College Students Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

School Board Accountability, Gender Identity And Campus Hunger Focus Of Education Committees

The education committees of both chambers started the week off by advancing bills to improve management of local school districts, as well as bills on gender identity instruction and hunger on college campuses.

West Virginia code tends to favor local control of schools via county boards of education. But in recent years, the state Board of Education has deemed it necessary to step in to address financial and administrative issues in several counties.

House Bill 5514 would enhance the training requirements for county boards of education members from the current seven to 12 hours.

The bill’s sponsor Del. Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, told the House Education Committee Monday afternoon that more training should better prepare elected board of education members to hold administrators accountable and reduce the need for state intervention.

“They run for the school boards, and they believe they have a good handle on it,” he said. “And trust me, I served 10 years, until you’re actually sitting in that seat and start taking on these things, you really do not have a good understanding. And sometimes after that you still don’t have a good understanding.”

The bill was advanced to the full House for its consideration.

The House Education Committee also discussed:

H. B. 4709, relating to vocational and technical education programs.
H. B. 5021, relating to cardiac response plans.
H. B. 5175, eliminate funding for the Center for Nursing and transfer its duties and authorities to the Higher Education Policy Commission.

In The Senate

Another House bill aimed at improving county board of education accountability was taken up by the Senate Education Committee Tuesday morning.

House Bill 4832, which has already passed the House, requires the state superintendent to make an annual report to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability regarding the finances of each school district. A similar report is currently made to the governor and the legislature broadly. Any school district that fails to report its finances to the state superintendent may be subject to a reduction of its state funding.

The state Board of Education took emergency control of Upshur County Schools last year after financial misappropriation, including tens of thousands of dollars in misspent federal funds, was discovered in a routine review.

House Bill 4832 now goes to the full Senate for its consideration.

The Senate Education Committee also considered Senate Bill 515, which prohibits public schools from requiring students to participate in sexual orientation instruction. It requires public schools to give advance written notification of any instruction regarding sexual orientation and gender identity and of a guardians’ right to exempt the child from participation.

However, as Senate Education counsel Amy Osgood explained to the committee, the bill has further requirements regarding students’ gender identity.

“It also provides to the public school and county board employees that are assigned to the school may not knowingly give false information or misleading information to the parent, custodian or guardian of the student regarding the student’s gender identity, or their intent to transition to a gender that is different than the sex listed on the student’s official birth certificate or a certificate that is issued upon adoption,” she said.

The bill also allows for parents and guardians to bring civil action against the public school if affected by a violation of the new law.

The bill was advanced without discussion or comment, with a reference to the Judiciary Committee.

Hunger-Free Campus

Senate Education also considered Senate Bill 292. Titled the Hunger-Free Campus Act, the law would require the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC) to establish a grant program to address food insecurity among students enrolled in public institutions of higher education.

Colleges and universities working toward a hunger-free designation would need to establish a Campus Hunger Task Force, provide at least one food pantry on campus, provide options to use SNAP benefits – colloquially referred to as food stamps – at campus stores, and several other requirements.

The committee heard from student advocates on the need for more food support on the state’s college campuses.

Madison Santmyer, West Virginia University (WVU) student body president, told the committee that on-campus food banks have seen an increase in use over three years.

“For June 2020 to 2021… 77 visits and then jump to June 2023, we’re at 428,” she said. “Over four times the amount of students are visiting these food pantries on our campus. The need, whether that’s they know more about it now, but the need is obviously there. Some of the visits go to the thousands for some of the months.”

Several senators pointed out how much the cost of attending college has increased since their time.

“Now I went to WVU and then to Glenville State where I graduated but that was back in the 70s,” said Sen. David Stover, R – Wyoming. “And I remember I could get my room, board, tuition and fees for $600. Don’t you wish?”

Stover asked Santmyer how that compared to the cost of just a meal plan today.

“I don’t know the exact number off the top of my head, but I know for WVU, I believe it’s a few thousand dollars, between two and four,” she said.

WVU’s least expensive on-campus meal plan is $2,634 per semester.

Sen. Michael Azinger, R-Wood, was the sole dissenting voice. He spoke against the bill, calling it “nanny state stuff.”

“My first year of college, I lost 20 pounds,” he said. ”I think what we’re doing here, probably unintentionally, but we’re creating a victim group, I think, of people who are just experiencing the normal hardships of life. You know, you go to college, sometimes don’t have food, sometimes you get hungry. It’s life. It builds character.”

The bill was recommended to the full Senate.

A similar bill last year failed to make it out of the Senate Finance Committee. Committee Chair Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, said that should not be an issue this year.

“We have requested for the finance chairman to waive the second reference and he has agreed so that should be done on the floor,” she said.

New Student Organization Opposes WVU Program Cuts

Opposition at West Virginia University to proposed program cuts – including a student walkout and demonstrations at university meetings – has been led by the recently formed West Virginia United Student Union.

The West Virginia University Board of Governors will vote Friday on proposed cuts to programs at the university’s Morgantown campus. Campus opposition to the cuts – including a student walkout and demonstrations at university meetings – has been led by the recently formed West Virginia United Student Union.

Reporter Chris Schulz sat down with two of the union’s founding members, Matthew Kolb and Christian Adams, to talk about their efforts.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Schulz: Mathew, I’ll start with you. What exactly is the West Virginia University Student Union?

Kolb: The West Virginia United Students Union, it’s a union of students and student organizations on WVU’s Morgantown campus. We’ve been working to advocate for student voices in a way that let’s say, for example, the student government hasn’t been able to do. We’ve been organizing for only a few months now, we’ve got over 350 members, we’re looking at possibly having over 500 within the next week or two. We’re growing pretty rapidly. We’ve gotten a lot of support from the community. Right now our goal is making sure that we build a strong foundation for organizing students on the campus this year, and next year, and every year following.

Schulz: So Christian, can you add to that a little bit? Can you tell me a little bit more about what it is the organization is capable of doing that more traditional entities like the SGA can’t?

Adams: Yeah, so ultimately, the Student Union provides a much more participatory platform for students to engage with local politics, whether that be on the level of SGA, or the Board of Governors or even within the state politics, because ultimately it serves as a platform and a voice for a large quantity of students to be capable of engaging in.

Schulz: Christian, I’ll continue with you. Can you tell me a little bit about the history?

Adams: We announced it, I believe it was July 20 of this year. We had definitely started thinking about it all the way back at the end of April, and kind of how to create it. Originally, it was just an idea for a simple newsletter. But as time progressed, and as we found out more and more about the cuts, we understood that to organize effectively, we had to move beyond that, and create something that allowed students to engage much more thoroughly than just a newsletter.

Schulz: Matthew, would you say that it’s accurate that the cuts kind of motivated the creation of this organization?

Kolb: Completely accurate. In general, having a student union like ours that can represent students the way it does is important, no matter the time, or place, but the fact that the cuts were so, the proposals were so widespread, affecting so many students, it really motivated them to get in, get involved in a way that they might not have at any other time. We’re hoping that we are going to be able to build solidarity right now that will continue past this issue. A lot of organizing happens based around issues, and it’s hard to get students and really anyone involved in a unionization effort if there’s not an apparent issue directly in front of them.

Schulz: So tell me Christian a little bit more about what organizing actually looks like on the ground right now.

Adams: Around this issue in general, most of what we do is research, essentially combating the current narrative that the administration has been putting forth. A lot of what we’ve been doing has been working towards allowing the faculty and the students to have a voice. But in terms of concretely how we do that a lot of it is fliers, showing up to meetings, it is reading articles, it is poring over the data and trying to establish a concrete and coherent narrative around what is going on.

Schulz: Matthew, anything to add to that?

