Latest news with #RoanokeCollege
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Consumer confidence in Virginia nears record low as economic anxiety grows
Consumer confidence in Virginia nears a record low, according to a Roanoke College poll, as tariff concerns and economic uncertainty outweigh gains in wages. (Photo by) Consumer sentiment in Virginia continues to slide, reaching its second-lowest level on record, according to the latest quarterly report by the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research (IPOR) at Roanoke College, released Wednesday. 'While the labor market remains strong and wage growth is outpacing inflation, uncertainty is weighing heavily on consumers, particularly around tariffs,' said Alice Louise Kassens, Roanoke College's John S. Shannon Professor of Economics and senior analyst at IPOR. 'This uncertainty is reflected in both short- and long-term inflation expectations, which remain elevated despite recent easing in actual inflation rates.' The Virginia Index of Consumer Sentiment fell to 63.6 in the second quarter of 2025, continuing a 13-point slide over the past six months and marking the second-lowest reading since the index began in 2011. The drop underscores growing unease among Virginians, particularly surrounding the economic consequences of new tariffs and the general direction of the national economy. Kassens warned that a continued slide in sentiment could soon translate into concrete economic consequences. 'Consumer spending, which drives nearly 70% of economic activity, has remained robust, albeit tempered,' she said. 'However, if sentiment continues to decline, we may see a pullback in spending that could slow economic growth or even trigger a recession.' That warning comes despite some signs of strength in the broader economy. The labor market remains resilient, and Virginia workers are seeing wage increases that exceed inflation. Average wage growth in the commonwealth is currently 3.8%, compared to 2.3% inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index. This gap suggests increased purchasing power for households, a key support for ongoing economic activity. Still, many Virginians remain cautious. Just 20% of respondents said their household finances are better today than they were a year ago, while 30% expect improvement over the next year. Meanwhile, 32% anticipate worsening conditions, and 59% believe the next few years will be marked by economic difficulty. Short-term inflation expectations remain stubbornly high, even as actual inflation continues to moderate. Many survey respondents indicated they were accelerating purchases of big-ticket items like refrigerators in anticipation of higher prices to come. In fact, 37% said it was a good time to buy such durable goods, citing concern over the inflationary effects of tariffs. 'Despite months of easing inflationary fears in the commonwealth over 2024, the inflationary effects of tariffs are keeping short-term inflation expectations elevated,' the report notes. 'These concerns can have a chilling effect on the economy as consumers and businesses experience difficulty in financial planning.' The Virginia Index of Current Conditions, which measures sentiment about personal finances and buying conditions today, declined 2.2 points from last quarter to 60.8. That remains slightly above the national index, a trend that continued in future expectations as well. The Virginia Index of Consumer Expectations held at 65.4 — unchanged from the previous quarter — while the national index dropped nearly 18 points to 46.5. Kassens said that disparity may point to some localized resilience. 'The divergence between Virginia and national sentiment, where Virginia remains more optimistic, suggests regional resilience, but that could be tested if inflationary and uncertainty pressures persist,' Kassens said. 'As we move into the second half of 2025, the trajectory of consumer sentiment will be a key indicator to watch.' The results are based on a representative sample of 719 Virginia adults surveyed between May 12 and May 19. The survey was conducted using a combination of phone interviews (including landlines and texts to mobile phones) and an online panel. The phone sample was drawn by Marketing Systems Group using random digit dialing, while the online panel was managed by Cint USA, Inc. Responses were statistically weighted to reflect the gender, age, and racial demographics of Virginia according to the 2023 American Community Survey. Regional quotas were also applied to ensure proportional representation across different areas of the state. About 38% of completed phone and text-to-web interviews came via mobile phones. Interviews were conducted in English, and attention checks were built into the online questionnaire to ensure quality responses. The continued decline in consumer confidence — despite economic indicators that might otherwise encourage optimism — suggests that psychological factors such as uncertainty and inflation fear may be outweighing hard data in shaping household expectations. Kassens emphasized that while wage growth and job availability remain bright spots, sentiment will be a key factor to watch as the year progresses. 'We're at a critical juncture,' she said. 'If consumers lose confidence in their ability to spend and plan ahead, it could create ripple effects that weaken an otherwise sturdy economic foundation.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Spanberger leads Earle-Sears in Roanoke College Poll
Washington (DC News Now) — We are getting an early-look at the November Gubernatorial matchup in Virginia. A new poll released by Roanoke College shows Democratic nominee, Abigail Spanberger, ahead of Republican, Winsome Earle-Sears, 43% to 26%. 28% of registered voters are undecided, while 3% say they would vote for someone else. Dr. Harry Wilson is the Interim Director for the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College. He breaks down this new poll. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
We Got Sick — Was Our College to Blame?
