Penelope Kyle has a vision for this university, and it includes all of the institution’s stakeholders from yesterday and today.

Sometimes the best-kept secrets really don’t need to be secrets. When Penelope Kyle was appointed president of Virginia-based Radford University in 2005, she quickly came to that realization. Born and bred in Virginia, the perception Kyle had of what had known as Radford College in the 1970s was not what she saw nearly 40 years later.

“My overall mission as president has been to bring light to this hidden jewel in the mountains of Southwest Virginia,” Kyle said. “My challenge is figuring out how.”

Shared sense of passion
Radford University was founded in 1910 as an all-female college with a strong focus in teaching and nursing. In 1972, the college changed its designation to co-ed and six years later was granted university status. Through the years, the university has built its portfolio of programs; it now offers 153 undergraduate and graduate programs and was recently given the ability to award its first doctoral degree.

Penelope Kyle

The first step Kyle took was to assess the behind-the-scenes campus culture. Because Kyle arrived on campus in June, the grounds were primarily populated with faculty, administrators, and staff members. She took the opportunity to get to know Radford’s on-campus constituents and listen to what they had to say about their institution. What she discovered was a shared sense of passion.

“We have long-term employees who came here to teach, liked the campus and the student body, and decided to stay and make it their home,” she said. “From top administrators to clerical staff, many of our people have been here more than 20 years, and in my initial conversations, I found a loyal group of people who feel Radford is a wonderful place for them personally and professionally.”

The road ahead
With a strong foundation in place, Kyle then developed a team to chart the future of the institution. The Commission for the Future of Radford University includes members of the university’s board, faculty, alumni, students, staff, and community and business leaders. The commission marks the first time in decades that a new strategic plan will be developed involving such a variety of university stakeholders.

The group first met in January 2006 with a mission to analyze the university from top to bottom, grasp where the institution stands today, and hypothesize where the university should be in the future. “When we looked at Radford’s perceived place in higher education in the Commonwealth of Virginia, we discovered we were known for attributes we didn’t realize, and what we thought were our strengths were not as recognized,” Kyle said.

Because Radford University is a public institution, the commission is required to present its strategic plan to the board of visitors (the governing board appointed by the governor to adopt and implement strategic plans for public universities). The board is scheduled to meet later this fall, and Kyle has confidence that the plan, if approved, will chart a solid future for the institution.

“We know where we are today in our 97th year,” she said. “This plan will state what we think Radford University is and where we think we need to be to play the role we want to play in higher education in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

Another part of the strategic plan focuses on Kyle’s goal of raising the number of students on campus to 10,000, in the next four years, by offering more graduate degree programs and thereby more graduate students. Counting undergraduates and graduates, Radford University currently educates 9,300 students, making it one of the more uniquely sized institutions in the commonwealth.

“We’re large enough to offer a broad range of programs and degrees but small enough that students know each other and their professors by name,” Kyle said. “We want to continue and enhance that style of education as we grow.”

Giving back
While she waits to present the plan to the board, Kyle has been addressing a common issue for public institutions, namely fundraising. She and her administration plan to launch a more inclusive annual fund drive to reach out to all Radford alumni. She has also created a foundation to fundraise for athletic initiatives.

“Radford has never had an athletic foundation dedicated solely to private fundraising to support athletics,” Kyle said. “Athletics is a piece of the fabric of your life as a student, and when you’re asked to give back as an adult, it’s an easy sell because athletics was an enjoyable part of your student life.”

Radford is an NCAA division-one athletic program, which places it at the highest level of athletic competition. The administration is hoping its alumni base, especially those who had not been previously contacted to donate, will find athletics is something in which they want to invest. Kyle’s team has also started approaching alumni based on the college from which they graduated. The university is also forming a new foundation that will focus its fundraising efforts primarily on academic needs.

“When you graduate from an institution, your number one affinity and loyalty to that institution is to the department from which you earned your degree,” Kyle said. “We often hear the next connection is athletics. Essentially, we want to reach each of our alumni and let them know their contribution will ensure another student receives the same educational experience they did at Radford University.”