Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 4, 1994 TAG: 9411040083
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I was expecting better news," Acting President Charles Owens said, after learning that the school's restructuring plan won't be recommended for acceptance by the staff of the State Council for Higher Education.
The council will meet Tuesday in Richmond.
The council's recommendation is key because Gov. George Allen has said that schools whose plans that do not gain council approval could face cuts as high as 6 percent - which would amount to $1.6 million at Radford next year.
Don Finley, the council's financial director, said Thursday that the council staff is asking the full board not to cut the budgets of schools that don't pass muster. But Secretary of Education Beverly Sgro's office issued a statement late Thursday that said schools considered "works in progress," including Radford, still could face cuts of 2, 4, or 6 percent "until such time that their restructuring plans are accepted." It's possible that money could be held in escrow.
"It was unexpected," said Owens, who early last week had been informed that the plan was fine.
In addition to Radford, Mary Washington and Longwood colleges, and Norfolk State, Virginia State, and Christopher Newport universities will find their recommendations delayed as they continue to work on their plans.
Mandated restructuring for the state's colleges and universities has unfolded over the past year in the wake of massive budget cuts that have lopped $413 million from Virginia higher education since 1990.
Amid that atmosphere, some universities, including Virginia Tech, launched restructuring plans, similar to Total Quality Management models in private industry. At Tech, for instance, four departments were merged into two within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in the summer of 1993. The savings from this one action: $250,000.
Then, last session, the General Assembly mandated that all colleges and universities undertake restructuring.
Owens, who headed Radford's restructuring plan as vice president for academic affairs before becoming acting president this summer, said he believed the school's plan accomplished exactly what it had been asked to do. It will save the school nearly $1.5 million by the end of 1996, he said.
But in the course of a six-week review of all of the plans by the council's staff, one fact became obvious, said Finley. One group of colleges and universities was way ahead of the rest in its efforts.
"It's a tough, time-consuming process," Finley said. "Tech has been at it at least two years, maybe longer."
Radford, he said, stood at "an impressive stage one."
The legislature asked schools to meet 14 criteria, designed to accommodate the influx of 72,000 additional students expected statewide in the coming years, with far less money.
"You have to demonstrate that you have made a decision to do something," Finley said. "Most [of the six schools] are still at the phase where they're still studying" a specific criteria.
For example, Radford "intends ... to reduce the degree requirements from 126 to 120 hours," said a council statement.
Radford's Board of Visitors agreed last winter to cut degree hours, but no students will enter under the new requirement until January 1996, according to Radford's plan. Accreditation concerns mean the measure won't be universitywide until the fall of 1997.
And that is too far off, in the view of the council staff, which reviewed the plans with the help of Sgro and outside experts.
While Finley is sympathetic, he also holds the wider view. "The general thrust in government in this state now is to become more efficient with the tax dollar, not just the student dollar.
As for penalizing colleges for not doing what their larger counterparts have already done - and for doing what they weren't asked to do do by lawmakers until last winter - Finley said: "I understand their being perplexed at that. That is why we are saying nobody should lose any money over this."
Owens and other Radford officials will meet with the state council officials Nov. 14.
"We will take whatever steps we need to take," Owens said.
by CNB