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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 25, 1990                   TAG: 9007250408
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A/8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BUDGET PINCH

WHEN AN institution, public or private, must cut its spending - then cut and cut again - there comes a time when its functions are not just restricted but also imperiled. There comes the point of diminishing return, when cost-cutting no longer saves money but devalues the investment already made.

That point, if not reached, seems rather near at Virginia Tech - and perhaps at many other state institutes of higher learning, all of which are affected by budget cutbacks.

The university has cut $9.2 million from its budget this year in response to efforts in Richmond to avoid tax increases. That meant eliminating 268 jobs, an impact felt strongly on the academic side.

Last month Tech, along with other state agencies, was ordered to draw up additional plans detailing possible budgetary reductions of 1, 3 and 5 percent. The ax could fall on secretaries, dining-hall workers and maintenance employees among others. These people don't teach, do research or supervise such tasks; but without support jobs, a learning institution can hardly carry out its chief functions.

Tech officials hope the next round of state budget reductions will pass them by and affect areas untouched in the first round. They say the first round already has impaired Tech's mission of teaching and research.

For examples, freshman and second-year math classes will go from 40 students per class to 136 and 120, respectively. Undergraduate courses in the College of Business will be limited to majors in the field. English writing classes will be larger, and fewer assignments will be graded. Asian-language courses will be taught three days a week rather than five. Twenty percent of the animal-science department's livestock herds, used for teaching and research, must be sold. Student jobs and graduate assistantships have been reduced.

Ironically, these cutbacks both done and threatened come at a time when Virginia Tech's president, James McComas, has appropriately set reduction of class size and the improvement of the undergraduate educational experience among his top priorities.

Already, Tech's faculty has fallen to 81 percent of the number of authorized positions under state guidelines. Budget squeezes do not affect only professors, making them work harder to earn their salaries. Students are affected too, and adversely. They get less of an instructor's time; they get less feedback on classwork and assignments; they have fewer resources to work with and a narrower range of choices among subjects. They cannot get as good an education. And what is a university for? In Virginia, it isn't just for football or basketball.

If forced to another round of cuts, Tech officials say they'll seek permission to levy a $48 tuition surcharge and other user fees on students. That's better than more cuts in services, but it would pinch some who find it hard to meet college expenses, and could reduce further the economic diversity of the student population. On average, tuitions at Virginia's public colleges and universities already are among the highest in the country; its per-student state appropriations are among the lowest in the South. That's not good.

It is good to be frugal with taxpayers' money, especially when the economy is soft. It's also good to avoid unnecessary tax increases - but not to make a political fetish of it. Virginia needs to look not just at how much it is spending but also at what it is buying and why. Even in hard times, many families sacrifice in order to spend on education because it's for the future. Without that, the future may be harder yet.

by CNB