The University and the Economy: Time and Money

1600s
Endowments for public education typically consist of land and livestock.

1818
The General Assembly appropriates $15,000 ($261,926 in 2008 dollars*) for what would become the University of Virginia.

1823
The Assembly loans $60,000 ($1.3 million in 2008 dollars) to complete construction of the Rotunda and Lawn.

1824
The Assembly approves $180,000 ($4.1 million in 2008 dollars) to pay for UVA construction debts.

1825
The University of Virginia opens to serve its first 123 students.

1845
The overall annual cost of a year at UVA is about $332 ($9,752 in 2008 dollars).

1850
A fee system for professors is abandoned in favor of a flat salary of $3,000 ($85,325 in 2008 dollars).

1864
The University keeps its doors open throughout the Civil War, despite shortages of food and fuel. With the decline of Confederate currency, professors receive a wage equivalent to $31.95 in gold.

1865
The end of the Civil War leaves the Old Dominion $45 million in debt ($614 million in 2008 dollars).

1890
The UVA Chapel is built with $30,000 ($732,323 in 2008 dollars) in private funds.

1904
UVA President Edwin Alderman starts a fundraising campaign that includes industrialist Andrew Carnegie and a Rockefeller family foundation. The goal is $1 million ($24.9 million in 2008 dollars).

1915
The General Assembly raises the annual allotment to UVA to $100,000 ($2.2 million in 2008 dollars).

1928
Professors seek a wage increase of 40 percent to restore salaries to 1913 levels (inflation after World War I had decreased buying power). A full professor’s salary was $4,500 ($56,559 in 2008 dollars).

1929
Profits from football total $49,000 ($615,870 in 2008 dollars) and are used to subsidize other sports.

1929
President Alderman’s service ends. The student body has multiplied by four; the faculty, by five. The endowment has increased from $350,000 to $10 million ($125.7 million in 2008 dollars).

1929
A stock market crash during a period of declining real estate values begins a chain of events that leads to the Great Depression.

1932
The state budget is cut to avoid a deficit, resulting in a 20 percent reduction in UVA’s appropriation.

1932
Administrative and teaching staff take a 20 percent reduction in pay, but throughout the Depression no faculty member fails to receive a paycheck.

1932
Enrollment drops only slightly. “[UVA President John Lloyd] Newcomb’s great administrative ability, his intimate knowledge of the University’s financial structure and the ramifications thereof, made it possible for the institution to weather the storm with less disruption than most,” writes historian Virginius Dabney.

1932
Dean Ivey Lewis says that UVA students are “working harder and behaving better than at any time I’ve been connected with the University.” Failure rates fall.

1933
The national unemployment rate peaks at 24 percent.

1937
The Public Works Administration builds Alderman Library to provide employment.

1970-71
Tuition and required fees for an in-state student total $484 ($2,683 in 2008 dollars).

1971
A commission lists Virginia as a state that fails to sufficiently fund universities and colleges.

1971
The UVA endowment passes the $100 million mark ($531.5 million in 2008 dollars).

1973
Average compensation for faculty is $21,369 ($103,505 in 2008 dollars).

1980-81
UVA’s academic division receives 37 percent of its funding ($62.4 million, or $163 million in 2008 dollars) from the state.

1991
Faced with recession, state officials cut higher education budgets by more than $400 million ($632 million in 2008 dollars). UVA’s funding is cut by 17 percent, or $46 million ($72.6 million in 2008 dollars). “State support for the University dropped from approximately 28 percent of our revenues, which it had been for a generation, to about 12 percent,” President John T. Casteen III recalls in a 2002 speech.

2001
The endowment reaches $2,371,245,000 ($2.9 billion in 2008 dollars).

2003
Due to decreased state support, UVA becomes the first public university in the nation to receive more of its funding from private sources than from the state.

2004
UVA announces the AccessUVa program, which guarantees that the University will meet 100 percent of a student’s demonstrated need.

2005
The General Assembly approves a charter making UVA and other state universities more financially autonomous and less dependent on state funding.

2008-09
Tuition and required fees for an in-state student total $9,300.

2008
With an endowment at $5.1 billion and 21,057 full-time students, UVA has a per capita endowment of $242,000 per student (the largest of any public university in the nation).

2008
The overall operating budget of UVA is $2.2 billion (8.2 percent provided by the state).

2008
The University ends the year seeing the value of investments in the endowment’s long-term pool down 26 percent from July.

2008
On the heels of state budget reductions of $9.2 million in 2007 and $10.6 million in 2008, the Assembly cuts UVA funding by an additional $12.1 million.

2008
The average compensation for faculty is $128,980.

2009
In February, the national unemployment rate reaches 8.5 percent, a 25-year high.

2009
UVA anticipates receiving $10.7 million, plus the same amount in 2010, through a federal stimulus program.

Special Report: The University and the Economy

This article appeared as part of a larger section on how the recent economic turmoil is affecting UVA and its alumni. Read more:

• On the Front Lines
  Alumni and faculty experts share their perspectives on how we got into this situation—and how to get out of it.
• Time and Money
  A timeline tracks how the University has weathered economic ups and downs throughout the years.
• In the Classroom
  As economic events unfolded, some professors threw away their syllabi and kept pace with breaking news.
• Students Speak
  Learn how some students are coping with the economy—with video.
• Your Financial Health
  Assess your personal finances with a quiz from McIntire professor Karin Bonding.
• A Different World
  A first-person perspective on how Circuit City’s collapse altered the career path of one alumnus.