Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 11, 1994 TAG: 9411110058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As one of six colleges or universities in the state without acceptable restructuring plans, Radford already was under the gun to move more quickly to merge programs and cut administration or lose state funds. But a clearly upset board, also in the midst of a search for the school's first new president in more than 20 years, unanimously turned up the pressure.
Board member Carson Quarles said the plan "poorly addresses the cost issue. To me, it's not a surprise it was turned down.
"Being a hard-nosed businessman, it surprised me [the plan] mostly addressed academic restructuring instead of cost reduction," said Quarles, president of Central Fidelity Bank's southwestern region.
The action came amid more bad financial news for the university: Enrollment is down about 400 students at a time when many schools' numbers are headed up. That translates into the loss of more than $1.4 million this year.
The university usually has about 9,400 students "and this year, we're slightly below 9,000. We need, for a lot of good reasons, [enrollment] above 9,000," said acting President Charles Owens.
Fewer high school graduates and slow recruiting by Radford last year are to blame, along with another long-term, nagging problem:
"We have evidence that our image, especially in Northern Virginia, is not the kind that attracts applicants," said Owens, an outspoken opponent of Radford's old "party school" image.
University figures show that this year's drop in enrollment has cost the residential and food service programs $876,873 and the academic side of the budget $598,471. In the residence halls, 320 beds are empty.
Owens talked about the enrollment drop as Registrar Chris Knauer unveiled new admissions standards designed to improve Radford's overall academic standing. Among the trends at Radford has been the move to near-open admissions - last year, 91 percent of the 4,568 freshman-class applicants were accepted.
"Over the last few years, there has been concern expressed by the faculty about the students entering. Students are not prepared, and they're doing rather poorly," Knauer said.
Statistics show a steady decline in the number of applicants since 1988, which "led us to admitting students we feel are not ready for college-level work," Knauer said.
"If they're not prepared for college, we lose a number of them under [academic] probation and suspension," he said.
This semester, almost 500 students "are probably do or die," having spent three semesters in a row on academic probation, he said.
To protect those students' academic careers - and the university's bank accounts - a committee has come up with a three-tiered admissions policy that allows automatic admission for students with a 2.75 grade-point average, consideration for regular admission for students with a 2.5 average, and special admission for students with a 2.0 average on the condition that they take remedial classes at Radford.
New River Community College probably will give those classes, which will not count towards Radford graduation, Owens said.
Board member Quarles again looked to the bottom line, wondering why Radford's enrollments are in decline when private colleges - with double the tuition costs - are showing double-digit increases.
"We've got a hell of a problem," he said.
The board ordered administrators to come up with an aggressive recruitment plan, which will be discussed at a special meeting, likely to be called next month.
December also is the bellwether for the restructuring plan. Owens and other university administrators are meeting next week with representatives from the State Council of Higher Education and the secretary of education's office, hoping to move the plan along toward a December passage.
But that may be optimistic - and raises, worth $391,000 for the rest of the fiscal year, were due to start Dec. 1.
"I'm sure a lot of the faculty is not going to be happy," faculty President Tom Mullis said.
But more than 100 faculty members have worked on the plan, which must be the university's No. 1 focus, he said.
by CNB