Andrew Kerley, Executive Editor
VCU President Michael Rao emphasized the need for interdisciplinary activities at VCU moving forward during his annual State of the University address on Thursday.
Rao — who is entering his 17th year as the VCU’s fifth president — flaunted notable stats showing VCU and VCU Health’s growth in research and substantial economic impact on Virginia.
Rao also commented on VCU’s new AI course offerings, the school’s wealth of first-generation and Pell Grant-eligible students, tenure policies and the need for “discipline” in hiring faculty.
“We have to incentivize collaborations that will break down barriers and prepare our students as graduates for a world that’s changing very rapidly,” Rao said in the opening remarks of his speech. “That’s why we have to invest with purpose.”
Between emerging technologies and initiatives on campus, such as faculty rapidly developing AI courses and minors in recent years, Rao said VCU is uniquely positioned to meet people’s needs.
“That’s VCU getting itself to where the ball is going, rather than where the ball is,” Rao said.
Rao emphasized VCU’s typical brand of being “uncommon.” He highlighted Professor Amy Rector’s discovery of a species of prehistoric human, conservation biologist Matt Balazik’s efforts to preserve the Atlantic Sturgeon in the James River and VCU hand surgery Chair Jonathan Isaacs’s revolutionary “Nerve Tape” invention.
One notable interdisciplinary initiative at VCU highlighted by Rao was the Center for Human Simulation and Patient Safety, in which standardized patients use their theatre backgrounds to help medical students practice their clinical and communication skills.
Rao brought the program’s founder Aaron Anderson on stage, along with Rector, for a panel on their activities.
“Nobody goes into the arts for money,” Anderson said when asked by Rao about how creative, practice-based research can help people — in his case — communicate more effectively.
Anderson noted that most artists go into their fields because they can somehow make the world a better place.
“You can’t have interdisciplinary without discipline,” Anderson said.
At one point, Rao asked the audience to imagine what it would look like if institutions organized learning and research around the “big challenges of our time,” rather than the traditional structures higher education has relied on for centuries.
“Hint-hint, Oxford, Cambridge, lots of great things,” Rao said.
Enormous growth
VCU now ranks as the 46th best public research university on a national scale. It pulled in $568 million in sponsored funding in the 2025 fiscal year. In his speech, Rao set his sights on surpassing the $1 billion mark.
VCU has accumulated $1.27 billion in donations over the past five years, according to a slide shown during Rao’s address.
Most notably, Rao gave a sneak peek of an unfinished, independent report showing VCU and VCU Health to have a combined $18.5 billion economic impact on Virginia. The two entities support 95,707 jobs throughout the state — one in every 61 jobs.
Compared to the state’s signature school, the University of Virginia puts out an economic impact of $11.6 billion with 67,109 jobs, according to a similar report released in 2025.
“We provide Virginia enormous value,” Rao said.
Despite its growing stature, VCU still seeks out students from all economic backgrounds. 38% of the 2029 first-year class — VCU’s largest class ever — are first-generation students. 41% come from Pell-Grant eligible families. The university’s four year graduation rate has also improved significantly at 46%.
“Now to me, that’s the American dream,” Rao said.
VCU is at an all-time high in online student enrollment, according to Rao. Three of its online programs were recently ranked among the best in the United States.
“We give people who are stuck in, whatever their life circumstances are, we give them a chance to get a VCU degree,” Rao said.
Tenure policies, hiring with ‘discipline’
Rao spent a portion of his speech talking about how VCU will have to be very “disciplined” about many things moving forward — including “how we hire in the context of our mission.”
“We can’t just be like, ‘oh I like that person,’” Rao said. “It’s got to be a disciplined hire, and we’ve also got to be disciplined about how we support and promote our faculty and staff, and how we invest in faculty connections across the widest range of disciplines.”
When asked to clarify the meaning of his statement in an interview with The CT after the speech, Rao emphasized fostering the best possible learning and research experiences for students.
“Which means we can’t do everything for everyone, but we can definitely still make some choices and be really focused on that,” Rao said.
Some VCU faculty have been outspoken for years about layoffs, shorter work contracts being offered and changing policies that raise the degree requirement for faculty seeking tenure.
Rao called the notion that VCU is moving away from tenure and hiring more short-term faculty an “absolutely false assumption.”
“If you hire the people who are in alignment with the mission, and you’re realistic about what the mission is, and you’re very declarative, which is what I’ve done, I think you’ll be fine,” Rao said. “But you have to support faculty, not just leave them hanging.”