THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 14, 1995 TAG: 9501140011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By HUGH L. PATTERSON
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
The budget amendments proposed by Governor Allen would cripple the State Council of Higher Education by cutting 50 percent of its current funding. It is strange that this action comes on the heels of a yearlong study by the General Assembly's tough-minded Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, which rated the council as one of the most effective state agencies it has reviewed in 20 years.
As a member of the council from July 1985 through June 1994, and as chairman during my last two years of service, I can attest to the fine work of this agency. There was a time when more college-bound students left Virginia than came into it. Today, Virginia's colleges and universities keep our best students where we want them, here in Virginia. I am also aware of the compelling need for the continuity and vision the council has provided to higher education during four decades of great change within the commonwealth and the nation. JLARC cited the continuity of the council and its staff as a major reason that Virginia's system of higher education has become the envy of many states.
In 1956, the General Assembly recognized the need for a strong and diverse system of state colleges and universities which would be guided by careful planning, thoughtful study and innovative strategies to provide Virginians with the education and skills they would need to live good and productive lives. For nearly four decades, the council has provided this leadership in an efficient and effective manner. Among its accomplishments, the council has anticipated and planned for enrollment growth over the years so that there would be a place for every Virginian who could benefit from higher education. It has frugally managed millions of dollars in classroom- and laboratory-construction projects. It has coordinated course offerings among Virginia's colleges and universities to avoid unnecessary duplication and to keep tuition as low as possible. In fact, the council has closed more than 100 more programs than it has opened in the past decade.
In the past four years alone, the council helped colleges and universities to successfully absorb $413 million in state budget cuts while accepting more students and not reducing services. At the same time, it successfully pushed to triple the amount of state financial aid available to students. The council anticipated the need for more minority students and faculty in the sciences and worked with Norfolk State University to enhance its science research-and-instruction capacity. The council acknowledged the need to teach more students with fewer resources and worked with Old Dominion University and Virginia's community colleges to pioneer the innovative TELETECHNET satellite-instruction program, a national model of instructional technology. The council quickly responded to the calls of Norfolk families, students and business leaders for a downtown campus of Tidewater Community College to boost economic development here at home by providing the skills and training necessary to compete in a changing economy.
Recognizing early on that the strategies for the 20th century would not be of much use in the 21st, the council began to push for college and university restructuring plans three years ago. Thanks to the council's hard work, those plans will stretch Virginia's higher-education investment dollars even further and help our colleges and universities to respond efficiently and effectively to a changing world. All of this planning and work was accomplished during a time when the council's own budget was cut by nearly 30 percent. Now there are proposals to cut in half the funding that remains.
The work of the council and its staff is very diverse. The council manages $76 million in state financial aid for students each year. It coordinates the operating and capital-outlay budgets for 39 public colleges and universities and the academic offerings and student-affairs initiatives for both the public and 41 additional private colleges and universities. It also serves as the state's watchdog group to protect citizens from fraud in post-secondary education. These are just a few of the council's activities. This is not a small list considering that the council's budget is only $2.9 million, or three-tenths of 1 percent of the state's general-fund appropriation for higher education.
For four decades of Republican and Democratic administrations, the Council of Higher Education has seen to it that Virginians have had access to one of the nation's best systems of higher education. It would be shameful to now cripple the council and Virginia's higher-education system at a time when it is the key to increasing economic prospects for all of Virginia's citizens.
The General Assembly should weigh carefully the risk of substantially curtailing the work of the State Council of Higher Education. Much is at stake for all of us. MEMO: Mr. Patterson is a partner in the Norfolk law firm of Willcox & Savage. by CNB