×
X logo

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox.

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)

You may opt-out anytime by clicking "unsubscribe" from the newsletter or from your account.

Incentives Sought For West Virginia Grad Rates

WHEELING — Educators at institutions of higher learning once told incoming freshmen at their orientation to look to the person standing to the left of them — then to look at the person standing to their right.

“Of the three of you, only one is likely to graduate,” the students were told. It was expected the other two students wouldn’t stick with college and move on to other things in life.

A bill before West Virginia lawmakers, however, would offer a financial incentive to encourage colleges and universities in West Virginia to improve their graduation rates, and also make it beneficial to the student financially not just to graduate, but to take a job in West Virginia and remain in the state.

Senate Bill 32 would ask colleges and universities to participate in a voluntary program in which the schools would agree to take $100 less per student in state funding. In return, they would receive financial incentives for each West Virginia resident student they graduate.

For each student completing a two-year degree and finding full-time employment within one year in West Virginia — and in their area of study — the school awarding the degree would be eligible for an incentive bonus of $500.

Likewise, West Virginia resident students completing four-year degrees, and finding work in their majors within a year, would earn $1,000 for their alma mater. The same amount would be awarded to schools where students complete a post-graduate program and find work within one year.

The students themselves, as they continue to remain in West Virginia, would be entitled to claim a non-refundable, non-transferable tax credit of $2,000. Students would receive only one credit each for a two-year degree, a four-year degree or a post-graduate degree with a cumulative lifetime cap of $6,000.

A separate part of SB 32 would require colleges and universities to print in their curriculum guides a five-year trailing average employment statistic showing the percent of students employed in the field studied within one year of graduation; the average introductory compensation for that field of study; the percentage of graduates employed in West Virginia in that field of study within one year; and the average success rate for students in that particular field.

Wheeling Jesuit University Interim President Debra M. Townsley said it has been a national trend for states to seek ways to improve college graduation rates.

“Students move among schools quite a bit for a number of reasons,” she said. “I believe it’s our focus to take students who are qualified, but we can’t always ensure they will graduate. Sometimes they go home a semester, then come back. That breaks the graduation rate the way it is figured in higher education.”

Townsley said WJU’s graduation rate is high for a school of its size.

“We would fare well in that, but I know it is tough for a number of schools,” she said.

Townsley said the schools that would get hit the hardest would be community colleges, where students often go not just to pursue a degree but to take selected classes in a field of interest.

Maureen Zambito, director of communications at West Liberty University, said officials there were still analyzing the bill and awaiting its outcome before determining its effects on the school.

“I know we have students who work,” she said. “That affects our college graduation rate.”

West Virginia Northern Community College President Vicki Riley and Bethany College President Tamara Nichols Rodenberg were not available for comment Monday.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

COMMENTS

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today