By Dr. Tracy Pellett
In the wake of significant budget cuts to higher education in West Virginia, Glenville State College (GSC) has taken a bold stance: no increased tuition for the 2017-18 academic year. The nearly 150-year-old institution even went a step further, cutting the tuition amount—symbolically—by $1 and reducing the cost of meal plans for students. All of this has been accomplished in spite of decreased state support of higher education institutions.
West Virginia is a state rich with opportunity when it comes to the future. Business and civic leaders have stressed the need for qualified employees—a workforce to propel the state forward. However, a continued divestment in the importance of education beyond high school cuts deeply into those needs and shortchanges the state’s students. With fewer support dollars, colleges raise tuition, which puts a tremendous, and sometimes disabling, cash crunch on students and families. Students who do choose to attend are often saddled with large amounts of loan debt.
Sean O’Leary, the interim director of West Virginia’s Center on Budget & Policy, said in a recent Charleston Gazette-Mail interview, “If we want to increase economic activity in West Virginia, if we want to build a strong economy, all of that depends on high-quality, affordable public higher education. The benefit of a college education has never been more important in the economy.”
Indeed the benefits of an education are important. The move at GSC to not increase tuition is a line in the sand to say that the institution understands the impact of what increased tuition means for its students here, many of whom are first generation. Continuing education is supposed to lift students up, not burden them for decades with loan debt. There is a reason GSC is known as the Home of the Pioneers. It aims to set an example—not just for other colleges and universities but also for the state of West Virginia and the region. A college education should be accessible and affordable to anyone who wants to pursue it.
It is the sincere hope at GSC that state legislative leaders will once again invest in the future of West Virginia and that other colleges and universities follow GSC’s lead by creating affordable higher educational opportunities. In the meantime, parents and students can know that GSC is standing up for them and standing with them to create a better and more prosperous West Virginia.
About the Author
Dr. Tracy Pellett is the 24th president at Glenville State College and came to the institution from the College of Coastal Georgia. He took office on July 1, 2017.
