The Radford University Board of Visitors will take up the 2009-10 budget at its two-day quarterly meeting beginning today on campus. The meeting follows Gov. Tim Kaine’s announcement Tuesday that Radford’s budget would be cut by $6.4 million.

Radford’s $160 million 2008-09 budget was slashed by 7.5 percent earlier this year, precipitating expedited program and departmental reviews that in turn caused upheaval and hard feelings between faculty and President Penelope Kyle’s administration.

The faculty senate then voted to appoint a committee to investigate the administration’s handling of university governance. Results of that investigation have not been announced. The senate is scheduled to meet at 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Kyle and Provost Wil Stanton apologized to the faculty at Radford’s annual convocation Aug. 27. Both called for unity in the face of increasingly hard times.

Stanton stopped short of saying the university could institute layoffs but told the faculty then that more than 90 percent of the student affairs budget is personnel. “It’s very difficult to cut the budget without cutting staff,” he said.

Radford’s overall enrollment also fell this year from 9,157 to about 9,000. Increases in graduate student enrollment were offset by a steep decline in freshman enrollment, Kyle said.

The board is also scheduled to elect a new rector and vice rector and vote on severance options for employees whose jobs are cut for budget reasons.