Clements: 100 more profs by ’12
Says WVU is fairing well in bad economy
BY JIM BISSETT For The Dominion Post
Most of the numbers WVU President James Clements cited during his first State of the University address in Morgantown on Monday afternoon had dollar signs in the front and lots of zeros at the back. The administrator who has STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY ADDRESS been on the job just 15 weeks crunched those numbers to let faculty know that WVU was faring pretty well, all things considered, in a national economy that’s been on shaky ground over the past several months. Speaking before a packed room at the National Research Center for Coal and Energy on the Evansdale campus, Clements trumpeted the more than $150 million in research dollars pulled down by faculty over fiscal year 2008. And he heaped accolades on alumni and other supporters who kicked in $55 million to the WVU Foundation Inc., the university’s private fundraising arm, during that same year. Same deal for the researchers in WVU’s landmark Forensic and Investigative Sciences Program and Forensic Science Initiative: They landed two grants totaling close to $1 million that they’ll use to improve evidence-collecting technology employed by the FBI at crime scenes across the country. The number that may have gotten the biggest audience response, though, was a proposed offering
more about student capital than the cost ledger. Clements told his audience he wants to hire 100 professors over the next three years to help WVU meet the classroom demands of an everincreasing enrollment. “And that’s 100, at the minimum,” he said. “When I got here, I originally thought our faculty-to-student ratio was 23-to-1. I was wrong. It’s more like 27-to-1, and that’s simply too high.” That goal, which he said could be met through a “strategic reallocation” of monies, was just part of the road map presented during his address. Clements, who shed his suit coat and talked for about 50 minutes, outlined seven key areas he said the university needs to focus on for the next 10 years. Academic and faculty quality, the first, is where the hiring proposal comes in. The others are research, undergraduate experience and education, graduate education, WVU’s impact on the state of West Virginia, health care and multiculturalism and globalization. When Clements took office June 30, he also launched a Web survey entitled Share the Vision, which is still running and open to students, faculty, employees and donors of the state’s flagship university. The words projected on a screen behind the podium during his talk were the words plucked from the 600 responses to date, he said. “Remember the words you used to describe this university,” he said. “Life-changing, committed, innovative, resilient, affordable. These are your words, and this is our university. We can make it what we want it to be.” Across West Virginia, Clements said, WVU already returns $20 to state coffers for every $1 invested in a university program. WVU also annually gives around $70 million in medical care for free, he said — and that doesn’t count the students and physicians who staff free clinics in the state’s more rural locales. “Now, it’s time to see if we have the right structure for the future,” he said. “I don’t have all the answers. Let me know what’s missing.” WVU’s other president, Student Government leader Jason Zuccari, likes that open-eared philosophy, he said. Zuccari, a multidisciplinary senior from McLean, Va., appreciates that Clements wants to officially fund club sports, like rugby and rowing, he said. “That’s huge,” Zuccari said. “He’s really listening. I think he’s doing a great job.” Nigel Clark, who chairs WVU’s Faculty Senate, said he’s excited by the prospect of having 100 new colleagues by 2012 — not that it won’t be a tough task to complete. “Funding new faculty is a difficult business,” said Clark, who hopes new salaries can be met via tuition dollars and research dollars down the line. Jo Morrow, however, wanted to hear more about dollars directed to WVU’s classified staff employees — the office workers and service workers across all the university’s campuses and disciplines. Morrow, who heads Staff Council, the advocacy group for those employees, called Clements’ remarks “encouraging” — even if they didn’t quite hit the mark for her. “He hasn’t been here long enough to know our history and how much we haven’t been paid over the years,” Morrow said. “We’re still getting paid on the 2001 salary schedule. All the money we’ve missed out on from pay raises we didn’t get is affecting our retirement. For us, the future is now.” Bob Gay/The Dominion Post After serving only 15 weeks in office, WVU President James Clements delivers his first State of the University address to members of the faculty and administrators gathered in the conference room of the NRCCE Building on Monday afternoon.
Bob Gay/The Dominion Post WVU President James Clements (left) greets School of Pharmacy faculty members Arthur Jacknowitz and Marie Abate as they take their seats for the State of the University address Monday afternoon.
