Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 14, 1995 TAG: 9502140115
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The graduate representative joins a nonvoting undergraduate who already sits on the 14-member board.
The move sailed past the board with only a bit of last-minute procedural tinkering, but it stems from a long-standing campus concern that graduate students, who comprise 20 percent of Tech's 23,800-member student body, have very different concerns from undergraduates.
They tend to be older, with "real world" professional experience. Many have families or spouses. They may be trying to care for an elderly parent on a minimal student budget.
"The major, fundamental difference is the majority of graduate students cannot rely on Mom and Dad for financial assistance," said Maureen Bezold, the 33-year-old doctoral student who heads Tech's Graduate Student Assembly.
A year ago, two graduate students applied for the single student position on the board. But the job went to the undergraduate who applied.
"There are people who just don't support having a graduate student represent the concerns of the undergraduates, which are the majority of the students," Bezold said.
So, with the help of the board's current student representative, Kevin Leclair, and Seth Ginther, president of the Student Government Association, Bezold set to work changing the board. The nonstudent members are appointed by the governor to staggered terms, and choose the student members from a slate of candidates presented to them by student groups.
Both Bezold and Leclair said they believe that the board benefits from hearing the student perspective when it makes decisions.
And Leclair said he does not think that the student representative is token, even though he cannot vote.
"I think just being able to sit on the board and being treated like a member of the board is very powerful," he said.
In other action, the board reviewed the results of a buyout offered a year ago. In all, 110 professors, or 10 percent of eligible tenured faculty, took the buyout.
Under the plan, professors with 10 years' experience could leave under mutual agreement with their departments. They exit with one year's pay, but pension benefits are limited to their total years of service. Many professors in the Colleges of Agriculture and Education, under fire from extreme budget cuts, took the buyout.
The average age of the departing professors is 61; their average years of service at Tech, 23 1/2. About half will depart by this summer, and the rest, by next summer. A few more professors' buyout applications are under final review.
by CNB