TECH FACULTY PLANS SHOW OF CONCERN OVER STATE REPORT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 22, 1993                   TAG: 9301220208
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
TECH FACULTY PLANS SHOW OF CONCERN OVER STATE REPORT
Virginia Tech's faculty will join next week in a show of solidarity with college presidents who have criticized and are worried over a report proposing sweeping changes in education.
The report, drafted by the staff at the State Council of Higher Education in Richmond, tries to do too much too soon, say those opposed to some of its premises. Professors, too, have taken offense at undertones that seem to indicate that they aren't working hard enough.
The meeting on Wednesday, which is open to all faculty members, will be in part to show that they are concerned and want to be involved in decisions about education, said Leon Geyer, president of the Faculty Senate.
It also will help inform faculty about the ongoing discussions between the state council and university leaders.
"I hope . . . other institutions will follow suit," he said.
The University of Virginia held a meeting before Christmas, endorsing a statement of the Council of Presidents which says, in short, that universities want to be involved in a dialogue with the public about education.
Tech's Faculty Senate endorsed the same resolution that UVa's senate had adopted, supporting the Council of Presidents and stressing the need to work together.
The Tech faculty meeting comes after the report has been passed on to the legislature. But state leaders are still trying to organize a dialogue with the public and the colleges on how they perceive the future of higher eduction.
"This is a deliberative university," Geyer said said Thursday.
Geyer and others have kept in touch with Tech President James McComas and the council to get updates on the report.
There have been some changes, but critics still worry that the council would have professors rely too much on technology or would increase class size to help with an enrollment increase of 65,000 students statewide expected in the next decade.
"Technology is a good tool if it's used carefully," Geyer said. "But you need that interaction."
University presidents have expressed concern about portions of the report that ask professors to do more teaching and less research.
Gordon Davies, director of the state council, has said the request is for faculty members to change their habits by just a small margin.
But on Thursday, Geyer stressed again the importance of a combination of teaching, research and public service.
"We need to make the commonwealth aware that quality faculty and a quality department are not made on an assembly line," Geyer said in his office in Hutcheson Hall. And those faculty members can move, he said; they can take their work to other states.
"We want to urge state leaders to support higher education as an asset and a priority in budget matters," he said. "We don't want to be a sponge for state budget problems.
"You can't build a quality program in a day. But you can destroy one."
Geyer tried on Thursday to put a positive spin on the future and on faculty involvement with the report and the state council. "We don't want to throw kerosene on the fire," he said. Mostly, he said, he wanted to make people aware that faculty members are concerned about the future and about the students expected in the next 10 years. "I have two of those 65,000 students," he said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB