THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 17, 1994 TAG: 9409170290
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
State-supported colleges, which have suffered a 20 percent cut in state aid since 1990, have been asked to devise plans for handling added cuts of 2 percent to 6 percent.
Gov. George F. Allen sent letters to the schools Thursday asking them to draft analyses by mid-October showing how they would deal with cuts of 2 percent, 4 percent or 6 percent.
The request for the plans doesn't mean that the cuts will be made. But college officials, knowing Allen's need for money to abolish parole, are worried.
``For us, 2 percent is something more than $900,000; 6 percent is over $2.7 million,'' said James V. Koch, president of Old Dominion University.
``Those reductions, in addition to what we already face, are close to being crushing. And we hope they don't come to pass.''
ODU already faces a cut that Koch has said could amount to $5 million in the 1994-95 school year. He has warned that it could lead to layoffs and closings of academic departments.
The University of Virginia's president, John T. Casteen III, said: ``It is the issue that we have been looking at a lot since 1990: what the state really intends to accomplish with its investment in its colleges. I don't think it's a simple answer anymore.''
But he added: ``Sooner or later, Virginia's capacity to provide first-rate education and economic development . . . has to be put into this equation.''
Virginia now ranks 43rd in the nation in state funding per college student, according to an estimate by the State Council of Higher Education.
State Education Secretary Beverly Sgro and Allen's press secretary, Ken Stroupe, could not be reached Friday.
University officials said the cuts would be difficult to manage because colleges can no longer raise tuition to make up the difference.
The General Assembly last year approved an annual 3 percent cap on tuition and fees, which will run through the 1994-95 school year.
The requests for reduction plans of varying proportions have become almost an annual ritual since the recession hit in 1990. Usually, Koch said, they have been followed by actual cuts. But this time, he said, there's a difference.
``It isn't a case that the state isn't collecting'' revenues now, he said. ``It's a matter of spending priorities.''
Gordon K. Davies, director of the State Council of Higher Education, said: ``I certainly understand the governor's need to make plans dependent on revenues or other legislative interests. But we hope it is not necessary to make these cuts.''
KEYWORDS: COLLEGE UNIVERSITY BUDGET VIRGINIA by CNB