Funding increases for VT athletics and is cut for living-learning communities

BLACKSBURG, Va. (Oct. 12, 2025) - The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors has recently approved a $229 million athletics budget plan, while funds are cut for the Living-Learning Community, Lavender House. 

The school’s new plan will provide the football team with a new front office, funds to attract coaches, infrastructure improvements and more over the next four years. The school has stated this will come with limited increases in student fees and will benefit athletes and fans. It will prove to mean a lot for Virginia Tech athletics, although other aspects of student life are being left behind.

The Living-Learning Community, Lavender House, is set to be dissolved after the end of the 2026 spring semester. The general student body was not told by the school of the closure, but instead by members of the living learning community, who all received an email sharing the news.

“I feel like the university is making a large misstep here because these communities are, one, not exclusive to the communities they aim to learn about; these are academic communities,” Lily Giannasi, Lavender House resident, said.  

Lavender House is a home of and for LGBTQ+ students and allies who want to learn about the communities’ lived experiences. Students do so by taking a 3-credit introductory course to queer studies, which provides a foundation for the history and tradition of LGBTQ+ leadership and advocacy. Members also engage in weekly activities to create a supportive and affirming space on campus for students. 

Other clubs and organizations are still active, which aim to build a community for LGBTQ+ students. A large one is the Pride Center, which hosts numerous events throughout the year and has smaller organizations within it, including Queer Media Club and Q*mmunity, a weekly support group in collaboration with Cook Counseling. Bing Bingham, the director of the Pride Center, shared that they do their best to foster community at the school.

“It’s a huge campus, so it’s a big feat to try and get to everybody,” Bingham said. “We’re not going to and we definitely try.”

They provide a variety of resources for students, including assistance with getting one's preferred name on student IDs, counseling, educational programs and more. Past Lavender House residents, like Willow Flint, share that they are not quite the same. 

“The main difference that you’re going to get with those types of organizations and something like Lavender House is just the reason LLCs exist, which is to create an immersive experience for students where they are surrounded by people with similar goals,” Flint said. 

Flint also shares that he is saddened that future students apart of the queer community won’t be able to have a space quite like it. By living together, these students are allowed to more easily build a supportive network.

“I felt like I was able to build a strong community, even before classes started,” Giannasi said. Just in the week leading up to it, I feel like I already had quite a few people that I interacted with that I felt comfortable being myself around.”

Virginia Tech is no doubt going through changes, and time will tell what the school will look like in the future because of them.