In an August 16 interview, Longwood President W. Taylor Reveley IV answered questions about the policy change from June’s university Board of Visitors meeting related to the ‘Use and Investment of Local Funds,’ the subsequent deployment of local funds from departmental accounts to address administrative and overhead expenses, and the controversy in its wake.
According to university documents (link) obtained by The Rotunda, a combined total of $2,524,027 was moved from nearly two-hundred departmental local funds accounts. According to Reveley, the “one-time sweep of funds,” was a "one-time thing to address this situation that was unusual with the state, and that won't be something happening going forward.”
In an interview spanning nearly an hour and initiated by the president’s office, Reveley began by saying a public university’s budget is “less like a single-act play and more like a saga with all sorts of plot lines and characters.”
Reveley, who will speak to university faculty and staff at the annual President’s Welcome on August 20, said he is “spend[ing] time with different parts of campus to help explain the communications fumble that I made, but also the importance for the long term of the process change, and how we're really going to be in much better, stronger condition going forward with process change.” Later in the interview, he stated, “All the confusion’s my fault by the fact that there was also this one time political exigency unfolding in Richmond.”
As reported in The Rotunda’s article last week, The Rotunda requested documents related to the movement of funds, communications between personnel in the President’s Office and President’s Council and Board of Visitors related to the policy change, and a summary of local funds donated to the university during the most recent fiscal year through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
University officials responded with a 108-page document that included transactions of local funds in late June, official communications from Reveley and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Larissa Smith, personal communications from Smith and Vice President of Administration and Finance Matt McGregor, and university budgets from the last three fiscal years.
The transactions detailed in university documents impacted accounts across campus. They include a range of $5.00 from an “Outdoor Ed.” account within the College of Education, Health, and Human Services, to $370,000.00 from Academic Affairs’ “Transformational” account. Other notable transactions include monies listed as $100,000.00 from Athletics’ “Men’s Basketball” account, $35,000.00 from the College of Education, Health, and Human Services’ “Nurse Sim. Lab” account, and $30,000.00 from Academic Affairs’ “Moton Operat.” account.
On all but the first page returned to The Rotunda that detailed these transactions, university officials included the following note: “Department salary and expenditure reimbursement in June FY24 a one-time expense in anticipation of eventual state finalization of budget after July 1 commencement of fiscal year, in connection with VMSDEP considerations; $4,128,376 local funds on hand entering FY25, exclusive of new FY revenue.”
A note on the local funds summary page reads, “$2,524,027 department salary and expenditure reimbursement in June FY24 a one-time expense in anticipation of eventual state finalization of budget after July 1 commencement of fiscal year, in connection with VMSDEP considerations.”
As detailed in reporting by The Washington Post, at the same time that Longwood’s local funds policy change was being implemented, Virginia’s General Assembly was grappling with a situation surrounding the Virginia Military Survivors & Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP). The VMSDEP is a state-run program that provides education benefits to spouses and children of qualifying disabled, killed, or captured veterans.
Reveley said that, as the state finalized the budget, “It became clear that the the solution that the state had been coming up with regarding the tuition waiver for military families had not really been discussed with constituents in a way that that had their buy-in.” This led to a special session in mid-July to reopen and finalize the budget without cuts to the VMSDEP, with Governor Glenn Youngkin signing the agreement into law on July 18.
The FOIA documents included an email to all Longwood faculty, staff, and contract employees from Reveley on August 5, in which he references the VMSDEP waiver program in relation to the university’s budget. In the email, Reveley wrote, “Prior to the state’s good steps this summer, each university, including Longwood, bore these costs themselves – and it has started to really add up. For Longwood, the annual bill has reached into seven figures, and accelerated greatly just in the last year or so.”
In the August 16 interview, Reveley explained the lack of official communication from his office between the Board of Visitors’ passage of the policy on June 7 and his email to all university employees on August 5. “In the swirl of everything going on with Richmond, I didn't stop to think in the way that I should have that it would be good to make sure campus, the faculty and staff kind of understood that there was a process change going on that happened to be happening at the same time that a very unusual once-in-a-blue-moon situation was unfolding with the state,” Reveley said.
In regard to personal communication from Reveley himself, as detailed in § 2.2-3705.7. of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, working papers and correspondence of the university presidents and other senior state officials are “excluded from the mandatory disclosure provisions of this chapter but may be disclosed by the custodian in his discretion, except where such disclosure is prohibited by law.” University officials did not include related presidential communications in their response to The Rotunda from Reveley, nor personal communication from current and former members of the Board of Visitors.
In summarizing the university’s financial position, Reveley highlighted the increases in the endowment and philanthropic giving. When asked about his message to campus, he said, “I'd very much like for campus to understand the value and the importance of the philanthropic momentum that we have. It's a testament to everybody, students, faculty, staff, donors, alumni, that Longwood is now one of those public universities all across America, one of only 25% that have an endowment that's more than $100 million.” According to Reveley, Longwood’s endowment currently sits at $104 million.
Furthermore, he pointed to the importance of the endowment in the university’s financial health. “When you hear about places that are having financial challenges to start with, their endowment tends not to be particularly sizable. And then in addition, they tend to be what's called raiding the corpus, digging into the actual kind of asset itself.”
During the interview, Reveley also touched on the impact of the policy change on donors, as well as thoughts and opinions he has been hearing from donors. “Donors are enthusiastic to know that their dollars are being utilized and disappointed if they hear that a scholarship hasn't been awarded, or the yield on a programmatic endowment has not actually been used to make students' lives better and for other purposes,” Reveley said. He added, “There's an active eagerness on the part of major donors to know that the money, the gifts they have entrusted to Longwood are being utilized.”
The Rotunda will continue to follow this story as it develops. The Rotunda staff is currently seeking out Longwood donors to share their thoughts and opinions on the policy change. Those interested in sharing their thoughts are encouraged to contact therotunda@live.longwood.edu.
