William & Mary graduates have had a banner year. James Comey ’82, LL.D. ’08 became director of the FBI, Ellen Stofan ’83 became NASA’s chief scientist, and Mary Jo White ’70 was named head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s quite a run for any school, even one with Jonathan Jarvis ’75, D.P.S. ’12 already leading our national parks; Congressman Eric Cantor J.D. ’88, LL.D. ’11, the current majority leader of the House; Christina Romer ’81, D.P.S. ’10, a recent chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and member of his Cabinet; and, of course, Bob Gates ’65, L.H.D. ’98, recent Secretary of Defense for two U.S. Presidents, former director of the CIA, and William & Mary’s sitting Chancellor. Not to mention our storied history including three U.S. presidents (four if we count George Washington — I do), two vice presidents, four members of the U.S. Supreme Court including the great Chief Justice John Marshall, four U.S. Secretaries of State, four U.S. Attorneys General, and the founders of M.I.T. and the University of Virginia — just to name a few. In a recent study, William & Mary ranked first nationally for the percentage of our graduates entering careers in public service over the last decade.
Leadership in all walks of life, not just public service, is in our DNA. In addition to the names we know, there are also countless unsung heroes among our alumni who lead in their communities, states — even world.
At the nation’s oldest law school, William & Mary’s Puller Clinic is making a real difference for our nation’s veterans and provides a national model for how to address the backlog of VA benefits claims. Since the clinic accepted its first clients in 2008, more than 90 law students, working under the supervision of managing attorneys, have assisted hundreds of veterans with claims for disability benefits. We can only make a dent on our own, but, as a model and catalyst, William & Mary Law School can have a huge impact.
William & Mary’s strength in the marketplace for applicants has never been greater. We enrolled a freshman class of 1,479 students from a record pool of more than 14,000 applicants. This was the ninth consecutive year of rising undergraduate applicants. One of our graduate programs had an especially strong year. William & Mary Law School was one of only 11 U.S. law schools (out of 200) with an increase in applications in 2012-13. Our 226 entering J.D. students were selected from nearly 5,900 applicants. Whether undergraduate or graduate, our students are extraordinarily able.
We continue to attract and retain outstanding faculty. This year, U.S. News & World Report ranked William & Mary first among public universities for the excellence of our undergraduate teaching and third among all universities — private and public — behind only Dartmouth and Princeton. Earlier this year, I wrote about our faculty’s impressive scholarship, including path-breaking AidData work on the world’s largest database of international aid projects since World War II. Last academic year, AidData received a $25 million, five-year award from USAID, the largest in our history.
William & Mary’s global reach and relevance are growing. In the last round of Fulbright grants, 14 recent alumni received them. This was more than any other college or university in Virginia. In terms of Fulbright recipients per undergraduate student, William & Mary ranks first among U.S. public universities and second among all universities, just behind Princeton.
Our Reves Center for International Studies celebrates its 25th anniversary this year as the coordinator of global activities across the university’s five schools (see p. 50). William & Mary ranks first among public universities in the country for the percentage of undergraduates having global experiences during college (over 45 percent for us). We have 580 international students on campus this year from 55 countries. The William & Mary joint-degree program with Scotland’s University of St Andrews, now in its third year, is in full cry. We have expanding ties in the Middle East and Asia. The William & Mary Confucius Institute, established in spring 2012 in partnership with Beijing Normal University, has significantly increased our students’ access to Chinese language and culture.
Turning from mind to body, more than 80 percent of our students play on varsity, club, or intramural teams, take part in fitness and wellness classes and programs, use the Student Recreation Center on their own, or get involved in other outdoor activities. Tribe Athletics led the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in 2012- 13 with five championships. In the 31-year history of the conference, William & Mary has won 109 championships, almost 40 more than the next CAA school. Last year, three teams made the NCAA tournament, including the women’s tennis team, the women’s cross country team (finished 21st in the nation), and the baseball team (reached the regional championship game and finished the year ranked 28th). We do athletics the right way. We consistently rank at the top of the CAA in academic achievement. This year, 15 of 21 teams had an average GPA of 3.0 or better, and eight teams had a 100 percent graduation rate based on NCAA measures.
