The Transformation of Virginia State University

This year, Virginia State University, the historically black educational institution in Ettrick, is celebrating the 125th anniversary of its founding. But Virginia State is not looking to its past. Instead the university is concentrating on its future.

Virginia State University plans to double its current enrollment from 5,000 to 10,000. In doing so it hopes to attract a large number of white students to campus. Today, 96 percent of the undergraduate students at Virginia State are black.

Virginia State is in the midst of an $87 million construction and renovation program. It has recently upgraded its offerings in computer science, liberal arts, and nursing and will soon open a school of engineering. The university just awarded its first doctorate and hopes to add several new doctoral programs in the near future.