With its retention rates starting to climb, the challenge for West Virginia University for the next five years — and into the future — will be to continue to be purpose driven and not get caught up in the pursuit of prestige and rankings, WVU President Gordon Gee said Monday during his annual State of the University address.
“We must reject the relentless pursuit of money and prestige, chasing rankings that we know are deeply flawed, at the expense of genuine educational excellence,” Gee said. “Only six out of 50 flagship universities are affordable for most students, according to a recent Institute for Higher Education Policy report.”
Gee said 20 years ago the Kellogg Commission — a committee of presidents and chancellors from 25 major universities — urged land-grant universities to return to their roots and engage in reciprocal relationships with communities to solve local problems and prepare students for the challenges of the real world.
“As the commission’s original chairman, I believe the insular nature of universities is still preventing many of them many of them from fulfilling many of our people’s needs,” said Gee, who frequently referred to Abraham Lincoln during his 20-minute talk.
“Re-engaging with communities does not mean abandoning our efforts to do great research,” he said. “But, I am sure that Lincoln would urge us to focus on research that benefits our citizens.”
West Virginia, he said, has some of the country’s highest heart disease rates, as well as a large number of babies with low birth rates. Amna Umer, a Research Assistant Professor at WVU Medicine, has been studying 20,000 fifth graders and found children who had a low birth rate exhibited more cardiovascular risk factors in the 5th grade.
“That insight will enable doctors to intervene both during pregnancy and throughout childhood to improve prospects for at-risk children,” said Gee, noting it is time to listen to younger faculty, staff and administrators.
“I may seem like an unlikely advocate for a ‘youthquake’ in higher education,” said Gee, 75. “But I know that younger people bring fresh perspectives to the table and in the noble task of diversifying our institutions, we should seek wide generational diversity.”
Gee also criticized the college rankings published in national magazine, U.S. News and World Report.
“The rankings race obsession in higher education is erecting barricades along that road to the American dream. Selective admissions policies and competition for top students has led many institutions to emphasize merit scholarships at the expense of need-based awards,” he said, adding 55% of WVU’s enrollment is from out of state.
Higher education means higher earnings, but the cost is leaving students with overwhelming debt. Gee said a study done by The Hill, a Washington, D.C., web site, found people without a college degree are less likely to marry, more apt to use tobacco and abuse drugs.
“In our state, you hear a lot about the need to create jobs, which is real, but the state also has many jobs that are wanting for people,” he said.
“Our climbing retention rate shows that the living and learning experience at our university is engaging and nurturing students.”
As an example of how that is being accomplished, Gee said WVU Extension has introduced more than 200,000 youth nationwide to basic computer science skills through plugged and unplugged activities.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Maryanne Reed said the priorities for the coming year will be Relevance, Revenues, Reputation and Relationships.
“Like many other land-grant universities, our state funding has declined over the past several years and isn’t likely to improve any time soon,” Reed said. “We’re also facing an enrollment challenge because of the declines in the high school population in the regions we recruit from.”
To ensure education is relevant, Reed said the general studies curriculum is being updated to provide an academic foundation. Also, Reed said her office is developing new academic programs to prepare students for careers in emerging fields, such as cybersecurity, addictions counseling and forensic journalism.
“Since Generation Z, students are true digital natives. We’re also taking a serious look at our online programming efforts to ensure we have the capacity and the support structures necessary to grow enrollment in online programs and courses,” she said. “We believe demand for online academic programming is only going to increase.”
“We need to respond to that demand, or risk becoming irrelevant.”
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