Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 21, 1994 TAG: 9412210099
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS-BANKS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The news drew a warm response from members of Tech's College of Human Resources where Meszaros, 56, has served as dean for the past 15 months.
"I welcome your support," she told her audience of nearly 100. "I need your strength. I welcome the challenge and look forward to the leadership."
"It's a momentous occasion to be able to offer some good news this week," Tech President Paul Torgersen said drolly as he introduced Meszaros. Her appointment came on the heels of Gov. George Allen's announcement of tough budget cuts that will leave Virginia Tech with a $7.3million reduction in funds for its extension service, $4.9million less for its agricultural and forestry research programs and a $700,000 slice out of its planned corporate training center at the Hotel Roanoke.
Meszaros did not comment on the state budget in her acceptance speech. Instead, she expressed her enthusiasm for the work ahead of her.
"I have been impressed with the strength of this university even before I arrived back in 1993," she said. "If I can add something through leadership in this new role, then it will give me satisfaction."
After her address, she told reporters: "I think these are perilous times. I truly believe this great university is going to overcome these times and move forward. ... If it can be done anywhere, it will be done at Virginia Tech.
"I'm the eternal optimist," she said. "I always see the glass as half full, not half empty."
Departing Provost Fred Carlisle has predicted that his successor must steer Tech through potentially tougher restructuring than it already has undergone in the face of $40million in state cuts since 1989.
Meszaros said her immediate challenge is to look at the goals and the mission of the university and find the best strategic plan for building on its strengths. The mission of a land-grant university, she noted, is to improve people's lives through instruction, research and extension.
Bob Bates, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and president of the search committee for the new provost, said Meszaros clearly stood out among the more than 150 applicants for the position.
"She was seen as a person who has the vision necessary to carry the university into the 21st century," he said.
Meszaros is president of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.
She came to Tech from the University of Kentucky, where she was a professor of family studies and dean of the College of Human Environmental Sciences. She also served as assistant director of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station. Before that, she was an associate dean and professor in the College of Home Economics at Oklahoma State University. From 1973 to 1977, she was the state supervisor of home economics and director of consumer education for the Maryland Department of Education. In 1989, she was named Kentucky's home economist of the year.
Meszaros' husband, Alex, smiled as she spoke Tuesday.
"Peggy has a dedication to her profession, and now she has an opportunity to do what she does best," he said. "She's a natural leader."
Peggy Meszaros was an eighth-grade vocational home economics teacher when she and her husband, then a U.S. Army officer, met.
"We did things the hard way," said Alex Meszaros, who has retired from the military. "While I was overseas, she went to night school to get her advanced degrees. She raised three children while she was following me around."
Now, he says, he's following her.
Peggy Meszaros will assume her new duties Feb. 1. Carlisle will return to teaching after a sabbatical.
by CNB