Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 30, 1994 TAG: 9401300081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After all, what you've got here is a direct link to the new Republican governor.
But university officials remain diplomatic.
"I don't think anybody at Virginia Tech is going to be able to pick up the phone and get Bev any quicker than anyone at any other university can," Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said.
Still, if they can't reach Sgro, they might reach her deputy - her former Tech deputy. Steve Janosik, former associate dean of students, is awaiting confirmation as a deputy secretary of education. He's just completed his first week in that job.
Does the Richmond-Tech connection mean much to the university?
"I don't know that I'm in a good position to answer that question," Janosik said, stressing that he's focusing now on statewide educational issues.
"It never hurts to know people in other areas of government when you're a state agency."
Sgro's appointment, said Hincker, "puts in the secretary of education's office someone who has intimate knowledge of the university, the university community, and, most importantly, the students. Already, her contacts have taken with her another person from the university."
Back in December, when Allen chose Sgro for his cabinet, Tech President Paul Torgersen was asked what her appointment would do for the school.
"I'd be surprised if her allegiance to Virginia Tech would be seen in any preferential treatment," he said. "That would be just something that would be inappropriate and something she would see as highly inappropriate. If anything, she'll lean over backward to be fair."
And, many point out, Tech already has its share of influential friends in the capital. Alumni include Speaker of the House Tom Moss, D-Norfolk, and House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County.
"For the university, it may be most important to look at having someone there who understands the needs of an institution like this one," said Cornel Morton, who has taken over Sgro's old job as dean of students on an interim basis for the next year.
For example, Morton said, Sgro understands what a land-grant university is supposed to be - and Tech is the largest of the state's two.
Being such a school basically means the state long ago gave the university a mandate to pursue instruction, research, and public service.
Tech officials won't have to labor to explain their mission, said Morton, who has seen the university's extension division - the service branch - walloped by budget cuts. At the moment, Tech is asking the General Assembly to restore $3 million, which includes 45 jobs.
Sgro's new position is "a real plum," Morton said.
But does it mean access to the governor?
"I don't know," Hincker said.
Said Janosik: "Certainly we'll remember our friends at Virginia Tech. But we'll always be concerned about the bigger picture as well."
Speaking of pictures: The new secretary delayed a recent interview when Torgersen unexpectedly dropped by to say congratulations - and extend a gift. In hand were color photographs of Gov. George Allen at the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, where Tech walloped Indiana. Could she pass them along?
"I'm just a messenger," she said.
Staff writer Laura Williamson contributed to this story.
by CNB