Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 19, 1995 TAG: 9501190112
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``We don't plow behind a mule anymore,'' the folksy Democrat said. ``To compete in a marketplace today, Virginia farmers need state-of-the-art research and technical information, and that's what the Extension Service gives us.''
Marye's action is the first step in the long legislative battle to restore funding.
Allen proposed cuts of $7.3million to the nationwide agriculture and family education program and $4.9million to agricultural research programs. In addition, Marye asks for $2.4million lost in former Gov. Douglas Wilder's last budget. Tech had already been gearing up to try to get that money back, since the programs have suffered deep losses of $10million and about 300 jobs since 1989.
But these cuts are the worst yet, sowing damage greater than the cuts of the previous five years combined, Tech administrators say.
Upwards of 400 jobs could be lost at agriculture stations and extension offices around the state, although Tech administrators aren't yet saying where. Three to six of Tech's 12 agriculture experiment stations would have to close, said Andy Swiger, dean of Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Undeniably, Tech's reputation as an agriculture school would suffer.
``The disastrous thing [is], our best faculty ... bring in grant money, and will get hired away,'' Swiger said.
After Allen announced his budget plans, the number of professors who applied for a Tech buyout first offered last year ``zoomed'' from 20 to 30, Swiger said. The deadline to apply for the buyout passed Sunday.
When researchers go, they take their grant money with them. State funds ``leverage'' the ability of researchers to obtain other grants at the rate of about 72 cents per state dollar. Swiger guessed that could drain another $7million to $9million from Tech's outside research budget.
``Scientists are mobile,'' said Bob Cannell, director of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station.
``If we want to be a high-quality university and keep Virginia competitive, we should avoid rapid disruptions'' of programs and people, he said.
``Already, bad news about this is spreading around the country. When you get into the hiring mode again, people are certainly going to be cautious about what they're getting into. It does create the risk that we won't be able to hire the best people in the future, and up till now, we have been able to hire excellent faculty.''
The cuts would be felt not only in the agriculture college. The colleges of Forestry and Human Resources rely heavily on extension funds to hire faculty and staff, as does the Maryland-Virginia Regional College of Veterinary Medicine to a lesser extent.
In the 1,500-student College of Human Resources, for instance, of 80 faculty members, 35 find extension money funding at least part of their paychecks.
Those faculty-researchers are the linchpin in extension, the decades-old program where university education is disseminated to farmers and families through the county extension agent.
Irene Leech, who works in the College of Human Resources, teaches family finance to people who cannot afford to pay a financial counselor - but who have not yet slipped to the point where they need consumer credit counseling.
``It's real discouraging to feel we're always a target to be cut,'' she said.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995
by CNB