This transcript of President Rao’s 2026 State of the University has been lightly edited for clarity.

Watch President Rao’s full State of the University:

Thanks to all of you for being here. Whether you’re here in person or you’re watching this live or online or maybe you’re watching this now on YouTube at 2:00 o’clock in the morning while you’re laying down in your pajamas. Whatever it is, thanks for being here. I’m so grateful to the Board of Visitors and to our VCU Health Board of Directors. Thank you all very much for being here. These are really important roles. They’re volunteer roles. They require a lot of time, a lot of strategy that can be intense by the way, and certainly a lot of accountability. And that’s also at times very stressful in these large organizations.

So to all of you, board members, thank you so much for your focused oversight, for your stewardship, and I might mention thank you for your philanthropy as well, they all give. A special thanks to you, Ellen [Fitzsimmons]. I’m very grateful to you for your leadership, very forthright leadership, your strategic thinking. And a lot of what you give us is based truly on many, many years of very successful high-level executive experience. And so I have to tell you, you have been invaluable to VCU and VCU Health and we’re all very grateful. You’re a strong partner. Thank you. You get the mission.

I also really want to express gratitude to all of you. This is the VCU team. The university, because of you, is seeing unprecedented success across every dimension of our complex mission. We have stayed absolutely focused on this public mission, preparing students for their professions, advancing human health, people’s health, pursuing research that matters. It matters to people everywhere, but particularly to people in Richmond and to the commonwealth.

Thank you so much for everything that you do to serve the commonwealth, the nation, and the world. So what you’re doing, and I see it every day, and I’m a part of it every day, and privileged to be a part of it every day, is you’re really building VCU’s trajectory in real time. So for that, I have to tell you, I want to start out with a very warm congratulations. To this point, you’ve all truly made VCU unstoppable and unconventional.

So I have to tell you now more than ever -- notice I said to this point -- we are at a really important moment. Now more than ever, VCU is best positioned and has an incredible opportunity. But it also really has an obligation, particularly because we are a public institution, to meet the rapidly changing needs of people.

I was just talking with a couple of my colleagues who I’ll invite up to talk later about how rapidly things are changing. We’re called upon -- and we have to remember that -- we are called upon to really deeply envision a society where people, where human beings get better and better with every passing generation. But I have to tell you, our role in that is absolutely essential. That’s the role of higher education. That means that this is a really important moment for us, but moments aren’t going to change the world, movements do. And to make this moment a movement, we’ve got to think much bigger than we have. Much bigger than we have. And we’ve got to act more boldly.

So let me put this in VCU basketball terms. The best teams, if you watch them really closely, they’re not just chasing the ball, they’re anticipating where it’s going. They adapt very rapidly and they do it as a team. They do it together. Watch them. They don’t just focus on where the ball is, they focus on where it’s going to be. And by they, I’m talking about the whole team.

That’s the message I’m trying to send to all of us today, including myself. This is how the best universities, going forward, will be able to strategize. Our teams get connected to where people are and where they’re going, and where generations yet to come are headed. And then we help shape what comes next.

We have a lot of information, a lot of data. We know where things are going. Sometimes we have to just feel it out and look at what the next generations are telling us and listen. Just think about the complex problems that our graduates are going to be asked to solve. Healthier communities, a stronger economy, a more resilient environment, a safer society, faster cures, smarter and more ethical technologies. Something that so many of my colleagues work on and I’m proud of you for that.

These are just a few of the big human and societal problems. What they are not is one department kinds of issues or problems. The world is going to have to have graduates who can connect across disciplines, translate across big boundaries, and lead teams where different experiences are a real advantage.

Going forward, learning and discovery in society is going to be outside of silos, not in silos. The next chapter of VCU is going to be defined by how we all get ourselves together in this large organization so that we can seize opportunities that just don’t fit in the categories that we’ve all gotten used to. And how we make bold changes to our internal structures to adapt, to transform teaching and learning. Learning -- not just teaching -- learning. Discovery, care, health care, and service to all of our people. It’s going to be really, really important. With bold change is going to come bold investments. So I’m talking with all of our team all of the time about where are these investments going to go. They can’t all go where they’ve gone before.

