Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s budget amendment proposal released last week includes a second attempt in as many years to defund the New College Institute in Martinsville.
It allocates nearly $4.7 million to NCI for the fiscal year beginning in July 2025, but it stipulates that NCI receive no funding for operations in the biennium that begins in July 2026.
The governor’s proposal requires the state-run higher education center to develop a sustainability plan that outlines options for continuing operations, merging with another public entity or closing the higher education center altogether.
NCI must develop its sustainability plan by collaborating with a variety of entities, including the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville, Patrick and Henry Community College, and the Martinsville-Henry County Academic Foundation, the budget proposal states.
“NCI was surprised by the inclusion of the new budget language,” Olivia Garrett, director of institutional advancement for NCI, said in a statement Friday. She said NCI is reviewing the language and “engaging with stakeholders to address the challenges it presents.”
Last December, NCI was cut from the governor’s budget proposal for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, which also required that the higher education center submit a comprehensive business plan. After Youngkin visited Martinsville in January 2024, when NCI staff presented a draft of its plan, funding for the full biennium was restored to the budget.
The governor’s office did not provide feedback on the business plan NCI submitted after that visit, Garrett said.
Garrett said NCI board chair Richard Hall had learned prior to the budget proposal release on Dec. 18 that there would be additional reporting requirements for NCI in the language, but staff and board members weren’t aware that a new business plan would be required or that funding would be eliminated.
NCI is the only one of Virginia’s five higher education centers to come under such scrutiny in the budget amendment proposal.
“The Governor’s budget amendment reflects continued concern about the operations and outcomes of New College Institute,” Christian Martinez, press secretary for Youngkin, said by email last week. “By charging the board of directors to develop a sustainability plan, NCI’s governing board is encouraged to explore strategic options and partnerships that will ensure the Martinsville community has educational opportunities that meet the needs of students and families. The Governor looks forward to continuing to work with members of the General Assembly on this important issue.”
Money from NCI building sale still in limbo
NCI was established nearly 20 years ago to facilitate access to college degree programs and to boost workforce development in the Martinsville area. It’s a home base for bachelor’s and graduate degree programs run by schools including Longwood University, though many of the classes have gone mostly digital. The institute also offers career training programs, including fiber optic technician and wind turbine safety training.
NCI went through a period of leadership turnover and low program enrollment during the pandemic and has faced criticism for a perceived lack of programming. Under Executive Director Joe Sumner, who joined the institute in early 2023, NCI has added workforce training courses.
The institute has spent nearly two years in dispute with its original fundraising organization, formerly called the New College Foundation.
In February 2023, the foundation announced a new name, the Martinsville-Henry County Academic Foundation, and broadened its scope to serve educational causes throughout the region, instead of solely supporting NCI.
At NCI’s behest, the attorney general’s office — which serves as legal counsel for the institute as a state agency — asked the foundation to pause funding any outside projects until the legality of doing so was determined.
The foundation and NCI participated in mediation this spring and summer to determine which has the rights to the foundation’s assets, which total about $13 million.
The assets include about $7.5 million from the 2020 sale of the New College Institute’s facility on Fayette Street to the state.
Since July 2020, the foundation has transferred just over $116,000 to NCI, according to records provided by NCI. About $78,000 of that was for a grant that the foundation had accepted on behalf of NCI in 2023.
NCI set up a new foundation in August to manage fundraising for the institute. Manly Boyd of Bassett Office Furniture has been named the chair of that board.
At an October board meeting, Hall said that NCI had ended mediation a few weeks prior and that the process had resulted in “no viable solution going forward.”
Garrett said NCI was “particularly stunned” that the governor’s budget proposal requires NCI to collaborate with the Martinsville-Henry County Academic Foundation, “given the ongoing dispute over funds originally raised to support NCI and the detrimental impact it has had on the agency.”
Greg Habeeb, attorney for the academic foundation, said the reference to the foundation in the governor’s budget validates its efforts to support education in the region.
“This is an acknowledgment of exactly what we the foundation have been saying all along, which is that the New College hasn’t been both meeting its statutory purpose and its community purpose,” Habeeb said. Though the Academic Foundation has “done everything we can” to support NCI, it also has to protect the “community asset” it’s holding, he said.
“We’ll continue to be a good partner,” Habeeb said, as NCI’s future becomes clear.
