THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 20, 1995 TAG: 9504200511
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
It's been a rough few years for Virginia's colleges and universities, struggling under often-competing pressures to maintain vaunted traditions yet modernize and become more efficient.
But four college presidents, gathered at Cape Henry Collegiate School on Wednesday for a forum on the restructuring of higher education, were upbeat about the challenges they have met and will continue to face.
``When you talk about restructuring, it's really a business kind of thing,'' said Norfolk State University President Harrison B. Wilson. ``And I think the citizens of the commonwealth can rest assured that colleges and universities are trying to save money, are trying to increase efficiency and really have taken this whole issue of restructuring very seriously.''
Wilson and the others, James V. Koch of Old Dominion University, Timothy J. Sullivan of William & Mary and Ronald E. Carrier of James Madison University, detailed the steps all had taken to cut expenses, improve efficiency and increase convenience for students.
At Old Dominion, for example, there are fewer top administrators, and some services now are contracted to private companies. At James Madison, it's becoming easier for students to graduate in three years, and university catalogs and course descriptions are available on computer. At William & Mary, there is a goal to reduce administrative expenses by 10 percent and put the money into instruction; freshmen now are offered a series of small seminars where they can have one descriptions are available on computer. At William & Mary, there is a goal to reduce administrative expenses by 10 percent and put the money into instruction; freshmen now are offered a series of small seminars where they can have one-on-one contact with senior professors.
All said they are increasing the use of technology, which will allow them to offer services more efficiently.
All the state's colleges and universities were required to present restructuring plans to the state General Assembly for approval.
``The final test of the whole thing has to be: Are we making it easier for students to get a college degree?'' said Old Dominion's Koch.
Norfolk State's Wilson cautioned, however, that in the effort to streamline, policy-makers must remember the need for diversity among colleges; not every school should offer the same types of programs. That's because the economy of tomorrow will need workers with diverse skills and experiences, he said.
One thorny issue still on the horizon for colleges and universities, in Virginia and nationwide, is tenure for faculty members. Job protection for professors, long considered necessary for universities to conduct meaningful research, has been criticized in an era when the focus is on streamlining, boosting productivity and meeting students' needs.
``The problem you have is that every day you are told to run the university like a business,'' said James Madison's Carrier. ``But it's very difficult to run a business when you can't deploy resources because of tenure.''
Carrier said that colleges and universities should begin offering prospective professors a choice of focusing on teaching or research. In the future, research should relate to what students need to learn, he said, and students should be engaged at the undergraduate level in research projects with professors.
``The problem with tenure so often is that when a person gets tenure, it seems that they think they've retired,'' Wilson said. That's not true of all professors, he said.
But at Norfolk State, only 51 percent of professors have been given tenure. Other colleges and universities have significantly higher percentages, he said.
Koch called tenure ``a somewhat outdated relic of a former era.
``I think it's become more of an employment security mechanism rather than a defense of academic freedom.''
At Old Dominion, Koch said, there is a policy for getting rid of tenured faculty members who are not performing satisfactorily. And increasingly, he said, professors are offered the freedom to choose the kind of focus they want to have in their jobs: teaching or research.
Only William & Mary's Sullivan offered a partial defense of the tenure process.
``Tenure is not an unvarnished evil,'' he said. ``It's not an unalloyed good.'' It has benefits and disadvantages.
For now, he said, it is a reality, and it would be difficult for a college to abolish it all together. MEMO: The internal auditor for Virginia Beach schools has resigned/B4
ILLUSTRATION: Wilson
Koch
Sullivan
Carrier
by CNB