DATE: Saturday, November 8, 1997            TAG: 9711080327

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PETERSBURG                        LENGTH:   67 lines

COUNCIL OKS TCC, BEACH HIGH-TECH CENTER

The State Council of Higher Education on Friday recommended that the state allot $10 million for the high-tech vocational center proposed jointly by Tidewater Community College and the Virginia Beach school system.

Council members placed the proposal among $450 million worth of ``high-priority'' construction projects they are asking the governor and legislators to fund.

The recommendation represents one more hurdle cleared by the fast-track proposal, which was endorsed less than two weeks ago by the Virginia Beach City Council.

``This is another good sign,'' said Timothy Kerr, TCC's interim president, after the meeting. ``We haven't run into any opposition yet.''

But he acknowledged that the outlook is far from certain in Richmond, which has to deal with Gov.-elect James S. Gilmore III's proposal to phase out the personal property tax. ``Everybody worries about that,'' Kerr said. ``I don't know what that does to capital'' projects.

The recommendation was one piece of the council's multilayered budget recommendations for Virginia colleges for the 1998-2000 biennium. The council's wish list, finalized at a meeting at Virginia State University, includes a two-year extension of the tuition freeze, an extra $98 million for faculty raises and $62 million for student financial aid.

It also includes proposals to cut state financial aid to students who don't have a C average after two years or who stay in school one semester past their scheduled graduation time. The agency estimates that would drop about 2,780 students - including 97 at Old Dominion University and 42 from Norfolk State University - from state financial aid rolls.

State Secretary of Education Beverly H. Sgro declined to speculate on the fate of the budget proposals, including the vocational center. She said Gov. George F. Allen's administration had yet to firm up its budget blueprint, which will be released next month.

But she said that she liked what she heard about the TCC/Virginia Beach vocational plan. The 137,000-square-foot center would be on TCC's Virginia Beach campus. It requires $13 million from the city and $10 million from the state, Kerr said. Under the plan, Virginia Beach would teach its students computer and technology classes until mid-afternoon, and then TCC would offer its own high-tech courses there the rest of the afternoon and evening, he said.

``I think the opportunity will be for students to come there in 11th grade and really progress to graduate school at that site,'' Kerr said. That's because ODU and Norfolk State University are building a higher-education center adjacent to the TCC campus.

Kerr said the building would not be finished before 2001.

Two financial aid proposals approved by council members would:

Prohibit Commonwealth Awards - the largest state aid program - to students who don't maintain a C average after 60 hours of study, or the equivalent of two years of school.

Bar the awards to students who log more than 135 credit hours at four-year schools - or the equivalent of 4 1/2 years of school. At community colleges, students would be dropped after 75 hours - or 2 1/2 years.

Council officials said the first proposal needs approval from legislators and the governor, but the second one is final.

Combined, the two plans would cut 2,780 students - more than two-thirds at community colleges - getting almost $2.5 million in aid. That money would be redistributed to other students. All together, 33,000 Virginians get Commonwealth Awards totaling $52 million a year. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

Timothy Kerr, TCC's interim president, says the suggested $10

million allotment is another step toward reality.

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