CHARLESTON — When the commission that oversees West Virginia’s higher education system convenes today, it will kick off a new look at where the state’s colleges and universities should go.
The Higher Education Policy Commission’s (HEPC) agenda includes suspending the search for a new chancellor — an effort that just began a couple of months ago.
The commission will also start talking about a report from a national consultant that questions the strategy and sustainability of West Virginia’s higher education system.
All of this is against the backdrop of Gov. Jim Justice’s recently announced Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education, which is tasked with assessing the adequacy of current funding levels for four-year institutions, assessing the current governance structure of four-year institutions and analyzing the role of the HEPC itself.
The Blue Ribbon Commission has three co-chairs: WVU President Gordon Gee, Marshall University President Jerome Gilbert and Concord President Kendra Boggess. No meetings have been set for that group yet.
Today’s HEPC meeting is a special convening because of recent events. It’s set for 9 a.m. at the commission’s offices on the ninth floor of Boulevard Tower, 1018 Kanawha Blvd. East, in Charleston.
Suspending the chancellor search
The search for a new chancellor was prompted by a retirement announcement this spring by Chancellor Paul Hill.
The commission established a search committee, hired national consultant AGB Search and posted a national advertisement. The timetable called for the search to wrap up with the announcement of a new chancellor late next month.
But Justice’s desire to take a look at the whole higher education system changed that plan.
“I suspect we’re going to suspend that search,” HEPC Chairman Michael Farrell said during a July 2 news conference to announce the Blue Ribbon Commission.
“If we’re going to get a quality person in this position and that person doesn’t know what the system looks like, it’ll be very difficult to recruit someone of quality.”
Gee, in comments that same day, acknowledged his desire to see WVU Tech President Carolyn Long — a former chairwoman of the WVU board of governors — fill in as chancellor.
“I think she would be a great choice,” Gee said, adding that he suggested her. “She is the most knowledgeable person in the state about education, higher and otherwise, and it would be a great opportunity if we could persuade her to do this.”
Boggess signed a letter to the HEPC urging the opposite. She was acting as president of the Council of Presidents when she signed the letter last week, wanting to keep Hill and specifically not appoint Long.
Sustainability report The HEPC will also take a first look at a report questioning the sustainability of the college and university system as it now stands.
The report by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems wasn’t produced with the Blue Ribbon Commission in mind, but it’s likely to influence the conversation that West Virginia is about to undertake.
The report provides some tough love, starting with the effect of West Virginia’s steady population decline. “This decline is intensifying competition for a shrinking pool of youth and adults.
“Because of the direct relationship between enrollments and institutional revenues, these trends are threatening the long-term financial viability of the regional institutions.”
West Virginia’s economic limitations have also affected the colleges, the report concluded. “The fact that West Virginia is at the low end of per student funding suggests that there is not much fat to squeeze out of institutional budgets.”
In the face of such challenges, the report concludes, the regional institutions are responding with strategies that are unlikely to be successful for long-term sustainability.
For example, severe tuition discounts are likely to put institutions at severe financial risk. Attempting to recruit out-of-state students when surrounding states are trying the same strategy is unlikely to succeed.
“What they have not done is develop strategies for serving adults that represent a regional market that is badly underserved,” the report’s authors wrote.
The report noted that two colleges experienced enrollment decreases of more than 20 percent — Bluefield State (27 percent) and Glenville State (23 percent).
Two more also experienced significant decreases — Concord (15 percent) and Fairmont State (18 percent).
The report concludes that WVU and Marshall have considerable advantages that allow them to draw students who might otherwise choose to attend some of the state’s smaller institutions.
“West Virginia continues to face a particular challenge in maintaining a balance between the prestige, scale, statewide reach and political influence of West Virginia and Marshall University on the one hand, and the needs of the regional institutions on the other.”
The report notes the many changes to higher education structure West Virginia instituted over the years — from the Board of Trustees that used to govern the bigger schools and the State College System that governed the smaller ones to the establishment of the HEPC in 2000.
Over almost two dec-ades, “the Legislature has reduced the role of the Commission from a powerful overall coordinating entity for the entire system to an entity with only limited coordinating authority,” the report concludes.
That trend increased disadvantages for smaller schools, the report says.
The report lists Bluefield State, Concord, Glenville State and West Virginia State University as sustainable in the short term but with uncertain futures.
The report’s authors recommend consolidating the two most at-risk institutions — Concord and Bluefield State — right away. They’d operate as separate campuses with separate names but with one governing board.
Longer term, the conclusions support establishing a state regional college and university governing board that would include Bluefield, Concord, Glenville and West Virginia State.
