Kacy Lee, Contributing Writer
VCU will cut $6.6 million from its $1.7 billion total budget between its fiscal years 2025 and 2026 as the university continues to pursue efficiency, including restructuring and combining key undergraduate departments.
Most prominently, the university reallocated $8.7 million to the reimagining of University College, a move described in the budget as a “deliberate repurposing of existing resources to support this high-impact program.”
VCU’s budget reductions follow a $20 million shortfall in fiscal year 2023-2024 — marking a trend in budget cuts in higher education over the last few years.
The reduction also follows a $600 million pause in university projects by former Gov. Glenn Youngkin last year.
This shift comes after the final recommendations of the VCU Repositioning Task Force released in 2024, including suggestions that spurred the investment into the University College rebrand.
It resulted in the combination of the bachelor’s and master’s of interdisciplinary studies, the master’s of product innovation and certifications in product innovation and venture creation previously spread out under the University College and the Da Vinci Center for Innovation.
Other programs in the merge include VCU Transformative Learning, Life Design and the Shift Retail Lab.
This along with other suggestions are part of a larger university-wide effort to make VCU more academically attractive and efficient, according to the Task Force’s website.
The budget reduction is being spread across the university to each department, according to a statement from the VCU Budget Office.
“This approach provides leadership with greater flexibility to assess and implement reductions within their respective areas of responsibility in a way that best supports unit-level priorities,” the office stated.
VCU spokesperson Mike Porter did not specify the exact figures of how the cuts are allocated between each area.
In terms of spending efficiently, VCU spends 30% less than similar institutions nationwide, according to a 2024 Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission study.
While the spending of most Virginia institutions is “generally not excessive or unreasonable,” opportunities still remained to reduce spending to a more efficient degree, according to the study.
“Their spending level is at the average of their national peers or even below,” said Yan Zheng, assistant director of finance policy at the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. “Virginia, actually, in terms of efficiency spending, is pretty good over the years.”
VCU is often compared to the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech fiscally, with all three universities classified as Research 1 institutions by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
While all three institutions hold R1 classifications in research spending and doctorate production, there is at least an $100 million difference in spending between the three universities, according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
Discrepancies like these are why proper comparisons are difficult to properly ascertain, according to Zheng.
The reallocation and economic downsizing of funds across the board leaves questions about what this means for VCU programs and departments moving into future semesters.
Previous efforts to decrease spending include the cancellation of work study program opportunities and the dismissal of 14 Focused Inquiry faculty members.
Many of these projects have since been continued after a delay due to Virginia being “severely challenged with resources,” according to Lee Andes, the director of finance policy and innovation at SCHEV.
A lot of factors come into play when state institutions make changes to their budgets, including inflation and salaries, according to Andes. While SCHEV is able to compare data across universities, the decisions about the budget and funding are ultimately up to the state.
VCU is not the only university to attempt to become a more cost efficient institute of higher education following budget cuts. However, how these cuts will impact VCU students remains to be seen, especially as the Task Force’s suggestions become further implemented at VCU.