ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 24, 1997 TAG: 9702240080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
Old Dominion may revise core studies
NORFOLK - Old Dominion University will probably require future students to take extra helpings of science and writing. But to make room on their plates, the school may cut requirements for history.
ODU's Faculty Senate has overwhelmingly passed a proposal to revise the university's core requirements, usually taken during the first two years of school.
The final decision rests with the administration. The university's provost, Jo Ann Gora, said she hadn't reviewed the plan but was happy that the Faculty Senate endorsed tougher science and writing demands.
The plan reflects the movement among colleges to re-examine core requirements, to cope with the information explosion and to fend off criticism that schools are not properly training students for real life after graduation.
- Associated Press
Jail work crews grow in popularity
FAIRFAX - Two months ago, Kenneth Rogers was sentenced to seven months in the Fairfax County Jail for petty larceny, but he's not there. He's out on the golf course.
Rogers took a job on one of the jail's inmate work crews. In exchange for his labor, he gets to trim five days off his sentence for every 30 days he works.
Rogers is part of a rapidly growing inmate work force across the country. With less money in their budgets, many local governments are relying more on jail work crews to get the dirty work done in their communities. On any given day, hundreds of inmates in Fairfax and surrounding localities are out cleaning parks, shoveling snow and installing road signs.
``It's fiscally such a good thing to do,'' said Rod Miller of the Justice Department's Jail Work and Industries Center.
State law allows local governments to use inmates from their jail to work on public property. Legislation is under discussion to let them work at nonprofit organizations.
Jail officials said violent offenders are not accepted in the program.
- Associated Press
MCV may close its burn unit
RICHMOND - Medical College of Virginia Hospitals administrators are considering closing the facility's burn unit, the oldest nonmilitary burn unit in the country.
Dr. Andrew A. Lasser, chief operating officer of MCV Hospitals at Virginia Commonwealth University, said Friday that staffing problems may force the 12-bed Evans-Haynes Burn Center to close.
MCV has had problems finding trained nurses necessary to operate the 50-year-old unit, he said.
``We must have enough specially trained and qualified people,'' Lasser said. ``If we have any way of keeping it open, we will.''
``Nationally, the numbers of burns are going down, so fewer and fewer people are going into burns as a specialty,'' he said. ``And more and more people are looking at jobs outside the hospitals now, in ambulatory settings where the pressure is less.''
MCV is one of three burn centers in Virginia. The others are at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and the University of Virginia Hospitals in Charlottesville.
Lasser said those burn units could take over for MCV.
About 160 of MCV's 30,000 patients treated last year were burn patients, Lasser said. About half of the burn patients were from Richmond.
Lasser said staff members would be transferred to other positions at the hospital if the burn unit closes, and no one would be let go.
- Associated Press
Bingo supplier being investigated
NORFOLK - The Maryland-based supplier for several Hampton Roads bingo operations, including one under investigation by Virginia gaming officials, may be involved in embezzlement and improper sales of instant bingo tickets in Virginia, according to court papers.
The supplier, Frank Moran and Sons Inc. of Baltimore, is under investigation by the Virginia Charitable Gaming Commission in connection with the alleged embezzlement of as much as $1 million worth of instant bingo tickets by former Chesapeake bingo manager George West, commission officials confirmed Friday.
West, of Virginia Beach, is accused of diverting funds from the Deep Creek Baseball Association bingo operations to his personal use through the sale of instant bingo tickets, according to search warrants and affidavits filed in Virginia.
This month, a court-authorized search of West's Portsmouth auto dealership found invoice records from Moran and Sons.
Telephone messages left for Moran and Sons were not returned.
- Associated Press
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