ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 23, 1996 TAG: 9607230054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE STATE THREATENS to kill 16 other academic programs if graduations and enrollment figures don't improve.
The State Council of Higher Education on Monday ordered six academic programs at four colleges to shut down by fall 1997 because of low graduation rates or enrollment.
Sixteen programs at 13 colleges were placed on probation, which means they too will be closed if they fail to improve within two years.
Virginia Western Community College will lose one program and another will be put on probation.
VWCC president Charles Downs Sr. said the council's announcement was not a surprise.
The college volunteered to eliminate its architectural engineering technician program. It will be merged with a similar program that meets enrollment requirements, he said.
Downs welcomed the council's decision to put the radio and television broadcast technician program on probation.
"We needed to have that yellow light come on because that program needs to attract more students," Downs said. "We need to change its approach to some extent."
The program might be retooled into a broader media studies program, he said.
Virginia Commonwealth University was the only four-year school with programs closed by the council. VCU will lose its master's degree programs in pathology and crafts unless college officials convince the council to reverse its decision.
``We don't want to lose anything,'' said VCU spokeswoman Melissa Burnside.
However, she was unable to say whether the school will appeal the decision at the next council meeting.
``We will work with [the council] and find the best possible way to handle it,'' she said.
Tidewater Community College also is losing two programs: agricultural business and management; and parks, recreation and leisure facilities management.
The council closed John Tyler Community College's vehicle and mobile equipment mechanics and repair program.
Nineteen other poorly performing programs voluntarily will be discontinued by the colleges, and 27 that failed to meet graduation standards will be continued because they are valuable to students or have high job placement rates.
More than 100 programs have been discontinued at the state's public colleges in the last 20 years, but the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission said last year that the council wasn't being aggressive enough.
``You can make a strong argument that the process has worked, but there has been some dissatisfaction with it,'' said Margaret Miller, chief academic officer for the council.
Council standards require bachelor's degree programs to produce an average of five graduates a year; master's degree programs, three; and doctoral programs, two. Occupational-technical associate degrees must produce seven graduates; transfer associate degrees, 10.
Burnside said VCU's crafts program produced an average of 2.2 master's graduates over the last five years. One student received a master's in pathology during the five-year period.
In other business, the council rejected a task force recommendation that college physics programs be directed to hire more female and minority professors.
Nathan Isgur, chief theoretical physicist at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and co-chairman of the Virginia Physics Task Force, said ``very poor hospitality'' has kept women and minorities out of physics.
The physics faculty at Virginia's public colleges and universities is 82 percent white and 90 percent male. Isgur said those figures make it difficult to attract female and minority physics majors.
``It may be that women don't want to be physicists,'' said Lynn Hopewell, one of several council members who expressed reluctance to dictate hiring practices to colleges.
The council told Isgur and Miller, the other task force leader, to rewrite the recommendation to remove references to hiring and simply encourage an atmosphere in which minorities and women are welcome.
The council also unanimously approved plans to convert two-year, all-female Southern Virginia College into a four-year coeducational college.
The private college in Buena Vista lost its Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation and had planned to close before being rescued in the spring by a group of Mormon business leaders and educators.
David Ferrel, the school's new president, said the group has raised $4.1 million in cash and pledges and has begun a campaign to raise $50 million over five years. He said the college expects to regain accreditation within two years.
Staff writer Betty Hayden Snider contributed to this story.
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