Higher Education Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

New President Officially Sworn In At Fairmont State, Weighs In On Goals And Campus Carry

Fairmont State University inaugurated its new president Thursday. Mike Davis has held the position since last July, but he was formally invested as president Thursday evening, formally conferring the authority and symbols of the office to him.

Fairmont State University inaugurated its new president Thursday.

Mike Davis has held the position since last July, but he was formally invested as president Thursday evening, formally conferring the authority and symbols of the office to him.

Fairmont State University President Mike Davis.

*Photo Courtesy of Fairmont State University*

“It’s interesting that we do inaugurations after the President has been at a place for a particular amount of time, partially so they can get a sense of what the campus and the community in the state are like,” he said. “It’s pretty typical, but it’s actually interesting. This is the one year anniversary of my first round interview here at Fairmont State.”

Davis said he has spent the past nine months getting to know the university’s campus and staff. He is now leading the creation of a 10-year strategic plan for the university, set to be released in fall 2024.

“I think there’s different models of being a university president and mine is very much relying on the expertise of the people who work on my campus,” Davis said. “The past nine months have been figuring out where that expertise lies on campus, where people may not have been empowered in the past to utilize their expertise. And then what are gaps where we might have to hire some people or help people develop on our campus?”

He notes programs like aviation, surveying, nursing and education — where academics meet real world experience — as opportunities for growth and improvement.

“That’s what we’re going to look at more of, how do we create more of those hands-on opportunities for our students because our faculty are already great at the academic pieces, and they’re very good at the hands-on pieces,” Davis said. “We’re gonna find ways to augment those sorts of opportunities for our students.”

Davis comes into the leadership role just as the state’s campus carry law takes effect this summer. He said the short timespan for implementation, compounded by his new ascendance to leadership, makes the process frustrating, but that the university is moving forward.

“Part of how we enact this is not just what we do, but how we talk about it,” Davis said. “It was the most common question I got during my interview, ‘What do you think about campus carry?’ It’s the law, we’re gonna follow the law. I actually don’t think it materially will change many of the things we’re doing on campus. But I think how we talk to each other about it, how we treat each other, if you want to carry a firearm on campus, you’re now legally allowed to, but if people feel unsafe about that, let’s not rub it in their face, let’s not make them feel more unsafe than they do.”

Davis said there are days he still cannot believe he has the opportunity to lead a university, and Thursday’s ceremony is an opportunity to celebrate.

“It’s definitely a humbling experience to get to stand up there today and talk about who we are, who we’re going to be and how people have helped me get to where I am.”

Shepherd University Secures 3 Years Of Funding For Student Research

A new $160,000 grant from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission will fund three years of a student research program at Shepherd University in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.

A new grant from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC) is furthering student research in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.

The Shepherd Opportunity to Attract Research Students (SOARS) program pairs students with university faculty for summer research projects, providing them a stipend for their work.

A new HEPC grant of more than $160,000 will allow the program to continue for the next three years.

Participants in the program select a scientific research project they want to work on alongside a professor, receiving mentorship over the course of the summer.

At summer’s end, students have the opportunity to present their research. Later, they complete a capstone project from their findings.

This marks the fifth cycle of the SOARS program, which welcomes 30 students in each round of the grant.

“Students who are paid on the SOARS grant in the summer have extra hours and bits and pieces that they can do,” said Robert Warburton, dean of Shepherd’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Nursing, in a Monday press release.

“That means they get extra experience, and the faculty advisor gets assistants working in the lab, which is also important because the faculty must be able to do research because of their professional development requirements,” he said. “It’s a win on both sides.”

Miscalculation Means Fewer College Students May Get Federal Aid Than Expected

Fewer college students than anticipated will be eligible for Pell Grants this year after a miscalculation from education officials. Last week, Congress passed a bill rectifying the error, but reducing student eligibility for the program.

Fewer college students may be eligible for federal financial aid this year than initially anticipated, following a miscalculation from education officials.

Three years ago, the U.S. Department of Education began to overhaul its Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

The FAFSA determines how much federal and state aid college students are eligible for based on factors like household income and assets, but has long been criticized as overly complicated.

