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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 25, 1993                   TAG: 9309250075
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

UNIVERSITIES KEY TO ECONOMICFUTURE, TECH PROFESSOR SAYS

In an era when knowledge itself has evolved into an industry and product cycles are ever shorter, universities must serve as a bridge between pervasive change and enduring values, a Virginia Tech official said Thursday. Speaking to the New River Valley Economic Summit, Charles W. Steger, Tech's vice president of development and university relations, said the challenges facing higher education include deciding who is educated and when, how students will be educated and what they will be taught, especially given the rapid changes in knowledge.

Steger said three major themes define relations between universities and business: relevance, accessibility and cost.

"Many of us who are in higher education have been troubled with the way our profession has been portrayed" in a recent series of newspaper articles on Virginia's colleges and universities, Steger said. The attention, though, is good in a way because it has focused attention on universities' roles in educating and in business.

Universities can remain relevant by fulfilling their traditional missions, and also by strengthening their ties to business and helping move inventions and innovations on to the market. Tech, for instance, has seen 600 new jobs created at its Corporate Research Center, which was once a cow pasture, Steger said.

Accessibility comes down to having good programs for adult learners who go back for more education, and opening up universities' vast resources through computer and video technology, Steger said.

As for cost, Steger pointed out what is at risk when it comes to reducing funding for higher education: a national reputation that took years to build.

"In an even shorter time, we can destroy this reputation of excellence that has been achieved and that attracts business and industry to Virginia," Steger said.

If the proposed budget cuts that Gov. Douglas Wilder has asked college chiefs to make were to take effect, Virginia would fall to one of the lowest in the nation in terms of its subsidy to higher education.

Even recognizing that corrections and Medicare are eating up an ever higher portion of the budget, among other budget challenges, higher education must be a priority, Steger said.

"Decades of hard work and building a great system will disappear overnight, and that's a tragedy," he said.

by CNB