Radford University students will pay more next year, about $622 more for undergraduates from Virginia. That’s within the bounds suggested by state government, but some people think it ought to be more.

“We have not benefited from following the suggestions coming from Richmond,” RU board member Mary Ann Hovis said Wednesday. “That’s a fact.”

The schools that raised tuition more than state recommendations got bad press, but that lasted only a while. They’re in better financial shape than Radford now, she said.
Hovis was a minority voice at the board of visitors’ business affairs subcommittee meeting. But President Penelope Kyle, who has often talked about what a bargain a Radford education is, said it may be time to talk about how cheap that education should be.

In the current academic year, only one of the state’s 15 four-year universities had a lower price tag than Radford. The board of visitors should talk about whether that’s a good place to be if they’re going to implement 7-17, the university’s long-term plan.

“Do you want to be the low-cost provider or do you want to implement 7-17?” Kyle asked the committee. “Can you implement 7-17 and stay next to the bottom in tuition, fees, and room and board? Are we getting to the point where we ought to be in the middle?”

According to a report shared with the board, Radford’s total tuition, fees, and room and board for in-state undergraduates this year is $422 less than Virginia Tech, which is number 11 on the list.
Radford’s 4.7 percent increase is about 4.8 percentage points higher than inflation from March 2008 to March 2009.

If the full board of visitors endorses the committee’s recommendation on Thursday, an undergraduate from Virginia will pay $13,874 for a year as a Highlander. Nearly 21 percent of the increase—$130—will go to university athletics, bumping that fee to $1,027.

The committee recommended out-of-state undergraduates pay $1,272 more next year. In-state graduate students will pay $400 more and out of state graduate students will pay $1,284 more in the board of visitors approve the committee’s plan.

The committee also recommended approval of the first steps toward building a student fitness and wellness center. If the process proceeds smoothly, bids for planning the center will go out this fall. Planning should take at least 12 months. The building could open in 2011.

The full board came together Wednesday afternoon to hear Steven Gift and Keith Storms of the architecture and planning firm Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas and Company lay out a 10-year plan for campus development. Dubbed the 2008-2018 plan, it includes the fitness center, new academic buildings, residence halls, an addition to the Hurlburt student center, lots of athletics facilities, maybe some apartments, as many as three parking garages, lots of improvements in accommodations for pedestrians and bicycles, lots of landscaping, and a convocation center.

The school needs to raise at least $10 million before it can build a new home for the college of business and economics. The state has provided money to plan, but not to build  a science and technology building. The fitness center, the residence halls, the Bonnie expansion, and the parking garages must all be paid for without state help.
“Where does the money come from?” Gift said to the board, “We don’t have to worry about that. That’s your job.”

Tim Thornton is a freelance writer based in Montgomery County and a former reporter for The Roanoke Times who covered Radford University and Radford City.