Kolb: One of the important things about the student union is the way that it brings students from across the university together to advocate for themselves and for their peers. We’re able to bring in a bunch of decentralized information, centralize it and then distribute it to everybody in that organization. That’s one of the more important things that we have been doing was making sure that we’re informing our members and other students of these events going on, that they need to show up to, they need to ask questions, give comments, give their thoughts, tell administration, student government, the Board of Governors, how these recommendations are going to affect them.

Schulz: What do you feel has been the impact of organizing so far Matthew?

Kolb: I’m an undergraduate senior, this is my fourth year I’m going into right now. The three, four years I have been here, I have not seen a campus culture at WVU like I see it today. I fully believe that this student union has altered the way that students relate to each other, the way they relate to faculty and staff and how they understand the power dynamics at this university. We’re hoping that that cultural change is a permanent change at this campus.

Adams: Well, I would definitely agree with Matthew that the culture on the WVU campus has shifted dramatically, but we’ve also seen the faculty be emboldened significantly, and we’ve seen the relationship between the administration and the students and the faculty changed dramatically as the power imbalance has…it’s been pushing towards being more level. The administration is starting to get scared. We are concretely creating long term institutional power that will be able to affect change on campus and across our community.

Schulz: More broadly, what other issues is the union concerned with, beyond the immediacy of the cuts, Matthew?

Kolb: There have been discussions about accessibility on campus to speaking about tuition, making sure that tuition is affordable. The cost of housing on campus, making sure you know that everybody in West Virginia has the opportunity to go to WVU. Making sure that college athletes are adequately compensated for their work. Discussions about holding administration accountable, holding the Board of Governors accountable, things of that nature. Especially right now, when the administration holds such power, building a sort of democratic power at the university that does not exist right now. But people have been trying to make it exist. We don’t want to try to make it exist, we want it to exist, and we’re going to make it exist.

Schulz: Do you feel like what your organization, what your union has done so far will have a meaningful impact come Friday?
Kolb: Friday will come and Friday will go. We may succeed, we may not. But what is maybe even more important is how our union succeeds at cementing itself as a legitimate and credible fighting force on this campus, for students and by students. So whenever the time comes that they might think about doing what they have done and are trying to do now, maybe they will think otherwise. Because they know that there will be a reaction from the students. They know that they can’t hide it like they used to, they know that they can’t peddle a narrative to the press like they used to, because the faculty, staff and students have been working to try to meet them where they’re at power wise with manufacturing a narrative, to make sure that our stories get out there, that our research gets out there so that everything people read is not just what the administration wants them to read.

WVU Governors Hear Public Comment, Receive Updates On Proposed Cuts

Of the 25 program units identified by West Virginia University for formal review, 19 have informed the university they will be appealing the preliminary recommendations. Appeals will be heard between Aug. 24 and Sept. 1.

Of the 25 program units identified by West Virginia University (WVU) for formal review, 19 have informed the university they will be appealing the preliminary recommendations.

Associate Provost Mark Gavin gave the university’s Board of Governors an update on the academic transformation initiative during their Aug. 22 special meeting. He said the actual appeals will be heard between Aug. 24 and Sept. 1 and decisions on the appeals will be communicated back to the units within three days of the appeal hearing. The university’s transformation timeline states appeals hearings will be held through Sept. 5.

“Both specific program actions and/or overall unit faculty reductions can be appealed,” he said. “Within this process, we’re also allowing for a dissenting position to be filed by either an individual faculty member or a group of faculty within that unit. Thus far, we are aware of two units in which a faculty member or members will present a dissenting position.”

Gavin said the appeal process can result in an upholding the preliminary recommendation, or replacing it with a different recommendation. But at the conclusion of the appeals process, recommendations will be considered final.

The board will meet Sept. 15 to vote on the recommendations.

Public Comment

Before Gavin’s update, the meeting began with about a dozen community members composed of students and recent alumni addressing the board. They expressed their dismay at the proposed cuts, ranging from languages and creative writing to mathematics and music. One called for the resignation of President Gordon Gee, as well as other administrators, and a stop to the proposed cuts to academic programs.

