dbeard@dominionpost.com
MORGANTOWN – WVU voiced its objection on Tuesday to a House bill that would strip the two faculty representatives, the classified staff representative and the student body representative on the WVU Board of Governors of their voting rights.
Travis Mollohan, WVU’s associate vice president for government relations, told the Higher Education Subcommittee that those four members bring important voices of representation to the board.
The bill is HB 3279. Co-sponsor Clay Riley, R-Harrison, explained it to the members.
The primary purpose of the bill, he said, is to mandate that one BOG members for WVU and West Virginia State University – the two land-grant institutions – represent agriculture, forestry or the related sciences.
It raises the number of gubernatorial appointees for WVU’s BOG from 12 to 15 and requires one of them to be the agriculture/forestry representative. It raises total BOG membership from 17 to 19 but removes the representative of WVU Tech from the board.
For West Virginia State, it requires one of the nine appointees to be the agriculture/forestry representative.
For both schools, it adds a three-year West Virginia residency requirement for a BOG member to be eligible to be elected chair.
And for WVU and Marshall, the bill makes the two faculty representatives, the student representative and the classified staff representative nonvoting advisory members. This proposal caused consternation among faculty during Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting.
Riley told the committee that it makes sense, in his view and the view of led sponsor Vernon Criss, R-Wood, that WVU Tech representation is an artifact of the time before WVU Tech moved from Montgomery to Beckley, and no other WVU satellite campus is represented on the board.
He also said it makes sense for new voting members to be added in place of those being removed under the bill.
Riley said reducing the voting status of the four representatives is more in line with other universities; for instance, not every Big 12 school has faculty, staff and students on its board.
“It made sense to me as a business person. The employees do not choose the CEO. The board of directors chooses the CEO.”
Riley had a little back and forth with Delegate Phil Mallow, R-Marion, who said he’s concenred about those groups losing their voice.
Riley said they should be heard and they still will be as advisory members.
But Mallow said, “IF they can’t vote, to what extent would their voices be heard?”
Mollohan said WVU supports adding the agriculture/forestry representative to the BOG, since Davis College is the founding college of WVU.
But as far as reducing the four members to advisory status. They have had voting power since 1989.
They represent 25,000 students, 2,000 staff and 3,500 faculty. Board embers don’t always agree, but they bring valuable insights to board discussions.
Mollohan also told the committee that the proposed residency requirement would rule out some longtime sitting board members, and prominent alumni across the nation and around the world from serving as chair.
And on the WVU Tech issue, he said said WVU opposes that change. “We think that’s a really vital voice.” He said the members should instead consider keeping WVU Tech on the board and adding Potomac State.
Tuesday’s discussion of the bill was the hearing phase. When the subcommittee takes it up again, it will be on the markup and passage phase, before going to the full Education Committee.
