Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 9, 1995 TAG: 9505090087
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The move has upset some Williamsburg-area residents who have been taking the continuing education courses for years.
``Everything seems to be going to the younger generation, which is fine and dandy, but there are a lot of older folks, and we pay taxes, too,'' April Kornegay of Newport News said during a break on the last day of ballroom dancing.
Some continuing-ed students say the college has needlessly damaged what had been a good relationship with the community, and others wonder whether restructuring is just an excuse for William and Mary - the second-oldest college in the nation behind Harvard - to drop what it deems too lowbrow.
``I think it's not lofty enough for the college,'' said Pete Kubin, another ballroom dancer.
But Provost Gillian Cell said the move was part of a collegewide review of offerings. Gov. George Allen and the General Assembly ordered all state-supported colleges to submit restructuring plans last year.
``We made some hard decisions across the board, including some mainline academic programs,'' Cell said. William and Mary also is dropping a half-dozen master's programs, in subjects such as math and government.
The continuing-ed program offers about 120 classes to 4,000 people, at an average fee of $50 each. Most of the classes are taught by area residents with expertise.
Continuing Education Director Colleen Whitacre says the program is running a $44,000 profit this fiscal year. The program lost $17,000 last year, but Cell said that was not a major consideration in closing it.
``In every part of the college, we really asked ourselves: Is there some reason we can do this better than anyone else? In the case of special programs, in a number of instances we had some problems. It's not clear to us why it was appropriate for the College of William and Mary to be offering, just to give an example, a course in auto repair,'' Cell said.
Those kinds of courses, she said, were ``not consonant with our mission'' of providing a topnotch undergraduate liberal arts education and graduate programs.
Patricia Sempowich of Hampton, a student in the Cajun cooking class, said the school has lost sight of another part of its mission: ``A college exists to serve the community, and the community is more than the students on campus.''
Cell said, however, that the closing is ``not intended to be a signal that we are retreating from service and outreach. We think we do have an obligation to serve the community, and I think we are serving it in a variety of ways'' - such as the School of Education's work with public schools and the college's recently opened center in Newport News that offers master's degrees in business.
Some noncredit classes will return, Cell said. She said William and Mary is negotiating for Thomas Nelson Community College in Hampton to take over some courses, but would probably resume offerings on the academic side, such as computer and foreign languages classes.
Trouble is, that's not what some adults are looking for.
Dr. John Prahinski, an orthopedist at Fort Eustis, said: ``I didn't want to get my M.B.A. in my free time; I wanted to do something fun.'' So he's in Cajun cooking.
``Learning about the world - about music, food - is just as much a part of life as learning calculus,'' he said. ``The mission of a university should be to expand the horizon of the mind, and the palate is just as much a part of the human spirit.''
by CNB