THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 23, 1996 TAG: 9607230239
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 74 lines
The State Council of Higher Education on Monday ordered six poorly enrolled degree programs, including two at Tidewater Community College, closed by the fall of 1997, against the colleges' objections.
The action represents the state's tougher line, in recent years, to get colleges to increase efficiency and cut costs.
The council has traditionally tried to coax colleges to voluntarily close programs the agency deems unproductive. Only one other time in the past decade has it forced a school to close a program against its will, said Margaret A. Miller, the council's associate director for academic affairs, in an interview.
The two TCC programs are in agricultural business and management, and parks, recreation and leisure facilities management. The agriculture program averages three graduates a year, the recreation program five, said Genene Pavlidis, senior academic affairs coordinator of the agency.
TCC President Larry Whitworth said Monday that he did not know whether the college would appeal the decision. But he said community college programs should not be judged based on the number of graduates: ``We enroll thousands of students who come to us for a couple of courses and then they go back to work. They don't necessarily stay for associate's degrees in applied science.''
The four other programs ordered shut down are at John Tyler and Virginia Western Community Colleges and Virginia Commonwealth University.
The council also put 16 degree programs on probation. They will be allowed to continue until 1998, when they will be reviewed again. Four are offered in Hampton Roads: a doctorate in ecological sciences at Old Dominion, a bachelor's degree in medical technology at Norfolk State, a bachelor's in music at Christopher Newport and an associate's in civil engineering/civil technician at TCC.
The meeting Monday was the first since Gov. George F. Allen appointed three new members to the agency. The new makeup triggered an immediate shift to a more conservative philosophy and a more rancorous tone:
The council voted to remove recommendations to hire more minorities and women in a report from a task force of academics on improving physics programs. The report showed that among Virginia's public four-year schools, five percent of physics professors are black; 10 percent are female.
Council member Kate O. Griffin said she didn't want to send a message that colleges had to fill quotas to hire minority and female physicists. Jeffrey Brown, a new member of the council who is African-American, agreed: ``Our purpose is to increase the viability of physics programs. If we do that, we'll find that we'll attract more minorities and women.''
The council voted, 6-5, to elect Elizabeth A. McClanahan, an Abingdon lawyer, over George G. Phillips, chairman of a Norfolk insurance brokerage house, as chairwoman. She succeeds Val S. McWhorter, the only remaining member appointed by former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder. All three new members voted for McClanahan.
McClanahan often asks probing questions of agency officials and has expressed impatience that they aren't moving forcefully enough to halt unnecessary expansion.
In opening comments, she said the council should ensure ``fiscal responsibility'' and extend the two-year in-state tuition freeze, pushed by Allen, through 2000. She also said the council should visit at least eight colleges a year: ``There is no better way to understand institutions than by listening to their parents, faculty and students.''
The council also appointed John D. Padgett, a Norfolk lawyer who usually sides with McClanahan, as its vice chairman.
The council approved, 7-4, the creation of several subcommittees. They would include an executive committee consisting of McClanahan, Padgett and two other council members.
Phillips complained that only McClanahan's allies had been informed of the plan beforehand and that the committees could channel power into the hands of a few council members.
McClanahan said the committees were needed so the council could more thoroughly study college issues. The executive committee, she said, would not be able to make decisions without the consent of the full council. by CNB