ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611040034
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
Virginia Tech is the lead partner in a proposed "Global University" that would develop and export on-line and other types of digital courses throughout the world from a headquarters at Potomac Yard in Alexandria.
Tech's participation - in a concept that university officials say costs only "sweat equity" - is just one piece of the massive $3 billion Washington Global Center proposed for the 300-plus acres, once proposed as the site of a new home for the Washington Redskins.
Tech would be a tenant in the project. Also on the drawing board for the center: 4,500 housing units, an international finance center complete with an Internet-based stock exchange, and a multimedia international cultural center.
If it comes to pass, the futuristic global university concept likely would become a consortium of universities conducting distance learning that would expand higher education's reach to the farthest corners of the world and to people who are not traditional college students.
"It could be a vehicle that could enable institutions of higher learning around the world to share knowledge," said Charles Steger, Tech's vice president for development.
But first, the backers of the proposed global center must secure control of Potomac Yard, located near Washington National Airport.
The site is part of the many holdings of the RF&P Corp., recently sold by the Virginia Retirement System to the New York investment bankers of Lazard Freres & Co. for more than $500 million in cash, VRS spokesman Bill Sullivan said.
A contract on Lazard's bid was signed Tuesday, but the closing date is Dec.1. Until then, Lazard Freres is not commenting on what will happen to the many assets of the former railroad concern, said Robert Freeman, who is handling the RF&P deal for Lazard Freres.
However, one of the senior partners in the project that would develop the Washington Global Center said he and his partners have a signed letter of consent with the New York bankers.
William Lauer, of Tetra Partnerships in Northern Virginia, would not detail the conditions his partnership must meet in order to obtain Potomac Yard. But, he said, "if we meet [the guidelines], the property's ours."
Enter Virginia Tech.
It's been close to two years since Tech first was approached to be part of the global center, Steger said. About 18 months ago, the university held a meeting with other universities to talk about collaborating in the futuristic plan, which can be compared with other "virtual university" proposals, Steger said.
Concepts for the global university include a production operation that would develop digital courses. Professors expert in a particular subject would work with hardware or software producers and entertainment-industry partners to create multimedia courseware, said Fred Krimgold, director of Virginia Tech's technology assistance and development program in Northern Virginia.
The courses would not be "either time or place dependent," he said. Students would not actually attend class at the university. The courses might be offered through Virginia Tech, or another university halfway around the world.
The first offerings likely would be courses in subjects such as English as a second language or remedial math, Krimgold said.
The idea would be to reach students in far-flung locales who cannot attend a university, or to supply courses for working students or others whose schedules don't allow them to come to campus.
Both Krimgold and Steger stressed that Tech has spent no money on the global university. The venture probably would only break even in its first five years, Krimgold said.
"We're not in competition with existing universities," Krimgold said. "We have no intention of changing the elements of the systems that work."
The initial building - constructed by the Washington Global Center - would be about 150,000 square feet, and the consortium might employ 75 to 100 people, he said.
Proximity to the global center's other tenants also will be valuable to Tech, Krimgold said. He noted that a bank there will be designed to help finance university-based research. The finance and trade center will be "very important for financing of university activities and making of university products." And a proposed convention center opens up opportunities for "genuinely global-scale meetings when appropriate," he said.
But Steger cautioned the university first must "wait and see how all this will play out. Assuming it does, we will continue dialogue and programmatic planning."
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