Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 22, 1995                   TAG: 9501200034
SECTION: ECONOMY                    PAGE: 2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

POLITICS MUST BE A PART OF ANY VISION

What happened in the following weeks made Meredith Strohm's comments more prophetic than perhaps she intended.

Part of Gov. George Allen's strategy to trim the state budget was a proposal to eliminate funds for the new college. Strohm had spent almost two years designing the curriculum for the college, which was to have its first graduating class in 2001.

Strohm plans to leave Radford by mid-summer. What she saw as this area's potential, however, is still valid.

She said she believes this because of how national political decisions have an impact on states. State leaders, more than ever, need long-range vision, she said.

The ``building blocks'' needed to move the area smoothly into the future require it, she said.

Strohm said there are several areas that have the most growth potential for the Roanoke and New River valleys:

Manufacturing and systems integration;

Technological advancement;

International trade and development;

And tourism.

Because of research already being done there, Virginia Tech can be a seedbed for technological advancement, she said. But there needs to be a structure for sharing the new technology with area manufacturers.

The ``smart'' road, the high-tech highway proposed to link the New River and Roanoke valleys, could lead to a ``smart'' manufacturing center, she said.

The area also has a good base on which to build a real international trade center, she said.

``A lot of people from other countries who look at this part of the country are drawn to it because it's safe,'' Strohm said.

U.S.- and foreign-based companies also are drawn to the area because of its good work force. However, she said, the ``basic literacy of the work force'' has come up as a concern.

While basic literacy is fostered in kindergarten through 12th grade, colleges also have to reassess their roles in preparing workers, she said.

``The membrane between higher education and society is going to have to get a lot more porous,'' Strohm said. Colleges have to be able to show more clearly ``that we make a difference in the public good.''

Western Virginia has only 6 percent of the state's population but 20 percent of the state's college students, so higher education obviously is a strength of the region, she pointed out.

However, colleges might have to forgo trying to be total environments and decide on an area of concentration in order to best use resources.

For example, she said, Virginia Tech might have to concentrate more on research and development and leave the more basic education to other institutions.

Strohm said she can envision a consortium of private and public colleges in which students would enroll in one institution but take courses at any of the member facilities.

Her suggestion for advancing tourism was not nearly so futuristic, however. The area, she said, needs to develop a greater sense of pride that what it has to offer is ``lovely.''