Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 16, 1994 TAG: 9403160156
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
The funding breaks out into two sums. A total of $1.2 million was appropriated so Radford can continue to hire program planners and put together the ambitious scheme to launch a college focused on integrating computers with international studies. A pilot class of 50 is expected to enter the college in the fall of '95.
In all, 14 positions will be filled - and the college already has 400 resumes, said Meredith Strohm, provost of the new college. Strohm has been on the job just over a year and between planning buildings, recruiting students and putting together the ground-up program, the five-person staff has been stretched thin. The new positions should help the program move along more quickly, she said.
"In the scheme of things, this is a revenue-producer," she said. "The main comment people have about the college is it is still speculative, but I don't think the dollar amount is out of line. Everybody knows when you start a new product line in industry, you have to put a little investment in the front end."
Lawmakers also set aside $710,000 to plan what's called Phase II of the college - an anticipated $18 million for five buildings that will be constructed by 1997. Already, plans are well under way for the college's first building, Phase I, which will cost $5 million. Construction starts next fall, said Charles King, Radford's vice president for business affairs.
In a legislative disappointment, however, Radford's proposed program for a masters of social work may not be launched next year. Only $75,000 of an original $189,186 request from the state's general fund was appropriated - less than the Senate finance committee, at $106,171, had asked. The House appropriations committee set aside nothing, so the final figure was a compromise. However, it also means that the university will have to look inside its own coffers to fund the full program, said King.
King said he was not yet sure what the university would decide.
Radford also gained $550,000 to renovate the Allen building on campus, which has housed the university's physical plant. That operation is moving to a new building. The new use of the Allen building remains up in the air as the school shuffles space in several buildings, said King.
In all, Radford watched its total funding from the state's general fund - the agency-wide kitty - go up 71/2 percent.
King reasoned that the school did well because it has been modest with requests in recent recession-strapped years.
"We have not in the past asked for a lot of things," he said. "We asked for what we needed, and now we've been rewarded. We were willing to use our own resources.
"We feel we were treated real well."
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB