Cavalier Corner is the publication just for UVa sports fans!
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Dear Cavalier Friends, March certainly provided a level of madness and mayhem not see in Cavalier country in many years. Wahoo fans across the country rallied around the men's basketball team as they capped off a regular season ACC championship with an ACC tournament champion- ship and a run to the Sweet Sixteen. They captured the hearts of Cavalier fans around the country. It was impressive to see thousands of Wahoo fans travel to support the team in Greensboro, Raleigh and New York City. They also provided all of us with a perfect ex- ample of what can happen when a program is built on a solid foundation with great coaching leadership and generous donor support. Like many other sports within the athletics department, significant invest- ments were made in facilities, operating budgets, a coaching staff and scholarship support to achieve a program of Uncompromised Excellence. Of course, we all want a program that is not a "one hit wonder," but rather a program that is built to last. Our fundrais- ing objective is to provide the support for long-term success in all of our sports and we are fortunate to have loyal donors who have demonstrated their desire to participate in that level of commitment. A major component of that commitment is funding our scholarship bill on an annual basis. We have re- ceived the majority of the spring semester scholarship bill which totaled $6.13 million through the first three months of this calendar year. We will continue to see additional monthly scholarship expenses throughout the year, as well as, a summer tuition bill and a fall semester bill to round out our fiscal year. Many donors took advantage of the March 31 first quarter bonus priority point deadline and made their pledge payment. This was a tremendous help in our ability to pay the scholarship bill during the first quarter. There is still an opportunity to earn addi- tional bonus priority points by making a contribution by June 30. Priority points were an important factor in determining ACC Tournament and NCAA tourna- ment ticket eligibility and seat assignments. They will also determine the order of football seat selec- tions for those interested in ticket options for the fall. Please contact our office if you have any questions about your priority points. You can also access your account online through our website: VirginiaAthlet- icsFoundation.com. Finally, I would like to encourage each of our do- nors to consider participating in our "I Give 110%" initiative or our "Take it to the Next Level" effort, which were outlined in our marketing materials mailed in February. You may recall that our annual fund still has not recovered to the point that we are able to fund the entire scholarship bill through cur- rent year revenue. We are using cash reserves to bal- ance our budget and those reserves are quickly being depleted. With a goal of maintaining a fully funded scholarship program, we are very focused on growing the annual fund. Since 2009-10, our scholarship costs have increased 25%. You can also help elevate our annual fund by recruiting new members through our "Hoos with Us" membership drive. An athletics program with 25 sports and scholarship costs of over $15 million needs more donors than 9,158, the number of VAF donors in 2013. The month of April will move quickly and gradu- ation will be upon us soon in May. Along the way our student-athletes will be competing in our spring sports and finishing up their studies, many for the final time in their careers. Their path to success has most definitely been impacted by our donor base. Thank you for supporting the experience our student- athletes have at the University of Virginia. Best regards, Dirk P. Katstra Executive Director i04-6.VAF.indd 4 4/7/14 1:30 PM