ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 13, 1996 TAG: 9608130056
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
Orientation starts next week for Virginia Tech's graduate and international students. That means they're all trickling back into town now.
Their return is being closely watched as a measure of just how tight the housing squeeze is in Blacksburg.
Tech administrators met Monday to assess the shortage, recently compounded when an excess of new freshmen forced a midsummer buyout offer for dormitory students. That deal, accepted by 85 students, was designed to free up dorm space for 100 newcomers.
The biggest problem seems to be figuring out just how many students will need housing, Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said.
As of Monday, the numbers looked like this: Up to 24,300 students enrolled, topping 1991's record 23,912, Hincker said. About 100 more graduate students than expected are coming to Tech, and nearly 250 more freshmen than originally forecast, bringing their ranks to 5,115.
"The big question mark is going to be upperclass retention," Hincker said.
In other words, will last year's sophomores, juniors and seniors all return?
Among the ideas floated to help solve the problem: a shuttle bus from Radford, where Radford University's enrollment is expected to drop to between 8,000 and 8,300 students. In 1992, enrollment there peaked with 9,400 students. Tech officials said Monday they expect student apartments are available in Radford.
"We're going to look into shuttles," Hincker said. "We're going to look into continuing to ask people to give us their housing units."
To aid the housing quest, Tech's off-campus housing coordinator Karen Frazier last week sent a letter to area church congregations, asking them to watch for housing for students who may need a place to stay. That includes temporary rooms for students who may find a place after the usual sorting-out that goes on at the first of the school year.
Up to 250 international students, many of them graduate students, are of particular concern. Usually, they can stay in dorm rooms at least temporarily until the usual first-of-the-year housing crunch shakes out. But that's not possible this fall.
"I want to get on top of this situation, because our people ... they don't speak English, they're in a new country, and I just can't send them out on the streets and say, 'Do your best.' Not when the market's so tight and so competitive," said Judy Snoke, who runs the English as a second language program at the Cranwell International Center.
Her students usually are in town to study for less than a semester. She's looking for housing for 10 of them now.
The Hunter's Ridge apartments, with complexes in Blacksburg and Radford, have been telling Tech students about Radford vacancies - but few had called by late last week. Apartment-complex owner Sterling Nichols said the company spends about $200 per resident per year to run a shuttle to Radford University, and would offer the same amount to help transport students to Tech.
"Virginia Tech is a popular university to go to right now," observed Nichols, who has watched a similarly scenario play out in Harrisonburg, where he has managed apartments near James Madison University.
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