ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 28, 1996 TAG: 9602280100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
Southern Virginia College students and supporters are asking Gov. George Allen and state Secretary of Education Beverly Sgro for help in keeping their private school open.
Students and other college boosters met with Sgro Tuesday to plead their case.
The trustees of the financially troubled women's junior college in Buena Vista have voted to close at the end of the school term. The college is on the verge of losing its accreditation because of financial problems.
The 129-year-old school, formerly known as Southern Seminary, hopes the state will come through with money or create some sort of affiliation with an existing public college.
The college already has received $250,000 in state economic development funds, and Allen has included another $200,000 for the college in his proposed 1996-1998 budget.
But Southern Virginia officials say they need a much bigger infusion of money from both public and private sources to regain accreditation and keep the college open - perhaps as much as $2 million.
In a letter to Sgro, students pleaded for help in saving the tradition-bound school. They said it would be "such a terrible shame if this unique educational opportunity no longer existed for students who need it. And it would be a grave loss for Virginia's higher educational system to no longer boast such a valuable option."
Enrollment at the all-women college has dwindled from an average of 300 in the 1980s to 165 today, a far cry from the break-even point, school officials said. And despite changing from a for-profit private school to a nonprofit college in 1958, the trustees didn't start a tradition of fund-raising until after enrollment began dipping.
After the meeting,
Sgro said she was impressed by the students' presentation. She said she supports the college's efforts to come up with a plan to make it a satellite campus for a public college.
But she said the college would have to show it was meeting a "bona fide" state need and that the program could operate as efficiently there as it could elsewhere.
As for direct state funding, she said that the "state's hands are somewhat tied" because it cannot give public money directly to a private institution. The $250,000 the college received last year was routed through the city of Buena Vista.
Sgro said Del. Lacey Putney, I-Bedford, plans to propose a budget amendment that could earmark as much as $500,000 in state money. for Southern Virginia College. But she said it's unclear whether that will get the legislature's approval.
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