DATE: Thursday, May 22, 1997                TAG: 9705220538

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   60 lines

VIRGINIA WESLEYAN TO ESTABLISH NEW CHAIR IN INTERFAITH STUDIES

Virginia Wesleyan College announced Wednesday that it has received a $250,000 gift to help create a professorship in interfaith studies.

The gift is from David Furman, a Virginia Wesleyan board member since 1985 and former chairman of the board of Farm Fresh Supermarkets.

Virginia Wesleyan's president, William T. ``Billy'' Greer Jr., said the college would have to raise an additional $250,000 to create the position. He said he expected to fill it by the fall of 1999.

The position will be affiliated with the college's recently opened Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, which seeks to spread religious tolerance. The center sponsored a series of brown-bag lunches and lectures last semester on subjects ranging from pagan worship to Negro spirituals.

``We are educating a generation of young people for citizenship in the world,'' Greer said Wednesday. ``That has to mean carrying with you a deep sense of tolerance, acceptance, understanding and respect for people of all kinds, of all cultures and all faiths. . . .

``We're not just a filling station; we're not just a place where people come to get certain academic subjects. We are shaping lives and attitudes, and a professorship such as this will enable us to do that more effectively.''

Wesleyan currently has two full-time faculty members in religious studies.

To fill the new chair, Greer said, Wesleyan might hire a scholar ``with a specific interest in Judaic studies. There is a possibility it will be called a professorship in Judaic studies.'' Furman, the donor, is a former chairman of the area's Israel Bond campaign and former board member of Temple Israel.

Why would a Methodist-affiliated college need a Jewish-studies expert? ``I don't think one can have a quality liberal arts education without studying the interrelatedness of Judaism to Christianity,'' Greer said.

Wesleyan included a Jewish touch at its graduation two weeks ago. Billye Brown Youmans, a voice teacher at the college, sang an operatic version of ``V'shamru,'' a Hebrew song celebrating the Sabbath.

The gift was announced at a Wesleyan board meeting Wednesday. Also at the meeting:

Jane P. Batten, the chairwoman of Wesleyan's board, announced that more than $17 million has been raised toward the college's $25 million capital campaign.

The board awarded a contract to R.D. Lambert & Son Inc., a Chesapeake firm, to construct a $2.7 million academic building. Work will begin next month and is expected to be finished by the fall of 1998, Greer said.

The board approved a $22.1 million budget for 1997-98 - a 4 percent increase from last year's $21.3 million. The college said 28 percent of the money will go toward instruction and 20 percent to financial aid.

The trustees approved the appointments of four new faculty members. They will replace four who have either retired or moved elsewhere. Wesleyan has about 75 full-time faculty members.

Greer noted that the four new assistant professors received their doctorates from the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Irvine, the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins University. ``Those are four fine institutions,'' Greer said. ILLUSTRATION: David Furman gave $250,000 to help create a

Judaic-studies professorship at the Methodist-affiliated college.

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