From the Montgomery Herald News Paper
Garrison urges Tech community remain positive
By Steve KeenanStaff Writer
With a new school year having arrived, Mike Garrison says he hopes the WVU Tech community can focus on a positive future.
After a tumultuous few years, Tech became a division of West Virginia University on July 1, although the Take Back Tech committee took court action (still pending) to halt the merger.
During a forum last week on the WVU Tech campus, Garrison — the WVU president-elect — and other school and community leaders heard numerous comments and suggestions on the school’s past and future.
Over the summer, Tech officials actively sought to increase enrollment, and improvements have been made to the physical infrastructure of the campus in past months. Bonds paid for the improvements, which included a major refurbishing of Maclin Hall.
“These bonds are being repaid through an increase in legislative appropriations, which WVU very much supported,” said Garrison. “WVU employees have been working very hard in support of Tech in Montgomery for the past year and I hope that the focus will remain on the many positive things that are going on right now.”
At the forum, a variety of topics was discussed. That included further work on improving campus facilities, as well as making student life more attractive. John Segsworth, former president of the school’s student government association, said, “You’ve got to get them (students) here first.”
Segsworth also weighed in on discussion concerning the Tech pool, which has been closed for about two years while awaiting repairs estimated to be about $200,000. Earlier this summer, Tech Provost Charles Bayless told Dr. Enrique Aguilar that green-lighting repair of the pool is simply a matter of economic priorities. Segsworth countered last week that the school might just need to bite the bullet.
“The pool definitely should be a priority ... to make life better and more enjoyable,” he said. “It might not be the best financial move, but sometimes you’ve got to take the hit and do something that directly affects the students.”
Local swimming coach Renea Lopetrone, too, voiced her thoughts on the pool, calling it “very important to the school and the community.”
Forum talk also turned to matters pertaining to the athletics department, as local attorney Louis Tabit stressed needed repairs at Martin Field, particularly the locker rooms. Saying the locker facilities were the same as when he played at Montgomery High School in the late 1940s, Tabit called the situation “a complete and total disgrace.”
The key, WVU officials say, is to “coalesce priorities,” since there is “not an endless supply of resources.”
Garrison says he supports athletics “because what it does to the university as a whole,” but he said that, in paying heed to sports, it’s important “not to forget about the academic mission.”
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Garrison had these comments on a couple of other subjects:
- On possibly reinstating the teacher education program, one of several suggestions made at the forum: “I am open to considering new programs that can be accredited and show financial viability and sustainable enrollment.”
- On the possibility of transferring the school’s signature Leonard C. Nelson College of Engineering program elsewhere: “I don’t have any plans to revisit moving the engineering program.”
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A Kanawha County hearing scheduled this week to address the TBT committee’s request for a writ of mandamus against the WVU Board of Governors has been postponed, according to Charleston attorney Kevin Nelson. The committee took legal action in the days leading up to the official merger because it felt proper steps weren’t taken in setting up a transition plan that would allow the smaller school to succeed.
“The BOG, through counsel, has told us that they are working on plans that they believe comply with statutory requirements,” Nelson wrote in an e-mail Tuesday. “We are going to meet with them in the next few weeks to hear what these plans are and decide whether we believe that they will comply with W.Va. Code § 18B-1C-1, et. seq.”
— E-mail:
skeenan@register-herald.com
