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Spring 2024 Board Updates

Board approves new Lab School at April meeting

At the regular spring meeting April 18-19, the Roanoke College Board of Trustees approved and endorsed Explore@RC, a Commonwealth of Virginia College Partnership Lab School. The college is working in partnership with Salem High School with the intent to open for the 2024-25 school year. The college received an initial planning grant of nearly $200,000 last summer.

The project is pending approval from the state Board of Education, which is expected to vote on the matter as early as today. If approved the college will receive $3.57 million to fund the school – the largest state grant ever received by Roanoke College.

The on-campus experience will empower high school students in grades 10-12 to thrive academically, socially and personally by:

  • employing a variety of learning approaches;col
  • ensuring students gain critical thinking, analysis and collaborative skills; and
  • focusing on three career-oriented pathways: education/global studies, STEM/health care, and communications/civic engagement.

“The Board of Trustees and Roanoke College administration have been excited about the opportunities Explore@RC will provide: reaching a new student population and deepening well-established partnerships,” said Lisa Stoneman, Education Department chair. “Our proposal has been a true community effort, bringing together an Advisory Board and ultimately a Governing Board comprised of school district and college administrators, teachers, college faculty, community members and business leaders.”

Trustees also approved the final design of the memorial to enslaved persons. The memorial, designed by Richmond artist and educator Sandy Williams IV, will be placed in the grass across Maxey Way from Roselawn and is expected to be unveiled in April 2025.

The striking bronze piece, entitled Authors and Architects, is a bronze sculpture in the form of hundreds of stacked books. Many of the books will be engraved with the names of enslaved people with ties to the school’s history, and the books will be cast from 3D scanned replicas of the college’s original library and record books. The names were found by student researchers through the Center for Studying Structures of Race. The sculpture will create a physical presence dedicated to the memory of enslaved laborers while acknowledging the freedom and education denied to them in their own time and underscoring the immense importance they played in the establishment and success of the Roanoke community. Some books will be left blank, to be filled as additional names are uncovered through further research. Planning for the memorial began in February 2020 and is being funded through philanthropic support from alumni and friends of the college.

Looking to the future, the board heard an update on the new Science Center, which will reimagine three major buildings on campus to create a state-of-the-art hub for STEM learning and research. Construction will be done in phases starting with the demolition of the circa-1970s Massengill Auditorium in late summer/early fall. Massengill was celebrated during a groundbreaking for the project on Alumni Weekend, which followed the spring board meeting.

In other news, the board awarded emeriti status to a number of retiring faculty, including Professor Lynn Talbot, Associate Professor Kenneth McGraw, Professor Roland Minton, Professor Joshua Rubongoya, and Professor James Peterson. The board also approved new faculty appointments for 2024-25 and passed a resolution for the awarding of degrees at next month’s commencement.

On Wednesday evening, prior to board committee meetings, trustees participated in a feedback session to help guide the college’s new strategic plan. They provided critical input on the proposed projects and initiatives they deemed most important to the college’s future. These suggestions came from more than 1,300 ideas collected by stakeholders across the college during an initial planning session in fall 2023. A final draft of the strategic plan will be presented to the board for their approval in October. More information about the process, including five strategic goals, a timeline and updates, can be found here. The board then joined faculty and staff at a social hour hosted by the Teaching Collaborative and gathered for the Emancipation Week lecture by Sandy Williams IV, the artist who designed the aforementioned memorial.

In the president’s report to the board, Shushok highlighted a multi-pronged enrollment strategy the college is taking to adapt to nationwide demographic and enrollment shifts and the uncertainty caused by the glitches in the new federal student aid (FAFSA) system that debuted last December. This strategy focuses on increasing student retention, average net-tuition, and on-campus residency numbers in addition to considering total enrollment and class size.  

Shushok announced that the college has already exceeded its goal of 70 new, unique students for the football, band, cheer program. Launched this year, these programs and others are part of the larger strategy to attract new students to Roanoke. Shushok expressed optimism the goals will be met or exceeded. 

Shushok also shared the following good news regarding philanthropic support for the college:

  • In addition to other gifts, the college has raised more than $4 million this academic year that is specifically earmarked for student success, including funds for a one-stop student success center in Fintel Library.
  • The college has also received multiple early commitments of $25,000 over the course of five years to the President’s 25 fundraising initiative for endowed scholarships, including many from board members. To date, the college has received commitments of approximately $400,000. One donor is matching President’s 25 contributions up to $1M.
  • The 2024 Giving Day total was $350,000, higher than last year.

The Board thanked Faculty Moderator Ivonne Wallace Fuentes and SGA President Joshua Masten for their valuable contributions to board discussions over the past year. Additionally, trustees voted to make Nicole Terrill a full voting member of the board at the end of her term as co-chair of the Parent’s Leadership Council. Mike and Ann Cherry, parents of a rising junior at the college, will succeed Terrill and her husband, Greg, as PLC chairs.

Trustees also enjoyed a plenary session entitled “Resistance to Change in Higher Education,” by Brian Rosenberg. Rosenberg is the president emeritus of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., and author of "Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Resistance to Change in Higher Education," (Harvard Education Press: 2023).  Rosenberg posited that the greatest threat facing today’s colleges and universities isn’t just declining enrollment, but rather an engrained culture relying on outdated practices and traditions that create obstacles to meaningful reform. 

Rosenberg advised that colleges must become more nimble and entrepreneurial to expand access and decrease the cost of a college degree if they are to persevere in today’s landscape of increased educational options. Rosenberg discussed the importance of supporting creativity and innovation, and providing new programs, and experiential learning opportunities to help smaller colleges distinguish themselves. 

The trustees meeting led right into the college’s Alumni Weekend, which included 40+ events and activities over three days. Early estimates of attendance are between 800-1,200.

The board will convene for its regular fall meeting Oct. 24-25.