President's Pen - Spring 2025

I didn’t grow up in a family that was transparent about our household finances. I remember sensing instability as a child and just hoping that things would be fine. 

Those who love Roanoke College are probably like me growing up: You hear a lot of noise about small college closings, deficits, the proverbial “demographic cliff,” rising student debt and Americans' growing lack of confidence in higher education. Sensing instability, you just hope that things will be fine for Roanoke College.

As president, I favor transparency about ‘the family finances’ at Roanoke. To be candid, our fiscal position is strained for all the reasons you hear in the news. It’s impossible to explain the associated complexities in a short note, but I hope to offer a compelling case for sacrificial generosity as the most reliable hope for our college. 

Our philanthropic emphasis has long been focused on the Cregger and Science Center projects. We should be humbly astonished by what we’ve accomplished, but our focus must now shift. Starting today, our fundraising efforts will be bold and resoundingly focused on student financial aid, because our future depends on providing an affordable and sustainable education. 

Each year, the college awards more than $36 million in institutional financial aid to students, but only $3.6 million of that is funded through endowment proceeds. The remaining $32.4 million is a reduction in what the college charges a student, and therefore also a reduction in revenue per student. Even with this assistance, in 2024, our students graduated with an average of $36,000 in student loans, a growing number that is becoming harder for families to justify. This puts us in the justifiable position of needing to charge more while families justifiably need to pay less. This is one reason the college currently runs a deficit and can’t increase financial aid. 

Flip through the pages of this magazine and you’ll see that wonderful things happen every day at Roanoke. We’re building new community partnerships, creating initiatives like Roanoke College-Roanoke Valley, growing programs, expanding access to non-traditional students, and much more. But we must work diligently as a community to reduce the costs of attendance, especially for middle- and lower-income students. 

That’s why my greatest philanthropic priority is raising endowed student financial aid. As you reflect on your own family resources, I hope you’ll consider investing in our remarkable students. This is one of the best returns on investment that any of us can make. 

About 15 percent of alumni make an annual contribution to the college. We’ll need more people in the ‘family’ to step up, no matter what gift size, to serve our students and deploy the historic mission of Roanoke College. Will you be one of the first to model the way?

With hope, 

Frank Shushok Jr.

This column was originally published in Issue One, 2025, of Roanoke College Magazine. You may read the full issue on the magazine archives page.