Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 25, 1993 TAG: 9309250208
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Despite reports that inefficiencies and an emphasis on research have increased already high tuition rates, administrators at Virginia's public colleges and universities say record numbers of applications show they're on the right track.
"Students from around the world beat a path to our campuses; we must be doing something right," said Larry Hincker, director of university relations at Virginia Tech.
A series of stories produced by the state's largest newspapers and The Associated Press revealed that many schools have continued to add administrators and programs despite state budget cuts. Many professors spend less time in the classroom in a week than most people spend in the office in a day, according to the series.
University of Virginia Vice President and Provost Thomas Jackson said the series failed to take into account the different missions of community colleges, liberal arts schools and nationally ranked research universities.
"Unfortunately, the series propagates the seductive but wrong view that wisdom originates with policy-makers and not in the competitive market," Jackson said in a statement.
He said the State Council of Higher Education has shown poor leadership during a recent state budget crunch. Gov. Douglas Wilder has asked colleges to prepare for budget cuts of 10 percent to 15 percent as the state faces what he says will be $500 million shortfall.
"Its well-meaning efforts to assist in solving the state's budgetary problems by proposing that colleges and universities take more students without proportionately more resources pays little attention to issues of quality, differences in missions or the process by which reputations are made," Jackson said.
Hincker said Virginia Tech has $26 million less than it did four years ago and 1,300 more students.
"We're being more efficient than ever before," he said.
Timothy J. Sullivan, president of The College of William and Mary, said in a statement that the series looked at higher education in "a highly superficial way."
In addition to looking at costly, underutilized programs and faculty teaching loads, the series examined ways that schools are attempting to increase efficiency, such as an effort at Old Dominion University to reach more students via televised courses.
Jackson said televised instruction may not meet the specific needs of every school.
"This is not to say that new technology should not be examined," he said. "But cries for rapid deployment of it seem based on an overly simple and misguided notion of what teaching is about at our universities."
Regarding faculty teaching loads, Virginia Commonwealth University President Eugene Trani said the research that takes many professors out of the classroom is important to Virginia's economic development.
"It is not all research on topics that some might call esoteric," he said.
Trani said the vast majority of VCU's faculty are committed to teaching. As an example he cited Robert Holsworth, chair of VCU's political science department.
Holsworth normally teaches three classes a semester, is a noted political analyst and was instrumental in coordinating the recent Southern Governors' conference in Richmond.
"There are certainly some problems in higher education," Trani said. "But . . . we have record enrollments every year. It's not an institution that's about to collapse."
John Rowe, business executive at Virginia Military Institute, said the differences among schools need to be considered in evaluating them. However, he said, many changes are needed in public higher education in Virginia.
"Higher education, for all of its cutting-edge work, is also very conservative and reluctant to change."
by CNB