The state Higher Education Policy Commission passed a resolution Friday (Feb. 21) endorsing legislative action designed to reduce the impact of budget shortfalls on West Virginia colleges and universities.
Commissioners are backing measures that would provide greater institutional flexibility in purchasing, personnel management, risk management and construction financing. The commission also wants schools to be able to set their own tuition rates.
Higher education is facing cuts ranging from 3.5 percent at community colleges to 13 percent at four-year institutions and 15 percent or more at medical schools. For WVU , the shortfall ranges from $25 million to $30 million. Gov. Bob Wise proposed the cuts to balance the state budget, which is facing a deficit of $250 million next fiscal year.
University and college presidents have been meeting with legislators to discuss budget cuts and alternatives.
WVU President David C. Hardesty Jr. told commissioners this is a dramatic time in the history of higher education in West Virginia.
“We have a whole new set of challenges before us ranging from the cost of increased security to a changing public,”he said.”We need flexibility to complete the job.”
The HEPC resolution endorses reinvestment in higher education of all savings generated from efficiency measures adopted at the campus level or through any administrative restructuring of higher education institutions. It also calls for increasing available state general revenues and allocating a portion of the new revenues to higher education programs. The resolution states HEPC and the institutions support increasing and expanding the soft-drink tax and/or increasing the tobacco tax.
In other action, commissioners approved:
Ten-year campus development plan updates from WVU Institute of Technology and Bluefield State College. The Tech plan calls for $29 million in maintenance, renovation and construction through 2012 while nearly $25 million would be spent at Bluefield over the same period.
A report on distance learning in West Virginia
A report on college courses for high school students
Discussed refinancing 1992 bond debt
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Policy Commission is Thursday, April 24, in Charleston.