Rao here to stay: Board of Visitors grants extension, salary increase

Jack Glagola, News Editor

Harshini Kanala, Contributing Writer

The Board of Visitors met on Sept. 12 and 13 in James Branch Cabell Library, following last week’s orientation in Scott House.

The Board voted in favor of several items at the meeting, such as the new Grace Street residence hall, President Michael Rao’s contract extension and raise, a land acknowledgment in collaboration with the Chickahominy Tribe and searches for new deans at the medical school.

Fotis Sotiropoulos, the provost, also presented the findings of the academic repositioning initiative undertaken in the past year at the meeting. The findings were released in April. Changes include:

• The Department of Focused Inquiry will move from University College to the College of Humanities and Sciences, which will be further reorganized.
• VCU Life Sciences and the Department of Biology will move to a new school within the CHS.
• University College, Interdisciplinary Studies and transformational learning experiences, such as research and service-learning, will compose a new college.
• VCU’s Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry and Innovation will be expanded to promote more diverse faculty recruitment and community relationships.
• Undergraduates will have more opportunities to pursue advanced degrees at MCV with the goal of diversifying the healthcare workforce.

Michael Rao, entering his 16th year as president of the university, had his contract unanimously extended by the Board of Visitors from 2026 to 2030. He also received a 16% raise, bringing his base pay to roughly $821,000, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Rao thanked the Board for the extension following the vote.

“I can’t do what you described either without a group of governors, a group of board members who are not supportive,” Rao said.

Todd Haymore, head of the Board of Visitors, said in an interview after the meeting that it was important to recognize the “outstanding” work Rao has done to elevate VCU’s profile during his tenure.

“We also wanted to provide a lot more long-term stability in recognition of his good work — that’s why we attached four additional years onto his contract,” Haymore said.

The Board also tries to pay the president at least within the 50th percentile among the 18 other universities in VCU’s “peer group,” Haymore said.

“This is a major, national, public research university — it’s a $2 billion-plus operation,” Haymore said. “We want to make sure that our president, our leader, is compensated fairly for the good work that he or she is doing.”

Rao may also take a one-year sabbatical at any time during his tenure, and relinquishes his title of president of VCU Health System, a measure Rao requested.

The VCU Health Board of Directors made the latter recommendation last week. It comes after  VCU pulled out of a deal for a new development on Clay Street in 2023, which drew extensive criticism from watchdogs and former Governor Douglas Wilder, a VCU professor at his namesake school.

The new contract also granted Rao a $100,000 housing allowance. He does not have a university-provided house, unlike many other university presidents.

Rao is the fourth-highest-paid university president in Virginia, behind the presidents of University of Virginia, George Mason University and the College of William & Mary.

The entire board and several student advocates attended the meeting. After a policy change restricting posters larger than a printer paper at board meetings, students held up letters spelling: “You can’t silence us.”

Sereen Haddad, a third-year psychology student who is also Palestinian, called on the Board to “disclose and divest” funds from the university’s endowment that go to companies providing aid for Israel amid its destructive campaign in Gaza, where her extended family resides.

Haddad also called on the Board to take responsibility for the police response to the encampment erected this past April when 13 arrests were made.

Haddad said her advocacy is not just political rhetoric, but personal to her as her family is directly affected by displacement and bombing.

Editor’s Note: The article misstated President Rao’s tenure. He has been president for 16 years, not 15.

The decision to revoke the title of President of VCU Health System was made last week, not last year; Rao requested the change.

The contract included a $100,000 housing allowance, not $100,000 annually.