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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 21, 1995                   TAG: 9509210083
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Long

TOO FEW ENROLL AT RADFORD

Douglas Covington, who became president of the university this year, outlined the cuts in a letter to the staff and faculty Wednesday.

The cuts will allow the university to give salary increments averaging 2.25 percent in December to faculty and administrative staff, Covington said. The raises already have been approved by the state.

The university plans to make up the $1 million with these savings:

$290,000 in budget reductions to all five administrative departments: the president's office, business, academics, student affairs, and development. Different percentages of cuts will be applied to them depending on the size of their original budgets;

$200,000 by eliminating low-enrollment courses starting with the spring semester, which will also reduce the numbers of adjunct faculty members needed;

$210,000 by curtailing professional travel for administrative staff and faculty;

$100,000 by delaying several large renovation projects;

$200,000 by extending the hiring freeze on classified and administrative personnel, eliminating some small renovation and other projects and not replacing many of the 54 employees who took a buyout offered by Gov. George Allen and the legislature. Three of those employees have been replaced, but the remaining positions will stay vacant.

The university's fall enrollment of 8,687 students is 418 fewer than last fall's enrollment. Since a state university is required to balance its budget, Radford had to cut 2 percent, or $1 million.

"Such a budget cut is no small feat when one considers that the university's operating costs are heavily invested in personnel," Covington said in the letter.

Many staff and faculty members had not received their copies of the letter Wednesday afternoon, and so could not comment on it.

"The whole thing is obviously just regrettable," said Clay Waite, professor of media studies at the university. "By state law, we cannot go into the red, so reductions are going to have to occur."

Faculty Senate President Jill Alcorn, associate professor of math and statistics, said her organization was not given a chance to make its recommendations for cuts.

She said that at a meeting with the administration Sept. 8, "we were presented some proposed cuts ... We asked for two weeks, which is nothing, to make our own recommendations. We were not given two weeks."

She said an official in Covington's office told her Wednesday that the Sept. 8 meeting had been sufficient for faculty input. She is scheduled to meet with Covington this afternoon to straighten out the miscommunication, she said.

The Faculty Senate passed a motion Friday that it was not given time for valid input. "Law tells us that we have to balance the budget by the end of the academic year. I don't know why the rush," Alcorn said.

She said the Faculty Senate Executive Council has a meeting with Covington scheduled for Oct. 4, and will still draw up recommendations to present to him at that time. "We're going to proceed. We're still going to come up with our own plans," she said.

But eight of the 11 members of the Faculty Senate Resources Allocation Committee, which met for three hours late Wednesday following the release of Covington's letter, could not come up with alternate recommendations for the necessary cuts. The group discussed trying to come up with its own recommendations before Oct. 4 but decided to seek Alcorn's advice on whether it would be worth the effort.

"I don't want to put a lot of hours in only to be told 'This has already been set in stone,''' one committee member said. The committee will meet again Monday.

"Absolutely," Alcorn said Wednesday night, when a reporter asked if she would recommend that the committee propose cuts.

Covington attributed the lower enrollment to a smaller freshman class, a drop in returning students, and a decision by several of the state's larger educational institutions to increase their enrollments.

He said the university must now "mount a vigorous, aggressive effort to attract new students and to offer the high quality of educational programs and service that will entice current students to continue ... All members of the campus community are urged to work cooperatively and diligently in these two areas."

He said Radford has had a decline in freshman applications over the past five years, but not this year. However, the university was more selective in the students it took, and a higher-achieving freshman class was admitted.

"Preliminary analysis indicates that this higher level of scholarship will be reflected in the students' academic profiles," he said. "Working together, the Radford University community has built its reputation for superior scholastic standards. Through a continuing concerted effort among faculty, staff and students, the university will advance toward an even higher level of academic excellence."