THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, July 26, 1995               TAG: 9507260423
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                           LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines

BUSINESS GROUP WANTS MORE STATE MONEY FOR COLLEGES

Virginia's colleges need $200 million more a year in state money to recover from repeated budget cuts, a statewide group of business leaders said Tuesday.

The newly formed Virginia Business Higher Education Council is pushing for a nearly 25 percent increase over current funding and said it will use the issue as a litmus test in this fall's General Assembly elections.

``Now is the time for commitment . . . not after the election,'' said John T. Hazel Jr., a Northern Virginia developer and council chairman. ``It's time to hold candidates accountable.''

``I don't think $200 million (a year) is unrealistic given the growth in the economy and the decline of higher education,'' said Ronald E. Carrier, president of James Madison University.

Hazel, joined by a number of college presidents and business executives at a news conference at the headquarters of Ethyl Corp. in Richmond, said Virginia must reconsider its priorities and stop cutting higher education money ``every time there's a need in the budget.''

Since 1990, the state's more than three dozen two- and four-year public colleges have seen their budgets slashed by nearly $500 million. The result has been back-to-back and often double-digit tuition increases.

Virginia ranks 42nd nationally in direct per pupil state support for colleges. The state ranks second-highest in tuition for typical four-year public universities.

Even with Republican Gov. George F. Allen's demand that the colleges limit tuition increases to 3 percent, or the cost of living, tuitions at nearly every four-year college in Virginia now top $4,000 a year.

The council includes about three dozen corporate, banking and legal executives, including Landmark Communications' Frank Batten, Richmond supermarket magnate James E. Ukrop, Bruce C. Gottwald of Ethyl Corp., and William W. Berry of Dominion Resources.

A recent council-commissioned survey found 71 percent of Virginians believe quality higher education is very important to the state's economic future.

And in a statewide study of the colleges' economic impact on their localities, the council said 55,494 outside jobs are generated by the schools. Moreover, the colleges created more than $3.3 billion in economic activity - from staff wages to student spending - in fiscal 1994.

KEYWORDS: COLLEGE FUNDING INCREASE UNIVERSITY VIRGINIA BUDGET

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