MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With the start of the 2017 fiscal year looming and still no state budget, West Virginia University President Gordon Gee is reaching out to university faculty, staff and students to assure them university operations will continue with as little disruption as possible, even if state lawmakers do not have a budget in place by July 1.
“In my world I have to plan for everything and I do,” Gee said on Metronews Talkline Thursday morning. “On the other hand, this is not Washington. This is not where we have people who are absolutely belligerent. There’s disagreement among our leaders in the state and they’re working on it. These are good people.”
In a written statement sent out to the university community on Thursday, Gee stated the administration was working on contingency plans aimed at minimizing disruptions if a budget was not passed.
“They start reading about the governor’s veto, I need to make certain they understand that we are working very hard and we have an understanding of what we’re doing and that we will continue to plan with contingencies if we have to do that.”
Gee suggested to lawmakers they need to follow the university’s lead, cutting costs and becoming more efficient. Gee pointed out, in the midst of drastic reductions to higher education spending, WVU has started looking at every aspect of the institution with the goal of reducing or reallocating $40 to $50 million dollars over the next several years.
“Admission numbers are way up. Research dollars are way up and by repositioning ourselves we have really developed a real opportunity to be successful.”
Gee said he believes lawmakers will ultimately make the necessary decisions to move West Virginia forward.