Mary Manspeaker, a Ph.D. English student, said she left the state at 18 because she didn’t feel there was a place for her.

“I have come back because my research interests are focused on Appalachia,” she said. “And to come back and be told that the English department doesn’t matter, that I was right, that there might not be a place for me in West Virginia, is heartbreaking.”

Manspeaker said she hadn’t had a chance to gather her thoughts before speaking because she was applying for SNAP benefits.

“I don’t get paid a living wage for the courses that I already teach,” she said. “If you cut a large portion of the (graduate teaching assistants) in the MFA that teach composition, what does that look like for the workload of already underpaid workers, who are also trying to get an education?”

Joey Dimas, a freshman math and English major recounted how the proposed cuts make him feel unwelcome on campus.

“I went through a program called Modify. It’s, I think, exclusive to West Virginia and it made my transition from foster care to college painless,” he said. “But now with the budget cuts, it feels as if the review is telling me they do not care about me or my majors. While I don’t think that is what you guys are explicitly thinking or saying when you look at me, it is the impression that is given off with the list of recommended changes to programs.”

Board Chair Taunja Willis-Miller thanked the speakers for their statements. She acknowledged the difficulty of the process, but emphasized the board’s belief in its necessity to remain competitive and relevant.

“You should know that the board did direct the administration to address academic transformation, so that we could become a stronger university, and then in the spring, we accelerated the timeline so that we could get through the process and move forward as the university,“ Willis-Miller said.

She said the board will meet on Sept. 14 for the primary purpose of hearing comments before a decision is made on academic transformation at the scheduled board meeting Sept. 15.

Gee also gave a brief statement and said he addressed the requirement for the university to transform as far back as 2014.

“I know this is a hard time for our university, no one should think that I, or any of the senior administration university, do not realize that we are doing very hard things and making very difficult decisions,“ he said.

Gee stressed that the non-academic side of the university has been undergoing cuts for years, netting some 500 cuts to classified and unclassified personnel positions since 2015.

“In 2018, I said land grant universities could win back the people’s favor by acting as the people’s universities again. And I think all of that is critical. So this is what we’ve been working towards,” he said. “Now, yes, we are going to make some difficult decisions. And we do have an appeals process. And we think that that is important. But I will note to everyone here that on the non-academic side of the house, we have been transforming for years, and our staff have borne the brunt of that.“

Agenda Items

The board moved on to its agenda items, first being a review of severance packages. At the board’s July 31 meeting, a proposed faculty severance schedule was approved. However, the board asked for additional information to determine whether certain clinical track and library faculty would be eligible for a severance package if their positions were eliminated.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved a recommendation that they be eligible for severance if their contract is non-renewed following the academic program review process.

Rob Alsop, vice president for strategic initiatives, presented a report on non-academic transformation. He said academic service units and libraries are going through an administrative review and that in the coming weeks more non-administrative reviews will take place.

The goal is to have those reviews done by Oct. 31, to present to the board in November.

“Again, we’ve done a lot of administrative review and work over the past several years,” Alsop said. “We’re going to look again, just to make sure that we’re operating in an efficient manner and bring those results back to the Board of Governors.”

He also informed the board that Cris DeBord, vice president of Talent and Culture, announced his plan to retire later this year. His position will be eliminated and the entire unit will be reorganized.

“One of the things that we’ve heard from faculty is ‘Do you have too many senior administrators?’ Or are there opportunities to reorganize in a way from a cost savings perspective?” Alsop said. “Because it’s one thing to reduce frontline workers, but it’s another thing to talk about senior administration. You need to walk the walk and talk to talk at all levels.”

Provost Maryanne Reed announced the review of WVU’s Beckley and Keyser campuses will begin January, as well as a review of WVU Extension.

“We want to get through this fall and accomplish the work that we need to do on the main campus and then we will look to begin that work at our other campuses,“ she said.

