Facing its Lowest Enrollment Levels in Over 40 Years and Resulting Drop in Revenues, UVI Calls on Senate to Fund Larger Budget
The University of the Virgin Islands has asked senators in the Committee on Finance to consider granting it a total budget funding of $39.1 million for fiscal year 2023, to help support its operational costs which have been unfavorably impacted by low student enrollment and other external factors.
2022-08-10 15:11:44 - VI News Staff
The figure includes an additional $2,324,260, which the university’s president Dr. David Hall says is needed to pay increases in the Government Employees’ Retirement System (GERS) contributions, health insurance premium increases, and property insurance increases after the hurricanes. The monies would replace Covid-19 funding that the university was receiving but which it says had all been expended.
On Tuesday, Mr. Hall told lawmakers that with just one week before school reopens, only 1,320 students have registered at the institution. It is a significant decline from the 2,400 students who attended UVI prior to the 2017 hurricane season. “The hurricanes took about 500 students from us; free tuition brought us back up the first year we implemented it but then the pandemic has eroded those numbers down to where we are.”
Overtime, the president said the university witnessed a further decline during the pandemic, with only 1,656 students enrolling last year. That decline in student enrollment is attributed to the university’s mandatory vaccination policy which prohibits in-person classes for unvaccinated students and teachers.
Even so, Mr. Hall said the university’s board is not immediately prepared to remove that policy, acknowledging that there are still risks associated with contracting and spreading Covid-19.
UVI's Covid-19 strategy in August 2021 was aggressive, mandating vaccination for students who wanted to participate in in-person learning. At the time, only 418 of UVI's 2,000 students had either received their first or second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine at the deadline, portending a crisis for the institution.
The contentious policy, which was revealed to the public in August 2021 but approved during a June 2021 board meeting, offered no leeway. If students chose not to get vaccinated and were denied exemption on religious or medical grounds, they had to find "other means," which Mr. Hall clarified to the Consortium during an interview were UVI online options, or another university to complete their education. The selfsame scenario was in effect for staff as well.
In June of this year, UVI updated its policy to allow students who are not vaccinated to attend in-person classes, though these students "must submit to testing on a periodic basis," UVI said. Students living on campus must still be vaccinated.