So much of the ways in which we spend money is based on how we spent it historically. And we’ve got to invest in collaborations. We have to incentivize collaborations that will break down barriers and prepare our students as graduates for a world that’s changing very rapidly. They get it and we need to be sure we get it. That’s why we have to invest with purpose. And we’ve got to ask things like, what are the human and societal problems that we really want to be part of helping to solve? Not all of them because we can’t be all things to all people.

How do we bring so many of our disciplines? We have an enormous number of disciplines and we have an enormous number of resources. How do we bring those together to do what I’m talking about? An example, a great example, I’m so proud of my colleagues who did this.

With lightning speed, we had faculty members who got together in one summer, just over a few weeks, and they developed courses and minors in artificial intelligence. And that was nearly two years ago. So that all of our students, whether they specialize in computer science or computer engineering or humanities or any area, they’d have the opportunity to be deeply immersed in emerging technology.

That’s VCU getting itself to where the ball is going rather than where the ball is. So I’m asking us all to push boundaries as a community. We’re committed to a lot of things. We were committed and continue to be committed to the very best of AI in the classroom, lab, clinic, studio, and in how we operate this institution because that affects everybody too.

Another question, what would it look like if we organized learning and our research around the big challenges of our time and not the traditional structures higher education has relied on for centuries. Hint, hint, Oxford, and Cambridge, lots of great things. Those are great institutions.

I have to tell you, I was recently talking with somebody from Oxford who said, “Yeah, we’ve actually changed a lot of the things that you guys still have yet to change.” They’re thinking in much bigger circles. And I’m grateful that we are doing the same. So what I’m talking about is a term that many of you hear on a regular basis. We talk about team science and cross-disciplinary work. They can’t just be phrases. They’ve got to become a way of life. Students who learn in the clinic, the studio, the lab, and in our communities that need us. Faculty who are coming together. And it’s happening all the time at VCU and I’m so proud of you.

It’s got to happen a lot more, though. Coming together in new teams that accelerate discovery and help us to understand things that human beings have never been able to understand before, in curricula for our students at all levels.

Curricula that is flexible enough for students to build integrated toolkits of skills that will transform their lives and their careers to make them ready for any profession, any number of changes that they might have in their careers. Our goal is to get rid of a lot of the rigidity that we’ve had and to increase connection across our disciplines, across our professions, and of course, across this entire university.

As we think big, we’ve got to continue to ask ourselves somewhat difficult questions that are hard for us, but we’ve got to do it. Questions about how we’re teaching, how students best learn and how well that matches or doesn’t match up. And how our administrative business models, how are they doing? How are they really doing for the purposes that we say they are for? We’re going to work really hard to understand how we compare with other research universities. And we’re going to focus on, on how we deliver accessible and affordable education.

Affordability is a lot of what goes on in terms of access. We’ve got a challenge, how we’re doing things in an effort to evolve in the direction that meets the multiple demands of serving our students, in serving our communities and serving our patients. That’s how we’re going to shape the global citizens and professionals of the future.

They are not just students; they are global citizens and professionals of the future. That’s how I want to feel when I get really old. I’m old, but I’m not really old yet. That’s the difference that I want to make, is I want to say I had a lot to do with preparing the global citizens and professionals of the future that’s made life a lot better for everybody.

I cannot underscore enough. We may be big, but we have to do this together. The world is moving really, really, really fast. Look at what’s going on. Most of you travel all over the place. Look at how interconnected we are. We cannot shape graduates who only operate in one lane. Graduates know and we need to know that they’ve got to know how to drive in more than one lane on more than one road. And they’ve got to share that road with lots of other people in a cooperative way that doesn’t result in a lot of accidents. The world has got to have more graduates from colleges that are thought-provoking leaders who are creative critical thinkers, who can work in teams with people who are nothing like themselves and appreciate all of those people and the value that they all bring.

The world needs people who can move across big boundaries. Big boundaries that we as humans have all worked hard to build. The most important thing is they’ve got to be able to solve problems at scale. Because not everybody will be a college graduate in our lifetime. I wish they would, but I’m not going to try to pretend that that’s the case. But college graduates have got to be the ones to take the lead on solving problems at scale that society needs us to solve.

