University of Virginia Library

Business Sponsors Request Assembly
To Restore Construction Outlays

The president of the Graduate
Business School Sponsors organization at
the University urged yesterday that funds
for the University's new Graduate School
of Business Administration be restored in
the State budget.

Edwin Hyde, who is also chairman of
the board of Miller and Rhoads
department stores, said the $3.2 million
recommended by Gov. Linwood Holton
is "vital to the quality educational
program of the school." The funds have
been cut from the budget by the House
of Delegates Appropriations Committee.

Funds Requested

J. Harvie Wilkinson, Jr., of Richmond,
chairman of the finance committee of
United Virginia Bankshares, joined Mr.
Hyde in requesting that the funds be
restored.

Mr. Wilkinson noted that the graduate
business school "moved two trailers
in to adjoin Monroe Hill last fall, and a
temporary addition is going up this
spring. In addition more trailers are
planned for next fall."

Sponsors Fund School

The 275-student graduate business
school is spread throughout the
University, with classrooms in Maury and
Thornton Halls, William Faulkner House
(about one and a half miles from the
central Grounds), and Lambeth House,
about one-half mile away, Mr. Wilkinson
added.

Mr. Hyde said the business school's
Sponsors organization, composed of
businesses and individuals who support
the school, "have supplied approximately
30 per cent of the operating funds for
the graduate school since its founding in
1954."

Increase In Taxes

"This represents about $3 million and
is an excellent example of combining
state and private funds resulting in one of
the best business schools in the world."

"Virginia business has been told of the
prospect of an increase in State corporate
taxes," Mr. Hyde added. "If Virginia
business expects to remain competitive,
its colleges and universities must provide
us with well-trained and well-informed
management personnel."

"The University of Virginia's ability
to continue to do this is severely
handicapped because of inadequate space
for classrooms and other facilities for
graduate business programs," he said.

The new graduate business building,
approved in principle by Virginia voters
in the 1968 statewide bond issue
referendum, is planned for the Duke
tract northwest of University Hall.

It will join the new law school
building as part of the law-graduate
business area there.

Room For 500

With its new building the business
school would have room for 500 business
administration graduate students, said
school dean Charles C. Abbott.

He said all of the graduate business
functions would be centralized in the
new building along with the continuing
short-term management training programs
for business and industry.

Robert R. Fair, director of the
business school's management training
programs, said "seminars and short,
courses have involved more than 3,400
executives and have a real residual benefit
for the Commonwealth. More and more
businesses realize that continuing
education is not a frill, but a necessity."