RADFORD, Va. – Radford University took another step to make college accessible to all.
Radford University’s president, Dr. Bret Danilowicz, announced Virginia students can get their tuition covered if their household makes less than $100,000 per year.
“Starting next fall, August 2024, the Radford Tuition Promise ensures that the cost of tuition is covered for residents in the Commonwealth whose families have an adjusted income of $100,000 or less,” Danilowicz announced.
Funded through financial aid, the Radford Tuition Promise will be available to any Virginian pursuing an undergraduate degree at Radford University.
Danilowicz said it is about making college accessible to everyone and that it is not only low-income families struggling to pay for college.
“It’s not just families that are the most needy that have a difficult conversation about affording college,” said Danilowicz. “It is people well up into the middle class.”
One official in enrollment for the university said affordable access to college is needed in Southwest Virginia.
“This makes that possible by putting money back in their pockets so that they are able to activate their talents at a place like Radford,” said Dr. Dannette Gomez Beane, the vice president of enrollment management and strategic communication at Radford University. “Affordability is the number one question that folks are asking themselves, ‘How are we going to afford this?’”
The program will also be available to currently enrolled students.
One student from Richmond said this could be a good thing for many students.
“If I don’t have to pay for college, get a free education, and not be in debt, I mean I think that could really work wonders,” said Jerrod Traynham, a sophomore at Radford University.
He said graduating without college debt could make his dream of owning a gym doable.
“I could just focus all the income I get from my job, or whatever source of income I have, and slowly put it towards the gym,” Traynham said.
Radford’s Tuition Promise does not include room and board.
The university’s president said the program will start in the fall of 2024.