| The Charleston Gazette
Town Struggles Amid Rumors That College Will Be Shut Down
Monday February 10, 2003
By The Associated Press
GLENVILLE â Traci Evans used to think her new home was a good investment. With construction of a federal prison,
hotel and housing development under way, it seemed her hometown was on the verge of an economic breakthrough.
Now, she's not so sure.
Persistent talk of closing Glenville State College, the lifeblood of Gilmer County, has created visions of a devastating domino
effect.
"If the school closes, the town will turn into a ghost town," says Evans, who runs her family's liquor store.
Faculty will leave, pulling their children from the schools, which will then lose money under the state's population-driven
funding formula. Businesses will struggle, then close. Property values will plummet.
"Who's going to move here when everybody's leaving and everything is falling apart?" Evans wonders.
The college isn't officially on the chopping block, but a proposal endorsed by the House of Delegates would close or
privatize two state colleges by 2007. The estimated $20 million in savings would go to help eliminate the state's $2.4 billion
Workers' Compensation deficit.
Supporters of the legislation (HB2224) say the 16 state colleges should be realigned just like West Virginia's K-12 system to
reflect drops in population and enrollment.
Although the bill does not name schools, people in Glenville believe they are a target. And they say they're already
suffering.
Spring enrollment is 2,111 â up 5.3 percent since last spring but still shy of the five-year high of 2,260 in the fall of
1999.
"People in Charleston say, 'Oh, look. The students aren't coming.' The reason they're not coming is you've raised the red
flag," says Glenville President Thomas Powell. "It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Brandon Tingler, a sophomore from Big Springs in Calhoun County, has younger friends who have already ruled Glenville
out.
"People won't want to come here if they can't finish a four-year degree," he says. "I wouldn't want to come to a school
that's going to close in three years."
Phillip Perkins, a junior from Grantsville, says many of his classmates are first-generation college students, living at home and
working their way through school. Those families won't be able to afford a car and gas and tuition if they have to go
elsewhere.
"If you are not going to spend money on Glenville, you're going to double your expenses somewhere else," he wants to tell
legislators. "And you're affecting a lot of people's lives."
Rumors of Glenville's impending demise also hurt the ability to recruit teachers.
"You're 35. You have a Ph.D.," says Powell. "I'm trying to recruit you, and I'm going to pay you a whopping $35,000 a
year. On top of that, you have to move to rural West Virginia. On top of that is a bill floating around to shut two
colleges.
"Would you come? I wouldn't."
Neither education officials nor legislative leaders can explain why so much attention has settled on Glenville.
The Higher Education Policy Commission is still working on state college studies ordered by the Legislature last year. The
mandate originally focused on Glenville, Bluefield State and Potomac State in Keyser, but was later expanded to include all
schools.
Lawmakers also want reports on the projected capacity and demand for educational services, and on possible ways to
realign higher education.
J. Michael Mullen, chancellor of the policy commission, says it will take six to eight months to finish the task. But draft
reports on Bluefield, Potomac State and Glenville portray schools that have tried to change with the times and combat
enrollment declines. They have deferred capital projects and hired more part-timers to cut costs. They have added or deleted
majors to meet demand.
Still, Mullen says legislators are "on the right track as it pertains to administrative costs and duplication of infrastructure."
"What I've tried to say is we need to expand the instructional offerings all around the state, especially for adults who are
place-bound," he says. "You work, you have a family, you can't go to Morgantown for a class.
"We need to provide more access, not less," he says.
However, "The reality is when you start getting 12 to 15 percent reductions, you can't do things as you have been," Mullen
says.
Gov. Bob Wise has ordered state agencies to cut 3.4 percent from this year's budget and 10 percent for the 2003-04 fiscal
year. He has said such reductions are inevitable given the state's budget woes, including a looming $250 million deficit in
2004.
For state colleges, Mullen believes the cuts will translate to consolidation or a "shrinking of mission" rather than closure.
Senate Education Chairman Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, says he also doubts the Senate feels it has a mandate to close
schools.
"We shouldn't, in my estimate, be eliminating access to education," he says. "But I think we can run it more effectively and
efficiently in some ways."
Plymale is hopeful the House and Senate can reach a compromise. If they don't, he can expect to see the bill again next
year.
"I don't think it will go away," says House Speaker Bob Kiss, D-Raleigh. "It's not something that just came up this year. It's
a fundamental structural issue.
"It almost doesn't matter whether the Legislature acts or not," he says. "The resources are not there."
West Virginia no longer needs 16 colleges offering four-year degrees, Kiss says. Rather, it needs more two-year degrees
and programs to retrain adults who have lost their jobs in a shifting economy.
In some regions, "There's nobody there going to college," he says, "and there aren't enough people from outside that region
or outside the state coming in."
The Senate is likely to change some provisions of the bill and may remove the one that redirects the savings to workers'
comp. If that happens, Kiss expects the money to flow back to colleges, but not to those he says are doomed to fail.
"I think the proposal stands on its own merits, even without the workers' compensation hook," he says. "If the institution is
going to fail anyway, whether we pass this bill or not, why keep doing it?"
Powell, who is leaving Glenville this summer to become president of Maryland's Mount St. Mary's College, says lawmakers
fail to acknowledge that while his college is the smallest, it serves the largest geographical area â 10 counties.
The nearest school is 65 miles, and that's a branch campus of Glenville.
"To even begin to talk about shutting down a college does not recognize the needs of the people here in central West
Virginia. It's the politics of poverty," Powell says. "It is disrespectful ... to suggest that a four-year college is
expendable."
Powell, who meets with every student planning to quit school, wants legislators to think of people like Barbara, a young
woman from a hollow in Tucker County who came to his office in tears.
"She wanted to quit because Glenville was too big for her," Powell says. "My eyes were bugging out of my head. She asked
if her mom could come live on campus with her for two weeks to help her adjust.
"We made that happen. Now she's happy here. She's an honor student and doing great stuff," Powell says.
"We can't forget about those kids," he says. "To do so is the ultimate act of elitism."
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