THE LEDGER-STAR
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 5, 1995 TAG: 9501050593
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RADFORD, VA. LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Facing a possible loss of state funding, Radford University has pulled the plug on its New College of Global Studies only a week before its first classes.
Gov. George Allen recommended a halt to state funding when he proposed his budget amendments last month.
Radford Rector Bernard C. Wampler said Wednesday that Allen administration officials, including Education Secretary Beverly H. Sgro, made it clear in a meeting Tuesday that there was no hope for rescuing the global college.
``The message that came through clearly was the original conception of a stand-alone global college will not be accepted,'' Wampler said. ``Secretary Sgro said she would not support the global school.''
Wampler said the college has considerable support from legislators and the business community, but the board of visitors decided that an end run around the administration in the General Assembly would be bad politics.
Radford officials have viewed the global college as a critical component in efforts to improve the academic reputation of the school.
The global college was proposed five years ago in response to the state Commission on the University for the 21st Century, which forecast a need for space for 65,000 additional students in state schools and an emphasis on international education to prepare Virginia students for a global economy. The state had spent $2 million on the college.
Provost Meredith L. Strohm described the unorthodox curriculum of student-directed courses and a system of performance measures to replace grades as ``an academic petri dish'' that would challenge outdated educational theories.
It was to have had an emphasis on interdisciplinary studies, student-professor interaction and the use of technology and worldwide communications to replace traditional classroom lectures.
``It did not have a rigorous academic discipline-based program,'' Sgro said Wednesday. ``The process of evaluation was very unclear. You sort of had a mutual agreement when a student has gained enough knowledge rather than a traditional basis of being able to evaluate a student's work.''
Sgro said a program designed to groom students for jobs with multinational corporations should have a traditional core curriculum plus basic business and accounting courses and an emphasis on foreign languages.
The global college was to have 2,000 students and its own campus within the campus of 9,000-student Radford University.
The college already had a staff of 24, including six recently hired faculty members.
Wampler said Radford will try to salvage the best elements of the global college by incorporating them into its regular curricula.
KEYWORDS: BUDGET CUTS EDUCATION by CNB