Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991 TAG: 9102270287
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG/ HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I guess it's a year for necessities," said Ralph Byers, director of government relations at Virginia Tech.
Most administrators went into the session counting on little, hoping for some.
A bill that would have let Virginia voters decide whether to borrow $465.5 million for college and museum construction raised spirits early in the session. But the bill was killed by legislators in the last week of the assembly.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, had included about $42 million for construction projects at Virginia Tech, $20 million for Radford and $4.4 million for projects at New River Community College.
So this year, Radford is getting nothing for an addition to the library and other construction projects.
"When that bill died, all of our requests died along with it," said Debbie Brown, the university's spokeswoman.
Revenue bonds are allowing funding for a few select projects - the completion of Squires Student Center at Tech, for example. And a coal-fired boiler.
Another bill that would have provided some funding for $100 million in capital projects statewide, sponsored by Al Smith, D-Winchester, died in the waning hours of the assembly last week.
The bill had included $4 million for the final phase of Tech's 10-year-old veterinary college and another $1.9 million for an agricultural station.
"The Senate didn't agree with one bill; the House didn't agree with the other," Byers said. "We're not surprised. We knew there was no general fund money this year. . . . But we were hopeful."
When members of an accreditation team visited the vet school last year, officials told them funding for the phase, which would add a clinical facility, space for students, and a research facility, had been approved in 1989 and 1990 by the General Assembly.
But the money that had been slated for the projects came from lottery funds - and when the budget items were juggled, the veterinary project was dropped from the list.
The university requested the money in the assembly this year, but again, the item was dropped.
"It's a tough year," said Peter Eyre, dean of the college. "I wasn't building my hopes up completely. We'll come back in 1992 for sure." The accreditation team will come back in 1994, Eyre said, and by then he hopes the school will have completed its fourth and final phase.
"I don't think it will be a major problem, unless the economy stays down. Then, it could be a problem."
The college celebrated its 10th anniversary in September. Eyre said he had thought initial plans for the school would be completed by now.
"I don't think anyone thought it would have taken this long."
Still, the school has the authority to build with the $1.7 million it has collected in private funds and a federal grant.
"It won't build an awful lot, but it will build some," Eyre said.
by CNB