This is the kind of bold learning that students want and the bold discovery that the world needs. It’s the kind of university that you all have built at VCU. You have built this to be this way. Universities like ours are big, but they’re powerful. They’re complex and they have the capacity to be transformative places that lift thousands of people’s lives. Now let’s do that in a way that lifts society, that transforms society.

You have to remember that we’re one of the most powerful entities in the world. We power what we call the American dream. It’s something I know from my own experience. I grew up in this really small town of about 450 people. I don’t know of one person from my town even to this day (and I went back there to show my son a little while ago) who went to college. They just didn’t think it was for them. They didn’t think it was something that they could get away with.

And the other thing I was remembering, and my son noticed this too, he’s like, “Daddy, nobody looks like us at all.” I’m like, “Yeah, they didn’t.”

But you know what? My mom and her family, because my dad died really early when I was like four, they believed in me. And I knew that I had to do whatever it took to get to this thing called college. So I did vehicle maintenance and detailing, and I still do it by the way. But I did it because I needed to save money so that I could get to college. And the amount of money I saved wasn’t even close. But thank goodness for financial aid. I got a Pell Grant just like VCU students, like almost 41 percent of VCU students.

But the big thing is, I want to tell you, college changed my life. But it also showed me how fragile a college opportunity is for so many people coming from where I did. This is exactly why I’ve devoted most of my life to expanding access to education and research for everyone who’s committed to working hard, doing better, and making the world a better place for other people. Now, to me, that’s the American dream. And that’s what every one of us are here together to strive for on behalf of our students.

Thank you for that applause, because I needed to take a breath. You know, I just want to convince you that VCU is the place where excellence at a major research university meets opportunity in support of the American dream. We are in America and this is a public institution.

Now here’s something else I would like your applause for, 38 percent of our freshman class this year are first-generation college students. And I’ll say it again, 41 percent are from Pell-eligible families. That’s an achievement. And now what I want is for all of them to graduate.

And I want you to help me think hard about how we not just get from freshman to sophomore year, let’s think harder about sophomore to junior and junior to senior. And how about four years or at least six if somebody’s working, if somebody’s trying to put it all together?

In true American spirit, this is the university that you have created that clears pathways to higher education for really hardworking people from every background that we can imagine, every perspective, and a ton of different experiences. And they get it. I just met Tuesday with a group of students, and they get it. They get each other, and they learn from each other.

As we go forward, we’re going to endeavor to find every way that we possibly can to further strengthen the student experience at VCU and shorten their time to graduation. And there’ll be a lot of administrative ways we can do that but there will be a lot of difficult ways that we will have to get down to it. We’re going to have to bend on curriculum and the student experience.

I’m not going to tell you what to do; it’s not going to come from me. I am but one faculty member. But I’m trying to inspire you to get more connected to this next generation. And you have done this. Most of our units have been enormously successful. You should all be very proud that you have helped create the highest four-year graduation record rate on record at VCU and the highest doctoral enrollment that we have ever had at VCU. Remember, we are a major research university. Doctoral students who are a critical part of that.

Here’s the other thing I’m really excited about, and I certainly saw it in our graduation ceremonies. We had an all-time high of students who graduated with doctoral degrees, the largest number on record. And here’s something else that I want to thank you all for. When I came, 17 years ago, I came from a university that did a lot with online learning, and I was trying really hard to convince VCU that we needed to do it. I didn’t succeed real well for the first few years, but guess what? We now have an all-time high of students who studied entirely online. Thank you for that. Because you know what you did? You created access. You gave people who are stuck in whatever their life circumstances are, you gave them a chance to get a VCU degree. Thank you for that. VCU is an incredibly powerful force for good. And we’re working to be a leading university in this world. Yes, in this world.

One of the most important ways that this shows up is in our research enterprise. One of our goals, by the way, for VCU. And it’s just one measure, and it’s not necessarily the most important measure, but it is one measure. I know we can surpass $1 billion a year in research and innovation funding. And thanks to my faculty colleagues, I got to tell you something, and a lot of staff who support making this happen, by the way as well, I’m very proud to say that we’re already more than halfway there.

