Introduction
Wednesday, April 23 to Friday, April 25, the College of William and Mary’s board of visitors convened for its final quarterly meeting of the 2024-25 academic year. The board returned to Blow Memorial Hall after renovations finished earlier this semester.
The board’s eight committees met individually to discuss the College’s future, and the full board gathered Friday morning to report back on discussions and vote on resolutions proposed in the committees.
Full Board
The full board meeting Friday recapped and formally approved the decisions made by each committee during the conference, while also introducing significant changes to the College.
In her opening remarks, College President Katherine A. Rowe explained her decision not to join in signing a statement signed by more than 150 colleges and universities condemning President Donald Trump and his administration’s intrusion into the workings of higher education. Rowe explained that by not signing this letter, she hopes the College will remain nonpartisan, encouraging open dialogue on campus.
However, she made it clear that the College stands in solidarity with every university that strives to maintain freedom of expression and academic freedom on campuses.
“We support absolutely every institution of the United States — universities, colleges and otherwise — that defends our whole freedom of expression and academic freedom,” Rowe said. “It is incumbent on each of us at William and Mary to uphold those ideals and principles, not the least of which, because this is the institution in which they were first advanced.”
During board member Kendrick F. Ashton Jr.’s ’98 remarks about donations made to the College, including a historic One Tribe One Day fundraising campaign, he complimented the Estes family’s generous $15 million dollar donation to establish a center for accounting at the College’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business.
The board also approved a resolution to move the College’s football program into the Patriot League. The board believes that this new conference aligns closely with the College’s academic and athletic values, with its competitive scholar-athletes. The new conference will also maintain the College’s most historic rivalry with the University of Richmond.
Following a closed session, the full board reconvened to approve resolution HC-3, titled “Merit-based excellence, student opportunity and freedom from discrimination.”
“By adopting this resolution, the board of visitors reaffirms the unwavering commitment of the College of William and Mary to be faithful to the law and to assure that all that come to our campus belong here,” Rector Charles E. Poston J.D. ’74, P ’02, ’06 said.
The resolution’s impacts are ambiguous, with its implications for the future of the College’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies unclear.
Financial Affairs
The committee on financial affairs convened Thursday afternoon to discuss and approve the financial year 2025-26 budgets for the College and the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences. Members also touched on the uncertainty surrounding federal funding, laying out several hypothetical scenarios of potential losses for the College moving forward.
Assistant Vice President for Government and External Affairs Ashley Hood presented on the College’s relations with the government in terms of maintaining essential funding.
She shared that pending further changes from the federal government, the Virginia General Assembly might need to convene a special session in the fall to reevaluate the budget. If this happens, changes would need to be made to the College’s budget.
“The landscape is changing rapidly,” Hood said. “Some of you may have seen that yesterday, the president issued seven executive orders, six of which apply to higher education and impact universities.”
One board member asked about potential funding cuts to the Jefferson Lab, an industry-leading physics and computing research center that partners with the College’s faculty and students. In February, Gov. Glenn Youngkin D.P.S. ’22 announced that the Jefferson Lab’s search for a new contractor had been halted to ensure compliance with Trump administration criteria.
Rowe explained that around 50% of the College’s physics graduate students are involved there. She clarified that the Jefferson Lab, which recently developed a $500 million computing lab, still awaits a long-term contractor to resume full operations.
Interim Associate Vice President of Finance and Operational Analytics Mike Maddalena presented a sensitivity analysis of three scenarios of federal funding cuts, all of which he says inform the College’s conservative approach to the FY 2025-26 budget.
In a “moderate” outcome, the College would lose $26 million in net revenue due to indirect cost caps from agencies like the National Institutes of Health. If the cuts reach a “significant” level, meaning a multi-agency reduction of funding coupled with a privatization and capping of Title IV loans and grants, the College’s losses could be closer to $56.16 million dollars.
Rowe underscored that 50% of the VIMS budget is reliant on federal funding. One board member asked whether the College can tap into its endowment to cover losses, which Rowe clarified is not a feasible solution in the long run to substitute lost funding.
In a “severe” case, Maddelena shared that the College could lose $68.26 million dollars in net revenue. Factors contributing to this scenario would be a decline in international enrollment, rising interest rates for long-term debt and a tax on endowment income.
To cope with any of these scenarios, Rowe highlighted the College’s financial strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic of reducing expenditures while still meeting students’ needs, saying that proactive scenario-building and planning are necessary steps.
Chair of financial affairs C. Michael Petters MBA ’93 concluded that emergency finance committee meetings before the board’s next meeting could be necessary to address sudden changes in federal funding as further announcements are made.
Student Experience
The committee on student experience met Friday morning to discuss developments regarding student athletics and engagement on campus.
Director of Athletics Brian Mann celebrated the women’s basketball program and their Coastal Athletic Association championship win and advancement to the National Collegiate Athletic Association March Madness tournament, and the following win.
“This was the first No. 9 seed to ever make the finals of the CAA tournament, only the second time William and Mary had made the finals,” Mann said. “It was the first CAA tournament victory for our women’s basketball team. First NCAA tournament appearance for either of our basketball programs.”
“And not to be outdone and not simply happen to be there, they won the first ever NCAA tournament game in the history of William and Mary,” Mann continued.
Mann addressed the attention that was brought to the College during the tournament.
“It does remarkable things,” Mann said. “To put the university on a stage and in the spotlight that lets everyone around the country and around the world know all the amazing things that are happening here.”
Mann also celebrated the two CAA Institutional Scholar-Athletes of the year, Arianna DeBoor ’25 and Ben Parker MBA ’25.
Administration, Buildings and Grounds
The committee on administration, buildings and grounds convened Thursday to address campus construction, restoration projects and the College’s and VIMS’ six-year development plan.
Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Mike Todd began with an update from the Office of Business Affairs on the capital plan. He highlighted efforts to implement AI chatbots on the College’s website to facilitate access to information.
“IT is in the process of testing AI chatbots to improve our website search functions, to improve overall customer service on the website at the university,” Todd said. “Those should be piloted this summer.”
Chief Information Officer Edward Aractingi then provided an update on the College’s progress toward implementing Workday, the new online enterprise software platform slated to replace Banner starting in fall 2025.
Aractingi announced that they are currently in the test and train stage and are on track for a switch from Banner to Workday starting in July. He described the College’s next steps toward reaching that milestone.
“After we finish this stage in May, that’s when we’ll do an intensive training for users of the system, and we’ll start building for the hypercare support with the implementation partner for post-go-live,” Aractingi said.
Baker Tilly, the third-party auditing firm overseeing the Workday implementation, rated the College’s progress at a moderate-to-high risk level. Aractingi reassured board members that they are taking feedback into account and making necessary changes.
Chief Business Officer Sean Hughes shared that campus construction projects are slated to be finished in the fall semester as planned. He noted that construction teams are accelerating their hours to meet the original deadlines.
Hughes then gave an update on efforts to renovate the president’s house located near the Wren building. He cited the presence of structural issues that raise the estimated renovation costs to anywhere from $13.15 to $15.64 million dollars, but estimates the real costs would exceed the estimates once the renovation is underway.
“There’s a baseline of stewardship that’s required to stop the degradation of the building, no matter what we use it for, and it’s not cheap,” Hughes said.
Finally, the Board approved the capital plans for the College and VIMS, passing resolutions 18 and 19.
Executive Committee
The executive committee session spent most of its time closed to the public, but it did provide reports on what each subcommittee worked on and planned to do for the future.
The Equity and Affairs Committee, led by Barbara L. Johnson J.D. ’84, reported on its plans for its April 24 meeting, which was set to include a report from Associate Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admission Tim Wolfe on admissions concerning the class of 2029, a report on the retirement incentive plan and bylaw changes resulting in faculty handbook revisions by Dr. Pamela Eddy and faculty service information presented by Provost Peggy Agouris.
The Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee, represented by Stephen Huebner ’76, P ’09, outlined their plan for their meeting, which included announcements by David Rasnic, who is the higher education programs audit director for the commonwealth, and, as he understands it, the College is in great shape.
Additionally, the committee plans to have a Workday implementation update by Tilly and Chief Compliance Officer Ms. Pamela Mason will also give a report. Mr. Kent Erdahl will give his report as the director of the total audit, then the session will be closed to discuss his performance. An update will also be provided on the search for Erdahl’s replacement.
The Compensation Committee reviewed both of Rowe’s goals for next year. In July, Rowe is set to give an update on how 2025 went and how that will influence the planning for 2026. For financial affairs, they are approving the operating budget for the College, and the Government Affairs will give an update because any variance in the budget will result from their changes.
Discussion on Richard Bland College of William and Mary, led by John Rathbone P ’02, ’05, included the operating budget, tuition and fees approval. The 2024 BOV meeting had approved an operating budget of $31 million, with a tuition increase of 2.5% plus 3% for mandatory fees and 5% for out-of-state, and this will stay the same for the 2025-26 academic year. There will be a resolution congratulating Richard Bland on their move to independence and one celebrating Jeff Brown, as he is retiring as chief development officer.
The Advancement Committee plans to focus on the success of both the One Tribe One Day event and the women’s basketball program. They plan to discuss with Rowe the relationship between national prominence and rankings. Additionally, the rankings task force will present to them.
Subcommittee on Compensation
The Subcommittee on Compensation was mostly held in closed session. The parts that were open to the public included Rowe discussing the implementation of artificial intelligence into campus processes and increasing its effectiveness.
One specific example of current AI usage includes maintenance ticket prioritization. Since implementation, the College has already seen an increase from 10% to 84% in ticket closures.
Rowe also mentioned how the College’s computer science and data science schools teach students how to use machine learning and write algorithms very proficiently, but this teaching needs to be expanded into non-computational fields to be more productive.
Crossing this threshold would push the College’s leadership team above the median in comparison with other universities. Additional AI implementations include the creation of AI workshops and research into how AI can be used effectively in classrooms.
Overall, an increased application of AI would allow campus workers to be more productive and efficient when completing their assignments.
In terms of other professional development campus-wide initiatives, Rowe discussed the continuation of professional development days from the last academic year and the intention to incorporate conflict resolution workshops for faculty and staff.
