Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 16, 1994 TAG: 9401160092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A Virginia Tech corporate education center in Roanoke is the vehicle to move Tech and the city into the big-time, its visionaries say.
The proposed Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement would have, as its think-tank and core faculty, five eminent scholars who would plan the transport of "cutting edge" information from the classroom to the workplace.
The seminars and short courses the center would offer should attract an international clientele, planners said.
The center also would validate the reason then-Tech President James McComas gave for accepting the century-old Hotel Roanoke when Norfolk Southern Corp. offered it in 1989.
McComas, who left the university last year because of illness, said then that the hotel gift was an opportunity for Tech to expand its horizons and be a catalyst for economic growth in Roanoke.
"The conference center will enable Tech to open Roanoke's doors to the entire country," he said.
The Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement is for Roanoke, Tech administrators point out, and that is a selling point they will use to push a $3.5 million funding request through the General Assembly - part of the $5.5 million they are seeking for the conference center.
Minnis Ridenour, Tech's executive vice president and chief business officer, said the center's benefits range from increased skills and leadership abilities for the people who attend its programs to the money they will spend in Roanoke Valley restaurants and shops.
The availability of sophisticated programming for management and professionals also will enhance the area's ability to attract business, Ridenour said.
The university has promised all during the planning of the hotel-conference center that it would provide educational opportunities there that would attract a sophisticated audience.
But the corporate education proposal is even bolder than the original plans, Ridenour said.
The education center scholars would represent the fields of engineering and physical sciences; biotechnology and life sciences; business and management; education; and governmental and nonprofit organizations.
Also, programming developed for the Roanoke center could be beamed to off-site classrooms elsewhere in the state, Ridenour said.
While the Tech plan is broader, Ridenour said it would be similar to the Management Development Center operated by the University of Tennessee School of Business Administration.
Since 1972, the UT center in Knoxville has offered programs for current and future managers whose companies pay an average of $3,000 a week for the training.
Jim Phillips, an associate director at the UT center, said it tries to use UT faculty as much as possible and uses fees to "buy out" a regular professor's contract so he or she can serve as temporary faculty at the center.
Phillips also said that while the market for management training programs has become more competitive, Tech's proposal is timely because colleges have the opportunity for such business by being aggressive and innovative with programs.
"Universities only get 1 percent of the training dollars spent now," he said.
He also said that the UT program is profitable but had outside support during its birth.
In addition to the money Tech wants from the state education budget, the university has gotten an endowment to help it with expenses of the Roanoke program. He would not identify the source of the gift, but Ridenour said it is from a supporter of the Roanoke Hotel project.
Ridenour also said the Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement would not be Tech's only education effort at the conference center. A traditional continuing education program also is to be offered.
Tech is asking for money for that, too.
Tech is asking the state for $2 million to cover its half of the conference center operating expenses and the traditional continuing education programming.
Ridenour said those expenses should cease after the early years, however, as the continuing education programs and the conference center become self-supporting.
Roanoke Del. Vic Thomas, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, is sponsoring the budget amendment for Tech's requests. Other area legislators indicate they also will lead cheers for it because of its importance in Roanoke's plan for growth.
"The Roanoke Valley has got to have this," said Thomas.
University and conference center commission officials also have asked local congressmen to use their clout to get business to donate the $1.8 million in high-tech communications equipment needed for the center or to help the Conference Center Commission get grants with which to buy it.
"There are businesses within and outside the area that might want to donate equipment and put their name on it," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, said the most obvious communications business in the area is C&P Telephone Co.
"But there are a number of companies involved in fiber-optics manufacturing in the area and each company has a direct interest in the creation of a conference center with state-of-the-art capabilities," he said.
The congressmen said they have not talked to any companies yet because they are waiting for specifics on what equipment is needed.
by CNB