The University of the Virgin Islands has submitted its formal response to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s demand that it show cause why accreditation should not be withdrawn, while completing a contingency teach-out plan and conducting mock evaluations ahead of a critical Sept. 24 visit by the accreditor.
UVI President Safiya George told trustees Wednesday that the university submitted its show-cause response Tuesday, meeting MSCHE’s Sept. 1 deadline.
The university has also begun rehearsing for the upcoming evaluation. Dr. George said a mock site visit conducted last week was successful and was led by the president of Lincoln University, who also serves as a reviewer for MSCHE. A second mock visit is scheduled for next week.
The actual Middle States evaluation team is scheduled to arrive Sept. 24. Dr. George said the evaluators are expected to report their findings the following day, after which UVI will learn whether it must appear before the MSCHE board as the accreditation process continues.
UVI remains accredited while the show-cause process is underway.
Teach-Out Plan Completed as Contingency
The university has also completed a “comprehensive teach-out plan” to protect students in the event UVI is ultimately unable to continue offering instructional programs.
The contingency combines three existing agreements with other universities that could allow UVI students to finish their education elsewhere if necessary.
Board Chairman Henry Smock joked about what university officials hope will eventually become an unnecessary document.
“The executive committee was trying to decide when all of this is over if we’re going to shred that teach-out plan or burn it,” he said.
The remark reflected the strain the accreditation proceeding has placed on the institution as it works to demonstrate compliance with Middle States requirements.
Government Allotments Brought Current
Dr. George also reported progress on financial matters that have been closely connected to UVI’s accreditation concerns.
She said the university has received cooperation from “both the legislature and the government of the Virgin Islands,” adding that the territorial government “stands behind and beside the University of the Virgin Islands during this show cause effort.”
All pending government allotments are now current, she said.
UVI also worked with lawmakers and executive-branch officials to recover an allotment from the previous fiscal year that had lapsed.
“We’ve also worked with the legislators and our GVI leaders to get September 2025’s lapsed allotment from the last fiscal year re-appropriated,” Dr. George said. “We just received that yesterday, and so that’s great.”
Beginning in the upcoming fiscal year, UVI will receive its government allotments in four lump-sum payments rather than through monthly distributions.
“They established a payment schedule to go along with that, so that they could improve the structure of moving away from monthly allotments…so I think that will also help shore up fiscal year 2027 and going forward,” Dr. George said.
$2.3 Million Arrives for Free Tuition
UVI also received the $2.3 million appropriated earlier this year to support the territory’s free-tuition program.
The arrival of those funds allows the university to address outstanding scholarship obligations spanning several academic periods.
“We can satisfy those scholarships for students from the spring, from this past summer, and of course now for Fall 2026,” Dr. George said.
Trustees welcomed the financial developments but also pressed university leadership on efforts to diversify UVI’s revenue and reduce its dependence on appropriations from the central government.
Dr. George said both cost-containment and revenue-generation efforts are underway.
The Medical Simulation Center is considering new short-term programs, while UVI CELL is planning additional programming. The university also intends to pursue new grants and greater philanthropic support from new donors.
Still, Dr. George said reducing expenses has produced the most immediate benefit.
“But cost containment and reducing costs is the biggest way and the biggest impact,” she said.
Those efforts have generated more than $3 million in savings, according to the president.
“When we look at our entire funding portfolio, we have reduced the percentage of funding where we rely on the government,” Dr. George declared.
The immediate focus, however, remains the Sept. 24 Middle States visit and the university’s effort to demonstrate that the issues prompting the show-cause action have been sufficiently addressed.
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