ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 11, 1996 TAG: 9604110056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
NOTE: below
STRICT BEHAVIORAL STANDARDS will once again govern the college formerly known as Southern Seminary.
You could call it a saving grace.
The once-doomed Southern Virginia College in Buena Vista will become a "chemical-free" four-year coeducational liberal arts college, thanks to a group of educators and businessmen who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The group will take over management of the college, including its name, charter and its $4.5 million debt.
The Mormon group also inherits the school's accreditation woes.
In January, the college's trustees voted to shut it down after graduation in May. The college was deep in debt, which led the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to revoke its accreditation, and the future looked too grim to go on. The school appealed the loss of accreditation, but without much hope.
"The new administration is very optimistic about accreditation," Public Relations Director Grace Sarber said Wednesday. "They bring a lot of things to the table that we didn't have."
But it may not be that simple.
According to James T. Rodgers, executive director of Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the arrival of the Mormon group cannot be considered in the appeal.
If the appeals committee overturns the revocation, the new administration has no worries. But if the loss of accreditation stands, it will have to start from scratch.
The school will be non-sectarian, but Sarber said the faculty and staff likely will have a large Mormon component. The school also will recruit students from the Mormon church.
The deal took just days to craft. Word of talks between the college and the Mormon group got out last week. The formal proposal was entered Tuesday, just in time for the Wednesday morning meeting in which it was approved.
"No matter how desperate or demoralizing things are, if you keep a positive attitude and bash on, eventually something good happens - and it has," said President John W. Ripley.
If the college is still open in the fall, it will hardly be the same institution.
Roger Barrus, a political science professor at Hampden-Sydney College and spokesman for the Mormon group, said in a news release the school would have a new board, administration and faculty.
Sarber said she understood Barrus will leave his position at Hampden-Sydney to become academic dean of the new college.
Glade Knight of Midlothian, president and CEO of Cornerstone Investment Trust in Richmond, is expected to become board chairman.
David Ferrel, of a Northern Virginia marketing and communications company, is the likely new president, Sarber said.
Barrus said in the release that "a number" of the college's 84 employees will be retained, but the new direction of the college will require plenty of personnel changes. Sarber said all faculty and staff will be invited to reapply.
Campus life seems destined to return to the stringent behavioral standards it once had when an elaborate alarm system kept unwanted boys out of girls' dorms - and kept the girls in.
"It will offer a social environment supportive of the highest standards of personal behavior and spiritual development," the release said.
Sarber described that as "very strict," with no coed dorms and no alcohol or tobacco allowed on campus.
The new administration thinks it can have 400 students enrolled by fall - more than twice the current enrollment of 165.
Enrollment at the 130-year-old school declined severely from an average of 300 in the 1980s before a recruiting push raised it to where it is now - still well below the break-even point of 225.
The college, known for most of its history as Southern Seminary, opened in 1867 in Bowling Green, Va., as the Home School for Girls, providing elementary and high school classes. The school moved into the Buena Vista Hotel in 1901 and became a two-year college in 1961. It became Southern Virginia College in 1992.
Southern Virginia College is currently a women's two-year college with 165 students. But when it opens this fall under a new board and administration, there will be many changes:
Religious affilitation: Non-sectarian, but a number of the faculty and staff are expected to be Mormons, and students will be recruited from that religion.
Student makeup: Co-educational.
Campus: No alcohol or tobacco, with no mixed-gender dormitories.
Curriculum: Will develop into a four-year institution, with a traditional liberal arts curriculum, emphasizing philosophy, religion, literature, mathematics and science
Enrollment: Projected to be 400.
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