For the first time, Northern Virginia Community

For the first time, Northern Virginia Community

College may have to turn students away. There

is not enough money to provide the full-time professors and the needed classroom for the growing fetudent population. ! While this problem has not reached Lord Fairfax {Community College or its still-growing Fauquier campus, Rappahannock and other students who may be planning on taking classes at the NOVA campuses in Manassas or Leesburg might run into problems. ; Since its establishment in 1970, Virginia’s community college system has provided solid educations to those seeking associate degrees, and has opened doors to multitudes who have later transferred to four-year {colleges. ' So, why has this happened? • Dollars for the construction at NOVA campuses were frozen because the Virginia General Assembly {and Gov. Jim Gilmore went head-to-head on the state {budget, a battle that ended in an impasse that is “wreaking havoc on Virginia’s already strained higher education system. • Gov. Gilmore has not proven to be a friend of higher education. The toll that has been wrought on the Students who depend on NOVA for an education that provides marketable skills is clearly visible in the Secaying buildings on some of the older campuses, the lack of current technology, too little money for teacher pay and now, the possibility that students may be jurned away. 2 Across Virginia, there are many new voters who Jvill be casting their first ballots in the governor’s race this fall. Many will have endured the problems caused by Gov. Gilmore’s policies - from crowded or jput-of-date classrooms to seats in community college classrooms that are no longer available to them. « They have had to struggle to get through situations created by an administration that has shown «uch little regard for higher education. But they’ll ■know what to do about it as they approach the ballot i>ox.