To secure state funding, Sullivan visited legislators in Richmond, toting a plastic baggie of debris from the Rotunda columns’ disintegrating tops. She returned with $30.2 million in state funding and, later, promises from donors to cover the difference.
“Those visits with legislators show us three things about Terry Sullivan,” Ryan said. “One: She has a great sense of humor. Two: She’s skilled in the art of persuasion. And three: She cares deeply about this University, its people, and the place itself.”

Sullivan, the University’s first and only female president, tells the audience while she appreciates the honor the portrait represents, “many others needed to be depicted in it, because I could not have done the work without their support and advice.” (Photo by Dan Addison, University Communications)
Artist Ying-He Liu, who has painted portraits of several government and university leaders, placed Sullivan with the Rotunda’s Corinthian columns to memorialize the restoration, painstakingly capturing the details of the columns’ capitals. In the portrait, Sullivan holds a copy of “Marginal Workers, Marginal Jobs,” the first of her seven books.
The Rotunda restoration is perhaps the most visible of Sullivan’s accomplishments as the University’s eighth president. But it is far from her only one. Two years into her presidency, she launched what later became the “Cornerstone Plan,” a strategic road map for the University that incorporated input from 10,000 alumni, parents, students, faculty and others. The effort resulted in, among other things, a global studies major and an endowment that created the School of Data Science.
Under her direction, UVA strengthened its finances, improved faculty compensation, developed the Meriwether Lewis Institute for Citizen Leadership and bolstered the University’s academic advising.