Dear Friend of SVU,

Welcome to the Southern Virginia University website! We hope visiting our pages will give you a little insight into who we are as an academic institution and as a community striving to become leader-servants.

We recently celebrated ten years of serving the Latter-day Saint community. This decade has been full of challenges and growth. Our tenth year was like every other year—successful! We are grateful for the support of so many in preparing the next generation of leader-servants in calendar year 2007.

Here are just a few of the accomplishments SVU enjoyed.

Tenth Year Milestones

Growth

• Total students: Spring Semester: 608      Fall Semester: 752 (23% growth in 2006)       

        Ten-fold growth in ten years.

• Building Expansion
• Began construction of 210-student dorm.
• Erected two smaller student housing buildings.
• Completed new Science Lab.
• Obtained full funding for new classroom and office building, to be ready Fall 2007.
• Received commitment for major renovation of the student center.

Academic Excellence

• Together with University of Chicago and Princeton, SVU is honored as one of 50 All American Colleges by Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

• National Survey of Student Engagement shows SVU students are more academically engaged than students nationally.

• 2006 business grads test nationally in 95th percentile in finance, 85th percentile overall.

• Academic Quiz Bowl Team finishes 25th nationally, ahead of UCLA, University of Florida and Dartmouth.
• Career Development Center opens to provide personalized career counseling.
• Newly developed academic advising program personally supports each student.
• Phi Alpha Theta national history honor society establishes chapter on campus.
• Dramatic increase in number of Marriott Scholars (our top academic scholarship).  Entering student credentials continue to rise, making us increasingly competitive.
• Travel Study takes students to Italy, Mexico, Sri Lanka and Oxford, England.

Scholar-Athletes

• USCAA Women’s Cross Country Champions, Men’s Cross Country Second Place.
• USCAA Women’s Soccer Champions.
• Six Academic All-Americans, nine All-Americans, ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District honoree.

Fine Arts

• Theatre department stages Beauty and the Beast, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Fantasticks.
• Chamber choir performs at Christmas lighting ceremony at Washington, DC temple.
• 3rd Annual Shenandoah Invitational Art Show.

LDS Institute of Religion

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has begun construction of a new Institute/ward building.
• Institute offers 50 courses to serve a record number of students.

Financial Position

• A clean audit and significant reserve underlie the strongest financial position in SVU’s history.

• Department of Education gives SVU 3.0 score, the highest possible, for fiscal strength.

Sincerely, Rodney K. Smith, President