We were at like, $568 million last year, this year I’m sure we will be way ahead of that. I think our sister, another awesome institution down the road, was $570. So we’re pretty close. I’m really, really grateful. So guess what this does? This puts VCU in the top 10 percent of research universities around the country. That’s pretty darn good. So what this is, by the way, and I really appreciate everything all of you have done to make this happen, leadership as well as our faculty, it represents a doubling of research, in just a short while something like six or seven years.

This year, NSF, National Science Foundation, has now ranked VCU the 46th in the country among public universities for research expenditures. So what is a billion dollars going to mean in terms of funded research? It’s going to mean a whole lot more impact. It’s going to be more discoveries. Most importantly, from my standpoint, it’s going to mean more lives, human lives that we can save. More innovation and impact, improving people’s lives with those innovations, with students learning alongside all of it. Because that’s something you do beautifully.

There are more students at the undergraduate level and at every level engaged in research at VCU than any place I know, and I know a lot of places actually. So VCU is going to have to be really disciplined about a lot of things. I’m going to name a couple of them. One is VCU is going to have to be really disciplined about how we hire in the context of our mission. Can’t just be oh, I like that person. It’s got to be a disciplined hire. And we’ve also got to be disciplined about how we support and promote our faculty and our staff and how we invest in faculty connections across the widest range of disciplines to engage ourselves more deeply in team-based work at the highest levels. You know what? There’s always going to be someone smarter than us. We need to connect with each other more.

And when we all think that we are right where we need to be and know as much as we need to know, most of us don’t -- by the way, that’s not a VCU thing. It is a thing at some other institutions, I run into it. But we’ve got an opportunity with being as large as we are with as many disciplines as we have, to learn more from each other.

One of the greatest things about VCU, too, is that research at VCU, the stuff you do is really not abstract. It’s much more hands-on. It has a purpose and it’s of great interest to people and the public. It gives our students an opportunity to see and be a part of what they’re learning. When a student has an opportunity to be a part of some huge discovery, they’re like, “So really Professor Amy, no human being had ever seen those teeth before?” Pretty cool stuff. We want every single student who comes to VCU to graduate from VCU with at least one.

I ask you to try to help us mentor our students to have multiple project-based, real-world learning experiences, professional experiences, internships, things that give them a sense of why it’s so important to have to know accounting or why it’s so important to have to know biochemistry in the Krebs cycle. Medical students find out real fast why they need to know the Krebs cycle. Some of them wish they had learned it more diligently when they were supposed to learn it.

We want every major at VCU, every student involved in everything at VCU to be embedded in project-based learning in the curriculum. We’ve got to find ways in these projects to bring so many of our disciplines together and show them how teams promote collaboration and critical thinking. Critical thinking that can really only come from multiple disciplines. You know, we have a big foundation in the health sciences and we always had, that’s how we were founded.

Just think about how important the arts, social work, engineering, all of those disciplines are. No, I’m not going to mention all of them. I can’t do it. We’ll be here all day. But think about how important that is to the rise of the health sciences and medicine in particular. Real world experiences are just essential for how VCU is going to educate the next generation in all kinds of fields. But I will say, including environmental leaders who are helping to do things like save Atlantic Sturgeon at our Rice Rivers Center. So I’ve got a video for you. Can you hit go?

What a really cool story. And yeah, that’s uniquely VCU, because of how our students are participating in research with Dr. Balazik. I mean, he’s doing amazing things.

By the way, the Rice Rivers Center, which shows up in that video is really one of VCU’s jewels. And I’m so proud of it. I have to tell you, I owe special gratitude to Inger Rice, who [had a] vision sitting at our dining room table before we even moved out of boxes. We were surrounded by boxes with her at the table, [and she] handed me a check for $2 million. I’m not kidding. And it was her vision. She said, “I want to see this happen.” So there she is now, and this was like, just recently.

But listen, her vision and philanthropy have helped to build something that all of you have been a huge part of. And that is a nationally recognized research sanctuary. It’s a shining example of how a university-wide commitment comes together for our environment and sustainability. Something that many of you know, I feel really strongly about, actually.

