Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 25, 1995                   TAG: 9510250094
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHANTILLY                                LENGTH: Long

COLLEGES' FRIEND SAYS HE'S NOBODY'S ENEMY

With his beefy jaw and crew cut, John Tilghman ``Til'' Hazel Jr. could play a Marine drill instructor. And at this moment he is sounding the part as well.

``We all know we're better than any other state,'' he says sweetly, before barking out the postscript. ``Nonsense!''

Til Hazel, Republican bankroller, Northern Virginia mega-developer, scourge of no-growth crusaders and friend of corporate bigwigs, is on a mission. The man who the Washington Post in 1991 said has done more to shape the Washington area than anyone since its original designer, Pierre L'Enfant, is leaving his mark on Virginia as well.

Blunt and unequivocal, Hazel is touring the state with the message that he is delivering this noontime to a group of Dulles Airport-area businessmen. In the last five years, says Hazel, who is flanked by an array of charts and graphs, there has been an ``absolutely astounding and appalling decline in support for higher education'' in Virginia.

In a year when partisan control of the legislature is at stake and voters are choosing between the tax-cutting message of Republicans and the services-saving view of Democrats, Hazel and a few dozen of the state's business leaders are calling for Virginia to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on its colleges and universities.

The group, which includes both Republicans and Democrats, says its message is nonpartisan. But, with GOP Gov. George Allen leading the push for government retrenchment, the cry for more spending is seen by many as a challenge to Allen's judgment.

``This has been the most damaging part of the entire Allen governorship: having your agenda challenged and tweaked by a prominent Republican whom others listen to in the most [populated] part of the state,'' says Robert Holsworth, professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Hazel's group - known as the Virginia Business Higher Education Council - ``ironically has succeeded in dividing the Republicans, although that has not been their intention,'' he adds.

Hazel underscored that sense at last week's Dulles luncheon. While he carefully avoided criticizing Allen, he also challenged two of the governor's favorite ideas, building prisons and capping college tuitions. ``Schemes to cap tuition ... I'm very suspicious of them,'' he said. And he noted that investment in education produces ``a positive response,'' while keeping someone in jail is a ``totally negative response.''

Allen has answered by blaming his predecessor, Democratic Gov. Douglas Wilder, for the decline in higher education spending. Wilder sliced millions from the budget to avoid tax increases during the early 1990s recession. Allen's contribution last winter was to propose smaller increases for higher education than had been planned in the second year of a two-year state budget, a move that was rejected by the legislature - and which Democrats portray as a $40 million cut.

In a speech to the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce last month, Allen hinted that he is hearing the council's message.

He took credit for forcing colleges to restructure their ``bloated administrative staffs and nonessential activities. ... We cannot keep throwing more money at failed policies that are not working."

But Allen added that colleges may be among the beneficiaries of a $700 million surplus in the next two years. ``Everyone knows there will be a significant increase in our investment in education,'' he said.

Meanwhile, there are vastly different assessments of the impact Hazel and his group are having.

``I can't see where it has been significant,'' says Ken Stroupe, Allen's spokesman. ``Most folks don't know who Mr. Hazel is.''

Norfolk businessman Joshua Darden, a former University of Virginia rector and member of the business group, differs. While business leaders have sometimes banded together to push a gubernatorial initiative, he can remember no other time that such a group has formed to oppose a governor's policy.

``It's had a very large impact on the [election] agenda,'' said Darden, a Democrat.

Until recently, the 64-year-old Hazel was known to most Virginians, if at all, only as a major donor to statewide Republican campaigns. After supporting fellow Northern Virginian Earle Williams for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 1993, Hazel gave Allen $3,500 in the general election.

Some Republicans who are miffed at Hazel's education initiative privately suggest that it stems from Allen's defeat of Williams. ``It's just a personality thing between Til and the governor. ... The governor's scratching his head over it,'' says one prominent Republican.

Darden discounts that notion. ``It's just not true,'' he says. ``I've never heard him say any word of animosity about George Allen, even in private.''

In an interview, Hazel - a surgeon's son who grew up in Arlington, was educated at Harvard, and went on to amass a fortune estimated in published reports at $100 million - insists that his motivation is structural, not personal.

``I am not in the business of supporting any particular political leader,'' he says. ``I am in the business in this role of doing what I need to do for higher education. You can't move vigorously ahead if you're worried about the impact on any one individual.''

In speeches and news conferences, Hazel uses words such as ``humiliating'' and ``horrifying'' to describe his view of what has happened to funding for the state's colleges. While he acknowledges some public perception that the educational bureaucracy has grown ``fat, dumb and happy,'' he appears minimally concerned about restructuring.

``Any institution that spends $1.5 billion a year has got a place for efficiency,'' he says.

For Hazel, the most telling figure is one showing that Virginia has slipped to 42nd among the states in per pupil spending on higher education. (A report published last week lowered the ranking to 43rd.) Meanwhile, tuitions at state colleges have risen to second highest in the nation.

The solution of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council, whose Western Virginia members include Carilion Health System Chairman Tom Robertson, Roanoke businessman Bittle Porterfield, Roanoke lawyer Heywood Fralin, and United Cos.' James McGlothlin of Bristol, is to call for $440 million in additional higher education spending over the next two years.

That should bring Virginia back up to average in spending among Southern states. Typically plain-spoken, Hazel adds, ``That's the lowest level we think is presentable without being an insult.''

Last week, Hazel's group said 165 of 248 candidates for the General Assembly - about 68 percent - support the council's philosophical goals. And with a businessman's acumen for cinching a deal, he promised the council will make sure the public knows of that commitment.

``We have a new and unique opportunity to improve higher education in Virginia,'' Hazel says.

Keywords:
POLITICS