Sept. 8, 2009

Dear Alumni and Friends:

I write to ask for your support as we build one of our University's most important programs for students. AccessUVa is the financial-aid program that allows us to meet 100 percent of every undergraduate student's demonstrated need.

Since its beginning in 2004, this program has made it possible for thousands of students from both low- and middle-income families to come here, regardless of their financial means. In this year's first-year class, almost one-third, or some 1,250 new students, have come to us with at least some AccessUVa support. Overall, 32.1 percent of the student body now qualifies for financial aid, up from 23.8 percent in AccessUVa's first year and up from 27.2 percent just last year.

AccessUVa would be essential in any economy, but this year it has proved its worth many times. The combination of the current recession and the failure of both federal and state financial-aid programs to meet real need makes this a particularly difficult time for families to plan and pay for college. The need for us to provide adequate financial aid will continue to rise as unemployment rises and as more parents face salary cuts and freezes and other forms of diminished income. At the same time, college has become more expensive, even here where we were named the nation's No. 1 best-value public university by The Princeton Review. In 2009-10, the estimated cost for our students -- including tuition and fees, room and board, books, supplies, and other expenses -- is $21,212 for in-state students and $43,212 for out-of-state students.

AccessUVa works because the Rector and Visitors thought long and hard before creating it and designed it to meet genuine needs. Students whose family incomes equal or fall below 200 percent of the federal poverty line receive loan-free, all-grant aid packages. Qualifying middle-income students receive packages individually tailored to their families' circumstances. These may include loans, with a cap over four years of approximately 25 percent of the in-state cost of attendance. AccessUVa students graduate with manageable amounts of debt so they can go on to medical school, law school, or public-service work if they choose -- rather than having to forego or delay so that they can begin paying off loans immediately.

Financing AccessUVa has not been easy. In 2009-10, our unrestricted contribution to this program will be some $29.7 million. This cost will rise as the recession continues. We fund this program with revenue from endowments designated for need-based financial aid, from internal reallocations, from profits or excess reserves in University units that receive external revenue, from tuition -- and from the generosity of our alumni, parents, and friends. I am asking for your help in bolstering AccessUVa so that we can meet this predictable and increasing need going forward.

Gifts of all sizes will help us sustain and build AccessUVa. The value of even small gifts can be uncommonly large when they are combined to create endowed scholarship funds. One useful example of this principle is the John A. Blackburn Endowed Scholarship for AccessUVa, which was established to honor the late Jack Blackburn, our long-time dean of admission, who was committed to making college accessible for students regardless of income or wealth. This scholarship is our way to memorialize a great dean and the principles for which alumni and students alike remember him. Created with gifts of many sizes, the Blackburn Fund now totals more than $1.8 million. Assuming reasonably normal rates of return and essentially average need per student, the Blackburn Fund will support three to eight students each year. Jack cared very deeply about what many of you will have heard him call the level playing field -- a University in which talent and not means alone determines the makeup of the student body. I have attached two 30-second videos of AccessUVa students who were admitted during Jack's tenure.

I give to AccessUVa in part because I share Jack Blackburn's commitment to the level playing field, in part because I appreciate the determination that led both Mr. Jefferson and our Rector and Visitors to commit resources to sustaining equity, and in part because of personal gratitude. A combination of scholarships, loans, and part-time jobs let me enroll here 48 autumns ago and let me remain enrolled through three degrees. Please join your own classmates and me in committing your resources to assuring these same opportunities for today's and tomorrow's students.

In an 1818 letter to Joseph Cabell, Thomas Jefferson described his desire to create a "system of general instruction, which shall reach every description of our citizens from the richest to the poorest. Your gifts and guidance through the years have made the University of Virginia one of the nation's and the world's educational treasures and a globally recognized monument to American values and capacities. Together we will ensure that we fulfill Mr. Jefferson's vision of access and opportunity.

For your support through the years, for whatever investment you may make in AccessUVa, and for much more, I am grateful.

Sincerely,
John T. Casteen III
President, University of Virginia