3rd Annual Black Town Hall Hosted by the Black Student Alliance Addresses Campus Concerns

By: Brandon Whitaker

 

Two years ago in the Spring of 2024, leaders from Radford’s Black Student Alliance created an event that would be called the Black Town Hall, spearheading a tradition of advocacy and open communication between the black student population and university administrators.

February 12th was the date of the 2026 Black Town Hall. The panel on the Bonnie auditorium stage included President Bret Danilowicz, VP of finance and administration Rob Hoover, Provost and VP of academic affairs Bethany Usher, VP of student affairs Susan Trageser, Dannette Gomez Bean who is VP for enrollment management and strategic communications as well as Penny White the VP for advancement in alumni relations. 

“Many students seem to be forced off campus after their sophomore year due to the lack of space, what is the plan in the future to prevent this from happening?…” 

The first question asked from the members of BSA sitting in the front row, centered on the topic of housing and how it feels as though students are being forced out of dorms and scrambling to find housing each year. Dr. Trageser shared that a few years ago when enrollment numbers were declining, Radford housing started accepting more non-obligated students,

“since we’ve been able to increase retention, keeping more students here at Radford to finish their degrees and the class sizes of our new entering students have increased and stabilized at around 1400. That does put us in a little bit of a bind in terms of how many (non-obligated) students we can house.” 

She shared that another factor playing a role in this issue is the residence hall renovations. She shared that currently there are no plans to purchase any additional properties to create more housing. The goal moving forward is to be as up front and open as possible about the overall housing situation and about how many non-obligated students may live in residence halls. She told the audience that the number of openings right now is sitting at around 200. 

“…are there any plans in place to modernize or improve the transit system to address (these) concerns?”- 

The next question focused on Radford transit and if there are any plans to improve the system. Dr. Hoover explained the university is working very closely with the City of Radford to identify and solve issues relating to the capacity and number of routes as well as the outdated technology and the appropriateness of the routes. He shared that soon the city is planning on conducting a study of the system and they will be encouraging students and faculty to provide input in addition to the input from the community overall. He added that the city has already conducted an internal study of their tech and determined that their technology has been out-of-date and has not been upgraded properly. The city is also re-evaluating the routes, so that students can get to where they need to be more efficiently, 

“We are examining the relationship between transit and parking, knowing that some of our parking is not exactly adjacent to the buildings, that students may be needing access to…” said Hoover.

Is there any clarification that can be provided regarding the limited funding allocated for the African-American studies department, The National Pan Hellenic Council and other diverse clubs and organizations by the university?

Next the panel answered questions regarding the funding of the NPHC as well as the African American studies department. Dr. Usher shared that the AAST program is actually one of the minor programs at Radford that receives the most funding. She also noted that the University does value the minor program very much and they are in the process of introducing a new director for the African American Studies program. Regarding the NPHC, Dr. Trageser explained that rejoining FSL means that the funding that supports FSL can support NPHC too. She pointed to the Club Programming Committee as another route they could go to acquire funds for events or travel.

The next question was related to how the university plans to continue supporting black and minority communities in Radford and surrounding cities. Dr Usher shared that just recently the university held a workshop to help local businesses register as SWaM businesses (small, women, and minority owned). This was done because state contracts require a percentage of university contracts to use SWaM businesses. Dr. Hoover also added that the state requires a certain utilzation rate for SWaM businesses and Radford is sitting at 42% which he says is higher than many other institutions across the state. 

The Tartan spoke with the President of BSA Jasmine Graham and Vice President Arshae Jackson to gauge their thoughts on the night overall. 

“I feel like we heard a lot of solutions happening and I didn’t hear a lot of running around our questions which was really good, as far as the turnout goes we would love to see more of the student body here, these questions are pertaining to them and their student involvement and their student life” shared Graham. Jackson added, “We are advocating for you and this is a time where you can get in direct contact with the president and his cabinet and if there were any questions that we missed we opened the floor up for anyone to ask questions as well.”