The overhaul slashed the number of FAFSA questions by about two-thirds. It also allowed students to submit financial data through the Internal Revenue Service directly, instead of reporting it themselves.

Additionally, the change reconfigured the FAFSA eligibility formula, expanding federal aid eligibility to more students. These adjustments initially brought a three-month delay to this year’s FAFSA process.

But that delay only grew when, in January, education officials discovered a miscalculation in the new aid formula overstated how many students qualify for a federal grant called the Pell Grant by at least 100,000.

The Pell Grant provides low-income students thousands of tuition dollars that they are not required to repay.

In the weeks following the discovery, lawmakers have scrambled to fix the FAFSA process so students can receive financial aid information before making college decisions.

On Thursday, the United States Congress passed a resolution that corrected the formula error, reducing the number of students who will be eligible for federal grants in the year ahead.

Some Democratic lawmakers expressed concern in reducing financial aid eligibility. However, several Republican lawmakers said the resolution passed last week preserves the integrity of the FAFSA process.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., expressed support for the formula fix in a press release Monday. She said it ensured this year’s federal aid distribution adheres to the law, and that it will end the repeated FAFSA delays.

“I was proud to help author a fix to the FAFSA Simplification Act,” she said. “I am hopeful that this fix will sustain and shore up the Pell Grant program for the future.”

The Department of Education plans to help colleges and universities process FAFSA information this month. West Virginia University and many other state institutions across the country have delayed application deadlines because of the complications.

University Leaders Call On Business Community For Help

The role of education in the state’s business future was a key talking point at this week’s West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s Business Summit.

The role of education in the state’s business future was a key talking point at this week’s West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s Business Summit. Marshall University President Brad Smith and West Virginia University President Gordon Gee opened the summit by announcing a program to try and keep college graduates in the state.

Immediately after the announcement, Smith discussed how higher education is fueling West Virginia’s economy and on Thursday Gee was joined by Marty Roth, president of the University of Charleston, to discuss investments in the state’s next generation.

On Friday, presidents from the state’s smaller schools such as Glenville State University, WVU Tech and Mountwest Community & Technical College came together to discuss how higher education is driving change in West Virginia.

Ericke Cage, president of West Virginia State University, addressed the question of whether higher education still matters moving forward.

“There’s only one way that a self-described small town, country boy from southern Virginia is able to sit on the stage today and be the president of one of West Virginia’s great institutions, and that is through the transformative power of education,” Cage said. “Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, higher education still remains the greatest platform for social and economic mobility in our country.”

Sarah Armstrong Tucker, chancellor of the Higher Education Policy Commission called on the assembled business community to stand with higher education and its role in the state’s future job market.

“When I go out and I talk to students in K-12, not once do they tell me I’m choosing what I want to do for my future because of the football team,” Tucker said. “They tell me that they want a job. They want a job that will pay them enough money that they will be better off than their families were. They want security. They want to know that they will be able to feed their children. And that’s where we need you.”

LOCEA Hears Alderson Broaddus Updates

The Chancellor of the Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC), Sarah Tucker provided updates about the closure of Alderson Broaddus University to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education and Accountability on Sunday during the Interim Session.

The Chancellor of the Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC), Sarah Tucker, provided updates about the closure of Alderson Broaddus University to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education and Accountability on Sunday during the Interim Session.

According to Tucker, Alderson Broaddus has been on provisional authorization because of finances with HEPC for a little more than a year.

Tucker said in late November or early December of 2022, the then-president of Alderson Broaddus told her he believed the board would vote to close the institution in the spring of 2023.

“While he wasn’t 100 percent certain, he was pretty sure that in the springtime, the board was going to be closing, or voting to close, the institution, that their finances were too out of control, that they were in too much debt that they couldn’t get see their way out of it, and that they would be closing not reopening for the fall semester,” Tucker said.

Since then, both the board and president of the university changed hands and that understanding between Tucker and the previous president did not become a reality.

