Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 2, 1994 TAG: 9410040015
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: G2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Public schools must be good enough to qualify graduates for the full array of higher-education options; adult-education programs, widespread enough to keep the work force employable amid rapid technological change; research resources, available enough to enable local businesses to stay competitive.
Without those basics, any place is doomed.
But the Roanoke and New River valleys can do much better than the basics. This region ought to be a higher-education leader.
The story here starts and ends with Virginia Tech, though there is also much in between.
Not only is Tech the state's largest university, it is also by mission and tradition Virginia's center for science and technology programs. Not only is Tech a magnet for research money, it is also the commonwealth's major land-grant institution, experienced in extending the fruits of research for practical application.
For Tech and the wider community to make fuller use of each other, a stronger Tech presence in spots like downtown Roanoke (as with the Hotel Roanoke-conference center project) is essential. So, however, is an awareness by Roanoke Valley residents that Tech already is their local university; at a mere 45 miles from the heart of Roanoke to Blacksburg, and much closer from Salem and West Roanoke County, the distance is more psychological than physical.
Rather than pursue an idle effort to establish a new, Roanoke-specific public university, let's see how the community and Tech can more effectively serve each other. Tech might help design greenways, spread electronic classrooms, and train entrepreneurs across the region, for example, while the region might help develop business incubators or a research park connected to Tech's "smart road" specialty.
Essential, too, is an understanding on Tech's part that on-campus undergraduate education cannot be the university's only preoccupation. Its graduate, research and extension programs are what set Tech apart - and in the university of the telecommmunicating, continuous-learning future, traditional on-campus programs aren't likely to be the fields of growth.
On-campus education remains important, of course, and not only at Tech. Roanoke College basks in its recent rating by U.S. News as the top regional liberal-arts college in the South. Hollins College copped a mention as an example of the strengths of a women-only education. Radford University looks toward the flowering of its College of Global Studies.
And too seldom considered is the higher-education potential of the Roanoke Valley's role as a regional medical center. The University of Virginia's medical school has long maintained residency programs at valley hospitals; enrollment has grown at the College of Health Sciences in Roanoke, which offers two-year nursing and allied-health programs. As the face of health care is transformed, so is the education of health-care workers. Our region should build on the base it already has.
A net importer of college students, the Roanoke and New River valleys derive direct economic benefit from the higher-education industry, in money spent here by students and by the faculty recruited to the region to teach them. Less directly, but to even greater economic impact ultimately, they spin off derivative industries and sustain economic development, in part because the future of work is smart work, but also because people like to live in well-educated communities.
Tactics may vary, but the goal should hold firm: Solidify, strengthen and connect with the region's colleges and universities. On their health depends the region's future.
by CNB