WM President Calls 'Financial Foundation' First Priority In Annual Report

By Amber Lester Kennedy Wednesday, November 24, 2010

 

The College of William and Mary’s first priority is building a sustainable financial foundation, according to the “State of the University” released by President Taylor Reveley on Tuesday.

The 61-page document, which reviews the past academic year and the college’s, is available online. In his annual report, Reveley acknowledged that despite financial pressures in the past few years, the college remains “marvelously special.”

“We link the intimacy of an exceptional undergraduate education in the liberal arts with the scope and energy of a university expanding human knowledge,” he said. “Or, as one professor puts it, we combine the heart of a college with the brains of a research university.”

The financial section of the report, prepared by Vice President for Finance Sam Jones, notes the decline in state funding that is expected to continue to dip. For the fiscal year 2010, William and Mary’s operating revenue was $270.8 million, with state funds accounting for 15.4 percent. Jones estimated the state funding percentage will decline to 12 percent by 2012, and wrote that the college’s state support has been reduced by $16.7 million since 2008.

Because of that, Reveley focused on the college’s financial future in his overview, explaining that the college’s financial foundation must rest on “four pillars”: 1) continued taxpayer support, especially for capital projects; 2) growing streams of earned income, such as tuition and research grants; 3) boosting philanthropic gifts; and 4) internal productivity gains.

He closed his report by reminding readers of William and Mary’s previous triumphs over challenges, saying he is confident in the university’s future.

“Why confident? First, William and Mary’s people are superb. Superb people figure out how to make things happen and find opportunity in adversity,” he said. “Second, the university’s juggernaut is already rolling with powerful momentum. Tens of thousands of William and Mary people are helping push – people on campus and around the world. Third, no college or university in the United States (at least none still breathing) has encountered more adversity over the centuries than William and Mary; like the phoenix, the college always rises.”