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Radford University
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Radford University is a medium-size public, state-funded university founded in 1910 in Southwestern Virginia. Radford offers liberal arts curricula for undergraduates in more than 100 fields, and graduate programs including the M.F.A., M.B.A. and specialized doctoral programs in health-related professions. In 2007, the Radford University Board of Visitors approved the University’s Strategic Plan, dubbed "7-17, Forging a Bold New Future," with a goal of establishing Radford as one of the top 50 master's degree granting universities in the nation by 2017.
ord's undergraduate programs emphasize the liberal arts, business, and teacher education.
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Encyclopedia
Radford University is a medium-size public, state-funded university founded in 1910 in Southwestern Virginia. Radford offers liberal arts curricula for undergraduates in more than 100 fields, and graduate programs including the M.F.A., M.B.A. and specialized doctoral programs in health-related professions. In 2007, the Radford University Board of Visitors approved the University’s Strategic Plan, dubbed "7-17, Forging a Bold New Future," with a goal of establishing Radford as one of the top 50 master's degree granting universities in the nation by 2017.
Academics
Radford's undergraduate programs emphasize the liberal arts, business, and teacher education. The university has a student/faculty ratio of 19:1 with an average class size of 30 to 40. Graduate students teach less than 5% of classes, so undergraduates work more closely with senior faculty than they might at a larger research university.
The university is organized into six undergraduate colleges: Humanities and Behavioral Sciences, Business and Economics, Education and Human Development, Health and Human Services, Science and Technology, and Visual and Performing Arts. Within the colleges, some fields are designated as "Schools," such as the School of Nursing and School of Social Work (in the College of Health and Human Services), and the School of Communication (in the College of Humanities & Behavioral Sciences). The latter brings together former departments of media studies (journalism, broadcasting, Web design and advertising) and communication (speech and public relations).
The College of Graduate and Extended Education offers 19 degree programs in fields including art, business, communication, counseling, criminal justice, education, English, music, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, psychology and social work. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia has authorized three doctoral programs at Radford, in counseling psychology, physical therapy and nursing practice. The Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) program in Counseling Psychology admitted its first students in the fall of 2008. The doctorate in physical therapy program was scheduled to start in summer 2009. The university said its first Doctor of Nursing Practice students would begin studies in an online distance-learning format in the fall of 2010.
More than 80 percent of faculty members hold doctorates or other terminal degrees (M.F.A., etc.) in their fields. Eight Radford professors have received Virginia’s highest honor for faculty since the inception of the state’s Outstanding Faculty Award in 1986. One of them, Radford anthropology professor Donna Boyd, was named 2006 U.S. Professor of the Year for master’s level universities and colleges by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching. Since 1981, nine Radford faculty members have been selected as Fulbright Scholars to teach or research in other countries.
Special programs include:
Study Abroad
Honors Academy
RU Connections freshmen living/learning communities
Internships, co-ops, practica and service learning
Army ROTC, leading to commission in the U.S. Army
Undergraduate research opportunities
Radford was the first university in Virginia to integrate wireless technology campus wide.
Nearly 93 percent of Radford graduates obtain employment or enroll in graduate school within 3 to 8 months of graduation from the university.
Radford was recognized in a national study as an "Institution of Excellence in the First College Year" for the breadth of quality of programs that assist student in their transition to college life.
U.S.News & World Report has ranked Radford in the South's top 25 master's level public universities in its Guide to America's Best Colleges.
Community and campus
Radford University is an campus located in a residential area of Radford, Virginia. The town is located in the Virginia Highlands, between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains at a double bend in the New River. Nearly all of the 35 administrative, academic, student services, and residence halls are located on three quadrangles in a 76 acre area. The university's older Georgian brick edifices lend an air of history and purpose to the campus, while some of the modernist-style structures built in the high growth 1960's and 1970's detract from the campus' otherwise pleasing aesthetic. Several new buildings have been built in recent years that attempt to blend, with varying degrees of success, the classic Georgian architecture with the more economical but sparse modern buildings.
Student Life
3,150 students live on campus in 15 residence halls
More than 200 clubs and organizations
NCAA Division 1 Big South Conference athletics
400 intramural sports teams
Events, performances and lectures throughout the academic year
The university Foundation owns a tract of land known as the . The land borders the Little River and is located about five miles (8 km) southeast of the campus.
Radford is located on exits 105 and 109 of Interstate 81, with accessibility to nearby I-77.
Enrollment
Fall 2007 Semester statistics:
Number of students: 10,569
88% undergraduate, 12% graduate
57% female, 43% male
45 states and 47 countries represented
History
Radford was founded in 1910 by Dr. John Preston McConnell as a women's college as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at East Radford. The college was a normal school and offered a two-year degree in "rural arts".
