Recent media reporting and research suggest that regional comprehensive universities (RCUs) and other postsecondary institutions may play an integral role in the welfare of rural regions, yet empirical research on the regional service of rural postsecondary institutions is limited. The purpose of this study was to examine how a single RCU serves…

This article documents and analyses the uneasy, if not contradictory, relationship between service learning and liberal arts thinking in an undergraduate programme in Global Development Studies (GDS) at a North American University. As an undergraduate, Cororaton participated in a service-learning project to build a greenhouse in Mongolia; at the…

The author explains how her college has worked with other institutions as part of CraftNet, a program supporting arts and crafts education and business in the surrounding communities.

Officials in eight Virginia localities gave their perceptions of community needs, described external sources of technical assistance, and evaluated the assistance. Analysis revealed a vertical pattern in the network of assistance from public and private agencies and demonstrated that communities are dependent upon the network to maintain…

A new 4-H program, developed and tested in Virginia, aims at teaching youth about their communities and how they function, and also seeks to involve them as part of that function. (Author)

A native Appalachian describes how his home in southwestern Virginia (Wythe County) seemed to him as a boy and how he feels it has changed today after an absence of 20 years. (Author/NEC)

The rural economy has performed badly during the 1980s. While the recession of the early 1980s was responsible for much of the trouble, the slow rural recovery demonstrates the fundamental hurdles facing the rural economy. Central among these are economic disadvantages, including remote locations isolating rural producers from their markets, low…

Reports on results of a survey sent to a random sample of the American Planning Association in Virginia, Iowa, and Colorado and to the entire membership of the Virginia Planning Caucus. (AN)

Third in a series by the Rural Success Program at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), the book provides a view of selected organizations and literature of potential interest to rural employment and training practitioners and planners. The book is divided into two sections. The first contains summaries of interviews with representatives of 26…

Describes study of rural or small town community development programs funded by the Small Town Emphasis Program. Outlines program factors including competition, innovation, needs assessment, low income involvement, networks, technical assistance, efficiency, strategy, and timing. Provides examples of six programs and recommends future development…

Analyzes role of "familiar outsider," the "transplant" reformer who rejects personal power while aiding community. Focuses on four outsiders assisting Virginia town's developing commission. Details relationship and leadership problems among commission, technical assistant, and community leaders during development of sewing…

The publication describes the process which created the Rural Virginia Development Foundation and the potential contribution it holds for the agricultural sector of Virginia's economy and for the state's rural communities. Following an introduction, Part II provides background, operating assumptions, and principal justification for the Foundation;…

Economic status determined the effects of declining public revenues and a tighter economy on residents of Farmville, Virginia, a small, conservative, rural, Southern community with underdeveloped social services, whose class relations still reflect racial segregation, whose concern for local autonomy is so great that external funding sources are…

In 1979 a stratified random sampling of 541 families in 4 rural Virginia counties were interviewed about major occupations, secondary occupations, travel to work, and whether the division of labor within the county allowed for a complete exchange system. Data, compared to 1940 census statistics, indicated that a significant change in occupational…

Bordering on North Carolina, the Dan River region of Southside Virginia is a largely rural area south of the state capitol, Richmond, and 135 miles east of Virginia Tech's main residential campus in Blacksburg. The structural problems evident today in this expanse of wooded areas, fields, small cities, and towns were born, in large measure, of the…