State colleges and universities will likely aggressively court nontraditional students as West Virginia's population of young people declines, a state higher education official said Friday.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - State colleges and universities will likely aggressively court nontraditional students as West Virginia's population of young people declines, a state higher education official said Friday.
At a meeting of the Higher Education Policy Commission, commissioners discussed a fall 2008 enrollment that showed big declines at some schools.
Rob Anderson, policy and planning director for the HEPC, said the state's number of high school graduates is projected to decline 10 percent over the next decade - meaning schools must go after older, nontraditional students in order to keep enrollment up.
"That pipeline [of high school graduates] is getting tighter and tighter," he said after the meeting.
Statewide, enrollment at public institutions has grown 8.6 percent over the past five years. Fairmont State University, Shepherd University, the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, WVU and Potomac State College of WVU have seen the biggest jumps in that time period.
This year, however, four schools lost enrollment: Marshall University, West Virginia State University, Potomac State and the West Virginia University Institute of Technology.
Between 2003 and 2008, total enrollment at West Virginia State dropped 4.1 percent, Concord University dropped 5.9 percent and WVU Tech dropped 31.4 percent.
Commissioner Nelson Robinson called the trends "alarming."
"The institutions, the presidents and staff have got to start thinking outside the box," Robinson said, adding that private schools could "eat you alive" if officials don't take swift action.
Robinson said many students at public schools are frustrated with certain aspects of the public system. For instance, students are "going through block walls to get credits transferred" and are discouraged with online education, which he said wasn't user-friendly at some schools.
Commissioners also heard yearly reports from advisory councils of classified staff, faculty and students.
Roy Nutter, a WVU professor and president of the Advisory Council of Faculty, said faculty members hope to increase their representation on governing boards.
The council believes some board members have used their positions for their own financial gain, Nutter said.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - State colleges and universities will likely aggressively court nontraditional students as West Virginia's population of young people declines, a state higher education official said Friday.
At a meeting of the Higher Education Policy Commission, commissioners discussed a fall 2008 enrollment that showed big declines at some schools.
Rob Anderson, policy and planning director for the HEPC, said the state's number of high school graduates is projected to decline 10 percent over the next decade - meaning schools must go after older, nontraditional students in order to keep enrollment up.
"That pipeline [of high school graduates] is getting tighter and tighter," he said after the meeting.
Statewide, enrollment at public institutions has grown 8.6 percent over the past five years. Fairmont State University, Shepherd University, the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, WVU and Potomac State College of WVU have seen the biggest jumps in that time period.
This year, however, four schools lost enrollment: Marshall University, West Virginia State University, Potomac State and the West Virginia University Institute of Technology.
Between 2003 and 2008, total enrollment at West Virginia State dropped 4.1 percent, Concord University dropped 5.9 percent and WVU Tech dropped 31.4 percent.
Commissioner Nelson Robinson called the trends "alarming."
"The institutions, the presidents and staff have got to start thinking outside the box," Robinson said, adding that private schools could "eat you alive" if officials don't take swift action.
Robinson said many students at public schools are frustrated with certain aspects of the public system. For instance, students are "going through block walls to get credits transferred" and are discouraged with online education, which he said wasn't user-friendly at some schools.
Commissioners also heard yearly reports from advisory councils of classified staff, faculty and students.
Roy Nutter, a WVU professor and president of the Advisory Council of Faculty, said faculty members hope to increase their representation on governing boards.
The council believes some board members have used their positions for their own financial gain, Nutter said.
"We keep hearing rumors that this is going on," he said, "and we want that to stop."
In other business, commissioners approved the renaming of West Liberty State College to West Liberty State University. State legislators still must approve the change.
Commissioners also tabled a vote on rules for how governing boards select and pay presidents.
In September, the commission approved temporary rules on the matter, but several commissioners said Friday they didn't want to take final action because of a requirement that the higher education chancellor serve as a non-voting member on all search committees.
Chairman David Tyson called it "beyond ridiculous" to expect chancellor Brian Noland to do that, saying he didn't have time.
In other business, commissioners met in executive session and approved appointing Dr. Richard Rafes president of the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.
According to a draft of his contract, which is yet to be finalized, Rafes' will be paid an initial $230,000 annual salary and a $24,000 annual housing allowance.
In the executive session, commissioners also discussed the compensation package of Marshall University President Stephen Kopp, who makes about $232,000. They said they took no action on his salary.
Before the executive session, Robinson brought up the issue of presidential pay, which was discussed in the news media this week after the release of The Chronicle of Higher Education's annual salary survey.
Robinson said he disagrees with people who said West Virginia presidents are underpaid. Some are provided with houses, vehicles for them and their spouses, and even country club dues, he said.
Tyson disagreed: "If we want the best and brightest, we have to pay a competitive salary."
Friday was Robinson's last meeting as a commissioner. He serves as an ex-officio member because he is chairman of the state Council for Community and Technical College Education, but that council is scheduled to elect a new chairperson on Dec. 12.
Reach Alison Knezevich at alis...@wvgazette.com or 348-1240.
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From an Austrian School of Economics perspective this situation of the college enrollee bubble was entirely predictable:make The State use cheap loans to artificially lower the cost of entry into college(or housing)and you get subprime applicants.Yeah, those would be people who should be nowhere near a college campus completing programs which an economy will not support.
So the teacher/professor unions and all the supporters of socialist egalitarianism are flummoxed...and scared.
"Send us more warm bodies for our classrooms...and they can be less literate and more indifferent than tha last batch,such as":
Nursing home residents,home confined felons,truck drivers passing through the Mountain state,under-or-over medicated high school dropouts,graduates of our last program who still can't find work.
WE DON'T CARE!
skepdoc, EoS+C+Pell grants
With declining enrollments, the faculties of WV school systems are entrenched veterans whose merit, or lack thereof, becomes secondary to a willingness to remain.
To improve this existing set of circumstances, WV must make the state a far friendlier place in which to operate a business. Only drastic reductions in state tax burdens placed upon businesses, and the implementation of right-to-work laws, can revitalize WV's pool of residents.