University of Virginia Library

University Extension
At Madison Limited

Growth of the Madison Center,
an extension of the University
must be restricted or the center
faces a shutdown, the Madison
County supervisors were told
Tuesday, according to a story in
the Richmond Times-Dispatch
yesterday.

David F. Berry, chairman of
the joint board of control of the
center and a member of the
Madison County Library Committee,
asked the supervisors for
additional funds for the county
library.

The library, built with funds
raised by public subscription, was
planned as a joint venture of the
county and the center.

Mr. Berry said Tuesday that
the center would not support the
county library as much as had
been anticipated because original
plans for the development of the
center are being curtailed in
favor of the state community college
program.

The Times-Dispatch story
quotes Mr. Berry as saying, "It
is apparent that the Madison
Center is not going to be allowed
to get as large as it could have.
The community college program
changed the picture entirely as
far as Madison Center is concerned."

Mr. Berry, who asked the
Times-Dispatch to consider his
remarks off the record, said the
cost of the community college
program is much more than had
been anticipated and that Madison
Center may be doomed as a
result.

"I have no desire to criticize
the community college program,
but the facts are facts. They
changed the rules on us in the
middle of the game. The people
who have to defend this are in
a position that they can't say
very much," the Times-Dispatch
quoted Mr. Berry as saying.

He added that Edgar F. Shannon
told him more than a year
ago that if the center had gotten
any bigger, "it would be ripe for
the picking."

"I hope we can stay small
enough to survive. It is a delicate
balance we have to maintain,"
Mr. Berry said.

The Times-Dispatch story
quotes Andre C. De Parry, general
extension director at the
University as saying, "The community
college has not yet been
established in the Culpeper area
and policies concerning the relationship
of the community college
and the Madison program
have not been determined at this
time.

The Madison Center was
opened in 1962 in a remodeled
1850 farmhouse. The property
was purchased by funds appropriated
by Madison, Culpeper,
Greene, Orange and Rappahannock
Counties, and the center
is operated primarily to serve
students from those counties. A
$150,000 addition was constructed
recently with funds appropriated
by the General Assembly.

The move to get a library to
serve both the county and center
was started two years ago, and
is scheduled to open on July 1.

But Mr. Berry said that the
center could give only $1,200 of
the $4,881 needed to operate the
joint county center library.

So the library is asking the
county supervisors to foot the
remainder of the bill, considerably
more than the supervisors'
past annual contribution of $900.

The supervisors gave $7,500 to
help finance the new library
building, thinking that the center
would provide operational
costs after the library was remodeled.