As Virginia Tech launches its sesquicentennial year, its board of visitors concluded a three-day meeting Tuesday afternoon in which they engaged in discussions focused on current campus issues as well as setting a path for the future of the university.
On Sunday afternoon, university leaders and board members engaged in conversations to consider potential long-term resource development planning options needed to achieve the goals that define the university’s strategic plan, The Virginia Tech Difference: Advancing Beyond Boundaries. The group also discussed what the university might be like in a post-pandemic world, specifically related to the topics of internships and cooperative programs, lifelong learning, instructional modality, and the future of the university workforce.
Board members received several reports and updates on the university’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Monday, Navid Ghaffarzadegan, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering in the College of Engineering, presented his COVID-19 modeling work to the board and showed how mitigation strategies can impact the spread of the virus. He demonstrated how policy decisions, such as vaccination or mask mandates, could affect the transmission of the virus within the Virginia Tech community.
On Tuesday, board members received a report of the total financial impact on auxiliary services the pandemic caused last fiscal year. It was noted that $50.2 million in net loss occurred during the 2020-21 fiscal year (July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021) because of the pandemic. Despite the financial impact, the university budget was balanced through a variety of strategies, including one-time revenue savings, relief from indirect cost assessments, and from state and federal support.
In addition, Virginia Tech was able to distribute more than $19.5 million in one-time federal student financial aid to university students last fiscal year.
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