ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: THURSDAY, May 3, 1990                   TAG: 9005030015
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV15   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium


VA. TECH ANNOUNCES NEW APPOINTMENTS

Ralph Byers, former legislative aide for the state Council of Higher Education, has been named Virginia Tech's director of governmental relations and special activities.

Officials also announced that one of Tech's internal management consultants, Wayland Winstead, had been appointed university planning director - a new position.

Winstead, who will assume his duties July 1, will supervise university planning, establish a program of campus community involvement and oversee offices of institutional research and university assessment.

Byers, 44, is senior vice president for Phoenix Communications Ltd., North Carolina consultants for industry and higher education.

The appointment, effective June 1, carries a $65,000 salary. Byers replaces Charlotte Hawes, who stepped down last year.

The governmental relations director will work with the General Assembly each session - and during the year - to help shepherd Tech's budget and other university projects through the legislature. He also likely will spend more time in Washington frequenting lawmakers' offices.

"I hope to help make Virginia's leaders . . . more fully aware of Tech's many contributions to education and the economy. . . ." he said in a statement.

Before moving to Virginia in the mid-1970s, Byers spent one year as assistant to Duke University's president and was an assistant to former North Carolina Gov. Terry Sanford in his presidential bid.

From 1977 to 1980, Byers was legislative liaison for the state council in Richmond, which he left to become executive director of the North Carolina Center for Independent Higher Education.

He left the center in 1986 for the Phoenix Communications post. He has been a consultant to Duke's provost since 1985 and helped draft that school's university plan two years later.



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