ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 19, 1995 TAG: 9512190069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
At Virginia Cooperative Extension, folks actually may hang out a few ``help wanted'' signs this year.
``I really feel pretty safe in saying that I'm delighted they applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding - after six years of losses,'' said Andy Swiger, dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech, which oversees the statewide extension agency that has struggled to stay afloat in recent years.
On Monday, Gov. George Allen unveiled what his secretary of education called ``a meat and potatoes - with a few garnishes'' budget for the state's colleges and universities.
Virginia Tech can look forward next year to a 4.31 percent boost to its $422 million budget, while Radford University expects a 0.25 percent increase over its current $80 million.
Such practical expenditures as inflation-adjusted increases for operating budgets and extra money to pay for extra students enrolled in recent years are hallmarks of the two-year spending plan. Secretary of Education Beverly Sgro also said the universities will get to keep much of the money they have saved through restructuring and employee buyouts.
``It's not new money, but it's important to recognized [that] as other agencies were asked to restructure, reorganize and downsize, [they] haven't been allowed to keep their money. Higher education and state police are the only ones allowed to keep the [buyout] money,'' Sgro said.
Among the highlights of the governor's budget is continued steady funding for the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership, designed as the alternative to admitting women to Virginia Military Institute. The constitutional test of that setup comes before the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 17.
The budget includes $1.4 million to pay for enrollment increases for the next two years, likely at a rate of 50 additional freshmen a year, said Mike Strickler, VMI's spokesman. In this, its first year, 41 women enrolled in VWIL.
The money, set at $7,308 per student, pays the difference in tuition between public VMI and private Mary Baldwin College, where the women's program is headquartered.
Administrators at the area's colleges and universities still were paging through the thick budget documents late Monday.
``I'm hesitant to say too much because we really haven't finished our analysis,'' said Dwight Shelton, Tech's budget director.
Shelton also said it's too soon to say what the new budget means for tuition costs next year.
A few new agents may be hired at Tech's agriculture experiment stations and extension offices, where administrators fought hard - and successfully - last year to recoup $14 million in proposed cuts by the Allen administration, Swiger said.
Apparently, the state has gone along with the extension service's own intensive redesign unveiled this fall. Plans for next year's $59.7 million budget include charging for the popular Master Gardener program, which helps people with home gardening. That is expected to bring in $60,000 next year.
Allen also unveiled a plan to pay for capital funding projects from $72 million that will be raised by selling surplus state land. Sgro said the list of those properties has not been released, but ``what we're being told at this point ... it appears there's quite a lot of money. How much money, I don't know.''
The $1.4 million renovation of Walker Hall at Radford University is third on the list of priority projects to be funded by the land sales. One of Tech's flagship initiatives, a $10 million advanced communications building, is seventh on the list of 19 college and university projects.
``It is a creative attempt on the part of the government to try to help state institutions with their building needs,'' said Larry Hincker, Tech's spokesman.
Specific funding amounts include a $38,135 increase for Radford's projected enrollment increase next year - enrollment at the school has dropped to 8,700 this year, from a late-'80s high of 9,400 - and $3.7 million to fund Tech's significant enrollment boost.
Tech also got permission to proceed with plans for a $6.3 million addition to its sports complex. Radford gained approval to spend $600,000 in non-tax money to plan an addition to its student center.
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by staff: Higher education. KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB