Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 7, 1995 TAG: 9509070068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Virginia Tech is trading on a reputation for producing engineering graduates that was built in the past, but the university no longer may be competitive with some of the nation's top engineering schools, Virginia Tech President Paul Torgersen warned Wednesday.
Speaking in Roanoke to a state government advisory group on high-technology policy, the former engineering dean said budget cuts and the lack of state support are undermining Tech and other Virginia colleges and universities and the contributions they can make to business and industry in the state.
Virginia provides $3,300 in state funding for each college student, compared with North Carolina, which spends $5,500 for each student, Torgersen said. "With that sort of competition, you're going to lose out in the long run," he said.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Tech recruited and nurtured bright young faculty members who have helped the school build a reputation for excellence in fields such as biotechnology, fiber optics and wireless communications, Torgersen said.
Over time, these faculty members, to whom Torgersen referred as "steeples of excellence," attracted enough research funding that they were able to support their own salaries and those of others, he said. Because of budget cuts, Tech no longer is able to attract and develop those kinds of people, and, he said, it will be states such as North Carolina and Maryland where they will be found in the future.
In 1989-90, Virginia Tech ranked 11th in faculty pay among a group of 20 similar institutions, such as the University of Maryland, Penn State, Ohio State and the University of Illinois. During the past school year, Tech's rank fell to 17 among the 20, Torgersen said. "We're beginning to see an exodus of faculty," he said.
The Virginia Technology Council, which listened to Torgersen's message, is appointed by the governor and legislature and charged with promoting technology industries and developing a state technology infrastructure plan. Torgersen told the council that its help as a group would be appreciated but he wanted each council member to be aware that higher education in Virginia is "at risk."
Tracy Wilkins, director of the new biotechnology center at Virginia Tech, also spoke at the council's meeting at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center. Wilkins said he, too, would have left Tech for another university if he hadn't started two businesses in Tech's corporate research center. The state gave him a 11/2 percent raise this year, but he had been offered a 30 percent raise to go to another school, Wilkins said.
Many of Tech's younger professors are being "cherry-picked" by out-of-state schools that are looking for talent, Wilkins said.
Wilkins also talked about the value of the corporate research center in developing technology industries for the state and suggested the Virginia Tech model be repeated at other universities in Virginia. The corporate center on the Tech campus provides a place for new businesses - many based on technology developed by Tech professors - to get their start.
Home-grown businesses that bring investment and profits into the state are more valuable than the factories of outside companies that are built here, Wilkins suggested. "We can build a Motorola factory here," he said, referring to the company's announcement that it would build a computer chip plant near Richmond, "but can we grow our own Motorola?"
Bev Fitzpatrick, director of the New Century Council, told the council that business and industry need to tell educators more about what their needs are. And educators need to find ways to move the knowledge they develop into the commercial marketplace, he said.
by CNB