In 1924 the school was renamed the State Teachers College at Radford and began an evolution towards a true college. Its primary focus was on training teachers for the rural Appalachian region nearby. In 1943 the college was renamed the Women's Division of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and merged into what is now known as the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) which was located away in Blacksburg, Virginia.
As the 1960s began, Virginia began to desegregate its gender specific schools, and Virginia Tech began to admit women on its main campus. This led to a "divorce" in 1964 and a renaming as Radford College. Over the next decade, the "finishing school" atmosphere of the college was dismantled. In 1972 the college began to admit men, and developed a graduate school at that time.
In 1979 the school became Radford University. Today, the school is a comprehensive state university. Fall semester 2005 enrollment was 9,552. About 45% of the students come from southwestern Virginia, 40% from other parts of Virginia, and 15% from out-of-state. Penelope W. Kyle, J.D., M.B.A., became Radford's sixth president June 1, 2005, after a career in business and government, most notably as director of the state lottery.
Radford also has a wide variety of Greek life. Among it are chapters such as Phi Kappa Sigma, Delta Chi, Phi Sigma Kappa, Theta Chi, Delta Zeta, Kappa Delta Rho, Kappa Sigma, Alpha Sigma Phi, Alpha Kappa Psi, Sigma Pi, Tau Kappa Epsilon, Phi Sigma Kappa, Alpha Chi Rho, Sigma Kappa, Sigma Sigma Sigma, Sigma Nu, Phi Sigma Sigma and many more.
Radford University's school colors started off as purple and gray, in 1913. In the 1970s, the colors were changed to the MacFarlane tartan of red, white, blue and green, to go with the school's Scottish theme. More recently, despite opposition from some students and alumni, the university administration abandoned the unique tartan scheme and adopted the more commonplace red and white as the school's athletic colors.
Athletics
The university's teams remain known as the Highlanders (in honor of the region's Scots-Irish heritage), and compete in the Big South Conference. Radford offers 19 NCAA varsity sports for men and women. The Radford men's basketball team won the Big South Conference tournament in 1998 and 2009. Radford also won the Big South Conference Men's Tennis Championship in 2007 & 2008.
The Radford men's Rugby team won the Division 2 National Championship in 2003 & 2008.
The recently renovated Dedmon Center (which borders the New River) is a recreational and convocation complex that opened in 1981. The Dedmon Center features a 1/6-mile indoor jogging track, five racquetball courts, a weight-training room, locker rooms, and several team rooms. The main arena features a main basketball floor and a secondary volleyball arena for intercollegiate competition and four recreational courts for basketball or volleyball. The complex features adjoining facilities, including intermural soccer, American football and softball fields, and intercollegiate fields and courts for baseball, softball, field hockey and tennis. The Patrick D. Cupp Stadium adds an intercollegiate soccer, lacrosse and track and field complex.
Notable Alumni
- Dave Mattingly, National Public Radio producer and newscaster.
- Nelson Harris, Former mayor of Roanoke, Virginia.
- Steve Robinson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Assistant Coach.
- Randal J. Kirk, Founder of New River Pharmaceuticals, winner of Virginia’s Outstanding Industrialist of 2008.
- Goran Nava, Olympian for Serbia in the 1500 meter run in the 2008 Olympics.
- Jayma Mays, Actress, Epic Movie, Red Eye Paul Blart: Mall Cop.
Administration
Penelope T. Kyle
President
Jo Ann Kiernan
Special Assistant to the President
Position Currently Vacant
Vice President for University Relations and Chief Communications Officer
Danny M. Kemp
Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
Norleen K. Pomerantz
Vice President for Student Affairs
Wilbur W. Stanton
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Position Currently Vacant
Vice President for Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer
Board of Visitors
Radford University is governed by a 13-member board that was created under Virginia state law. Eleven of the members are appointed by the Governor of the Commonwealth and serve four-year terms. Each year the Board also selects a student and a faculty member to serve as advisory representatives on the Board.
Office of the President
- Dr. John Preston McConnell, 1911-1937
- Dr. David Wilbur Peters, 1938-1951
- Dr. Charles Knox Martin Jr., 1952-1972, Chancellor, 1972-73, President Emeritus, 1973-1987
- Dr. Donald Newton Dedmon, 1972-1994
- Dr. Douglas Covington, 1995-2005
- Penelope W. Kyle, 2005 - Present
Office of the Provost
- Dr. Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith
- Dr. Wilbur W. Stanton, July 1, 2007 - Present
External links
- [https://php.radford.edu/~csat/ Radford University College of Information Science and Technology]
- [https://php.radford.edu/%7emes/index.php Radford University Museum of the Earth Sciences]
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