ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 30, 1996 TAG: 9604300055
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Reporter's Notebook
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE
Buried in the hubbub of a very busy two days of Board of Visitors meetings last week was the creation of two whole new schools at Virginia Tech.
Welcome, School of the Arts and School of Public and International Affairs.
However, in the spirit of restructuring, reorganizing and realignment so prominent in our times, these schools will not welcome students to their own suite of offices. Rather, they are cross-departmental collaborations that have been in the works for a long time. But that doesn't mean the two deans presenting the two new schools to the board didn't have to counter some concern.
"I have a little trouble rationalizing there won't be another level of bureaucracy," said board member Mitch Carr.
"I think this is a pretty significant change in the university structure. I do think the board needs to be advised further in advance of this. I think a policy has to be offered. I think we need to consider more fully the implications of these things; anytime you bring together a new organization, it's going to cost you more money," said board member Henry Dekker.
So there you have the opinion from the business-trained end of Tech's governing body.
The academics argued it a little differently. Provost Peggy Meszaros said people have been trying for a while to figure out "how to position faculty in new areas" that will invigorate them and their programs. And so now, "rather than rigid department and college lines," you have schools styled after the concepts of total-quality management - the team-oriented management philosophy that helped rebuild Japanese industry after World War II.
The university president offered a unique but salient point of view altogether: the image "Virginia Tech" projects to the outside world. As he has worked on the school's new University Plan, Paul Torgersen has been very upfront about his concern that the outside world seems to view Tech as, well, a technical school.
As he said last week, "We are a university." So that means engineering students should have access to the arts, too.
The School of the Arts, which has been kicking around for a while now, officially falls under the College of Arts & Sciences. The departments of art and art history, music, and theater arts all will go together now, and one of the benefits will be when they go fund raising, said Dean Bob Bates. Arts organizations depend heavily on outside funding, and a School of the Arts will help when Tech seeks help staging arts events that aren't specifically class-oriented.
A brochure on the new school says it won't cost any extra money. It also may be a good way to consolidate classes.
The School of Public and International Affairs is a product of the College of Arts & Sciences and College Architecture and Urban Studies. According to its brochure, it will do everything from improving Tech's reputation among public officials to boosting Tech's image nationally as a strong, intellectually diverse university.
Once again, it will draw from across departments as a sort of interdisciplinary operation. And, its status as a school will alert folks that Tech is taking a lead in this area of study.
The new schools aren't expected to offer any new degrees. It will be interesting to see how giving the designation of "school" to a cross-departmental operation will work.
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