GIVE IT THE COLLEGE TRY AGAIN

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

DATE: MONDAY, March 22, 1993                   TAG: 9303220402
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
GIVE IT THE COLLEGE TRY AGAIN - OR ELSE
THE IDEA of an affordable and accessible four-year college in the Roanoke Valley has come up again, and we hope it won't die this time.
The subject seems to resurface every 20 years, so maybe now is the time. More than any other "industry" which could improve our local economy, the presence of a four-year college could help rejuvenate and revitalize the Roanoke Valley.
Three generations have seen what happens to our community without a four-year college. We have seen our young population, and those who could afford it, seek their higher education outside our community and then move away, taking their youth, energy and vitality away from here.
They have left behind the elderly and those who are forced to make a choice between a livelihood (immediate needs) or education (investment in their future).
The accessibility of a school of higher education is the key to the valley's economic well-being and future. Our leaders must recognize the current surge of public interest and seize the opportunity to grow, or we will become a community of fast-food and inferior labor. We must not let the brain drain continue. MILDRED WILLIS ROANOKE

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB