Apr. 11--FOR MORE INFO on the legislature, click on the link at dominion post.com.

A bill that would alter the makeup of WVU's Board of Governors (BOG) is moving forward, and officials hope it will be finalized before the legislative session ends tonight.

Friday evening, the Senate passed its version of House Bill 2961, which expands the board to 17 members, adding a faculty member who represents WVU's Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center or Extension Service.

Sen. Mike Oliverio, D-Monongalia, said the change takes WVU's mission as a land-grant university into account.

"It really is what distinguishes West Virginia University from the other [state] institutions," Oliverio said. "None of the other institutions have the land grant responsibility that West Virginia University does, as well as the health sciences aspect."

It also requires the governor to consider race and gender for future appointments to higher education governing boards and obligates board members at all state institutions to receive training on higher education policies and ethics.

"Typically, those are lay members being appointed by the governor," Oliverio said. "They may not have experience in higher education. ... This training would help them be better prepared to serve as a board member."

Those provisions were included in the version of the bill approved by the House of Delegates in a 94-4 vote -- with two delegates not voting -- on April 1, too.

But Barbara Howe, a WVU professor and member of Mountaineers for Integrity and Responsibility (MIR), said the House version reduces the number of gubernatorial appointees, adding the dean of the School of Medicine and an Extension employee to the existing 16-member board.

Regardless of which version of the bill is ultimately approved, Howe said MIR supports the changes.

"We decided we would support whatever we could get," she said, adding that the bill could be revised in the future. "We'd like to see more staff representation, but we really felt we needed a stronger faculty voice."

MIR began pushing for changes to the board after an investigative panel's report released last year found that WVU had awarded Heather Bresch, the daughter of Gov. Joe Manchin and chief operating officer of Mylan Inc., an executive MBA degree she did not earn.

The group worked with local legislators to draft a proposal that would increase faculty and staff representation on the board and reduce the number of gubernatorial appointees, add language to increase diversity and change the timeline for approval of appointments, among other provisions.

In December, the WVU Faculty Senate endorsed the proposal. MIR discussed it with Gov. Joe Manchin before the legislative session began in February.

Howe said she is pleased with the work local lawmakers did to get at least some of MIR's suggestions passed. The West Virginia Education Association helped, too, by keeping an eye on the bill and notifying MIR of any significant changes.

"We've been able to make a lot of progress, especially considering the many substantive issues the House and Senate education committees have had to deal with," she said. "We're keeping our fingers crossed, waiting for [tonight] and hoping nothing goes awry."

Oliverio said he expects discussions to continue to reach a compromise on the bill's final language before the session ends at midnight. If a compromise is reached, the Legislature will have to vote on the revised measure.

Legislative sessions and meetings were scheduled throughout the day Friday, and delegates Barbara Evans Fleischauer, Bob Beach, Charlene Marshall and Alex Shook, all DMonongalia, did not return calls to The Dominion Post in time for this report.

Senate education committee chairman Robert Plymale, DWayne, also did not return a call to The Dominion Post in time for this report.

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