Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 24, 1990 TAG: 9007240106
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Danile Howes
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Maybe. But then the victims start piling up. Positions are being eliminated; classes will be enlarged, sometimes dramatically, and many may be restricted to majors; whole courses, such as Asian languages, are in danger of extinction.
The list goes on. Professors worry aloud about such mundane items as phone bills and copying costs. Administrators wonder how they'll ever cover fixed costs - utilities and insurance - when an already level budget is cut . . . and cut again.
"Gloom and doom" is a favorite phrase on campus here. Meanwhile, top administrators hammer away at how painful each choice will be.
Op-ed pieces - such as one written by Tech President James McComas - making the case for funding higher education have been followed by letters and other public statements. Sources inside the administration, sometimes guarded, talk freely about the financial quandary.
Earlier this month, McComas told the director of the state Department of Planning and Budget that additional cuts to the university's budget might force Tech to trim funds for infectious and hazardous waste disposal and asbestos removal.
"As a result, the university will not be in compliance with state and federal regulations," he wrote. How that might play in Richmond remains to be seen, but folks in the loop say McComas already has been confronted by top state officials about his comments on the mandated budget cuts.
Whatever the tone coming from the executive branch in the capital, McComas keeps making his case. At the annual Agri-Tech '90 recently, he said the budget slashing might well drive rising faculty stars into the classrooms and laboratories of more stable competitors.
The cat fight is yet to come. McComas's hard-nosed professional persuasion likely will give way to students' loud and angry complaining once they return to campus next month.
Officials promise that it will be more difficult for students to get the schedules they want. And every change might end up costing students - if additional cuts force the administration to assess a small fee for schedule changes.
Same for having transcripts sent to other schools. What used to be done free of charge won't be any longer. And then there's an additional $48 tuition surcharge Tech says it might levy.
The gravy days of the 1980s, if that's what they were, are over. University budget officials regularly point out that Tech's operating budget never did see increases in the so-called good times.
Said one administration official: "There's no question there's an impression inside state government and the General Assembly that higher education is fat. We don't believe that."
Then they add that much of the steadily rising budgets in the past decade have been devoted to people costs - salaries, fringe benefits and the like.
It's becoming a common refrain, one McComas carefully recited to the state budget chief:
"We in higher education are disappointed by the apparent perception of some that the first round of budget reductions [in which Tech lost some $9 million] was easily managed," McComas wrote July 13.
"Information from several sources has indicated that there are those who believe university and college programs were not seriously affected. The perception seems to be widespread among the media, as well as the citizenry."
The "citizenry," at least those living in the New River Valley, might take a view different if proposed layoffs - some 135 jobs - become reality.
As for the media, my guess is we'll keep trying to cover the budget story of 1990.
by CNB