Go Fighting Miners! or Towards a better higher education system.

Having spent seven years in the West Virginia Higher Education system as an administrator, like any complex system I observed a lot of inefficiencies hampering the good intentions of many talented people. However, too often I noticed how the defense of petty bureaucratic kingdoms and sacred cows took precedence over serving the students and people of West Virginia.

Yet, instead of complaining about the waste and political motivations of the creation of a commission to manage the community college system independent of the 4-year university system, or the waste and social injustice of the PROMISE scholarship program, or the malignant effects of the yearly rotation of the bulls eye that the legislature turns on our four year institutions (Concord, Bluefield State, Glenville, WVU Tech, etc.) thus weakening them and creating self-fulfilling prophecies, let us talk of solutions.

First, there is the contention that WV, a state with challenging economic problems, has too many public colleges and universities. Let’s compare apples to apples. West Virginia has 13 significant public college or university campuses compared to 16 for Nebraska; a state with a similar though slightly smaller population, with one major difference; it does not have the mountains that make commuting to class such a problem in WV. Even North Dakota, with a third of WV’s population, has 11 public campuses. Clearly the number of public campuses in WV is not out of line with our peer states. The problem is not the number of campuses, but the number of redundant administrations and services that could be done with fewer people using modern technology.

Second there is an issue of location. Starting in the 1960’s WV underwent a massive shift in the economic importance and demographic profile of particular cities. If WV were establishing colleges today, cities like Beckley, Princeton, Parkersburg and Lewisburg would undoubtedly have universities of their own, while sleepy little towns such as Glenville and Athens (Concord University) and shrunken industrial shells such as Bluefield and Montgomery (WVU Tech) would have, at best, community colleges. The location of an institution impacts upon enrollment (and therefore institutional success) through both local populations that serve as a stable student base that require minimal recruiting and out-of-town students who are partially attracted to a campus by their ability to reach the campus and the level of social activity in the location. These are pressures that affect institutional viability, pressures that continue to threaten Glenville State, WVU Tech, Bluefield State and others.

So here are my radical proposals that will offend many due to personal investments, but as I now observe for outside the system, I think are necessary for WV to compete in the higher education market.

1. The State of West Virginia should buy Mountain State University and move WVU Tech to Beckley. It is ridiculous that Southern WV’s fastest growing and largest city does not have its own university. Yes, Concord and Bluefield other have made half-hearted gestures at having programs in Beckley, but a city of 50,000+ needs its own campus. That one of the other regional college or universities has not already done so is a grave strategic blunder. By moving to Beckley WVU Tech would triple its enrollment in a year. The WVU Tech Community College would continue to be based at the current campus in Montgomery.
2. Glenville State and West Liberty should become regional campuses of WVU. Given their proximity to Morgantown with the added kick that WVU affiliation would bring I see no reason why this should not be done. Data base and processing jobs could be trimmed along with white collar management positions.
3. Concord University, Bluefield State College, New River Community College, the Wyoming Campus of WV Southern Community College and the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine should be merged into a University of Southern West Virginia. (USWV – the Fighting Miners!) Talk about killing a few sacred cows. However, if these southern institutions wish to continue to prosper and maintain a political balance within the state with the two other university systems, unity is the only long-term solution. As well, money can be saved by eliminating duplicate positions and visibility can be raised by affording Division I / IA sports programs (Go Fighting Miners!).
4. All public universities should be required to offer at least one complete degree online in order to maintain their university status, with new degrees to be added every two years for 10 years. Faculty and misguided administrations are currently blocking the delivery of such innovative techniques while expensive for-profit and desperate private institutions are eagerly filling the gap. (One university leader in WV remarked to me that they didn’t believe that online education was necessarily viable and wanted to see proof. Here you are.)
5. The data processing and record keeping for all universities and colleges not part of the 3 major universities (I’m including USWV) should be unified into one statewide processing center, eliminating jobs that unnecessarily duplicate work.
6. It is extremely important to note that while this is partially a cost saving measure in the long-run, those displaced by the lost of positions must not be abandoned. Those without college degrees should be offered a full PROMISE scholarship for 4 years and those with bachelor degrees should be given 36 free credit hours in a graduate program at any state institution.
7. Shepherd University should be given the freedom to exploit their geographic position by offering in-state tuition to Maryland and Northern VA students.

I don’t pretend to know everything, but these ideas would but WV high education on a much firmer footing and make it far more competitive.

Go Fightin’ Miners!