ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, January 10, 1996            TAG: 9601100055
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER 

RU REMAINS CLOSED

Radford University will be closed again today as students with cabin fever - who at this point probably wouldn't mind going to class - wait to find out if school is open Thursday

"It's a good probability that we will be," said Deborah Brown, university spokeswoman. "But we are monitoring what's going on in other parts of the state."

Officials will decide about a Thursday reopening at 11 a.m. today. Students and workers should call 831-5000 to find out when to report to class or work or listen to campus radio 89.9 FM, WVRU.

"What we want to do, if we can, is start classes and registration at the same time," said Charlie King, the university's vice president for financial affairs.

Because 90 percent of students preregistered, administrators hope only a few hundred still need to sign up for classes, King said.

Second semester classes had been scheduled to start Monday.

Reopening delays have been directly related to the slow progress being made as workers diligently scoop, shovel, and scrape snow and ice from every outdoor surface. Secondary roads across the state reportedly were keeping travelers from reaching interstates, while back on campus, mountains of snow grew exponentially as plows worked the parking lots, King said.

"It's taking everything we can do to get the parking lots cleared out," said King, who added that the plowed snow is being carted away to a parking lot across Norwood Street.

An estimated 300 students have spent the week in campus dormitories, which opened Jan. 6, staffed by residence hall advisers. Dining halls have been open, too.

What's been a stop-and-start week at Radford has been more of a sigh of relief at neighboring Virginia Tech, where students still are on winter break. Tech has simply shut down.

"The decision would have been one heck of a lot tougher if the students had been here," said spokesman Larry Hincker, who admitted to a mild case of cabin fever as he spoke to the newspaper from home.

Tech's classes are scheduled to start Jan. 15.

LENGTH: Short :   50 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  ALAN KIM. With most students unable to make it back to 
          the campus because of the snowstorm, Radford University postponed 
          its first day of classes Monday, then Tuesday, then today. A 
          Thursday opening still is up in the air.