Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 4, 1993 TAG: 9309040278
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
"If cuts of 10 to 15 percent are to be taken from higher education, our advice to you is this: The people of Virginia cannot have this system of higher education when you are done," the Council of Presidents said in a letter to state Education Secretary Karen Petersen.
"It will have to be a different system, with several schools or colleges entirely dependent upon non-general funds or closed, with major activities discontinued and possibly with access restricted," the letter said.
The presidents, who released the letter and read it to Petersen in front of reporters, are chafing under the possibility that $400 million will be cut from Virginia's higher education budget in 1994-96 to help ease a $500 million shortfall expected in state revenues.
College administrators have said it will be impossible to absorb such a cut without widespread layoffs of faculty and closing departments. On Friday, the presidents called on Gov. Douglas Wilder to live up to his rhetoric on the budget gap and "spread the pain around."
They called for elimination of state agencies whose functions can be provided by the private sector, and for previously protected programs - such as prisons, Medicaid, public schools and aid to local governments - to bear a share of the financial hardship.
"We can give you plans" to strip roughly $400 million from the higher education budget, "but we don't want to," the presidents said, labeling the cuts "unwise and unfair."
"It isn't right-minded for the economic future of Virginia, and it is a brutal slap at those who have worked hard in higher education. More important, it isn't fair to the present and future generations of Virginians who will seek access to higher education," they wrote. ". . . They will find higher education less accessible and less good than it has been over the past quarter-century."
Virginia Tech President James McComas was recovering from a virus and didn't attend the meeting, sending Minnis Ridenour, Tech's executive vice president and chief business officer, in his place.
McComas did, however, preside over a late afternoon meeting at which faculty members were briefed on the proposed state budget cuts; and afterwards he heartily endorsed the letter out of Richmond.
"I thought it was right on target," he said. "We would become very mediocre if these cuts happen."
Petersen, who sat quietly as community college board Chairman Arnold Oliver read the letter, said all parts of higher education - tuition and fees, financial aid and enrollment growth - are on the table.
But she noted their suggestions for cutbacks elsewhere within state government "have to be very constructive" to be considered.
"I share your concern," Petersen said. "I will do what I can to maintain your share of the budget."
The colleges have taken cuts of 20 percent, or about $413 million, since 1990.
The presidents said Friday that they need an additional $223 million in 1994-96 to meet their obligations and for the state to remain 43rd among the 50 states in state support for public higher education.
"This is not a system standing still or in decline," the presidents wrote.
Enrollments, which have increased by 17,000 full-time students since 1988-89, are expected to swell by an additional 10,000 in 1994-96.
"We need the money," the presidents said.
The schools have recouped much of the lost state aid by raising tuitions. However, several presidents on Friday called that a dangerous trend, saying continued increases will kick Virginia's colleges out of the range of many students.
"There's just no way we could absorb this without some kind of tuition increase," McComas said.
Virginia Western Community College Predident Charles Downs said he's still hopeful that the budget cuts can be avoided.
"There is still hope that the money can be found. I think this meeting was good because it helped us get focused.
"I think the bottom line is that if these kinds of cuts happen it means the entire education system has to change."
John Casteen, president of the University of Virginia, said some schools within the university may be taken private if they don't get the state support they need.
Already, many of the well-endowed programs at the university are run more on private funds than on state funds, he said.
This is not the first time the presidents have threatened to take some schools private. In 1991, the presidents warned during a round of budget cuts that they may push to privatize by 1996 if state support continued to erode.
"We turned out to be prescient," said Gordon Davies, head of the State Council of Higher Education.
Staff writer Michael Stowe provided information for this story.
by CNB