The board’s final action was to approve the creation of a new unit composed of the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design and WVU Extension. This follows similar consolidations of the College of Creative Arts with the Reed College of Media, as well as the creation of the College of Applied Human Sciences from the merging of the College of Education and Human Services and the College of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences.

W.Va. Universities, Colleges Preparing For Campus Carry Law

After years of failed attempts, Senate Bill 10, the Campus Self-Defense Act, also known as Campus Carry, passed in the recently completed legislative session.

After years of failed attempts, Senate Bill 10, the Campus Self-Defense Act, also known as Campus Carry, passed in the recently completed legislative session. The new law authorized the concealed carry of firearms in certain areas of college and university campuses. It takes effect July 1, 2024.

West Virginia’s institutions of higher education largely opposed campus carry. Campus leaders at big and small schools said they’ll need that much time to prepare.

Marshall University’s enrollment is a little more than 13,000. In the Eastern Panhandle, Shepherd University has just over 3,000 students. Both schools have campus carry committees and task forces that include administration, faculty, staff and students. Marshall Director of Public Safety Jim Terry said there are a wide variety of policy decisions on the table.

“We have a small group of senior leadership,” Terry said. “We’ve put together an action learning team made up of constituents from every facet of the university to go out and look at best practice, best policy.”

Holly Morgan Frye, vice president for Student Affairs, and the director of Community Relations at Shepherd University, said her school’s campus carry task force also includes attorneys and members of the residence life team.

Both schools now allow no firearms on campus. SB10 will permit concealed carry in classrooms and public areas, but not in stadiums and day care facilities. Frye said Shepherd’s key concern highlights student mental health and suicide issues.

“Everybody knows that the mental health issues on a college campus are on an increase,” Frye said. “We are getting ready to hire a fourth counselor. We have an enrollment of a little more than 3,000, and we feel that it’s critical that we have that fourth counselor because of the mental health issues.”

Marshall senior Abbey McBrayer said the chilling, anxious effect of COVID-19 still lingers on campus. She said campus carry could make it worse.

“A lot of people my age still feel uncomfortable being out on campus and going to like classrooms and things like that,” McBrayer said. “I think knowing that somebody could just have a gun in a classroom is kind of going to add to that. And then I mean, our counseling services are already kind of bogged down.”

Frye said she worries whether campus carry will affect enrollment for border schools like Shepherd. She believes the costs of ensuring campus safety will demand a larger police force.

Terry said the initial estimate for Marshall’s firearm security could reach $400,000, while Frye said the Shepherd cost could be several times that. Both point to residence halls, where guns are not allowed in dorm rooms, but are allowed in lunch rooms and lounges.

“I think that we’re going to have to be providing safes in order for any of our residential students who choose to carry to be able to lock those guns away when they are in their residential rooms,” Frye said. “We have already heard from our residential assistants with concerns about how they will manage that. For example, what will they do if they see somebody who has a gun? What will be the process?”

Terry said the school will have to create a new firearms policy when secondary school age visitors use campus facilities and with campus buildings jointly owned by public and private entities. He said there are no provisions in the law made for violation of campus carry policies, civil or criminal.

“We’re going to have to get with the county prosecutor,” Terry said. “There are no criminal statutes and there are no penalties attached to that code. If a person sees half a holster sticking out from underneath a jacket, and they call it in, he’s not violated the law. But we have nothing in place for a shirt raising up or something like that.”

Marshall freshman Jonathan Willman agreed with all the safeguards and security measures needed. However, he sees campus carry as a defensive necessity.

“I plan to carry myself when I get my concealed carry license,” Willman said. “We aren’t the people you have to worry about, it’s the people that break the laws. The bill allows kids to be able to defend themselves from people like that, who are already breaking the law and shooting up schools and campuses.”

11th Hour Campus Carry Amendments Fail

Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, proposed an amendment that would give campuses a housing option for students who do not want those with firearms living in the building.

Opponents of the contentious Senate Bill 10, the Campus Self-Defense Bill, which would allow the concealed carry of firearms on college campuses (with limitations), tried to get two 11th hour exemption amendments passed.

