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The Board of Visitors at its April meeting approved a series of name changes for academic units and also adopted 2024-25 tuition and fees for in-state and out-of-state undergraduate and graduate students. Students pursuing degrees in engineering, computing, and the arts will soon have new academic homes at Christopher Newport, while all students will benefit from an affordable, accessible education.
The Board voted to adopt the new names for the 2025-26 academic year and proposals will be submitted to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) for approval over the course of the next year.
The new names include:
- The Department of Physics, Computer Science, and Engineering will be renamed the School of Engineering and Computing to better reflect the content of its academic programming.
- The Department of Psychology will be renamed the Department of Psychological Sciences.
- The Department of Fine Art and Art History will be renamed the Department of Art and Art History.
- The Department of Performing Arts will be renamed the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance.
- The newly named Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance and the newly named Department of Art and Art History will be the foundation of a new School of the Arts.
“A School of the Arts will allow Christopher Newport to better serve its arts students and will place it at a competitive advantage in recruiting students into its arts programs,” according to the resolution adopted by the Board.
The faculty and administration supported the name changes and endorsed the creation of the two schools.
The Board also voted unanimously to adopt modest increases in tuition, fees, and room and board charges for the 2024-25 academic year. All of the figures may be found on the tuition webpage.
Board members and President William G. Kelly said minimizing the increases will continue to make a CNU education affordable and accessible for all students. The University is also prioritizing increasing scholarship support for new and continuing students.
Tuition, mandatory fees, and room and board combined for undergraduate in-state students will increase by 2%. Out-of-state students will pay an additional 0.7%. Increases for graduate programs are also below 1%.
In its resolution setting the charges, Board members attributed the increases to inflation and other factors: “The University has maintained tuition at the same level for five academic years through cost containment strategies, reallocations, one-time scholarships, and supplementing the budget with single-time federal and state stimulus funds. All stimulus funds have now been exhausted and the University identified and implemented cost savings strategies totaling $6 million in the 2023-24 year.”