Photos by Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Radford University President Penelope Kyle apologized Tuesday for any miscommunication after hundreds of people stormed out of a forum on the budget held last week.

Radford University junior Brandi Gross raises her hand to ask a question Tuesday during a forum on curriculum cuts. About 1,000 people attended.

RADFORD -- Radford University held a forum Tuesday and, this time, most of the audience stayed to the end.

Not everyone in the crowd of nearly 1,000 students and faculty was satisfied with the answers given by Provost Wil Stanton and members of the university's Academic Program Review Committee, but Tuesday's forum on the review of academic programs was less contentious than the one Radford held Thursday on the budget. Upset that their questions were being screened and their concerns about academic programs weren't being addressed, hundreds of students stormed out of that forum.

Radford President Penelope Kyle promised a separate forum to address the review of 24 academic programs the university is undergoing. She started Tuesday's event with an apology for any misunderstanding about the purpose of the budget forum.

"I did not connect the budget issues that we face with the program review that was under way. ... I thank you for returning," she said.

Stanton and Dennis Grady, dean of the College of Graduate and Professional Studies and chairman of the Academic Program Review Committee, answered most of the questions. More than a dozen faculty and administrators, including the committee members, lined the stage to answer questions from the crowd for about 90 minutes.

Most of the programs under review are liberal arts disciplines, and a student group formed two weeks ago to preserve the educational quality of the university goes by the name Students Advocating the Liberal Arts. Stanton and Grady tried to dispel the notion that liberal arts programs at the school were being targeted by referring to objective criteria that led to 29 programs coming under review -- measurements of program popularity, productivity and usefulness used by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. The university chose programs that were less than 150 percent beyond SCHEV thresholds, such as the number of degrees awarded in a program.

Stanton said five of the programs were voluntarily discontinued before the review process began. Of the remaining 24, the committee recommended only one be discontinued -- the post-baccalaureate certificate in Appalachian studies. That program was the subject of the first question of the forum -- an emotional appeal by Cynthia Coughlin, a senior interdisciplinary studies major. She explained the importance of the program in furthering lifelong learning and giving social workers and teachers valuable knowledge. She also said a clarification was needed about the popularity of the certificate program. Eight students have graduated since it was established in the summer of 2005, she said.

Stanton said the review process is expanding and developing, and will include nonacademic programs, such as admissions, in the future. While state budget cuts called for quick action in the fall to examine programs, whatever programs are cut will not be done because of those reductions. They are part of a long-term strategic plan. And the process must move forward so the course catalog for next year is accurate, he said.

Now that the committee has reviewed the programs, the faculty senate will comment on them before Stanton sends recommendations to Kyle. The Radford University Board of Visitors could vote on programs recommended to be discontinued at its April 22-23 meeting.

Philosophy professor Glen Martin received loud applause after he took issue with the speed of the reviews.

"This process, with two days' notice to leaders of these programs ... then giving us two weeks to come up with a pitiful five-page document ... it seems that the whole process is educationally degrading and demeaning to our whole university," he said.

But with a couple of exceptions, the tone of the forum was calm. The audience asked questions directly, and several students still had their hands raised at the end. Stanton said he would be happy to have another forum. Multiple students thanked the university for holding the event before asking their questions.

Sophomore Emily Walker, one of the co-founders of SALA, said her group's work isn't done. She said SALA, which has more than 1,100 members, will have a presence at the April board of visitors meeting.

"Part of the issue, I think, is we're talking to the wrong people," she said.