“The new board made a different decision,” Tucker said “And that decision was that they were going to stay open for the semester. And so, at that point, we were to reauthorize them in June, based upon the finances that I had received, and very inconsistent financial information. There was simply no way that the commission was going to be able to do that.”

According to Tucker, Alderson Broaddus told HEPC they would be receiving funding from numerous sources including a $1.1 million tax credit from the federal government.

“We were actually told that that tax credit had been sent in by the IRS erroneously to the institution and the institution had mailed the check back and that they were expecting to receive the real check anytime soon,” Tucker said. “We were also told that the board chair was going to resign her position because she had become disfavored by other board members. And that as a result of that the institution would receive $500,000 in donations. Neither the IRS refund nor the $500,000 of donations have come to fruition at this point.”

Given the inconsistencies in the financial reports, HEPC asked the university for its cash flow projections for the year. The university had a cash flow of negative $500,000 with more than $30 million in debt.

“They have lines of credit at or near $5 million, which is the maximum. They owed the city of Philippi $835,000 has been reported in the press; it was a little bit less than that reported in the press,” Tucker said. “That’s because they didn’t report the July bill that they also missed. They owe Sodexo, which is our food service company, nearly $2 million.”

According to Tucker, the university made an initial payment to the city of Phillippi of $67,000 with money from a fundraising campaign. She also said the university has been asking for donations from alumni to make payroll.

“I can keep going on about some of these financial issues, but at the end of the day, we came to the conclusion that this institution was not going to be able to stay open for this semester. There was just no financial indicator that caused us to believe that they were going to be able to stay open,” Tucker said. “And once news broke of their finances, we became very concerned that their budget, which was based entirely upon their enrollment, was not in their enrollment projections were not particularly feasible, when that just simply wasn’t going to be able to be met, there was too much out there about how bad their finances were. So, we simply didn’t think they were going to make their enrollment projections.”

The HEPC came to the conclusion to vote to revoke Alderson Broaddus’ ability to award degrees, due to their inability to stay open through the semester.

Students who can graduate by December 31, 2023, are allowed to finish their education at Alderson Broaddus.

Also according to Tucker, eight to 10 Alderson Broaddus students struggle to be placed at a new college or university due to class size restrictions on first-year physician assistant’s classes.

“There is a cap on the number of students that you are allowed to take. All of our institutions which offer PA programs are at their cap for their first-year students,” Tucker said. “They have called their accreditor, to see if the creditor would be willing to let them have a few extra students so that we can get those students through so far those conversations have been unsuccessful.”

West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee Given Contract Extension

The West Virginia University Board of Governors gave President E. Gordon Gee a one-year contract extension Monday amid a budget shortfall, falling enrollment and plans to cut some academic offerings.

Gee, 79, was given an extension through June 2025 during the board’s special meeting in Morgantown. His contract was set to expire next year.

Gee thanked the board after the vote was announced, acknowledged the ongoing challenges and said the intent is to have “a process that is clear, that is visible to everyone” about improving the university.

The move comes as the university is evaluating nearly half of its academic programs and addressing an estimated $45 million budget deficit.

In June, the Board of Governors approved an estimated $1.2 billion budget for fiscal year 2024 that includes $7 million in staff cuts, or around 132 positions, including 38 faculty members. The board moved forward with slashing 12 graduate and doctorate programs and approved a tuition increase of just under 3%.

Gee and other top university officials have said the budget shortfall is largely a result of enrollment declines. The student population has decreased 10% since 2015. Gee also has cited the factors of inflation stress and increases to premiums the school is required to pay for the state’s government employees’ health insurance program.

In 2019, Gee was given a three-year contract extension through 2024 at a salary of $800,000 per year. At the time, board Chairman William Wilmoth said Gee was “one of, if not the top, university leader in the country.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic started a year later, the university issued $40 million in debt to deal with it. The university also took on an additional $10 million in debt to pay for the increased employee insurance costs.

Gee is in his second stint at West Virginia that began in 2014. He also was the school’s president from 1981 to 1985. Gee also served two stints as president at Ohio State and had similar roles at Vanderbilt University, Brown University and the University of Colorado.