
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 5, 1995                   TAG: 9509050031
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RAY REED
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RAISE VMI COST, OR HELP PAY VWIL'S?

Q: Who is responsible for the decision to subsidize each student in the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership at Mary Baldwin College in the amount of $7,300 for tuition differences, using taxpayer dollars? What was the rationale behind the decision? Would it be more appropriate to increase VMI tuition by the amount necessary to offset the VWIL expenses?

R.A., Daleville

A: The tax appropriation wasn't anyone's personal decision.

A federal judge, two Virginia governors and the General Assembly agreed the state would contribute the same funding per student to VMI and VWIL.

The lawsuit that challenged VMI's male-only admissions policy raised the question of whether it was appropriate for an institution that receives public funding to keep out females.

The legal remedy that lawyers proposed to U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser called for equal state funding for a women's leadership program.

Then-Gov. Douglas Wilder agreed to their plan and put the money into the budget. The General Assembly approved the budgeted amount, and Gov. George Allen signed the bill. The court was satisfied.

That's the picture sketched by Don Finley at the State Council of Higher Education:

Each VWIL student gets $7,308 from the state this year to help offset private Mary Baldwin's $19,000-plus tuition. That's the same amount of state funding, per student, that VMI is getting this year.

Even that doesn't equalize the students' cost between VMI and Mary Baldwin, so VWIL students get additional scholarship funding from Mary Baldwin. That makes the out-of-pocket cost for VWIL and VMI students equal.

Would it be more appropriate to increase VMI tuition rather than pass the bill to taxpayers?

That's a philosophical question. Is it better to increase tuition and let individuals pay their own way? Or do we gain more by making education available to everyone with the ability (and in this case, the intestinal fortitude) to benefit, and in turn contribute?|

Hear despite noise|

Q: A picture in the newspaper last week showed people on the telephone holding their hand over one ear, trying to block out noise in the auction room where they worked. There must be a better way to hear, because I've tried sticking a finger in my other ear, and it doesn't help.|

|A.R., Roanoke A: Instead of putting your hand over an ear, cover the mouthpiece. You'll hear much better.

That's a tip from Roanoker Len Castner, who spent a career developing sound equipment for Bell laboratories.

There are two reasons why a palm over the mouthpiece works better than a hand over the ear.

First, we're given two ears and they're designed to work together. Covering one ear limits our faculties, so that in a room full of talking people, we hear a babble of voices but cannot tune in a particular conversation.

Second, the telephone mouthpiece feeds some of the sound back through the earpiece. That lets us hear ourselves talk - so we can keep our voices down when we're calling about a mistake in the phone bill, for example.

This feature is called a "side tone," but at a party or a pay phone beside the highway, the effect is more like static.

Covering the mouthpiece blocks out that interference and lets us concentrate both ears on the phone caller.|

Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.|

by CNB