So anyway, gratitude to both Inger and Dr. Balazik for their outstanding contributions. As I was talking about Inger, I have to tell you, it reminds me that there are lots of donors out there (and I hope lots of those donors are listening) because I want to thank them. I want to thank all of you. Last year we saw the second highest total on record for philanthropy.

If you look at just the last five years, it’s amazing. We’ve benefited from more than $1.27 billion donated to VCU. That’s more than all of the gifts that have been given to VCU just before I came. So I’m really grateful to our donors. What’s the biggest reason donors give? We ask them all the time like, “Because you ask me.” So, we need to do more of that.

But in addition to generous philanthropy, I have to take a minute to say that this mission, this complex mission in this public institution is really only possible because of the outstanding leadership and investment that we get from our elected officials with whom I spent some time yesterday and their staff.

They’ve been huge investors in VCU and they’ve done a great job -- I’m so grateful for their support. Because when VCU succeeds, they get it. They realize the Commonwealth succeeds. Our elected officials and our donors, they’re investing in VCU to do more than what they see here today. We’re really the story I tell them, and I know you’ll be there to help me fulfill this story and make it real. They expect us to be leaders and partners that will bring greater economic vitality to more people by impacting jobs, by impacting industries and really improving the quality of life and of course, saving more human lives.

I’ve got some really cool news for you that I want to share. There was a new independent economic impact report that just came in to VCU, we commissioned it. We didn’t get involved in it other than to let them do what they were going to do. And guess what? VCU and VCU Health have a total economic impact of $18.5 billion to the Commonwealth. That speaks to the breadth and the depth of the work that you’re doing and the impact that you have.

VCU and VCU Health support about 96,000 jobs throughout Virginia. Okay? 95,707 jobs. And that’s one of every 60 jobs here in the Commonwealth. That’s pretty cool that you have that kind of impact. We provide Virginia enormous value. The average rate of return, many of you have retirement accounts, some of you will build those over time. For taxpayer investments, the return is 11.5 percent. Pretty good. So thanks and congratulations to all of you at VCU who have made this possible.

You know, as I think about VCU Health, who’s a major contributor to that economic report I just gave you, our university-based health system is a tremendous part of our story. Every day VCU Health teams care for patients with some of the most complex needs in the region. I’ve had the privilege, and sometimes work of chairing the health system board for 17 years. Hopefully that will be somebody else in the spring or in July.

I have to tell you, being the chair of that board, I’ve become intimately familiar with what goes on there. Our people do what they do with unbelievable skill, but really importantly, compassion and urgency. You want to watch people move; you’ll see them move faster than ever in our health system.

Being a university-based health system, what that really means is that research creates emerging care, like clinical trials that give people a chance to live, that they would never be able to get if they didn’t come to VCU or our sister UVA who does trials as well. It means new treatments that are just emerging using new technologies in care and frankly, most importantly, new hope for families and for our patients themselves.

Our communities know this, VCU Health sets records for inpatient discharges all the time and did again this last year. But also outpatient visits. And something we worked on for many years was this thing called Leapfrog. You might’ve read about it. Every single one of our hospitals got an A in hospital safety from Leapfrog.

This is an independent group, by the way. It’s a nonprofit independent group. It’s a watchdog focused on patient safety. And we invite them and encourage them. We’re the only health system in Virginia to get all A’s for every one of our hospitals in the fall of 2025. Pretty cool.

And as I see Dr. Levy right in my line of sight, it reminds me that the VCU Hume-Lee Transplant Center performed the nation’s first fully robotic living donor transplant. It’s less invasive, it’s much safer, and it produces much better outcomes. And I would think fewer scars as well, Marlon, so you should be proud of that.

VCU Health received our actual highest patient experience scores ever in our history in 2025.

So when we work as a university and health system that combines all of our strengths, it makes an enormous difference here in Virginia, but also the nation and the world.

VCU is the only institution in Virginia with a world-class health system and a broad range of health sciences in terms of research, but also educational programs. We’re producing the next generation of many, many providers, particularly in Virginia. We’re one of only a handful in the country and we’re shaping the next generation of the most innovative healthcare professionals that our country really, really needs. So you’ll see this every day.

