[sticklist] - Report: VF to expand college, trim academy

[Richard Forno]

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http://www.mainlinemedianews.com/articles/2009/07/01/main_line_suburban_life/news/doc4a4adb46783d8471862578.txt

Main Line Suburban Life

Valley Forge to expand college, trim academy
Wednesday, July 1, 2009

By Sam Strike

Valley Forge Military Academy and College is planning a $32-million  
building project that would allow the institution to double its  
college population to about 500 men and women.

At the same time, leadership of the 81-year-old school is looking to  
create a smaller, “more elite” population of students in its academy,  
which contains grades seven through 12.

By the year 2028, the school hopes to have a total population of 775  
students, 500 of them in the college, according to its president  
Charles A. “Tony” McGeorge. The school had 306 academy students and  
219 college students for the 2008-09 school year.

Valley Forge Military College, the only one of its kind remaining in  
the Northeast, was recently designated as the official Military  
College of Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania State House. This  
designation means, among other things, that the school will be one of  
the prime commissioning sources for officers for the Pennsylvania  
National Guard and the national guards of surrounding states.

“Valley Forge Military College will be to Pennsylvania what Virginia  
Military Institute is to Virginia and the Citadel is to South  
Carolina,” McGeorge said.

The college is aiming at a 35-percent population who will become  
military officers either at graduation or after going to a U.S.  
service academy.

The college would also up the number of students that would after one  
year be accepted into the country’s five service academies through the  
school’s service-academy preparatory program. For the 2010-11 school- 
year the largest number of college cadets will be qualified to be  
accepted for West Point the following year, McGeorge said.

While historically the academy of Valley Forge has taken the spotlight  
at the school – for reasons good and bad – McGeorge maintains that  
it’s the college that will ultimately allow VFMAC to be successful.

While across the country and even locally there are many options for  
similar schooling at the academy level, the number of “character- 
based” higher-education institutions is small, he said.

And the demand is there from people who want the challenge of an honor  
code, early-morning exercises and limits of free time and  
technological fancies.

Still, many of the school’s buildings are woefully outdated and many  
face an eventual replacement.

The proposed new college facility includes classrooms, administrative  
and faculty offices and cadet living spaces.

The proposed Georgian/colonial-style buildings were originally and  
ideally planned for a 19-acre parcel that is contained by Eagle and  
Radnor Street roads and Walnut Avenue in St. Davids.

But that was before the economic crisis hit.

Now, McGeorge said, the school is considering two other smaller sites  
on the campus for the college buildings, which would in that case be  
constructed without new barracks.

The last new building constructed on the campus was in 1995.

VFMAC will likely build without the need for any zoning relief from  
Radnor Township.

The school is seeking grants, matching pledges and donations from  
individuals and state entities to fund the project.

McGeorge said that the vast majority of alums support the recent  
changes and proposed project, while what he calls a “small but vocal  
minority” opposes his very existence in the position.

He is the first non-military president of the school.

Despite not having all of the funding in place for the project,  
McGeorge stills aims to construct the new college facility in all of  
its glory and raise the college’s status so it remains alive as one of  
the few military colleges left in the country.

“It’s my legacy and I am going to get it done,” he said.

In the movie “Taps,” filmed at VFMAC, the fictional military academy  
is closed down by its Board of Trustees – an action that the cadets  
violently protest.

George C. Scott’s character tells a young cadet, “There’s a feeling on  
the outside that schools like this are anachronistic.”

But McGeorge doesn’t believe that is the case. In fact, he thinks  
VFMAC might see its finest hour yet.

  http://www.mainlinemedianews.com/articles/2009/07/01/main_line_suburban_life/news/doc4a4adb46783d8471862578.prt
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