RADFORD – The Radford University Board of Visitors began its quarterly session Wednesday with its business affairs committee recommending tuition and fee rates for 2009-2010 and the full board viewing a presentation of a master plan that will chart the university’s growth through 2018 and beyond.

The full board will continue its work Thursday morning and take up the business affairs committee’s recommendation that tuition be raised next year by 5 percent for in-state students. For undergraduates, the increase would translate to $209; for graduates, $241.

Factoring in proposed increases for fees, room and board, the cost for in-state undergraduates would be $13,874, an increase of $622 or 4.7 percent – currently the second-most affordable of the state’s 15 four-year public universities.

A number of unavoidable costs led to the proposed tuition increase:

• State funding for Radford University was cut by $7.55 million this fiscal year due to the nationwide economic downturn that resulted in a $3.2 billion deficit in the Commonwealth’s budget. Federal stimulus funds offset $5.5 million of that reduction, which leaves RU looking for funds to plug a nearly $2.1 million hole.
• RU wants to provide greater assistance next year to help financially struggling students and their families afford college.
• Costs for facility operation and maintenance are expected to rise.

Tuition and fees for out-of-state students are proposed to increase by a larger percentage (6.5 percent or $1,018 for undergraduates; 9.3 percent or $1,284 for graduates) to absorb in part the higher out-of-state capital fee that the General Assembly recently raised from $2 to $10.

Separately, the board’s student affairs committee applauded the Radford University Police Department as it received its second reaccreditation by the Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission (VLEPSC.) On hand for the presentation were President Penelope W. Kyle and RUPD Chief Colleen T. Roberts. (See photo below.)

The RUPD was the first university police department in Virginia to achieve VLEPSC accreditation in October 2000 and earned its first reaccreditation in November 2004. The department was scrutinized on 180 professional standards in the four general areas of administration, operations, personnel and training.

The board also approved a campus master plan that has been developed over the past 14 months by architectural and design consultant Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company.

“You’re relatively landlocked and you’re running out of land, but you have ambitions to step up to a new level of accomplishment as an institution,” said Hanbury Evans design principal Steven W. Gift.

The plan – which is designed to guide RU’s campus development through 2018 – suggests sites for state-of-the-art buildings for the College of Business and Economics and the College of Science and Technology, the Graduate and Professional degree building, a new student wellness and fitness facility, new residence halls and expansion of the Bonnie Hurlburt Student Center. The plan also calls for transportation and parking enhancements and efficiencies to ensure the campus remains pedestrian-friendly.

Radford City Police Chief Don Goodman, Radford University Police Captain Larry J. Brown, RU Police Officer Robert S. Johnson, RU Police Chief Colleen Roberts, VLEPSC's Gary Roche, RU President Kyle, and Gary Dillon of the Department of Criminal Justice Services.