Dear Blazer Nation,

Finals week is here once again, and during the spring semester, that means plenty is happening on campus. I have some updates to share with you.

The 2024 legislative session has wrapped up in Atlanta, and things went well for VSU this year. Lawmakers allocated $5 million for renovations to the Fine Arts Building, and that money now awaits the governor’s signature. I am also pleased to tell you that we received full funding this year for the enrollment formula. In addition, lawmakers restored the $66 million that was reduced from the University System of Georgia’s budget during the last legislative session. Perhaps the best news for our faculty and staff is that lawmakers approved the cost-of-living adjustment of 4% up to $3,000 effective July 1.

Spring Commencement is this weekend, and I look forward to celebrating our graduates and all their hard work. The Graduate School celebration is Friday evening, and the Undergraduate Ceremony is Saturday night. Every commencement is special, but this one will be extra important to many of our graduates. They did not get an in-person graduation from high school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This weekend’s festivities have certainly been a long time coming for them, and I can promise a very special day they will never forget. For friends and families coming to town, all the information they need to navigate campus and the ceremonies is on our main Commencement webpage. The link is below.

The April meeting of the USG Board of Regents was a busy one and provided two big updates to share with you. The first is the extension of the SAT/ACT test optional waiver through summer of 2026. All total, 23 USG institutions, including VSU, are part of the waiver. The other update from the meeting involves the approval of tuition rates for the 2024-2025 academic year. Systemwide, in-state undergraduate tuition will increase by 2.5%, and out-of-state tuition will increase by 5%. The increase comes after the Board of Regents had kept tuition flat at all but one USG institution for six of the past eight years.