunct faculty and graduate assistants effective with payrolls starting August 1 for staff and August 10 for faculty. State support for this increase covers approximately one-third of the cost. The state requires the university to cover the remaining two-thirds from other sources of revenue
o Increases will be determined based on performance. Human Resources will provide guidance to Cabinet members on the process for merit increases
· $1,000 bonus to be paid December 1, 2022, for all full-time employees in good standing hired on or before August 10 and employed through November 10
· William & Mary’s FY23 budget increases the minimum wage for non-student, full-time and hourly employees to $15.50, effective with payrolls starting July 1
Operating Support Provided by Commonwealth:
· Nearly $4M incorporated into ongoing base funds to increase access and affordability for students, just over $2.5M above last year’s one-time funds
· $500K in FY23 and FY24 to support the research of the Bray School
· $157K in FY23 and $314K in FY24 to partially fund operations and maintenance of the new Fine & Performing Arts facilities coming online
· $475K in FY23 and $1.1M in FY24 in new need-based financial aid for in-state undergraduate students. $356k of the total is related to new Virginia code language expanding eligibility for in-state need-based financial assistance
· $83K in FY23 and $125K in FY24 for graduate student financial aid
· $412K in FY23 and $449K in FY24 to establish an Underrepresented Minority Postdoctoral Research Associate Program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS)
· Almost $1.6M in FY23 and $1.3M in FY24 to support the implementation of the Virginia Coastal Resiliency Masters Plan, the VIMS Commonwealth Fisheries Collection, work on the American Shad rescue plan and provide operations and maintenance support for new facilities coming online
· $61K in FY23 and $92K in FY24 for VIMS graduate student financial aid
Capital Project Support Provided by Commonwealth:
· Provides supplemental funding for capital projects facing cost overruns due to inflation and supply chain delays
o William & Mary will apply for supplemental funding for the Integrated Science Center IV
· $6M in FY23 to improve campus accessibility