Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 23, 1994 TAG: 9402230079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's likely the extension service's budget will be cut $1 million in each of the next two years.
"We came up pretty short," said Andy Swiger, dean of the College of Agriculture, parent agency to the extension service. The service already has lost $10 million and 250 jobs through retirement, job changes and some layoffs since serious budget cuts began in 1989.
Also coming up short is Tech's proposed Hotel Roanoke-associated Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement. Tech asked for $3.43 million to launch the center. The House Appropriations Committee answered with $1 million, the Senate Finance Committee with $1.6 million.
Conference committees are expected to start bridging the gaps between the House and Senate versions of the budget next week. Final figures probably will not be available until the General Assembly ends March 12.
"This session is kind of a half-a-loaf session," said Ralph Byers, Tech's legislative liaison. "There's been so much pent-up demand because of budget cuts of the past few years, and this is the first year there's been any money available. The legislators . . . tried to help everybody out a little bit."
Tech had been looking at a 4.8 percent cut overall - made up in part by a planned 3 percent tuition increase in the instructional division. Added amendment requests could reduce the cuts to as low as 2.3 percent - not bad in a year when all state agencies suffered, say university officials.
The appropriation for the center is perhaps not as worrisome as cuts to the extension service, because the new program gives Tech a Roanoke presence that can be developed over time, say university officials. Funding would pay for high-profile professors for the center; because of the cuts, these academics may have to be hired gradually.
The center's professors will run seminars and training sessions for businesses and corporations, among other duties.
"We'll have to go back to the drawing board and try to figure out how we can refocus, not changing the content or thrust of the program," said Patrick Liverpool, vice provost for outreach at the university.
Jim Buffer, named director of the center last week as a restructuring in the College of Education devoured his former job as dean, said the original $3.4 million request was a good beginning. That amount would set up a top-notch center that would show corporations and government agencies that the center means business.
But, echoing Liverpool, Buffer said a more modest initial plan now will have to be examined.
"Once we get the center up and running, we can go back and make the case for a need for additional funding as we get closer to the next session of the General Assembly," said Minnis Ridenour, executive vice president of the university.
But that's little solace to the university's extension division, which has borne the brunt of cutbacks since 1989.
Swiger, who already has frozen new jobs, emphasized that the university still hasn't decided how to deal with the likely extension cuts. But, he said, "I would suggest we could still lose 20 to 30 people, although it depends on how we deal with [cuts]."
Since personnel costs are 90 percent of the extension's total budget, job losses - at least through attrition - seem likely, university officials say. The extension service employs 800 people around the state.
"We don't know how we're going to deal with it yet within the university, but if there's any sizeable amount to be lost it will be through decreasing the number of people we employ," Swiger said.
Also, agricultural experiment stations around the state will lose $1.2 million over the next two years.
A $1.5 million joint project between the extension and experiment offices to develop commercial fish and shellfish technologies is in jeopardy, too.
A $1.5 million effort to put the extension and experiment offices on information highways was rebuffed completely.
"It's getting hard to put gas in the tractors," Byers said of the experiment stations. "We hope, at least, that the House and Senate will agree on the House [appropriations], which were higher."
by CNB