Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 24, 1994 TAG: 9411260019
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In a special session Wednesday, the board voted to release the raises and "enthusiastically" endorse the school's revised state-mandated restructuring plan.
The board withheld raises Nov. 11 after the State Council of Higher Education voted not to recommend approval of the original plan, a move that threatened up to $1.6 million in state funding for Radford University.
Wednesday also was the state council's deadline for receiving the revised plan, said Radford officials. Council officials could not be reached for comment because their office closed at noon - before the board's meeting ended.
The revised plan sets out to save $2.79 million, in 1994 dollars, by 2003 even as the school expands from this year's student body of just under 9,000 to 11,578. That includes an anticipated 2,000 students who would attend the New College of Global Studies.
In the process, Radford's annual expenditures to educate a single student would drop by $707 in the same time period.
Next year alone, the school plans to save $158,200 by eliminating funding for two research centers: ecological physics, and brain research and informational sciences.
Undergraduate programs in statistics and liberal studies and graduate programs in leisure studies, reading and science education also will be cut, although the 34 students enrolled in the five programs will be allowed to complete their degrees, school administrators said. And four departments will merge into two: dance and theater will become one, as will the physical science and chemistry departments.
The board will vote on those changes in February, and they probably will be effective immediately, said Warren Self, associate vice president for academic enrichment.
No job losses are foreseen, although positions will be eliminated, including six administrative jobs, according to the report. And contracts for part-time faculty will include a clause requiring that their classes meet certain enrollment levels or be scrapped. That's part of an effort to eliminate courses will low enrollments.
One of the state criticisms of the rejected plan was that it did not list specifics. In recent whirlwind days of work to improve it, efforts already under way on campus were included. For instance, Barnes & Noble took over the bookstore last year, saving $225,000 this year.
The board met in closed session for two hours, to review personnel matters, before voting to accept the plan and pay the raises. Faculty President Tom Mullis attended the meeting briefly to express faculty concerns.
In the executive session, the board was "informed on a lot of detail," said university Rector Bernard Wampler, the board chaiman.
"Some of the members of the board had only seen [the plan] for a matter of minutes" before Wednesday, he said.
While the plan apparently made the deadline for inclusion in the state council's budget recommendations, the council itself doesn't meet again until Dec. 13.
"There's no guarantee [the council] will act on it," board member Jim Stutz said.
As for withholding raises, Stutz said the board had to make clear that "this restructuring is so important, [the university should] defer action on everything else to focus."
by CNB