University of Virginia Library

Serving The State

According to the board of directors of the
American Association of State Colleges and
Universities the threat of "fiscal bankruptcy"
has replaced student unrest as the chief worry
of state college presidents. President Shannon,
in his "Report to the University Community"
dealing with growth noted that "colleges and
universities across the land are beginning to be
hemmed in by restricted state appropriations.
Private funding, reflected in part a slowed
economy, is not keeping up with the
increasing costs of providing education."

More and more legislators, it seems, are
questioning the need of higher education,
noting that there is currently a glut of
students with Ph.D.'s and a shortage of
workers with technical skills in this country.

This school is going to have real problems
in the near future, it seems, and only a few
administrators on the Grounds seem really
concerned with the problem at the moment.
The coming decade is supposed to be one of
growth for the University but it might instead
be a decade of slow decline for the University
academically. This may come in spite of the
fact that the percentage of the
Commonwealth's college-age population
enrolled in college is well below both the
national and southern averages.

There are three other State schools, VCU,
VPI, and Old Dominion, larger than the
University, currently vying for monies from
Richmond. They have an advantage over the
University in that they are all largely
undergraduate schools and can thus educate
more students at less cost than we can. It
costs about three times as much to educate a
graduate student as it does to educate an
undergraduate.

Another advantage these schools have is
that their images are better than ours among
citizens of the Commonwealth. Many
Virginians view University students and
faculty as snobbish aristocrats more interested
in advancing themselves than serving the
State. VPI does agricultural research which is
of great aid to that segment of Virginia's
economy. VCU is close to the State Capitol
and any project of worth is easier for those
who govern the State to spot than programs
in distant Charlottesville. The sheer numbers
of students educated at Old Dominion assure
that that school and its projects receive ample
publicity and attention.

The University, of course, has the
advantage of being the "capstone" of higher
education in the State and enjoys a reputation
for excellence, although this school has to
begin a lobbying effort to show how this
academic quality aids the State in a great
many ways. Students, faculty and alumni
have to become more conscious of the image
of the school if the University is to fulfill the
goals set by its founder.