‘Putting our money towards the mission’ BoV holds public hearing on financial changes

By GRETCHEN NAGLE & ABBY CHAMOT contributing writers

The Board of Visitors (BoV) public hearing held on JMU’s campus Wednesday evening discussed the possible increase of tuition and fees for the 2023-24 school year.

The BoV’s main concern was student satisfaction, and whether or not it’s providing students with all the resources it needs, JMU Vice President of Administration and Finance Towana Moore said at the meeting.

JMU is one of the lowest-funded four-year public institutions in Virginia. The university receives $7,952 per in-state full-time student compared to other public universities in Virginia, where the average is $10,292, Moore said.

One of the main components of the proposed budget is education, which covers faculty pay, classrooms and other educational opportunities for students, Moore said. The other main component is general, which covers financial aid, utilities and other smaller funds, she said.

“It’s our mission to make educated and enlightened citizens, and we are putting our money towards the mission,” said Moore.

Another category of budgeting is auxiliary expenditures, which are 100% self-supported and funded by the university, Moore said. It includes parking, office costs, the Student Union, UREC, the University Health Center, athletics, Residence Life, bookstore and dining. JMU has one of the largest dining services in America, which covers about 21.7% of the auxiliary costs, Moore said.

Moore also assured the general body multiple times the range of what JMU’s tuition and fees could cost is just a possibility, and that the top of the range is not an absolute set cost. Moore said adjustments include an increase in tuition costs for Virginia undergrad students anywhere from $0-$376 for in-state and $0-$384 for out-of-state students.

“We are very cognizant and aware that this is an expensive endeavor, and we try as best we can to hold our tuition and our fees as low as we can,” Moore said.

“The hard part about this is no one advocates for tuition increase, however we are only receiving so much money from the state,” student representative to the BoV Xavier Williams said. “[We are] trying to keep it affordable [and] provide what students are asking for, and we are doing that.”

Addressing budget changes that will be made in the 2023-24 academic year, Moore explained how thinking carefully is important when considering certain areas for the setting of the range for tuition and fees next year.

The first budget change Moore addressed is “unknown state support,” meaning the legislatures have not settled on a budget yet, leaving room for uncertainty. Moore said in the past, Virginia has been generous to JMU, giving the university money through JMU’s budget to try to make up for it being a lower funded institution, which Moore said leaves hope for the future.

Another budget change mentioned by Moore was faculty and staff compensation. Virginia’s Congress agreed on a 7% pay increase for all state employees on the education and general side of where the funds are going, amounting to $14.9 million, Virginia will fund half of JMU’s budget, amounting to $6.4 million.

Other budget changes mentioned by Moore include a Virginia military survivors and dependents educational program, which will include educational benefits to those whose spouses and dependents have been killed or taken as prisoner, which includes an unfunded mandate of $4 million per year for tuition and other costs — unavoidable and inflationary costs, debt-infrastructure and refinancing, student success investment and financial aid and scholarships.

“When tuition and fees go up, you have to increase your financial aid and scholarship for those folks to cover that as well,” Moore said. “So it’s a big list this year of all the things we have to be concerned about.”

2026 class president, Reagan Polarek, said she understands the BoV and student representatives to the BoV have fought to make higher education more affordable and available for all.

“I will continue to advocate for college access and affordability along with the expansion of mental health resources on campus,” Polarek said.

Tuition changes will be voted on at the next committee meeting, on April 20-21 at Festival Conference Center. The meeting is open to students.

CONTACT Gretchen Nagle at naglegm@dukes.jmu.edu and Abby Chamot at chamotar@ dukes.jmu.edu. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.