Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 10, 1990 TAG: 9004100553
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Daniel Howes
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The deputy chairman of Gosscomarchitectur - the polysyllabic Russian word for "all-union committee on architecture and city planning" - will be on campus at the invitation of Tech architect Frederick Krimgold.
Among other things, Alexander Krivov was assigned by top officials with developing a plan to rebuild Armenia, devasted by an earthquake 16 months ago. Many residents there still are living in makeshift shacks with sporadic electricity, no running water and no toilet facilities.
The bespectacled Krimgold, associate dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, met Krivov while leading a team of American doctors, dog handlers and firefighters into the Armenian destruction in December 1988.
Krivov will discuss "The Influence of perestroika on the Physical Development of the Soviet Union" with architecture students in Hancock Hall at 1:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, Tech's preparations for the campus visit of Gennadi Gerasimov, chief spokesman for Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, are continuing apace.
Instead of meeting the oracle of glasnost at the Roanoke airport and driving him to campus, Tech officials have decided to fly their own jet - affectionately called "the Hokie Bird" - to New York and pick him up.
That means spending some $1,400 on top of the $15,000 - plus expenses - it's costing the university to bring Gerasimov to Southwest Virginia.
A 3:30 p.m. news conference will be followed two hours later by an invitation-only dinner with politicians, business executives and other VIPs at The Grove, home of President James McComas and his wife, Adele.
Gerasimov, known for his quick wit and occasional verbal sparring with the Moscow press corps, will talk about the changing face of the Soviet Union in his speech titled, "The Smiling Russian Bear: Is it Dangerous?"
The Communist Party member is even going to spend the night at The Grove. A first, the best anyone can recall. Guess the Cold War is over.
\ Jerry Falwell's Liberty University is getting President Bush. Tech and Virginia Military Institute boast Gov. Douglas Wilder for their upcoming commencements. James Madison University has landed U.S. Education Secretary Lauro Cavazos.
A Hollins College official took evident pride in telling a reporter that retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell would speak at the woman's college graduation May 20. Same for Roanoke College's chief flack, who announced their speaker would be Boston Globe Publisher William Taylor.
But Radford University won't have any newsmaker at the lectern April 28. The senior class has decided to forgo a commencement speaker altogether. Again. Instead, members of the class of 1990 will receive their diplomas directly from President Donald Dedmon, who will make a few remarks before giving the seniors their walking papers.
\ U.S. News & World Report's ranking of graduate programs across the country irked some university administrators and caused some flacks to swoon. It's free publicity, after all.
The news prompted at least one haven of media mavens to use the opportunity to put a desirable spin on some otherwise routine news.
In its ranking of law schools, the magazine dubbed George Mason University's Law School "an up-and-comer" - an appellation the school's press office quickly faxed to reporters across Virginia.
One day later, the law school announced that former federal appeals judge Robert Bork, whose Supreme Court nomination was killed by a Senate committee three years ago, would be joining the law faculty in the fall.
The judge's sole comment in an Associated Press dispatch announcing the appointment: "It's an up-and-coming law school."
by CNB