The Muscarelle Museum of Art continues to present exhibitions of amazing caliber. The museum celebrated its 30th anniversary with an exhibit featuring some of Michelangelo’s most rare and precious drawings. The exhibition, “Michelangelo: Sacred & Profane, Masterpiece Drawings from the Casa Buonarroti,” attracted almost 50,000 visitors to campus and generated a billion media impressions. Major exhibits in recent years have included Medici collections, Andrew Wyeth, five centuries of landscape paintings from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, Tiffany glass, Andy Warhol, and Dutch landscapes from the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. In September, the museum presented a selection of costumes from the personal collection of our alumna Glenn Close ’74, D.A. ’89.
On the facilities front, at the end of last May, William & Mary acquired the Hospitality House (now One Tribe Place) for use, primarily, as a dormitory. Thus, we added 3.7 acres of prime real estate to the campus, 318 rooms, 316 parking spaces, 20,000 square feet of conference space and two restaurants. This acquisition’s 330,000 square feet joined the 1.2 million square feet built or renovated on campus in the last decade and more than 165,000 square feet in new construction and acquisitions at VIMS. Work completed last summer included the new fraternity village (11 houses and a joint activities building), greatly expanded dining facilities at the Sadler Center (now seats 700), completion of the 11-month renovation of Tucker Hall (home of the English Department), completion of the 13-month renovation of the Brafferton (home of the president’s and provost’s offices), and the conversion of the Hospitality House into a dorm (330 students now in residence with another 60 yet to come).
Crucially important, also, we made signal progress last year on a sustainable financial foundation for William & Mary, one no longer so heavily dependent on state support. A generation ago, the Commonwealth provided more than 43 percent of our operating budget. Today, it provides 13 percent, and this percentage will keep declining. Public colleges and universities are increasingly left to fend for ourselves. To meet this challenge, those of us on campus and the Board of Visitors have worked closely together to construct the William & Mary Promise, a landmark road to financial sustainability for the university.
The Promise hinges on all members of the William & Mary family doing their share — faculty and staff through productivity gains on campus; students and parents through more tuition to help pay what it costs to provide a William & Mary education; alumni, parents and friends through philanthropic support of the university; and the Commonwealth through whatever funds it can provide. No group is asked to pull the load alone.
What about campus productivity? William & Mary is already quite efficient when compared to other leading universities. U.S. News & World Report ranks us 114th among all major U.S. universities in financial resources and 32nd in overall quality — (sixth among public institutions). This is by far the largest gap between quality and resources of any major university. But even leading the pack in efficiency, we can and must do better in the years to come. Academic costs cannot continue to increase at the rate they have during the last generation. We are working hard to find creative ways to become more productive in both the academic and the business dimensions of the campus. For instance, we will shortly commission an external review by consultants experienced in the business aspects of universities as part of a multiyear effort to increase our productivity in non-academic areas.
What about tuition paid by students and their families? Last April, our Board voted to significantly raise in-state tuition phased over three years, but did so in ways that held tuition increases for in-state students already on campus to the rate of inflation for the rest of their four years at William & Mary. For in-state students not yet enrolled for whom the tuition increase would apply, their tuition is guaranteed to remain the same for each of their four undergraduate years. It also materially increased need-based financial aid for in-state students up through the middle class, reducing the net cost for these families. We held tuition increases for out-of-state students to 3 percent, the lowest percentage in more than a decade. The overall result is a meaningful increase in earned income for the university.
What about the support of alumni, parents and friends? Ties between William & Mary and its graduates are among the strongest such ties in the country. Increasingly, these ties entail financial help as well as abiding affection for alma mater. The fiscal year that ended last June 30 was the most successful year for private giving in the university’s 320-year history. We raised $104.3 million in cash, pledges and estate commitments. More than 31,000 donors contributed. Among them were 18,551 alumni, including 14,368 undergraduate alumni, or 23.9 percent of the overall undergraduate alumni body. That percentage places us in the top handful of the 693 U.S. public colleges and universities. Only four — Alabama, Georgia Tech, Arkansas and Clemson — had a higher participation rate, much of it from donors to athletic programs. Some private schools achieve much higher participation rates, and our goal is to move among them. We have a goal of 40 percent participation by 2020, which would place us fourth among schools in U.S. News & World Report‘s overall rankings. William & Mary would rank just behind Princeton, Dartmouth and Notre Dame.
A great institution is always under construction, always evolving to take advantage of new opportunities and to meet the realities of ever-changing times. William & Mary has been under construction for more than three centuries. It is thriving in the 21st century. I firmly believe its greatest promise lies ahead.
W. TAYLOR REVELEY III
President, College of William & Mary
