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

DATE: TUESDAY, July 31, 1990                   TAG: 9007310395
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PITTSBURGH COLLEGE HAS OWN PROBLEMS

My wife and I are attending a Pittsburgh two-year school, Community College of Allegheny County. (She is majoring in geology and physics, while I am majoring in accounting.) I kind of wish we had Virginia's problems, at least in the ratio of students to instructors.

Where the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report decried Virginia community-college class ratios of 19 students per instructor, instructors here deal with 35 students per class. Admittedly, approximately half of the students apparently drop out by mid-terms. Until that point, the best description of the campus is a zoo.

I was interested to note the commission's concern that few transfer students are accepted by the state's four-year schools, as we plan to relocate to Roanoke upon graduation and my wife hoped to complete her studies at Virginia Tech. I hope that you print more information on college transfers in the future. WALT STAPLES PITTSBURGH, PA.