February 27, 2021

Dear Colleague:

This afternoon, the General Assembly voted to pass its final changes to the FY21-22 budgets and Old Dominion University is set to receive one of its highest allocation from the state in the school's history.

The budget includes full restoration of the $12 million in base funding to support prior enrollment growth as well as $7.3 million to assist with mandatory cost increases and maintaining affordable access for our students. Our students will also benefit from the restoration of $5.3 million in student financial assistance funding.

In addition, the General Assembly has provided $2.1 million to support our COVID-19 testing efforts and $2.5 million to fully fund our request to support our joint School of Public Health, which we are now preparing for accreditation in partnership with Norfolk State University and Eastern Virginia Medical School. This will be the first of its kind in the Commonwealth. Sentara Healthcare has generously donated $2M to ODU to support that accreditation process.

Our capital efforts remain on track for the $77 million New Health Sciences Building (construction to begin Spring 2021 - open Fall 2023) and for the $128 million New Biology Building (planning to begin Summer 2021 - open Fall 2026).

The best news for employees, however, is in lieu of the previously proposed bonus, the General Assembly has included a well-deserved 5% compensation increase for full-time faculty and staff and provisions for an increase for adjunct faculty.

This budget is now headed to the Governor's desk for action. We continue to thank the General Assembly and the Governor for their support of Old Dominion University. In my final time at bat in seeking appropriations for ODU, I wish to personally thank Annie Morris Gibson and Greg DuBois for their great efforts.

Sincerely,

John R. Broderick
President