Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505150103
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Contrasting with the day of family celebration was the debate over how to fund higher education in Virginia, and both sides of the political aisle had a say. Republican Secretary of Education Beverly Sgro gave the keynote commencement speech, while Democratic House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, spoke afterward at the much smaller graduation ceremony for the Political Science Department.
Sgro, Tech's former dean of students, acknowledged the differences.
"Higher education is a cornerstone of the foundation the Allen administration is laying for positive change in the commonwealth of Virginia," she said.
"Our challenge in higher education is to preserve all that is good in our higher-education system, to improve it and to make it affordable for every Virginian who has the ability, drive and determination to benefit from it.
"There are honest differences over how best to achieve this goal," she said.
Her speech came on the heels of a legislative session in which the Democrat-controlled legislature reclaimed $47.4 million worth of higher education cuts proposed by Gov. George Allen. The cuts were part of a plan to pay for new prisons and a failed tax-cut proposal.
"Some in the General Assembly and in the education establishment measure success only by one standard - how many dollars you can throw at the problem - and they question the commitment and attack the motives of anyone who dares to challenge the status quo," she said
Sgro listed the Allen administration's efforts to rein in higher-education spending, including university restructuring, and an order to hold tuition increases to the rate of inflation - about 3 percent. The cap came last year, after 50 percent increases from 1990 to 1994 for in-state students.
These also were the recession years, when higher education lost millions. At Virginia Tech alone, state funding was cut $46 million. Tuition boosts made up part of the losses.
Sgro also said higher-education funding went up more than $76 million in the state's 1994-1996 budget, a 4.6 percent increase.
"Is this enough? Clearly not," she said, but added that additional funds must be spent only if the universities remain accountable.
"If we are truly committed to higher education - and I certainly am - then we must change the way we do business in higher education. I know we can do better," she said.
Statistics from the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia show Virginia's per-student support dropped from 28th in the country to 44th during the recession years. Figures from the state council and the Virginia Business-Higher Education Council show that the number of students from 1990 to 1994 has risen nearly 7 percent, while funding per student has dropped nearly 14 percent.
"Now is the time to renew our commitment to higher education and to this state," said Cranwell.
He drew the line between those who would privatize what traditionally have been public functions, and those who would not.
"A statewide public education system cannot be purchased on an individual basis. A land-grant university cannot be purchased on an individual basis," he said.
He spoke against building "more prisons than classrooms.
"We're through the recession," he said, and the time for cuts is over. He said Virginia's tax burden is 46th in the nation.
"My dad said a few years ago, `You can know the cost of everything and the value of nothing,''' said Cranwell.
But he also urged those with political opinions different from his own to join the public debate.
"Dig behind the slogans and rhetoric to the reality," he said.
Tech conferred the University Distinguished Achievement Awards posthumously to two professors who died in the past year. Architecture professor Olivio C. Ferrari launched the college's Study Abroad Program and Richard B. Talbot was founding dean of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.
A bachelor of science degree in civil engineering was awarded posthumously to Andrew Eugene McDavid III, a member of the Corps of Cadets killed in a Thanksgiving break car accident. A scholarship was awarded in his memory.
by CNB