Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 14, 1995 TAG: 9501160072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
HARRISONBURG - James Madison University's restructuring continued Friday with the announcement of plans to merge two colleges and eliminate one academic major and 11 staff positions.
The elimination of the physics major and the merger of the College of Letters and Sciences with the College of Communication and the Arts were announced at a meeting of the university's faculty.
``Public higher education is facing enormous challenges, not just in Virginia but nationwide,'' said Ronald Carrier, James Madison's president. Virginia colleges face ``scaled-back budgets and no real promise of significant additional funding in the future.''
Restructuring measures announced by James Madison in the previous 18 months included the elimination of four top-level staff positions and many operational changes.
Carrier said the latest moves represent a ``further opportunity for JMU to prove itself, to improve our academic programs and to give greater value to the education we offer our students.''
The physics department currently has 10 full-time faculty members but has averaged only five graduates annually for the past two years. The biology department, by comparison, has 20 faculty members and has averaged 90 graduates over the same period.
The physics faculty members soon will be notified of the termination of their positions, effective in August 1996. Students majoring in physics will be allowed to remain in the program until graduation.
- Associated Press
Jockey Club appeals pari-mutuel license
RICHMOND - A Virginia group appealing the state Racing Commission's award of the state's first pari-mutuel horse racing license to an Ohio group says it filed the necessary papers before a required deadline.
The commission last month asked the Richmond Circuit Court to dismiss the Virginia Jockey Club's lawsuit, saying the Middleburg group filed its appeal too late.
The Virginia Jockey Club and three other groups passed over for the license had 30 days to challenge the commission's Oct. 12 decision to award the license to Stansley Management, which plans to build a track in New Kent County.
The Virginia Jockey Club was the only loser to object, filing the notice of appeal Nov. 10 and the full appeal Dec. 9. The commission argued in a Dec. 21 motion to dismiss the lawsuit that the notice of appeal didn't constitute a legal challenge.
But in the document filed with the court Friday by the Virginia Jockey Club, it contended that the notice of appeal ``met the appellate requirements'' of state law.
The Virginia Jockey Club said state law does not specify how the appeal is to be made, but it said its notice of appeal directly stated that an appeal was being made to the court and the commission.
In its motion to dismiss, the commission said the deadline served to let it know when the possibility of litigation was over. The Virginia Jockey Club responded that with its notice of appeal ``the VRC had no basis other than wishful thinking to assume that the litigation had ended.''
The Virginia Jockey Club's appeal contends that the commission's decision was based solely on a desire to create a Maryland-Virginia circuit - thus eliminating all applicants but Ohio track operator Arnold Stansley, who plans to work with the Maryland Jockey Club in developing the $40 million Colonial Downs track.
The appeal asks the court to order the commission to revoke its October decision and award the license to the Virginia Jockey Club, led by developer James J. Wilson.
- Associated Press
Justice Whiting to retire June 30
RICHMOND - State Supreme Court Justice Henry H. Whiting says he will retire June 30.
``I leave with a lot of regret,'' Whiting said Thursday. ``At my age, I need to be looking around the world.''
A cycling enthusiast, the 71-year-old Whiting said while his health is still good he wants to travel and spend time with his grandson.
``The members of this court are just splendid people to work with, and we're very close,'' Whiting said.
The court's conferences on how a case will be decided are ``very frank'' but controlled by ``a close bond of respect for each other.''
Whiting graduated from the University of Virginia law school and practiced law in Winchester for more than 30 years before he was named a circuit judge in Winchester in August 1980.
He joined the Supreme Court in May 1987 as a compromise candidate after Democrats in the Senate and House of Delegates could not decide on a candidate.
Senate Democrats favored former Attorney General William G. Broaddus for the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice George M. Cochran, while their House counterparts backed Judge Lawrence L. Koontz Jr. of the Virginia Court of Appeals.
Because Democrats held a majority in each house, judges were chosen by a caucus of party members with no input from Republicans.
The legislature adjourned that year without appointing a successor to Cochran, but legislative leaders urged Gerald L. Baliles to allow them to reconvene and select Whiting as a compromise candidate.
Whiting said he will join Richard H. Poff as a senior justice of the court. In that role, Whiting will sit on the three-justice panels that decide whether cases meris review by the full court.
- Associated Press
Discrimination suit dismissal urged
CHARLOTTESVILLE - A federal magistrate has recommended the dismissal of a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a black professor against the University of Virginia.
William M. Harris failed to prove the school was racially biased when it denied him a promotion to chairman of the department of urban planning in the School of Architecture, U.S. Magistrate B. Waugh Crigler wrote in a report filed Tuesday.
``While Harris has his own view about it, he has not produced one shred of evidence that the reasons stated for his not being appointed were pretextual,'' the report said.
Crigler's report now goes to U.S. District Judge James H. Michael Jr.
Harris filed the suit in 1993. A faculty member since 1976, Harris applied for the chairmanship in November 1991. In April 1992 he learned that another man was selected for the position.
In his suit, Harris also claims that the school denied him the promotion in retaliation for his past race-related complaints.
- Associated Press
by CNB