Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 5, 1992 TAG: 9203050188
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Tech officials were not sure Wednesday how much of the money would be given to them in the first year of the biennium, but they were encouraged, said James Johnson, who heads Tech's extension office.
Originally, Tech was threatened with a cut for that department of $12 million, or about 29 percent of its budget. The extension office wanted $9.2 million back, which would have given it a 5 percent cut, the same cut being asked for other higher education institutions.
"Looking at it optimistically, it seems that we have a lot of support," Johnson said. "But not enough to lay down and go to sleep."
Johnson didn't want to comment further until he saw the details of the report. The hope, Johnson said, was to get a substantial amount back in the first year, and return to the assembly next year to ask for more.
Meanwhile, it looks as if $10.5 million will be returned to the budget over the next two years for the Center for Innovative Technology - in addition to $6.5 million that Wilder had included in the original budget proposal. Quite a feat, considering the original proposal had eliminated funding for CIT in 1993-94.
That's good news, too, for Tech, which has received $59 million from the CIT or in industrial grants through the CIT in the last five years.
The CIT's purpose is to help connect university research with businesses and to help them use technology.
"We're very pleased," said Linwood Holton, former governor and head of the center. The center now will have a budget of about $8.5 million a year, a reduction of about 15 percent.
"But we can survive on this," Holton said. "As long as we're in the ballpark, and the state legislature has made it clear that we can continue to stand as an organization."
Meanwhile, the governor's $613 million bond referendum, which would include $472 million for higher education projects, passed both the House and the Senate this week.
All it needs is the governor's signature, which is almost assured since he offered the legislation in the first place, said Ann Pratt of the State Council of Higher Education.
The referendum, which would go to the voters on Nov. 3, includes funding for Tech's college of veterinary medicine and biotechnology center and $5 million toward Radford University's College of Global Studies.
The college projects originally were part of a larger borrowing bill, and it looked for a time as if the House and Senate were deadlocked.
"It was scary," Pratt said.
Already, she said, the council has begun to think about how to get the referendum past the voters.
"We'll have to organize and talk about ways that we can communicate what this bill means," she said.
by CNB