THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 7, 1997 TAG: 9702080023
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A15 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: Keith Monroe
LENGTH: 80 lines
Alan Merten has been president of George Mason University for less than a year, but he's got decided views on what Virginia needs to do to spur economic development and achieve competitive advantage. A lot of Merten's recommendations rely on Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads making common cause.
Merten was educated in Wisconsin and holds a computer science Ph.D. He once served as a White House military aide alongside Chuck Robb. Before assuming the presidency of burgeoning GMU, he was dean of the business schools at Cornell and the University of Florida.
Merten runs a university that now boasts 12,000 full-time and 12,000 part-time students and plans to add two satellite campuses. His university serves the high-tech education needs of the Washington beltway, and he also serves as chairman for the Northern Virginia Business Roundtable. He thus stands at the confluence of education and economic development.
Both GMU and Old Dominion University have grown fast in an era when education budgets haven't. As a result, they are underfunded. The average funding per (FTE) student for Virginia's six doctoral-granting institutions was $5,786 in 1996. But two of them - GMU and ODU - received less than the average.
Merten and ODU President James Koch have teamed up to persuade the General Assembly to begin attending to this inequity. Legislation has been introduced and endorsed by all Northern Virginia delegates and by most from Hampton Roads.
That's just one area where the two regions have much in common. And Merten points out that if their elected representatives work together they can muster 60 of 140 votes, plenty of clout to move a common agenda.
Merten says the Northern Virginia Business Roundtable has identified four overriding issues that must be addressed if the state is to prosper. Virginia must do more to (1) develop the work force, (2) improve higher education (3) ensure adequate transportation infrastructure. And to achieve all that, (4) the state's fiscal affairs must be re-examined, priorities reassessed and tax policy rethought.
With the addition of securing a reliable and adequate supply of water, that could be the Hampton Roads agenda as well. The overlap helps explain why representatives of the Hampton Roads Partnership have begun to visit with the Business Roundtable and vice versa.
When business leaders, elected officials and educators start collaborating, things happen, Merten believes. But he's been surprised that this kind of dialogue and cross-fertilization isn't further along.
``Debate in Virginia is a segregated set of discussions. Quality of life is discussed. Economic development is discussed. Education needs are discussed, but no common connections are drawn. That differs from debate in California - or China,'' Merten says with a smile.
He argues that the process is too adversarial. ``Political leaders accuse business leaders of ignoring issues they consider important. Business leaders do the same.'' But what's needed, according to Merten, is a recognition that all the players have to address all the issues simultaneously. They are interrelated.
It is customary to blame the state's problems on a failure of political leadership, but Merten believes that Virginia's business leaders, with obvious exceptions, have also failed ``to speak up and provide leadership outside their companies.'' He suggests several reasons.
Entrpreneurs in the fast-moving, highly competitive industries that dominate Northern Virginia - like information technology and biotechnology - are young and time-stressed. Running hard just to keep in place, they aren't apt to give time to a community or state agenda.
Virginia has relatively few headquarters of the huge Fortune 500 corporations. Yet it takes such headquarters, with their senior management, plentiful staffs and economic heft, to make a substantial commitment to public issues.
For both of the above reasons, there's only a limited tradition in Virginia of sustained business involvement in issues of public importance. Individuals are hesitant to enter the fray, and lack experienced mentors or a support system.
Nevertheless, Merten believes, the current generation of business leaders is going to have to get involved. He thinks groups like the Business Roundtable and the Hampton Roads Partnership can help.
The public/private agenda is clear. Virginia must create educational institutions, work-force programs and transportation infrastructure that will allow its businesses to seize opportunities and outperform competitors.