Portions of this article rely on accounts, reporting, and materials that could not be independently corroborated. I turned 32 recently, and spent much of my birthday thinking about Ida Peterson Hardon, a fellow Roanoke College alum who died of leukemia on May 13, 2024. She was 33. I didn't set out to become a cancer activist. Honestly, I just wanted someone to listen to my story. When I was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2019 at the age of 25, I believed the fight would be clinical, personal, and ultimately behind me once treatment ended. I'd go through chemo, recover, and get back to my life — a life that had begun in earnest on the red-brick campus of Roanoke College, where I studied from 2011 to 2015. But my diagnosis didn't feel like a fluke: I'd seen an Instagram post about another Roanoke girl in treatment. Another friend from my sorority pledge class. Then a group chat lit up with news of Ida Peterson Hardon, one more alum who was sick. I felt a sense of déjà vu: These students were diagnosed far too young with a disease that was supposed to come much later — if ever. Faculty members from the school's English department, who worked in a building called Miller Hall, had reportedly fallen ill. (Later, a May 2025 article published in AirMail would state that at least eight Roanoke professors were diagnosed with cancer — five of whom fought breast cancer.) Alumni were reportedly diagnosed within years of graduation, shattering entire friend groups before the age of 35. For years, those cases were discussed only in whispers. Then a reporter learned that the college had conducted environmental testing on campus buildings in 2023 — after professor Mary Crockett Hill's 2023 stage IV colon cancer diagnosis — but kept the results hidden until the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) got involved. (OSHA reportedly received a complaint by an anonymous faculty member in 2024, about the lack of transparency regarding the testing.) But none of the test results were shared with students or faculty — until whistleblowers and journalists forced the truth into the open. I never intended to become an overnight 'TikTok sensation.' In the fall of 2023, I recorded a video in which I talked about my college — and all the young alums being diagnosed with cancer. I ended up with 1.5M views. Journalist Clara Molot saw my video and reached out; I began working with her in fall 2023. Initially, I finally felt a sense of relief. Someone was willing not just to listen — but to really investigate. She wanted to talk to everyone connected to what felt more and more like a crisis: the disturbing number of cancers linked to Roanoke College. In May 2024, Molot published part one of her investigation, 'Roanoke's Requiem.' I read it with my stomach in knots. Friends, faculty, buildings I knew by heart — all laid bare in black and white. I recognized that specific ache: the gut-punch realization that something you once loved might have hurt you. After the first article ran, I wrote to the college in September 2024, and got more than 220 students to co-sign that letter. It was addressed to Roanoke President Frank Shushok, urging the school to complete the environmental testing it had promised to conduct (particularly since students had already moved in for the academic year in August). We weren't demanding much — just the truth and test results. Instead, we got handpicked summaries and concealed reports. (The results Roanoke did release, Molot reported, were only available behind a password-protected site — accessible only to current students and faculty.) That response — the absence of transparency, and the lack of urgency or even basic concern — appalled me. Because here's what I know now, and what I can never un-know: Too many of us got sick. Too many of us have died. Too many of us can relapse. And those in power are still treating it like a coincidence. But we knew it wasn't. In 2024, the environmental testing company the school had hired to investigate, Engineering Consulting Services (ECS), finally released a portion of its test results. Maybe now we'd finally get answers. Instead, Molot obtained the details of ECS's testing, which revealed that it had skipped the most basic and essential step: indoor air testing for volatile organic compounds. (The report isn't available publicly, but was reviewed for Molot's piece.) That's like seeing smoke and deciding not to check for fire. What ECS did test — sub-slab soil gas — showed industrial levels of carbon tetrachloride beneath the school's Bartlett Hall; perchloroethylene in a dormitory called Chalmers; and chloroform across multiple dorms, fraternity houses, and Miller Hall itself. All three chemicals are probable carcinogens, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, part of the World Health Organization) and the US National Toxicology Program (NTP). And still, according to the ECS report obtained by Molot, students weren't relocated. Parents weren't notified. As Molot's findings rolled in, so did the spin: President Shushok told faculty that full reports wouldn't be released because people might 'misuse' them. Virginia Department of Health (VDH) officials joked — in emails obtained by Molot — with Roanoke's legal council about being thankful no reporters had brought it up. One wrote, 'Ugh — I was really hoping it had gone away.' Molot, who'd begun investigating