Resigned to the fact that the campus carry bill has overwhelming legislative support, Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, proposed an amendment that would give campuses a housing option for students who do not want those with firearms living in the building.

“There are some students, they’re going to say no, we don’t want to go to West Virginia, Marshall, Concord, Fairmont. So, we’re going to work with our legislature, and we’re going to give you reasonable living accommodations too,” Hornbuckle said. “We’re not going to lose any money from tuition by turning students away. Matter of fact, we’re going to be more marketable. We’re going to be able to go out across the country and we’re going to be able to appease every single student. If you’re somebody who wants to live with firearms in your residence halls, we will allow you to do that. If you’re the student that just doesn’t feel right. Well, we will make reasonable accommodations.”

Del. Moore Capito, R- Kanawha, said campuses already had that option under the proposed law and Hornbuckle’s amendment failed.

Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, proposed an amendment striking the provisional carry permit which would not allow 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds to have a gun on campus, saying those students had not gained the maturity to carry firearms.

“Suicide among teenagers is an issue in West Virginia, and one that I think we need to pay attention to and this bill is relevant to this amendment, because it’s tough for kids who are going to school for the first time,” Hansen said. “Seventeen-year-olds, 18-year-olds, so many kids on campus haven’t spent a substantial amount of time away from home before. They’re meeting new people from different walks of life, they may or may not agree with them. They’re under a lot of stress, trying to study and get good grades. And there’s a mental health crisis at our universities.”

Del. Bill Ridenhour, R-Jefferson, a former Marine, said he put his life and trust in the hands of many 18- and 19-year-olds and they should have the legal right for concealed carry.

Hansen said Marine firearms training was vastly different from student firearms training but his amendment was also defeated.

Senate Bill 10 comes up for third reading Tuesday in the House.

Student Leaders Advocate For Hunger-Free Campuses In Senate

Senate Bill 578, titled the Hunger Free Campus Act, would require the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission to establish a grant program to address food insecurity among students enrolled in public institutions of higher education.

The Senate Education Committee met Tuesday morning to discuss a number of issues, including hunger on the state’s college campuses.

Senate Bill 578, titled the Hunger-Free Campus Act, would require the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC) to establish a grant program to address food insecurity among students enrolled in public institutions of higher education.

“I had an opportunity to visit with students from West Virginia University, one of the schools I represent and was surprised to some degree that among their top three priorities, they were very concerned about students going hungry,” said Sen. Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia.

The committee heard from two leaders of the State Advisory Council of Students, Isabella Griffiths of Marshall University and Stella Dunn of Concord University.

“There are resources like SNAP benefits, and food pantries that do exist on our campuses. However, many students don’t know that they’re available, or they aren’t funded appropriately for nutritious healthy meals for students,” Dunn said.

“There’s also the stigma and fear that comes for students that are discouraged from using them for those reasons,” she continued. “Instead, students often will skip meals or they’ll rely on cheap sources of food that aren’t nutritious. They don’t keep them full and they aren’t able to focus in class. And the foods are often processed with low nutritional value which doesn’t help students see their bodies and then feed their minds. And this issue does threaten a student’s ability to focus in class, stay in school and ultimately graduate and join the workforce and feel like a part of the campus community. So we feel like this is a really important issue on both of our campuses.”

Griffiths and Dunn previously presented to the Joint Standing Committee on Education during the January interim session, sparking interest in the issue among many legislators present.

Oliverio asked how the bill’s proposed program would specifically help the issue of campus hunger.

“Right now, the food pantries are mostly funded by students and staff. You have college students like ourselves that are trying to feed ourselves and feed others,” Dunn said. “We’re only in our positions for a year, or maybe two years at the most whenever we’re involved with Student Government or the State Advisory Council of Students. This will create a sustainable platform that students can utilize far after we’re graduated, and whenever new students come to the universities.”

A committee substitute for Senate Bill 578 now heads to the Senate Finance Committee for further consideration.