THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 7, 1995 TAG: 9501070227
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
In a small classroom with fewer than 20 students, Norfolk State University on Friday finally fulfilled a decade-old dream to help lift its standing and the community's well-being.
The university started its first doctoral program, in social work.
``We feel the baby is finally born,'' President Harrison B. Wilson said.
During a morning orientation session, he told the 16 students in the program's first class: ``We didn't think it would take 10 years. We've been ready, but it took time politically and otherwise to get to this level.''
NSU is now one of about 25 historically black colleges in the country with a doctoral program. Only two others - Howard University in Washington and Clark Atlanta University - have one in social work. But administrators say Norfolk State's program is the only one in the country to target black families.
``The focus in the media is always on the troubles of minority families,'' said one student, Clarence Cuffee, deputy city manager of Chesapeake. ``This gives us an opportunity to look at what causes that trouble.''
But despite the euphoria sparked by a deferred dream finally coming true, a cloud hung over the program Friday. Gov. George F. Allen has proposed cutting about $350,000 in state aid earmarked for the program for 1995-96. The money would help to pay for graduate fellowships and the salaries of three new professors, said Moses Newsome Jr., dean of NSU's Ethelyn Strong School of Social Work.
The loss would not kill the program. Administrators said they would push to restore the money and promised that even if they didn't succeed, they would find other sources to avoid marring NSU's new academic jewel.
``Yes, we've got to continue the battle,'' Newsome told the students. ``But we will make it. I don't want you to have any reservations about whether we will be here in a year or two. We're here to stay.''
The program will help the School of Social Work attract more research grants, Newsome said. For the rest of the university, it will attract high-caliber master's students and undergraduates ``who will feel the quality of the programs has to be good if we have this program,'' Wilson said.
The community will benefit, too, he said: ``If you're building prisons, you've got to have pre-work to avoid filling them up over and over.''
The university had been stymied for years in its effort to win state approval for the program. The State Council of Higher Education had long questioned the need for the degree program - Virginia Commonwealth University already offers one - especially with dwindling finances.
But last year, the council approved the doctoral program, citing a ``modest demand by students and employers'' and the strong reputation of the master's program. Newsome said the university received about 200 applications last year. He expects to admit 10 students a year, building to a total enrollment of 35.
He said he hoped the students would focus on practical and timely issues - teenage pregnancy, unemployment, adoption and orphanages.
Friday, they started their first class, Social Work 810, which tracks the evolution of the social work profession. The professor, Leon Chestang, told them that papers would require analysis, not description.
``The major idea,'' he said, ``is not to give back what one has read, as much as it is to do something with it, to make something of it.''
The students looked ready. Half received their master's degrees from Norfolk State. All are older than 30. They are counselors, social workers and researchers who have worked with at-risk teenagers, military families and victims of child abuse.
And they have big plans. Cuffee, the deputy city manager in Chesapeake, wants to discover ways to solve family problems to keep more people out of jail.
Claudie Thomas, a former Eastern Virginia Medical School researcher who lives in Norfolk, wants to draft a blueprint to help doctors improve their treatment of African-Americans.
Dianne Davis-Wagner of Portsmouth runs a private firm that offers counseling to employees of companies. She also was a student in NSU's first master's class in social work, starting in 1975.
Her wish: to develop research to help cut down on substance-abuse and crime. ``I want to offer solutions to some of the major issues confronting our nation today,'' she said. ``The community, the Tidewater area, the state and the nation will certainly benefit from this program.'' ILLUSTRATION: LAWRENCE JACKSON/
Staff
Claudie Thomas, a former Eastern Virginia Medical School researcher
who lives in Norfolk, takes notes during the first class of NSU's
doctoral program in social work.
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY DOCTORAL PROGRAM by CNB