You see it every day in something that’s near and dear to my heart, VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center. Comprehensive is an important designation and it puts us among the top four percent of cancer centers in the country. And it’s why you’ll continue to hear me pound on that comprehensive designation is something we have to maintain. We got to keep getting it over and over again. It involves research and it involves care and treatments for patients. It also involves prevention and control of the disease.

So I want you to take a look at something else where one of our colleagues, a professor, is improving lives through his really cool new, straightforward solution to complex surgeries. And some of you might relate to this, I hope not. I hope you’ve never had to. But let’s take a look at Jon Isaacs and what he’s been able to do.

So, Dr. Isaacs is in the OR today, but yeah, thank him for something that will really, really help a lot of folks out there. So you see that VCU is really one of a small number of institutions that are doing research at this level. That’s exactly what Jon just said. The Commonwealth, the nation, and the world really depend on us.

I said world for a reason because just last month, Time Magazine ranked VCU as one of the top 220 universities in the world. So these new rankings that are coming out are recognizing the kinds of things that you do, not just tradition and not just the kinds of things that used to be what rankings were based on, which were largely candidly resource-based.

In a global marketplace, I have to tell you, internationalization is really one of the important ways that we stay relevant and competitive in a world where so many ideas and technologies and talent move really rapidly across borders. The same is true inside universities. So when we connect across our disciplines and across our borders, we’re going to stay more competitive and we’re going to serve people the best, which is why we’re here.

For instance, our pioneering Medicines for All program, creating a really important pharmaceutical hub for the world right here in our region is critical. You know, this is an outstanding opportunity to be bold and to create the pharmaceutical care of the future where medicine, pharmacy, engineering, and chemistry, and probably another number of other disciplines like business and others, where they come together to ensure that VCU becomes the top destination for the pharmaceutical workforce. So thank you to Frank and others for that.

I also want to say thanks to professors Todd Stravitz and Arun Sanyal. The reason I do is because I was recently speaking in Mexico to a crowd of 5,400 academic people, and they all knew what I was talking about because VCU Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health, it’s really become world-renowned in liver disease research and treatment.

What they’ve done is they’ve modeled what we need, and that is their work is the most cited in that area in the world, the most cited liver work in the world. That means that researchers are using what VCU is learning to help advance cure from metabolic associated liver disease, which is unfortunately growing very, very rapidly, particularly in places like Latin America and many other places in the world.

That reminds me as well of VCU Qatar where I was just, I guess a couple months ago, or maybe it was a few weeks ago, I don’t know. But in our international programs, many international programs that are cultivating global citizens who are equipped to engage with enormous complexity to lead across cultures and innovate in the service of humanity.

So I could just stand here and go on and on about Global Impact. But let me do this. Let me show you one more video that I think is really cool and worth looking at, and it shows you the impact that we have. Go ahead.

Yeah. Pretty cool stuff. So this is really important work. And so I did want to say that Dr. Peace is not here with us because she’s actually right now getting a very prestigious award called the Rolla Harger Award from the American Academy of Forensic Science. And her award is for outstanding contributions for the advancement of forensic toxicology. So cool stuff, and congratulations, Michelle, wherever you are. Michelle was also the head of our -- the chair of our alumni association for a very long time. Brought us all together, by the way.

So listen, as we look ahead, the questions are really clear. How does our work strengthen Virginia, the nation, and the world? Our science and health foundation is really strong. But I have to tell you something that I said in our faculty meeting on Tuesday, and I say it right from my heart because I know it’s true. Our arts and humanities are thriving at VCU. They’re essential, but they’re critical to lifting the whole human experience through creativity, design, discovery, but also storytelling, which is how a lot of things are happening right now. And it’s going to continue to help us understand better who we are, not just today, but where we’ve come from.

You know, how do we move beyond everything that we’ve learned? I mean, aren’t we powerful human beings? Can’t we do so much more and can’t we pay closer attention to the generations that are coming and what they’re trying to tell us? I know that we will make impacts that at scale, that will really cross traditional academic boundaries. And I’m very excited about this. Very excited about all of you. I could never, ever have the session that we’ve had today if all of you weren’t here with the mindset and, frankly, empathetic souls that all of you bring.

Thank you very, very much for being together today.