Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501300012
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LEIGH ANNE LARANCE SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
Virginia Tech's newly appointed senior vice president and provost wakes every morning at 5:30, has breakfast, then takes to her NordicTrac for 30 minutes of exercise.
``That's been my pattern for several years,'' she says. ``That workout gets my stress relieved and lets me start my day.''
Meszaros, who takes over as provost Wednesday after serving a year and five months as dean of the College of Human Resources, is at the office around 7 a.m. and leaves 12 hours later.
Being one of the few people up early helps her clear her head, she said. ``I like quiet time in the morning, time to think, to get oriented for the day.''
Meszaros will need a clear head in her new post. If the early bird gets the worm, her worm is Gov. George Allen's proposed cuts to Virginia Tech programs: $7.3 million to Extension Service funds, $4.9 million to agricultural and forestry research programs and $700,000 to a planned training center at the renovated Hotel Roanoke.
Meszaros, the first woman to be named Tech's chief academic officer, takes the position as the state is decreasing its financial support for higher education.
But before she tackles the state, she plans to get acquainted with the people and issues on campus.
``My most important task immediately is listening. ... This learning curve has got to be very, very fast for me,'' she says.
Meszaros plans to play a visible role on campus, in the community and around the commonwealth, including at the state capital.
Her job description? ``To identify a direction for this university to create the model land-grant college of the 21st century. President [Paul] Torgersen has given that to us as the challenge, and my role is to flesh that out.''
In addition to ``re-emphasizing the importance of research'' and remembering that ``our business is the business of education,'' Meszaros says she wants to look at outreach and international programs.
``There's distance education,'' she says, referring to projects that, for instance, could let Tech students sit in on a seminar being held on the West Coast via video, telephone and computer links. Hotel Roanoke's training center is designed to accommodate distance learning that could be used by physicians and other professionals wanting to update their skills.
``How are we addressing that? How are we organizing to be proactive in the lifelong pursuit of education?'' Meszaros says. ``I believe education is more than what takes place on this campus from age 18 to 22.''
Meszaros considers it her role to keep people informed, to get their feedback, then to work with campus leaders on a strategy to cope with proposed cuts.
But right now, setting strategy is premature, she says. ``At this point, we are still optimistic funds will be restored.''
Meszaros, who holds a doctorate from the University of Maryland, did much of her graduate work in family and child development. Growing up in a small town in Kentucky, she noticed that some families functioned well and some did not. She wanted to know why.
``Young kids make observations,'' she says. ``If you look at a fully functioning family, they have the resources, time, money, energy.''
As president of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences and in her professional life, her strength lies in seeing the whole, then being able to focus on problems, she says.
In a 1993 article in the Journal of Home Economics titled ``The 21st Century Imperative: A Collaborative Ecological Investment in Youth,'' Meszaros writes, ``Although politicians and opinion-makers pledge devotion and resources to our most precious human assets, their rhetoric falls flat.''
She then cites evidence of a decline in ``youth well-being,'' including teen pregnancy, child abuse and neglect, and high dropout rates.
Although her focus had shifted from family and child development to higher education, she applies the same thinking to her new post.
She would like Allen to ``restore to all Virginia higher education the status and rank that we have held over time.''
``We send a very different message to the state when we cut funds for higher education than I think we want to send,'' she says.
``For years I admired what was happening in Virginia. It really was a model state. Now that has eroded. ... I don't want my state to be dead last among states in support for higher education, and we are rapidly falling to that level.'' The state now ranks 43rd in funding for higher education.
While Meszaros is busy making the transition to a new job, she's also making a transition to the home she and her husband, Alex, who is retired from the Army and is an lawyer, have built in the new Oakton subdivision in Blacksburg.
They moved in earlier than they had planned when the condominium they were renting was sold after Christmas.
``We're actually living upstairs, on the top floor,'' she says. They have to. The main floor still is a construction site. In about a month, she expects they'll be able to use the main floor, which has not only the family room, master bedroom and bath, but also the dining room and kitchen. In they meantime, they're making do.
``We've come to hate microwave meals,'' Meszaros says.
The Meszaroses are just moving in, but they love their new home. From a family that's been on the move, it's no faint praise.
``We moved 17 times during the years we were in the military, and seven times since then,'' Meszaros says. ``We have lived in many, many communities, and Blacksburg is the best by far.''
by CNB