This afternoon, UVA President Teresa Sullivan addressed reporters as well as UVA officials, including Leonard Sandridge, the university’s chief operating officer. (Sandridge, feted earlier this week, will retire in June; Sullivan said that the school will likely announce its next COO in May.) Questioned about the school’s ongoing investigations into the death of first-year student Tom Gilliam and a hazing allegation at the Zeta Psi fraternity, Sullivan described Charlottesville and UVA as safe communities.
Sullivan also broke a bit of good financial news amidst concerns over state and federal funds. UVA, said Sullivan, will receive $64.5 million in state funds to renovate New Cabell Hall. In February, members of the UVA Board of Visitors projected that renovation would begin in 2018. [Report, in PDF] The classrooms, said Sullivan, are old compared to the "well-equipped, technologically up-to-date" facilities in the University’s South Lawn.
However, UVA also anticipates the loss of up to $15 million in state support, which Sulivan attributed to the end of federal stimulus dollars. Additionally, she said that a government shutdown could freeze research funds and healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid, accepted at the UVA Health System. Asked about the potential cut to federal Pell grants, issued to students from low-income families, Sullivan said that UVA will not rescind its financial aid commitments to incoming students next year. UVA anticipates that next falls’s incoming class will have 120 more students than last fall’s.