Reiterating the message he delivered to West Virginia University’s Board of Governors last month, President David C. Hardesty Jr. said the state’s flagship institution is at the”tipping point”and asserted that further substantial cuts to higher education could jeopardize WVU ’s mission.

“The budget crisis facing this state is very real and there are no easy answers,”Hardesty said.”The governor and Legislature are under constitutional mandates to balance the state’s budget. The job is not an easy one. The financial crisis is national in scope. The economy is affecting others, some worse than it is impacting higher education.”

However, WVU officials”have never said, nor have we ever demonstrated, that this University wouldn’t tighten its belt,”he added.”Clearly we have. And clearly we will continue to. We will continue to work, as Gov. Wise has asked us to, on ideas for statewide solutions. I look forward to sharing ideas and collaborating in the weeks and months ahead.”

Despite growth in enrollment and gains in externally funded research and other areas, Hardesty said the University budget cannot continue to be reduced.

“We cannot allow the quality of this great flagship institution to be eroded,”he told the audience of faculty, staff, administrators and others at WVU ’s main and regional campuses.”You are here because you believe in our promise, believe in what we can accomplish. So are our students.

“We need to constantly show our tremendous value to the state. We must align ourselves with its future. We are not just a business or a state agency. We are the quiet underpinnings of society, essential to its character, economic growth and well-being.”

Hardesty noted that he and other University officials are working every day to support and share the unity agenda, and he urged those in the audience to do the same.”I urge you to keep informed about the unity agenda,”he said.”Help share our message of the importance of higher education, and also share with our administrators any further thoughts you might have on solutions to the state’s budget crisis.”

On Sept. 5, WVU ’s Board of Governors unanimously adopted a resolution endorsing the Higher Education Policy Commission’s unity agenda. The resolution asked state policy makers to use their best efforts to avoid further budget reallocations away from higher education.

Among the points Hardesty touched upon during his State of the Campus speech were the following:

• WVU is a growth engine. The return on the state’s investment in WVU is significant. Every $1 invested in WVU by the state returns at least $10 in the economy through the dollars WVU and its hospital affiliate leverage and spend in the West Virginia economy.

• Pursuant to its charge to serve West Virginia through teaching, research and service, WVU has invested in and grown in every mission area. WVU has increased in the size and quality of enrollment, adding the equivalent of an entire student body at many other institutions. WVU has been the school of choice for the state’s PROMISE Scholars. WVU ’s freshman PROMISE profile3.74 GPA and 24.6 ACT is higher than the average for all of the state’s PROMISE Scholars.

• Out-of-state ACT and SAT scores are higher than the average of major feeder states. In growing, WVU has not compromised the quality of the institutions but improved it. But, increasing enrollment requires investments in housing, faculty, courses, etc.

• Research enterprise has grown $820.5 million since 1994 through the efforts of the WVU faculty, but research requires investments in centers, faculty, start-up funding, infrastructure, technology, graduate education, etc. Maintaining the competitiveness in an environment of cutbacks has been and will continue to be difficult.

• WVU’s service agenda has grown. In Extension alone, overall enrollments in programs have increased by 29,442 to now serve more than 132,400 West Virginia citizens. But, while demands have increased, funding shortages have caused the faculty/client ratio to increase from 1:690 in 1996 to 1:1019 in 2002. Uncompensated health care rose to some $40 million last year alone, reflecting further services provided at no cost.

• The decline in full-time equivalent employee positions exemplifies the impact on WVU . Once this year’s cuts are factored in, WVU ’s main campus will be down 500 or more positions since 1997. That number is more than every other institution in West Virginia has employed except Marshall. Despite the largest enrollment increases in the state, WVU has shouldered a larger net decline in employees than all of the other institutions of higher education combined.

• Growth requires investments (ex. library, life sciences, student rec center, health sciences expansion, housing, etc.). To support growth, WVU has drawn on three major revenue sources: tuition (a combination of increased tuition and enrollment has helped offset lost state funding); extramural research dollars (but dedicated to specific projects); and private giving (important, but not used to replace state dollars for operating budgets and state salaries). This year tuition is a higher percentage of the general University budget than state appropriations.

Hardesty noted that state appropriations have not kept pace with the growth. From 1996 to 2003, higher education’s share of the total state budget in West Virginia declined by 8.5 percent. WVU ’s share of the state budget declined at double the rate of higher educationa 17.8 percent fall in share of the state budget.

“To the extent tuition growth cannot cover fixed and marginal costs, the University mission is put in jeopardy,”he said.”Limits exist as to how high tuition can go before an institution curtails access. These are concerns that bring WVU near the tipping point. When the base appropriation continues to shrink, other areas of funding are in danger of shrinking. WVU is limited as to how much other revenue can be raised when the base upon which those dollars are leveraged begins to shrink.”

Prior to the president’s remarks, he debuted several 30-second television spots profiling University faculty. The spots will run in state and national placements, symbolizing the hundreds of WVU faculty members just like them that share a passion for teaching and lifelong learning.