Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 16, 1995 TAG: 9510160091
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Or does it?
The survey, released last week, concluded that a four-year college or university here could attract at least 5,000 students within four years and have potential for more growth thereafter. "This is a clear message that we need a four-year, state-supported school in the valley," retired 6th District Congressman and citizens' committee member Jim Olin said. "There is a clear demand for a public college or university. It would be a boon for industry and the whole community."
It would. But consider:
In a state that since the late 1980s has allowed higher-education funding to drop perilously into the danger zone, the first priority is apt to be - as it probably should - restoring lost dollars to the state's existing colleges and universities. Roanoke, meanwhile, continues to lose clout to higher-growth parts of Virginia in the competition for state dollars.
The Roanoke region already is home to two large state universities, Virginia Tech and Radford. The home campus of Tech, one of the state's two comprehensive universities, will be even nearer when the "smart" road is completed. The 5,000-student projection for a new college in the Roanoke Valley probably depends in part on shifting to Roanoke students who otherwise would attend Radford or Tech.
Steps, albeit slow and tentative, already are under way to expand Roanoke's higher-education opportunities, by building on existing institutions rather than creating new ones. The Graduate Center in downtown Roanoke offers postbaccalaureate programs - albeit a measly menu - from a consortium of public universities, including Tech, Radford and the University of Virginia. In August, Virginia Western Community College and Radford signed an important partnership agreement that will enable Roanokers to get four-year degrees in four fields - nursing, media studies, criminal justice and social work - without leaving the valley. The two-year College of Health Sciences has plans to offer baccalaureate programs for nurses and physicians' assistants.
The face of higher education is changing rapidly, and must change still more if colleges and universities are to meet the demands of the next century. Creation of wholly new institutions, each with its own administrative structure, is an old solution that fits poorly the new framework.
Indeed, the emergence of telecommunications teaching technology and the growing need for continuous learning suggest that future modes of higher-education growth will more likely be collaborative efforts akin to the Graduate Center and the Virginia Western-
Radford partnership - not new colleges that duplicate traditional infrastructure, overhead and programs.
Tech has proved better at entrenchment than at entrepreneurial outreach. But in a knowledge-based economy, higher education's power as an economic-development engine will derive increasingly from high-tech research facilities and the availability of lifelong learning opportunities for continuous upgrading of worker skills.
The citizens' committee is right to want more undergraduate programs in the valley, so a four-year degree is less expensive and more convenient for Roanokers. Current offerings - undergraduate or graduate - are far less than they should be.
But instead of pushing for a new undergraduate college, Roanokers should be demanding that existing institutions poke their heads farther out of their shells and expand their presence in Roanoke. They should also be pressing the state to provide the money to do the job.
by CNB