Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 7, 1994 TAG: 9401070045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The request includes $2 million for Tech's share of the operating expenses; Roanoke has pledged to pay the other half.
Tech wants the remaining $3.5 million to help underwrite eminent faculty positions in five fields of study and pay for 10 other faculty positions and support staff for a Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement in Roanoke.
Roanoke Valley legislators are putting their support behind the request, but say it won't be an easy sell.
The education center would offer short courses on current issues through on-site sessions and by television to other parts of the state, said Minnis Ridenhour, Tech's executive vice president.
Ridenhour said the proposed center is not a replacement for any current Tech program on the Blacksburg campus or in the Roanoke Valley and is "over and above" the university's initial plans for programs at the Roanoke conference center.
He said the courses offered will be noncredit and short-term. The proposed education center is "just one component" of the conference center's operation, Ridenhour said.
He said the proposal satisfies a higher education goal of providing up-to-date training for the state's work force and fulfills Tech's commitment to increase its public service role.
He acknowledged, though, that one of the hurdles the proposal must clear is that it comes when state money is tight and colleges, including Virginia Tech, are being asked to cut budget requests.
"But this is an initiative out of Roanoke for that center. This is for Roanoke, not Virginia Tech," Ridenhour said.
Del. Victor Thomas, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, will sponsor the budget amendment for Tech's request. He said he expects it to be successful, but that it likely will face challenges.
It will take a hard sell to get it through, indicated House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell of Roanoke County.
"I think we're going to have do our homework," Cranwell said Thursday. "I think we have to make a case for the need and make sure we find enough money to be able to do some of these things.
"In light of the job Tech and the valley government has done to make the hotel-conference center a viable project, it's realistic to expect that there might be some state funds coming for it," Cranwell said.
The operations money portion of the request is sure to bring the most objection from legislators.
"I don't think anyone had expectations that we [the state] were going to have to get into participation with operating expenses," Cranwell said.
Proposed areas of focus for the Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement are engineering and physical sciences, biotechnology and life sciences, business and management, education, and governmental and nonprofit organization.
The $42 million hotel-conference center project is a joint effort by Tech and Roanoke and has been viewed by community leaders as a crucial economic-development push for the area. It is scheduled to open in March 1995. The hotel will be operated by Doubletree Hotels Inc., which also has invested money in the project.
by CNB