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NEWS BRIEFS
Higher ed bill passes
CHARLESTON -- A higher education bill that would withdraw some authority from Marshall and West Virginia universities and also affect research corporations and classified staff across the state cleared the Legislature Saturday.
The measure unanimously passed in the state Senate, and was approved by a 92-4 vote in the House of Delegates. The votes came at about 20 minutes before the midnight deadline.
Senate Bill 480 retracts some of the powers given to Marshall and WVU back in 2005, when the Legislature gave new freedoms to the state's two largest universities by removing several oversight provisions from the Higher Education Policy Commission. The schools' governing boards were given authority to create new academic programs, raise tuition and fees and approve operating and capital budgets.
That bill was a pilot project, and this bill is a result of studying it, said Sen. Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, the sponsor of SB 480, which gives some of that oversight back to the Higher Education Policy Commission. It requires the Board of Governors to get approval from the state commission in creating certain new academic programs, and it sets new tuition and fee increase regulations.
It was tweaked in a conference committee meeting Saturday with members of the House and Senate education committees.
One change flipped a House amendment from Friday that said a university research corporation board had to be made up of at least 50 percent members affiliated with the university, rather than from the private sector.
The latest provision says the opposite, that at least 50 percent of an institution's research corporation board must represent the private sector, and that of the members who represent the college or university, at least 50 percent must be involved in research.
In many cases, it's difficult for the general public to even determine who's on these boards, Plymale said. For example, board members for the Marshall University Research Corporation are not listed on the corporation's Web site.
The Marshall University Research Corporation serves as the fiscal and administrative agent for sponsored research and other projects conducted by Marshall University. It's a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation chartered by the state that has authority to enter into agreements with external funding agencies on behalf of the university.
The purpose was to free them up to work closely with the private sector when it comes to facilitating business ventures based on university research. But they still have to adhere to federal laws for 501(c)(3) organizations, Plymale said.
The new change "will allow them to get the private sector involved," Plymale said.
But the provision about the university-affiliated board members being involved in research is a measure to retain the academic integrity of the board, said Mary Poling, D-Barbour, chairwoman of the House Education Committee. Another change said that institutions' governing boards are authorized to choose the corporations' executive directors, and that the boards cannot delegate that selection to the president of the college or university.
The conference committee maintained a House amendment allowing Marshall and WVU to undertake capital projects without approval from the policy commission so long as no state funding is involved.
A third change in conference committee deleted the requirement of getting the policy commission's approval for tuition hikes above 5 percent for out-of-state students at MU and WVU, and 3 percent for out-of-state students at other institutions in the state.
The bill has been through a number of other changes since its incepetion in the Senate, but as its sponsor, Plymale said he thinks it still came out a good bill.
"This has been a pretty good compromise on a bill that took five years to study," he said.
One purpose of the bill is to level the playing field between West Virginia's largest universities, Marshall and WVU, and its nine smaller institutions.
A three-year study conducted for the Policy Commission indicated that the 2005 Legislation created a two-tiered system of higher education in the state that essentially undermines West Virginia's smaller four-year institutions.
The report was prepared last year by Constantine Curris, president emeritus of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
"The goal of any system of higher education should be that of encouraging cooperation and collaboration in pursuit of state goals and institutional excellence," Curris wrote in the report. "Achieving these objectives, while always challenging in difficult economic times, can be nigh impossible if some colleges and universities are seen and see themselves as second-class institutions."
The bill also focuses on classified staff at institutions of higher education. The state's current monitoring system for classified staff is not followed, said Amy Pitzer, chairwoman of West Virginia's Advisory Council of Classified Employees. As a result, some staff employees' jobs are not classified correctly, and some "job families" haven't been compared with external markets, so they could be getting underpaid, she said.
The state has 6,000 classified staff at its colleges and universities, with nearly 700 at Marshall.
The new bill says four-year institutions have four years and two-year institutions have six years to bring their salary schedules up to the levels that were set as targets to reach back in 2001. Marshall is about 8 percent lower than the 2001 pay targets at this point, the lowest level among all the colleges and universities in the state.
Pitzer said the bill was weakened because it says that institutions "may" raise their salary schedules up to the 2009 levels, rather than requiring them to do so.
But she said that the passage of the bill is a success and expressed appreciation for the work done by the Senate and House education committees in helping to mold it into a passable piece of legislation.
"For us, it's the culmination of almost five years of hard work," she said. "We hope it leads to better employment practices, better pay and that institutions implement best practices. I hope we'll have a happier workforce -- one that is more productive, too."
