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C. Academic Programs

The Council of Higher Education will review each academic program proposed for initiation by Virginia's institutions of higher education and will assess the proposed programs' impact on equal opportunity efforts throughout the commonwealth The Council will pay particular attention to the unnecessary duplication of academic programs between predominantly black and predominantly white institutions.

As stated earlier, the Council will approve by July 1, 1974, a revised "Policy and Procedures for Academic Program Approval" to be used in the next cycle of academic program proposal review. A new criterion in this document will be that the proposed academic program will be evaluated to determine its impact of equal opportunity efforts.

The availability of specific academic programs influences a student's decision about the institution he or she will attend. The program planning staff of the Council of

Higher Education will work directly with the predominantly block institutions to assist them in program planning and development. The unique academic programs in these institutions will be emphasized and promoted to attract additional white students to these institutions. In addition to assisting the predominantly block institutions with programs already in operation, the Council staff will assist these institutions to develop additional programs which will be attractive to white students and which will not be duplicative of those already offered by predominantly white institutions.

Finally, the Council wilt work with the six regional consortia for continuing education, seeking to ensure that citizens from minority groups have equal access to continuing education. The Council staff will assist the consortia members in choosing sites for off-campus work that ore accessible to minority group persons.

In that portion of the plan submitted on June 11, it was stated that a com- prehensive master plan for higher education was being developed by the State Council of Higher Education. Appendix I, "The Virginia Plan for Higher Education," has been completed. It represents the combined efforts of the public and private institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth and the State Council of Higher Education. This plan includes planning statements for each of the public and private institutions. These statements are provided in response to the specific request made in the Office of Civil Rights letter of November 10.

In addition, the November 10 letter requested that a complete listing of academic programs offered by Virginia's institutions of higher education be provided to the Office of Civil Rights. Appendix J, "Higher Education in Virginia, Selected Characteristics, Degree Programs, Student Fees in Public and Private Institutions, 1973-74," shows each program and degree level offered by Virginia's public and private institutions.