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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 22, 1993                   TAG: 9310280332
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BUCHANAN PUT VA. ON THE MAP

The STORY by Philip Walzer on Professor James Buchanan was directed at the wrong target. Through more than 35 years at three of the state's universities (University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, George Mason University), Buchanan has been primarily responsible for ``putting Virginia on the map'' in economics and political economy. Not only is Buchanan the only scholar in any science to have been awarded a Nobel Prize for work done at Virginia universities, he is also the only Southern economist ever to have been recognized for the Nobel award. And, indeed, the ``Virginia School'' in political economy is recognized throughout the world.

These are well-known facts. What is not so well known is that Buchanan, after receipt of the Nobel Prize in 1986, made active efforts to enlist the cooperation of the State Council of Higher Education, along with several universities in the state, to insure his wide exposure to students, undergraduate and graduate, throughout the commonwealth. He got no response to these efforts. Further, Buchanan regularly lectures, pro bono, at universities and colleges in Virginia, public and private. Buchanan serves, quite

literally, as an academic ambassador from Virginia to the world. His schedule involves up to 70 lectures and conferences per year, in many countries.

It is absolutely ludicrous for carping critics to imply that James Buchanan is not worth every penny that he earns at George Mason University. He carries out a work schedule that begins at 6:45 a.m. and continues until 5:30 p.m. each day. He routinely spends Saturday and Sunday mornings in the office as well. He is 73 years old and I am 50, and the flat truth of the matter is that I cannot keep up with Buchanan. He is our personal and intellectual leader at George Mason, and, indeed, is viewed in the same way by a legion of former students and colleagues across the world. He, and the example he has always set, are what isbest about higher education in Virginia. To suggest otherwise is absolutely outrageous.

Walzer ought to get his story straight. I have never known Jim Buchanan to turn down an opportunity to address bright, committed students, undergraduate or graduate. He taught undergraduate courses, for example, at the University of Virginia. This is precisely what he said to Walzer, yet Walzer only chooses to cite Buchanan's experience at VPI (not VMI!) where he felt that the students were not interested in learning. Virginia can, of course,

destroy its universities, in part by driving its academic ``stars'' to other locations. James Buchanan, and others of comparable quality, do not lack alternative opportunities. Virginia can surely take steps to insure that its institutions of higher education join the ranks of the academic backwater.

Is this the result that Virginians want to achieve?

Robert D. Tollison

General Director

Center for Study of Public Choice

George Mason University

FAIRFAX

by CNB