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It will take Ron Justice as Governor to get any roads for Morgantown...period.
If you think mr. MoJo has any conscious effort aside from lining his pockets you better get a new hat.
It takes over 500 million to run for President and that money is coming from home...wait and see if Sen. Manchonie doesn't run for the big crook's seat. clinton, obama...he's next in line.
They will market him as the Sarah Palin from West Virginia....ha ha ha...
Although I think Justice would be a terrific Governor (probably the only WV politico I would say that about) I don't think it will take him there to get the roads. Without him, the roads will be slow coming to be sure but the dynamics and demographics of state politics are changing rapidly. Monongalia is gaining steam every day.
I would think if 200 million is coming via 91 yr old Senator Byrd for coal research and another 700 million is to be used jointly with the other regional universities...(out of the Bush Regiem) and stalled until now...
That somehow a dollar or two could be set in place for a road or two...
Why not let the "Road Builder of Wv do that chore too...circle the town with an overhead beltway just like DC...
If they want to spend money...let them spend a few billion on Morgantown's needs.
According to this CMU guy (believe it or not I met him on a tramway in Albuquerque, NM) there is a lot more in the pipeline than that. He claimed to be directly involved in the process on the coal to petro products end, and had his whole family right there with him so I don't think he was fibbing. He is excited about the prospects, and apparently the whole thing will be handled out of Morgantown. There is a push for not only cleaner burning fuel, but for more economy in the conversion process.
I agree with you that they should be finding the money somehow. The State is mighty short on good news except for developments in Morgantown, and they need to do all they can to reinforce that momentum.
Mellon Institute (which merged with Carnegie Tech in 1967 to form Carnegie Mellon University) has oil and coal expertise going waaaaay back. MI was originally funded by the Mellon family, in support of their steel and coal holdings (U.S. Steel) and their oil company (Gulf). CMU didn't start to become "Computer U." until the mid/late-60s, when they hired Alan Perlis to start the School of Computer Science.
So there's both a history and a lot of expertise in hydrocarbons there.
That's what this fellow was telling me too, and he said they are eager to team up with WVU and Pitt in the coming endeavor. It's going to put the consortium on the map in a big way.
WVU will improve in stature, and it should make schools like Marshall content in that they can pick up the slack with the more marginal undergraduate students (that's the only way they can survive long term since they have been losing student count there in spite of multiple tuition discount schemes).
WVU turned down no freshman this year and was actually 200 short of their goal with the expectation that total enrollment will be down about 600, per the The Daily Athenaeum (http://www.da.wvu.edu/show_article.php?story_id=43244 - broken link). Marshall's enrollment is expected to be up 5-10% this year so it seems that some of the new degree programs, new rec center and "tuition discount schemes " may be working.
Seems that isn't "the only way they can survive" here in Huntington.
Glad to hear about the energy research though. Hopefully good things will come from that.
WVU turned down no freshman this year and was actually 200 short of their goal with the expectation that total enrollment will be down about 600, per the The Daily Athenaeum (http://www.da.wvu.edu/show_article.php?story_id=43244 - broken link). Marshall's enrollment is expected to be up 5-10% this year so it seems that some of the new degree programs, new rec center and "tuition discount schemes " may be working.
Seems that isn't "the only way they can survive" here in Huntington.
Glad to hear about the energy research though. Hopefully good things will come from that.
Tim, ... I really don't want to get into an argument with you here but do you actually believe WVU "turned down no freshmen this year"? You just know that is not true. And, as to the goal you mentioned it has been a goal since last year to reduce undergrad enrollment short term and increase graduate enrollment for the reasons stated and until the infrastructure will accomodate the target total enrollment of 30,000 on the Morgantown campus. They might have been 200 short of the ideal number of freshman enrollees, but they seem to have at least compensated for it in terms of full time graduate students. They did that without tuition discounts and giveaways, special deals for grandchildren and the like.
There is evidence that many people are going to commuter schools like Marshall this year due to the economy, and that is likley also helping along them with their much cheaper tuition in bringing in a larger freshman class for the first time in several years. I'm glad Marshall is picking up some much needed students and it seems West Virginia is not missing a beat. The new administration has a goal of increasing the academic stature at WVU, and that is going to be accomplished.
Here is a more recent article that explains that the drop in freshman enrollment is intentional, at least in part:
http://www.uwire.com/Article.aspx?id=4167254 (broken link)
There is another article that I recently saw that explains that it is offset with increased graduate enrollment. I'll try to find it.
Last edited by CTMountaineer; 08-05-2009 at 05:00 PM..
Tim, ... I just noticed the article I posted was the same as yours although the dates were different. You must not have actually read it. If you had, you would have noticed that the lower number of freshmen is "intentional", as I pointed out. Nowhere does it say (as you alleged) that WVU turned down no freshmen. They did turn down applicants if they did not meet requirements, as usual.
Here is the other article I promised (from the Herald Disgrace, of all places) that tells the story.
It will be interesting to see if the tuition discounts offered at MU coupled with the economic downturn finally do bring about an increased enrollment as predicted. I do know (as a Marshall alumnus) that they had to back down a little from them by raising tuition 7% for in-state students this year. Granted, it is still more than very cheap, but that might have an effect... they are being very tight lipped about the numbers at this point in Huntington. I also know they had to pass on a substantial increase in fees to pay the rent for the recreation center since they lost automatic payments from community college students. The jury is still out, but competing with price and asking your employees to pay the tarrif with lower wages is a dubious long term strategy at best.
By turned down no applicants, I meant that they did not have to stop accepting applications due to being full or turn down those who met minimum requirements. It's pretty much implied that they won't let you in if you don't meet the requirements.
If you had read the article as well, you would have also noted a few key quotes, among them: ""That was partly intentional...," Thompson said of the expected drop this year. "Looking back at what we have available with residence halls and classrooms, we thought our goal of 4,700 was a better goal to work with."" This means they had intended to lower freshman numbers to 4,700 but did not have to do so as acceptable applicant numbers were down.
Also, the lower number of overall students was a quote from a WVU official themselves, "Overall attendance was “around 28,800 last year,” Thompson said, but in 2009-10 attendance could be “500-600 lower.”" So it would seem that they may not completely make up for the loss in freshman.
As for the rec center increase, it was for higher utility costs and was less than $20/semester for students. Hardly "a significant increase" and nothing to do with the CTC.
The whole point of my comment though was to show that we have 2 strong higher education institutions in this state and to refute your comment about MU only being able to increase enrollment by taking the applicants WVU turns away. It still stands though, WVU did not have to turn acceptable applicants away and MU is expecting a 5-10% increase in enrollment.
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