our story in fall 2023, was still digging — and the additional details she found resulted in a second piece on the case, published in May 2025. In her reporting, Molot recounted that she uncovered 11 cases of breast cancer linked to Roanoke. Ten cases of thyroid. Nine of melanoma. Five of lymphoma. And then there were the rarer diseases — appendix, uterine, pancreatic cancers — the types that Columbia University's epidemiologist Mary Beth Terry told Molot were 'extremely rare' in people our age. One nurse at the cancer center in Roanoke allegedly asked a faculty member, 'What are they putting in the water at that school?' Right now, we need answers. Why were cancer-causing chemicals allowed to fester under our dorms?Why wasn't indoor air testing conducted?Why weren't students and parents told about the ECS test results?Why did it take OSHA's intervention to release the mold report?Why did VDH coordinate with Roanoke's legal counsel before testing results were even published?Why are young people still getting sick? The VDH has continued to dodge responsibility, and Roanoke College issued a statement on May 11 declaring, 'After a year of comprehensive testing, we unequivocally deny that there is any scientific evidence that indicates that students who attend Roanoke are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than students at any other institutions.' Together, they've ensured that we're left assembling a puzzle of grief with no support — and no acknowledgment that a pattern even exists. I wish I could end this story by telling you that the dorms were evacuated, that students were placed in different dormitories than the ones that had been tested. But I can't. In the May 11 letter from President Shushok, he states that ECS 'did not recommend relocating the students' and that according to ECS, 'no further investigations appear to be warranted.' What I can say is: We're still here. We are the survivors, the siblings, the sons and daughters of Roanoke, and we'll keep asking questions. We will keep telling the truth. Because truth is the only thing that might protect the next generation of students walking into those buildings. We're not here to scare or shame Roanoke — we're trying to protect its residents. This is about the safety of current students, faculty, staff, and those yet to come. It's for alumni who haven't seen a doctor in years and deserve to know if they need to. What's baffling is that the administration seems unwilling to investigate further, even when their own health and safety could be at stake. But first, we're asking Roanoke officials to start looking at the realities the members of their community, and the city of Salem, are facing. That's where the answers are. Before publishing this piece, KCM contacted Roanoke for comment; the college replied with this statement: 'Cancer is a horrible disease that no person should have to bear, and it is especially heartbreaking to us that some of our alumni and employees have been faced with a cancer diagnosis. Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the U.S., and it has been well documented in the media and scientific journals that diagnoses among younger Americans are on the rise. When it comes to cancer, we fully understand the desire for answers; however, there is no evidence that the answer lies at Roanoke. We believe students who attend our institution are no more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than students who attend other colleges. When Roanoke was made aware of these concerns in 2024, we reacted swiftly and with gravity, immediately embarking on a year-long battery of independent environmental tests. We took this step despite the Virginia Department of Health's statement that there is no evidence of a cancer cluster at Roanoke College. During the testing process, we published seven updates on the college website to keep the community informed. Any concerns identified through the testing were minor and were quickly remediated, and the overall findings revealed no ongoing, systemic concerns at Roanoke College. The article referenced in this op-ed contains inaccuracies and serious omissions. However, we are confident in both the safety of our campus and the integrity of our process, and we remain committed to ensuring that Roanoke College is a safe place to live, work and learn.' Chloe Svolos Baldwin is a 32-year-old cancer survivor dedicated to improving the lives of fellow survivors through her work in healthcare. She lives in Boston with her husband, Luke, and loves cooking, reading, and taking long walks with Taylor Swift in her ears. The post We Got Sick — Was Our College to Blame? appeared first on Katie Couric Media.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New poll shows Spanberger with 17-point lead over Earle-Sears
