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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 2, 1993                   TAG: 9309020098
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NOTE: BELOW                                 LENGTH: Medium

STATE'S COLLEGES TOLD TO PREPARE BUDGETS CUTTING 10% AND 15%

Karen J. Petersen sent a letter last week telling college and university administrators to prepare two contingency plans, one slicing the 1994-96 biennial budget by 10 percent, the other by 15 percent.

"This is a starting point, it's not definitive . . . but I wouldn't have asked for the information if I didn't think it was a possibility," Petersen said Wednesday from her Richmond office.

The request was met with surprise and disappointment by college administrators who have already watched higher-education funding shrink from 15.3 percent of the state's total budget in 1989-90 to less than 12 percent now - a decrease of more than $440 million.

"Cuts of this magnitude, or even planning for them, can have potentially damaging consequences for this university, its students and the entire state," Virginia Tech President James McComas said.

"It is imperative that the executive and legislative branches and the citizens of Virginia place a higher priority on higher education if the commonwealth is to remain competitive nationally and internationally."

The state's college presidents will meet in Richmond on Friday to talk about the possible cuts. The budget proposals are due Sept. 20.

If state funding is cut 15 percent, Tech must find a way to eliminate almost $23 million from its budget.

Larry Hincker, Tech's director of university relations, said the university doesn't have much fat to trim.

"Right now, we're not sure how we're going to do it," he said. "Higher education is frightened and really perplexed as to why the percentages were so high."

Radford University President Donald Dedmon said it was too early to comment on the potential cuts.

Colette Capone, associate vice president and budget director at the University of Virginia, said she was surprised at the size of the budget cut request.

"We really did not imagine that we would ever need to continue planning for anything this big," she said. "We will preserve the quality of our education first and foremost. If that means that we will have to cut programs, then we'll do that."

If a 15 percent cut becomes reality, Capone said, the university will have to cut more than $15 million and that some of the its 10,000 workers probably would lose jobs. "I don't see how you could avoid affecting people," she said.

Petersen said she hopes state officials are able to cut costs in other departments and soften the blow on higher education.

She said other state secretaries had sent letters similar to hers and that some ask departments to cut as much as 17 percent.

"The bottom line is that we are all trying to address the same gap," she said.

Virginia now ranks 42nd in the nation in per-student appropriations.

"With further reductions of this magnitude we will likely rank last among all states," McComas said.

University of Virginia President John Casteen echoed McComas, saying further cuts to higher education will hurt the economic future of the state.

"Without vibrant, productive facilities to teach and conduct research, the state's chance of retaining top students and attracting new industries diminishes," he said.