University of Virginia fundraising campaign to focus on AccessUVa

The University of Virginia is poised to roll out a major fundraising campaign to support AccessUVa, its increasingly expensive and popular financial aid program.

The program, launched five years ago, aims to make UVa affordable for all admitted students regardless of their family’s economic circumstance.

Yet as UVa tuition has gone up and the economic downturn continues, a growing number of UVa students are finding themselves in need of financial aid.

“What we are seeing is a creeping up of need,” UVa Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Leonard W. Sandridge recently told the Board of Visitors. “Our students must be able to attend here without concern about paying.”

Job losses make affording higher education difficult, UVa president says

UVa President John T. Casteen III noted that Virginia’s jobless rate has doubled in the last year, hitting 7 percent in May. With such steep job losses, many more families across Virginia and elsewhere are finding it difficult to afford higher education, he said. Recent reports, Casteen added, suggest Virginia’s unemployment rate might reach 9 percent or 10 percent in 2010.

“We’re not at the bottom yet,” Casteen said.

The growing level of student interest in AccessUVa also has led to a rapid increase in the program’s price tag.

The total cost of AccessUVa jumped from $39.2 million in 2005 to a projected $73.3 million in 2010 — an increase of 87 percent in five years.

UVa pays for the program with federal financial aid money, state general fund appropriations, private giving and tuition. UVa’s 2009-10 budget allocates roughly 11.5 percent of tuition revenue to pay for AccessUVa, up from 8.3 percent five years ago.

UVa officials expect student demand for financial aid will only continue, meaning that AccessUVa will require even more funding in the coming years.

As a result, the university is putting the finishing touches on a fundraising campaign to attract donors willing to support UVa’s financial aid program.

'The most powerful thing will be to hear the students tell their own stories'

The campaign, which will be announced before the fall semester begins, will start with a letter from Casteen that makes a case for AccessUVa’s importance and its success. The letter will be sent to alumni, parents and friends, said Carol Wood, UVa’s spokeswoman.

The university will also launch a campaign Web site that will feature interviews and videos of students who received assistance from AccessUVa.

“The most powerful thing will be to hear the students tell their own stories,” Wood said.

The campaign will also include several 30-second videos that will be shown during half time at this fall’s home UVa football games at Scott Stadium.

The upcoming fundraising campaign seeks to raise the profile of AccessUVa among the university’s donors, who have seemingly been reluctant to back the program.

Until the recent establishment of the Jack Blackburn Endowed Scholarship for AccessUVa, which so far has raised $1.8 million, the university had received virtually no donations specifically for AccessUVa.

Sandridge said he believes the lack of fundraising support to date is simply because “[AccessUVa] is new.”

By raising private support for AccessUVa, he added, the university will free up money that could be used for UVa’s general operations.

“What we believe and hope, it appears to be a real good opportunity for private support,” Sandridge said.