Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 25, 1995 TAG: 9506260008
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
With him goes a genuine concern for students, an understanding of their mistakes, an anger at their occasional carelessness, a pride in their accomplishments.
Recently, I asked Goodale, vice president for student affairs since 1988, for some of his reflections on his eight years at the university. He thought about it for a day and responded in writing, seven pages, most of them about Tech's students. Which is perhaps what we should expect from someone who carries his title.
"Jim McComas asked me to do three things when I came," Goodale said. "First, to make the campus a more friendly place; secondly, to assist in diversifying the student body; and finally, to improve our facilities."
Is Tech a friendlier place?
Goodale hopes so.
At the very least, he led by example. Students remember both him and past President James McComas, who died last year of cancer, for their rapport with the student body. For stopping to talk to students on campus between classes. For remembering names.
"He was always accessible to the students," Betty Hayden, last year's editor of the Collegiate Times, said of Goodale. "They could call him at home. I think he picked up where McComas left off."
Goodale cites friendships between men and women, between people of different colors and people of different backgrounds as examples of the campus' growth in recent years. "There are a lot of barriers that are brought down simply through friendship," he said.
He recalls the Ku Klux Klan march several years ago, where a group of people came together to decide how best to counter the rhetoric and demonstration of the white supremacists.
During his tenure, Goodale worked to give students a voice in university government. "He felt what students had to say was important," Hayden said.
He also believed - and still does - in the importance of an education. Not just education in English or math or engineering, but in life, health and consequences - like the consequences of alcohol and substance abuse.
When he was dean of students at the University of Florida, Goodale cofounded BACCHUS, or "Boost Alcohol Consciousness Concerning Health of University Students." Now in its 20th year, BACCHUS has become North America's largest volunteer student organization, with chapters at 600 schools.
While at Tech, he served on one of the subcommittees for Gov. Douglas Wilder's substance abuse and sexual assault task force.
With Wilder came budget cuts, followed by a budget crisis, and he's taken a lot of flak from higher education organizations for that, Goodale said. But "I, for one, would throw a bouquet to Governor Wilder for initiating the ... task force during his tenure."
But back to Goodale's own tenure.
Facilities?
The university completed the renovation of Squires Student Center and built the G. Burke Johnson student center. Students - and Goodale - are still hoping for a recreation center. The architects have been approved and the school should break ground next spring. Says Goodale: "It's going to happen."
While Goodale recalls the budget cuts and the pain they've caused, he does not want to be remembered for dwelling on them. Tech students, he says, are not "whiners" or "complainers." Besides, when you're leaving a place that has been your life for eight years, you tend to dwell more on the good things.
Goodale does not know yet what his next move will be, only that his work is finished here. "I, for one, have felt the journey here has been worthwhile," Goodale said. "I hope in some small way, we have made this a better place for students to gain a quality education as well as some life skills which will carry them a long way."
Madelyn Rosenberg is assistant editor of the New River Bureau and once covered Virginia Tech for the newspaper.|
by CNB