What Is rutartan.com? Inside Radford University's Student Newspaper, The Tartan

rutartan.com is the website of The Tartan, Radford University's student newspaper. It publishes campus and local reporting alongside national news and opinion pieces, with articles organized by section (Local News, Arts, Environmental News, National News, and sports coverage) and stamped with publication dates. If you want to know what Radford students are writing about, or you're looking for a specific story from the paper, this is the site to check.

Who runs it and what it covers

The paper is produced by student journalists and contributors. Bylines on the homepage show both staff writers and outside contributors — for example, a women's soccer recap is credited to "Andrew Marchetti" with the tag "For the Radford women's soccer team," while other pieces carry a single student name.

Coverage on the homepage falls into a few clear buckets:

The mix matters if you're deciding whether to use the site: it isn't a single-topic blog. It's a general student news outlet, so you'll find athletics next to art exhibits next to national political commentary.

How the site is organized

Articles are grouped by section and listed with a date and the "Tartan Radford" tag. The homepage excerpt shows a running feed rather than a fixed front page — the most recent items appear first, and older stories (for instance, several dated April 14, 2026 and March 31, 2026) sit further down.

Each entry follows the same pattern:

• Section label (e.g., "Local News," "National News")
• Date (e.g., "September 18, 2026")
• Headline
• Byline (student name, sometimes with "For the…" contributor note)
• Short teaser ending in "Read More"

That structure is useful if you're scanning for a topic rather than browsing: you can read the teaser to decide whether the full piece is worth opening.

What to expect from the content

The reporting is student-produced, which shapes what you'll find:

• Campus-adjacent and community stories dominate the local and environmental sections — events at Bisset Park, student art exhibitions, and similar.
• Sports coverage focuses on Radford teams and their conference schedules.
• National and opinion pieces reflect student perspectives on broader issues, including politics and current events.
• Dates run into 2026, so the feed is current as of the September 18, 2026 issue shown.

If you need authoritative university policy or official athletics results, treat The Tartan as a student publication rather than an official Radford University channel — it's written and edited by students, and opinion pieces are clearly labeled as such.

When this site is the right source

Use rutartan.com when you want:

• Student-written coverage of Radford campus and New River Valley community events
• A sense of what issues Radford students are discussing in a given semester
• Sports recaps and previews from a student perspective
• Opinion and commentary from the campus community

Look elsewhere for official enrollment, financial, or administrative information, since a student newspaper isn't the university's records office.