ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 23, 1996 TAG: 9601230081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on January 26, 1996.
Figures showing the sizes of Virginia Tech's two merging colleges,
the College of Education and the College of Human Resources, were
incorrect in a story that ran Tuesday. The education college has 1,546
students, including 598 who study at off-campus facilities. Of the
total, 327 students are undergraduates. The human resources college has
1,637 students, 48 of whom study off-campus. In all, 1,407 students are
undergraduates.
Virginia Tech's College of Education will merge July 1 with the College of Human Resources.
The new College of Human Resources and Education grew out of what likely was the most public of controversies in President Paul Torgersen's two-year tenure, his announcement in November that the College of Education would close. His decision drew concern from Tech's Faculty Senate, and faculty across the university worried about a seemingly unilateral decision by the president - without the input of those most affected.
"Of all the options that we had following the announcement we would merge, this is the best outcome I think we could hope for," said Don Creamer, an education professor.
Torgersen has said all along that his decision would not affect students currently enrolled, that no jobs would be lost, and that it would enable the education faculty to work more closely with professors of other disciplines within the university.
State colleges and universities have been under intense pressure to merge programs or cut duplication. It has been two years since the College of Education started a major reorganization to cut $1.6 million, at that time 20 percent of its budget.
Torgersen said Monday that he had been reassured by expressions of support for his decision, noting that if he had obtained wide-ranging input, "we'd be debating it for the next three or four years."
"I'm optimistic at this point that the faculty of both colleges will collaborate in a very positive way toward making this a better university and enhancing our support of public education," he said.
The merger comes after more than a month of meetings by a committee struggling with how to carry out Torgersen's directive. Just last week, education faculty voted again to remain independent.
But faculty members on Monday sounded optimistic, and even outlined areas of collaboration between the two colleges. For instance, education students spend three years learning in the human resources college, then, through the auspices of the education college, spend a year in public schools, said education Professor Dave Hutchins.
And the interim dean of human resources pointed out that the education college's focus on kindergarten through 12th grade dovetails with her college's work.
"Our college as a mission ... focuses on the well-being of individuals, families and communities," said Janet Johnson. "If we are going to address what goes on K through 12, we have to look at what's going on in the home of K-through-12 learners."
A total of 948 students are enrolled in the College of Education, 623 of them graduate students. The College of Human Resources is more heavily undergraduate, with 845 total students, 735 of them undergrads.
The merger has not gone unnoticed by area school superintendents, some of whom describe a close working relationship between the College of Education - the only resource of its type in this part of the state - and the schools.
Torgersen met Saturday at the Hotel Roanoke with a group of superintendents, including many from Southwest Virginia.
"What I found out is the superintendents ... have a nice relationship, a mutually supportive relationship, with some of the faculty in the College of Education," Torgersen said. "I think their concern was that connection would somehow be jeopardized."
Deanna Gordon, a College of Education alumna and superintendent of Roanoke County schools, said she has called on the college for advice on everything from law to special education.
"They're very much almost an adjunct of our faculty," she said.
Still to be figured out is just how the new college will be put together. According to a Tech statement released Monday, the two colleges will have until July 1998 to work out final details.
"It will mean nothing in the immediate future," Johnson said. "For students who are here and enrolled now, it will not make a difference at all."
Among the more immediate issues is filling the post of dean. Both colleges have been operating under interim deans. The search for a human resources dean has not really gone past "the mechanics of getting it organized," Johnson said.
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