Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 10, 1992 TAG: 9201100389
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
COLLEGE FUNDING WOES DESCRIBED
Gordon Davies, director of the State Council for Higher Education, came to Roanoke on Thursday morning to tell a story that's been told again and again.It had drama. It had an element of tragedy. It had what some would call an element of horror: news of budget cutbacks and unfilled needs for higher education.
Plot summary:
"In a nutshell, appropriations to colleges have been steadily declining," he told a group of business leaders at a meeting for a committee of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership.
The state ranks above the national tuition average. It ranks below, tied with Arkansas, in the amount of dollars contributed per student.
"Virginia Tech, in 1992-1993, received 22 percent less money than was appropriated in 1990."
Davies' visit was part of an effort started by college presidents to garner support from business and industry. The peg is the link between business and education.
There have been about a dozen or so such meetings across the state in the past few months.
"We don't look for huge, dramatic things to happen," Davies said. "We just want the business community to have a perspective on what's happening to higher education."
Some of the members had heard the tale before.
"It does a good job dismaying us and arousing our concern," said Douglas Waters, regional executive officer for NationsBank. "Now we need some direction."
Davies asked that the leaders endorse an education bond bill that would help pay for much-needed capital projects on college campuses, such as the final phase for Tech's veterinary school.
Gov. Douglas Wilder, in his State of the Commonwealth speech Wednesday night, said he would be asking representatives to introduce legislation for the referendum, which he, in turn, would support.
"It can relieve half the space needs in college education," Davies said. "And we're asking you to support it as an organization and as individuals. It will not pass the General Assembly without bipartisan support, and it will not pass the voters without broad bipartisan support."
He asked that the business leaders tell the General Assembly that higher education is a social good, and to do what they can to keep tuition down.
And he asked that they urge members of the legislature to do "anything they can in this legislative session to increase salaries for state employees."
Davis talked about Virginia Western Community College, where laboratory equipment is being changed less and less frequently. And he spoke of Virginia Tech, where the budget constraints are causing similar problems.
"You can't run a qualified engineering school at Tech and not turn over equipment so that you're with industry."
There are students at Tech who are taking classes in hallways and asking questions through doors. "It's not anybody's fault, but it's everybody's problem," he said.
"Virginia Tech is being squeezed," added Henry Dekker, vice rector for the university's board of visitors. "There are all of these social ills that we're dealing with and they're eating the budget alive. . . . There's only one way to increase revenues at this point and that's through taxes."