Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 25, 1994 TAG: 9402250140
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Govs. Douglas Wilder and George Allen agreed to fund it - for nearly $2 million. The House and Senate didn't change a nickel.
"Every one of those people has bought off on the concept," Radford University President Donald Dedmon told the board of visitors Thursday in a lengthy session that focused on budget and restructuring issues.
The global college, still in the planning stages, will train students in practical disciplines that can be applied at the international level. Corporate partners will help train students, who must learn a second language and advanced computer skills, and reside in a "living/learning" center on the Radford campus. The first class is expected in the fall of 1995.
A total of $1.26 million is expected to help launch programming, a figure that triples the current budget and mostly will be spent to pay faculty and staff, said Provost Meredith Strohm.
Also, $710,000 has been reserved to plan buildings. By the time the college is ready to start building, the state should have more money, said Charles King, Radford's vice president for business affairs.
That's out of a budget that, somewhat miraculously in these financially pinched times, is bigger than what Radford requested. The school wanted $46.46 million - if not in actual dollars, then by receiving necessary state permission to spend its own money. The state answered with $49.56 million.
The additional funding comes from state initiatives, such as a "virtual library" that will allow university students throughout the state to log on to libraries based at other campuses. Radford gets a $77,722 share of that pie.
The House Appropriations and Senate Finance committees are expected to spend the next week or so working out their differences, with a vote on the final budget coming by March 12.
Just as state officials are making tough decisions to finance colleges and universities, a directive Wilder passed to Allen likewise is being heeded. All schools are to restructure educational operations - a sort of overhaul to bring them up to date - before they receive the final 1.5 percent of their appropriations.
At Radford, Charles Owens, vice president for academic affairs, has directed the deans to start looking at ways to save - a process that's been under way at Virginia Tech since last summer.
"We're not talking about reducing people around here. We're talking about being more efficient," said Dedmon.
To that end, the board voted to reduce the number of undergraduate credit hours needed to graduate from 126 to 120, with the stipulation that degree requirements still must be met. Many colleges have the same requirements, and the action will help undergraduates complete their degrees in four years.
And still simmering Thursday was an issue left over from an uproar last semester.
On the brink of taking a no-confidence vote in the board over a disputed tenure award in December, faculty struck a deal with some board members. A group of faculty and board members met privately, and agreed to set up communications committees so faculty could talk directly to the governing board.
Faculty President Tom Mullis reminded the board of the agreement. He said during a meeting break Thursday that he thought the board would act to set up those committees. When asked if the board would act, one member, Nancy Wilson of Salem, said "maybe."
Dedmon said he had no comment on the matter.
by CNB