
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 13, 1994                    TAG: 9406130058 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B4    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940613                                 LENGTH: NORFOLK

ODU WILL WORK TO LINK E. SHORE'S ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMY

{LEAD} Right now, nobody really knows how to save poor communities without destroying their environments. If they did, they'd be doing it - at least sometimes.

Old Dominion University wants to fill that information gap. Researchers there see the Eastern Shore as a giant laboratory where they can study and solve concrete problems facing a poor rural area.

{REST} ODU has joined The Nature Conservancy to create the Virginia Coast Institute. At the new institute, professors and students will work on small-business incubation, watershed research, reducing illiteracy, job training and retraining anddozens of other subjects.

Findings of the research can be applied to real situations on the Eastern Shore.

``I don't believe that universities should exist in an ivory tower,'' said Jo Ann Gora, provost of ODU and vice president for academic affairs. ``Old Dominion University has tremendous intellectual resources. This is an opportunity for us to bring all that expertise to bear on a community that needs us.''

Over time, ODU researchers hope to create a model for sustainable development that can be used around the world.

In only six months, ODU raised $430,000 from private sources to fund the institute. Now, university officials are searching for someone to head the project.

They're also looking for a large, renovated house on the seaside near Nassawadox to house students and a lab.

Officials expect that, within the next few years, the institute should have between $1 million and $2 million in research grants flowing through it's doors. And within the next 5 years, the university hopes to offer a masters' degree in sustainable development.

But ODU professors aren't waiting for the institute to open before starting their research. About 15 projects are already cooking on the Eastern Shore. Oceanographer William Dunstan is studying the health and distribution of marine plants in seaside lagoons. He wants to see how farm chemicals affect these plants. With that knowledge, others can develop ways of farming that won't ruin marine ecosystems.

``We need to preserve the complex food web,'' said Dunstan about his research. ``We don't understand it enough to risk loosing a species.''

The benefits of all this research to people on the Eastern Shore could be enormous. Produce and seafood grown in extra-clean environments can be marketed for bigger profits.

{KEYWORDS} RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT ECONOMY

by CNB