Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 20, 1994 TAG: 9409220050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``We're 85 percent personnel budget-driven,'' Tech President Paul Torgersen said. ``You're talking about a number of people there.''
``There's no question we can't cut those kinds of dollars without affecting jobs,'' Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said. ``Not after all the squeezing and wringing we've done over the last few years.''
All state agencies were asked last week to prepare plans to cut 2 percent, 4 percent or 6 percent of their budgets, which amounts to $2 million, $4 million or $6 million at Tech. Allen's looking for money to pay for his agenda: abolishing parole, settling the federal retiree tax case and streamlining government.
But Virginia's colleges and universities have been reeling since 1990. They have lost $413 million in state funding, dropping to 43rd in funding nationwide. They charge the second-highest tuition in the country, second only to colleges in Vermont.
And last winter, the colleges and universities agreed to an Allen mandate to hold tuition increases to the rate of inflation. Holding down tuition while suffering more state cuts opens a gap that may be hard to fill.
``The difficulty we have [is], the implication was [if] the university would not raise tuition, the state would maintain our level of funding,'' Hincker said.
While Torgersen clearly was concerned about what more cuts might mean, he agreed that tuition costs need to be held in check.
``We begin to reach a point where we begin to price ourselves out of the market,'' Torgersen said. ``We are, supposedly, a public institution.''
At Radford University, the governor's request meets a projected shortfall of $600,000 caused by a drop in enrollment. Taking an additional 6 percent cut would mean means $1.6 million, causing ``virtually irreparable'' harm, acting President Charles Owens said.
Despite the uncertainty on campus, state Secretary of Education Beverly Sgro emphasized that asking for plans to cut and actually cutting are two different things. Universities that have submitted ``extensive'' plans for restructuring their operations may be rewarded. Every college and university in the state submitted massive plans this month to trim programs and positions.
``We hope to be able to recognize those institutions that make serious efforts at resizing,'' Sgro said.
This time a year ago, then-Gov. Douglas Wilder asked colleges to prepare for cuts of 10 percent to 15 percent. While cuts came to many colleges and universities, they were nowhere near that amount.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***