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Who
is going toe-to-toe with federal bureaucrats
against a one-size-fits-all approach to
educational achievement? Who is attracting a new
research facility? Who is introducing a new
undergraduate program? If you are thinking the
Northern Virginia region, you’d be right most
anytime. But other regions of the state are moving
the same way to meet the demands of a new economy.
Recent
developments in Harrisonburg, the Shenandoah
Valley and James Madison University (JMU) provide
a great example. Take
JMU's new undergraduate program as a starting
point. The State Council on Higher Education in
Virginia (SCHEV) approved early in January a
cross- disciplinary undergraduate degree in
engineering. This is not the highly specialized
degree -- civil, chemical, electrical or
mechanical -- that Virginia Tech, the University
of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Old
Dominion and George Mason University already
offer. JMU’s program starting in the fall of
2008 will lead to a bachelor of science in
engineering, period.
The
new curriculum will include courses in JMU’s
Colleges of Business, Science and Mathematics and,
of course, its highly innovative and successful
College of Integrated Science and Technology (CISAT).
CISAT already breaks the mold by rubbing out
bright lines among math, science and technology
programs. Grads have built a enviable record of
jumping into challenging jobs and leading graduate
programs. JMU says the new engineering program
will have a common thread running through it --
sustainability, sustainable systems and
sustainable societies. 200 students get the first
shot at this innovative program.
JMU’s
initiative is part of the innovative response
required from Virginia institutions of higher
education as they seek to extend their record of
high performance for a growing pool of
undergraduates and to boost the number of science,
technology and engineering graduates the United
States needs. SCHEV expects Virginia institutions
to enroll an additional 61,000 students by 2010.
Loudoun
County Del. David Poisson, D-Sterling, believes
SCHEV should begin exploring the feasibility of a
virtual, online university in Virginia as part of
the solution. Poisson’s House
Joint Resolution 594, now before the General
Assembly, notes anticipated enrollment increases,
university capital costs and transportation issues
converging to demand even more innovative
responses.
Rockingham
County, for its part, was thrilled to announce in
December that it would be the new home for a
Center for Advanced Drug Research. The center is
to be established by SRI International, a leading
independent research and technology development
company headquartered in Silicon Valley that also
has a facility in Arlington. With millions of
dollars of state support, SRI expects to create
more than 100 new jobs with salaries averaging
$85,000 in its new valley. JMU and other Virginia
universities will have opportunities to partner
with SRI in pharmaceutical research first, then
other cutting edge research areas from biothreats
and homeland security to nanotechnology. The same
day Merck & Co., Inc. announced a $57 million
investment to add purification equipment and
processing to its cervical cancer vaccine
fermentation production facility at Elkton.
Undoubtedly
the SRI announcement will help Virginia move ahead
on SCHEV’s second stated goal, increasing
Virginia’s ranking in sponsored research. While
Virginia’s universities have increased the total
dollar amounts of sponsored research conducted,
only two have gained ground in national rankings.
Similarly, SCHEV reports, while the state has
increased its support for research by 40 percent\%
as a result of recent initiatives, it maintains a
rank of only 37th among states in research
expenditures per capita.
Meanwhile,
the Harrisonburg School Board tackled in
mid-January a resolution that would empower city
teachers and staff to decide which
English-as-a-Second-Language students would take
Standards of Learning tests in English. The
federal Department of Education, it seems, would
mandate otherwise through its “No Child Left
Behind” program. So, the resolution puts federal
education officials on notice that doing it the
federal way would lead to unwarranted sanctions as
increased student failure rates leave local
schools short of other accountability standards.
In the interest of better results in education,
Harrisonburg felt forced to consider action that
once might have been expected only by more
activist schools boards in Fairfax or Arlington.
Together,
accommodating larger numbers in Virginia’s
colleges and universities, building a stronger
research base and improving the quality of
instruction in public schools signal one of the
two great challenges ahead for the Commonwealth,
according to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. At a January
forum of the Virginia Business Higher Education
Council in Richmond and in other venues across the
state, Kaine joined with executives and educators
to focus on Virginia’s performance in the global
economy and its commitment to ever higher quality
in education.
The
Governor and forum participants even discussed the
need for dramatic new transportation investments,
particularly links to and through Virginia’s
international gateways -- the Port of Hampton
Roads and Dulles Airport, as a part of
Virginia’s drive to compete. Earlier in January,
for example, came the announcement that Dulles
Airport will begin new nonstop, direct air service
to Beijing later this year along with the
information that China has grown quickly into the
third most important destination for Virginia
exports, almost one billion dollars worth in 2006.
But new transportation investments around Dulles
Airport, such as the Dulles Metrorail project and
a road loop, are needed as are road and rail
improvements to move cargo in and out of a growing
Port to maintain momentum.
Forum
participants were even more concerned about a
nightmare scenario in which transportation
investments using general funds locked up by bond
covenants pull down support intended for
universities, community colleges and public
schools just at the time they need to expand and
deliver. New, dedicated, sustainable sources of
funds for transportation, Gov. Kaine and others
argued, is a better course that could allow annual
quarter-billion installments, such as the one made
in 2006, to accelerate research in Virginia. Once
critical for Northern Virginia technology
companies and university communities only, these
concerns and opportunities about education,
R&D and new investments now resonate
statewide.
--
January 22, 2007
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