Former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (left), and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. (Photos by Parker Michels-Boyce and Mechelle Hankerson for the Virginia Mercury) Former congresswoman and Democratic nominee for governor Abigail Spanberger fared better with voters than current lieutenant governor and Republican nominee Winsome Earle-Sears, according to a Roanoke College poll released Thursday showing Spanberger leading Earle-Sears 43%-26%. This follows another poll published this week showing Spanberger with a 4-point lead over Earle-Sears. The Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College interviewed 658 Virginia residents between May 12 and May 19 to determine that Spanberger leads Earle-Sears by 17 percentage points. Meanwhile, another new poll commissioned by business organization Virginia FREE conducted between May 9 and May 13 shows independent voters favoring Spanberger by 53%-47%. That poll included 1,000 participants. The Roanoke College poll's margin of error is 5.25%. While the sample sizes of the polls is much smaller than the number of people who are likely to participate in November's statewide election, polls conducted sporadically leading up to elections can point to partisan tides. The Roanoke College poll also explored key issues that could affect both campaigns such as the national deficit and debt, political anxiety and the job approval of the current president and governor. More than half of polled voters, 51%, think ' things in Virginia have gotten off on the wrong track,' while 66% held the same sentiment about the country as a whole. Voters also had mixed feelings about leadership in the state and country, with Gov. Glenn Youngkin's job approval rating coming in at 46%, which Roanoke College noted as 'his lowest and down seven points since November.' President Donald Trump's job approval rating, 31%, was low but not his lowest. Participants also weighed in with their approval and disapproval of Youngkin's successor. Spanberger rated 41% favorable/40% unfavorable, similar to how polled voters rated her last November, while Earle-Sears' favorability dropped from her previous rating and stands at 32% favorable/48% unfavorable. About one-fifth of respondents did not offer opinions on either candidates' favorability. The voter anxiety index from the Roanoke poll is 89.41, and reflects big shifts in how Virginians in both parties perceive the current state of government. Democratic voters' anxiety skyrocketed from -10.39 in May 2024 to 101.77 last November, with a current anxiety index of 153.35. Meanwhile, Republican voters' anxiety index decreased last year, from 166.59 in May to 13.52 in November 2024, and now stands at -30.10. These figures reflect that political anxiety correlates closely with partisan control of the White House and Congress. With Virginia's gubernatorial election falling the year after a presidential election, the past two decades have shown that voters typically elect a governor who is the opposite party of the one who won the White House the year prior. On national debt perceptions, a large majority of Virginians, 42%, are very concerned, while 40% said they are somewhat concerned. When it comes to the cause of the national deficit, a majority, 61%, thinks it is a result of spending too much, while 34% think it's from not raising enough money through taxes. When asked how to address the deficit, 74% of respondents favor raising taxes for people earning more than $400,000 annually, while 82% oppose across-the-board tax raises for everyone. Seventy-one percent of respondents oppose wholesale spending cuts. 'Six months in a gubernatorial election season is an eternity in politics, but one would prefer to be ahead by 17 points,' said Dr. Harry Wilson, interim director for IPOR and professor emeritus of political science at Roanoke College. He added that more than a quarter of Virginians are still undecided voters — which could be good news for both candidates. 'Spanberger is obviously leading at this point, and she leads among independents, but a large number of Republicans are undecided, and they will most likely end up voting for Earle-Sears,' Wilson said. 'The favorable rating for Earle-Sears, however, should be cause for concern.'SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Boston Globe
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Tufts, Colby, Middlebury to represent New England in Division 3 women's lacrosse Final Four
Three-time reigningchampion Middlebury will face Colby Friday at 4 p.m. at Roanoke College, in Virginia, while the Jumbos will take on Gettysburg (Pa.) at 7 p.m. Both semifinal games on Friday will be available to stream on The winners will advance to the championship game, set for Sunday at noon. Advertisement Bedford's Allie Zorn leads Tufts (20-1) in points (82) and is second on the team in goals (59). The junior was a 2022 Globe All-Scholastic and girls' lacrosse player of the year during her senior year at Bedford High. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Tufts beat its first two NCAA Tournament opponents by a combined 20 points before eking out an 8-7 win over Salisbury (Md.) to advance to the national semifinals. On the other side of the bracket, Colby (17-3) will face powerhouse Middlebury (19-1), which has lost just two games in the last four years: against Tufts in the 2022 NESCAC tournament final, and against Wesleyan in this season's NESCAC semifinals. The Panthers have won three straight NCAA titles and are led by former Globe All-Scholastic Hope Shue, a graduate of Dover-Sherborn High School. Now a senior, Shue was Advertisement The attacker leads the Panthers in goals (76) and points (107) and is second in assists (31). She's the program's all-time leading goal scorer (296) and this season broke Middlebury's all-time points record with 379 and counting (the previous record was 347, which Amy DiAdamo set from 1994-97). Gillette Stadium will Emma Healy can be reached at
