Planetarium hits visitor milestone
Eighty thousand people – the approximate population of a medium-sized city such as Lynchburg, Virginia.
It's also the total number of people who have experienced the Radford University Planetarium since the first public "reawakening" of the original (32-seat, 7-meter-dome, analog projector) planetarium, featuring
the Bishop Museum Planetarium show "The Explorers", on Sept. 20, 1999.
On Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, the 80,000th skywatching visitor came through the door of our current planetarium. This occurred during the Honors 310 – Cosmic Catastrophes class, taught by Sandy Liss, associate professor of physics.
“My long-term goal of 100,000 cumulative visitors is now well within reach with our current pace of over 5,000 visitors per year,” said Professor of Physics Rhett Herman, the planetarium’s director. “You know we're going to have to do something really special when that person walks through the door!
New grants support hands-on learning in RUBI Center
An interdisciplinary team has been awarded two mini-grants from the Dr. Raymond N. Linville Center for Interprofessional Education and Practice to support recreation therapy students at the Radford University Brain Injury (RUBI) Center.
The grants will provide hands-on learning opportunities for eight students from speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, recreation therapy and music therapy programs. Two recreational therapy students will each receive a stipend and budget to support their work during the spring 2026 semester.
Brandt Brickell, assistant professor of recreation, parks and tourism, and a member of the team, says his students will benefit enormously.
“One recreational therapy student will be creating and implementing community reintegration opportunities that get the clients of the RUBI Center active and engaged in the community,” Brickell said. “The other recreational therapy student will be assigned a RUBI client for a case study to create an eight-week collaborative treatment program.”
According to Brickell, these grants will give students unique, real-world experience with individuals who have experienced brain injuries. That clinical exposure will better prepare them for internships and future careers.
“The RUBI Center is a very rare resource that Radford University is extremely fortunate to have on campus,” Brickell said. “The grants will provide my recreational therapy students a hands-on experience that I myself never had during my undergraduate education.”
The RUBI Center offers students the chance to work collaboratively across disciplines while supporting clients in their rehabilitation and community reintegration.
Ed.D. program wins top honor
Radford’s Doctor of Education program was recently named by the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) as its Program of the Year award winner for 2025.
According to the CPED website, this year’s award committee had an exceptionally strong pool of applicants, making the decision both rigorous and highly competitive. The committee determined Radford’s application stood out for its clarity, depth and strong alignment with CPED principles.
“The program’s clear articulation of its origins, rationale and guiding principles, as well as its demonstrated impacts on practice, program, and communities, distinguished it as exemplary among the finalists,” CPED said.
The award will be presented at the CPED Awards Reception on Wednesday, Oct. 22, during this year’s CPED Convening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Oct. 22–24.
CPED is an international network of over 160 colleges and schools of education in the United States and Canada dedicated to improving the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree. Established in 2007, CPED helps institutions redesign their EdD programs to better prepare advanced practitioners and educational leaders for real-world challenges.