Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 10, 1993 TAG: 9311110447
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But Tech isn't the only four-year, state-supported institution of higher education in the New River Valley - and were it not for Tech's big shadow, the extent of Radford University's presence might be appreciated more often.
After Tech conducted and released a study last February trumpeting its economic impact in the valley - to the tune of an estimated $726 million per year - who could blame the "other" university for tooting its own economic- impact horn?
Radford's study put its annual economic impact on the New River Valley at $108 million annually - outchugged by Tech, of course, but still a powerful engine in its own right.
In Radford city alone, the university contributes $52 million a year to the local economy - a considerable increase from 1979, when a similar study put the financial impact at about $5 million. The university accounted for about a third of the city's $155 million in sales last year. It provides jobs to 1,061 Radford residents, or nearly 60 percent of all city jobs.
The growth of Radford University's economic impact parallels its rising importance within Virginia's higher-education system. For years a women's college whose primary mission was to train teachers for the public schools, it went coed in 1972 and attained university status in 1979. Enrollment this year is about 9,400.
The university's College of Education and Human Development remains among its leading divisions. But the university now has six colleges in all, with a seventh coming on line. Among them are the College of Visual and Performing Arts, unusual for the diversity of its programs, and the innovative College of Global Studies, to become fully operational in 1997.
President Donald Dedmon's long-time leadership has not been entirely free of flaps. This year there was, for instance, the matter of tenure proposed for a non-teaching aide to the president.
Radford's story has been on the whole, however, one of quiet success. And this is a result in large part of its ability to find an appropriate niche within the state's system of colleges and universities. The school's emphasis on undergraduate education is one key ingredient. Unlike most such programs, for example, the new College of Global Studies will be for undergraduates only.
Radford has several programs at the master's level and is seeking state permission for a doctoral program in audiology. Whether the state will consent to what would be Radford's first doctoral program remains an open question. But whatever one thinks of its merits, the idea, anyway, is again to occupy a carefully defined niche - in this instance, doctoral-level training for clinical work with hearing disorders.
Economically, Radford University plays an important role in the New River Valley - as anemployer; as a direct consumer; as a provider of employee and student consumers; as a draw for visitors.
Educationally, in this tight-budget shakedown period for Virginia's colleges and universities, Radford's niche thinking is an important model for the commonwealth as a whole.
by CNB