Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 14, 1990 TAG: 9007140363
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Tech President James McComas told a crowd attending Agri-Tech, the school's annual showcase of its agricultural programs, that so far budget cuts have cost Tech 135 faculty positions, 117 support staff, and 21 graduate assistants.
The university goes into the fall semester with only 80 percent of its recommended staff, McComas said. $9.2 million already has been cut from the academic budget and another $3.2 million from the budget of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service.
In the face of a growing state deficit, Gov. Douglas Wilder asked state agencies last month to prepare to cut their budgets over the next two fiscal years by as much as 5 percent more. An additional 5 percent cut would cost Tech $18.6 million, McComas said.
The College of Agriculture has the best faculty and students it has ever had, said Dean James Nichols, but the school is faced with budget reductions that will hurt the college's ability to serve Virginia's agricultural industry.
Nichols urged the state's agricultural leaders at a breakfast meeting to make themselves heard in support of Tech. Significantly, several members of the General Assembly also were attending the breakfast.
Last winter, when the state took steps to respond to what was believed to be a much smaller revenue shortfall, the agriculture college did its part by holding open 85 jobs over a two-year period. Nichols said that translates into a permanent loss of 55 faculty and staff positions. New budget cuts, which the governor will announce next month, could mean the loss of as many as 45 more jobs, Nichols said.
Virginia Secretary of Finance Paul Timmreck announced Friday that the state collected $151.4 million less in the 1989-90 fiscal year than expected - a deficit more than $50 million above the earlier forecast.
McComas said that Tech - which has a young faculty (the average age is 42) and a faculty which is well known because of the research they do - is particularly susceptible to the loss of its teachers to other institutions when budget problems crop up.
Tech is being asked to perform myriad tasks with funding levels that, when adjusted for inflation, have not changed since 1980 and are now being cut by millions, McComas said. "We will not accomplish more and more with less and less - and to expect that reality is somebody else's midsummer night's dream," he said.
The featured speaker at Agri-Tech on Friday was U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Clayton Yeutter, whose comments about the importance of agricultural research underscored the warnings of Tech leaders about budget cuts.
"We've got to maintain our edge over our competition around the world, and we've got to do that through technology," Yeutter said.
Besides praising research, Yeutter took a few potshots at those who criticize research and its products. Yeutter belittled fears of possible harmful health effects from BST, a hormone that causes cows to make more milk, and Alar, a chemical that was used on apples before it was banned last year. "Alar was banned on the basis of consumer hysteria," Yeutter said.
Yeutter also cautioned against the debate over animal care, warning that it often gets "much too emotional." Banning all research that involves animals "doesn't make any sense at all," he said.
The recent economic summit in Houston may help to move along international trade negotiations related to farm products, Yeutter said. The Bush administration wants to free international farm trade from the distorting effects of farm subsidies in exporting countries.
Pushing U.S. agriculture toward a free-market economy doesn't mean that all the safety nets protecting farmers from bad crop years have to be eliminated, Yeutter said.
But Yeutter said he believes government support for American farmers shouldn't be made so attractive that it influences commodity prices around the world and distorts trade. "We want a program that keeps our competitors off-balance a bit," he said.
by CNB