If there's a mantra among Radford University's administration, it must be, "We're on the move."

Or, maybe, as newly elected Rector Thomas Fraim said toward the end of last week's board of visitors meeting, "We're on the move in a lot of ways."

The university has nearly 1,900 freshmen, four new deans, three new members of the board of visitors, 33 new faculty members, its first endowed chair and the first five students enrolled in its first doctoral program.

Meanwhile, Radford is losing 20 faculty members, has lost the top three people in its admissions office and the top two people in its university relations office.

Young Hall and the Dedmon Center are in the middle of major renovations, so the athletic department has moved across campus. Some classes have moved into trailers, and basketball and volleyball games are moving back into the old gym in Peters Hall.

Some faculty and university offices have moved into what used to be apartments on the edge of campus.

Leadership changes abound

The new faculty include a Fulbright language teaching assistant who is teaching Radford's first Arabic classes.

The exiting faculty took advantage of the university's work force transition option, an incentive package meant to encourage early retirement. They will take a combined 548 years of teaching experience with them when they leave at the end of the fall semester.

Dave Kraus, Amy Jarich and Rebekah LaPlante have already left. Kraus was director of admissions, Jarich was associate director and LaPlante was senior assistant director.

The freshman class settling into campus is touted as the largest in two decades, but the state-mandated census day is Sept. 15, so the official count is not in yet.

Admissions spots empty

University officials do not want to fill the admissions office vacancies until they have filled the new vice provost post whose responsibilities will include the admissions office. So they plan to work this academic year with the top three admissions slots empty.

Provost Wil Stanton and vice provosts Steve Lerch and Rick Slavings will try to fill in. Mike Dunn, director of new student programs, will devote part of his time to the admissions office's day-to-day management.

"It's not to say this won't be a challenge," Stanton said. "It's not to say we didn't all have day jobs before this."

Lerch said, "We're going to do our absolute best so that nobody knows that we're going through this year without an official director of admissions."

The registrar's office, which will also fall under the jurisdiction of the new vice provost, has been led by an interim registrar for more than year and a half.

In university relations, Michael Hemphill, a former Roanoke Times reporter and columnist, has stepped in as a temporary replacement for Rob Tucker, who was director of university relations.

Tucker, after more than two decades at Radford, left for Randolph College last week.

John Hachtel, the vice president for university relations, was Tucker's boss. Hachtel has been unavailable for comment, but Hemphill is working in what was Hachtel's office.

"I don't know where he is," Hemphill said last week. "All I know is I'm filling in for Rob Tucker and I report directly to Cathy Greenberg."

Greenberg is vice president for university advancement. This time last year, that job was held by Sherri Mylott. Greenberg, who was once in charge of advertising at The Roanoke Times, got the title in August.

Hachtel joined the university in November 2007, a year and a half after the top university relations job became vacant.

Hachtel and Mylott join Ivelaw Griffith, the university's first provost, as top members of the Radford leadership team who lasted less than a year in President Penelope Kyle's administration.

Mobile classrooms in use

Buildings aren't generally mobile, but Radford is using three mobile classroom units, with two classrooms each, to fill in while Young Hall is being renovated.

Administrators say faculty members like the trailers. The furniture is new and the classrooms are air-conditioned and laden with new technology.

Other buildings will be ready before Young reopens. The new Douglas and Beatrice Covington Fine Arts Center for the visual and performing arts is scheduled to have its grand opening in November.

The Dedmon Center should be back in use by January. Young is not officially scheduled to reopen until the fall of 2009.

That is also when two new graduate programs -- a master's of occupational therapy and a doctorate of physical therapy -- are scheduled to begin. The doctoral program will have the university's first endowed chair.

The university's first doctoral program, in psychology, enrolled its first students this fall. Radford has already taken a proposal for a third doctoral program -- this one in nursing -- to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.