A new record

Couple pledges $8 million for scholarships for business and art students

Published November 30, 2018 by Tim Thornton

Radford University collected $8 million in donations the year before Brian Hemphill became president.

Last year, Hemphill’s first as president, the university received $10.7 million in gifts. Nearly half of that came through a record-setting $5 million donation from Nancy and Pat Artis.

This year, the university raised $15.2 million. More than $11 million of that was dedicated to scholarships, including another record-setting gift of $8 million from Sandra and Jack Davis.

Announced in October, the Davises’ gift will provide scholarships for students in the university’s College of Visual and Performing Arts and the newly named Sandra C. Davis and William C. Davis College of Business and Economics.

The 350-seat performance hall inside the Covington Center has been named the Sandra C. Davis and William C. Davis Performance Hall.

In addition, the donation will create the Sandra C. Davis and William C. Davis Endowed Scholarship Fund, which will provide scholarships of $2,000 per semester or $4,000 per academic year to Virginia residents who are freshmen or transfer students studying in the two colleges. A year’s tuition and fees for in-state students is $11,210.

The first class of Davis Scholars will include three students. The university says there will eventually be 80 Davis scholars each academic year.

Sandra Davis owns BCR Property Management, which manages rental property aimed at students in Blacksburg and Radford. A former member of Radford’s board of trustees, she is chairwoman of the Virginia Tech Foundation and was a member of the Taubman Museum of Art’s founding board.

Jack Davis is the former director of Virginia Tech’s Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and a four-time winner of the Jefferson Davis Award, given for book-length works on Confederate history.