Senate Bill No. 545
(By Senators Prezioso, Plymale, Oliverio, Bowman, McCabe, Unger,
Rowe, Kessler, Minard, Anderson, Ross, Love, Minear, Sharpe and
Redd)
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[Introduced February 7, 2002; referred to the Committee
on Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact sections two and four, article
thirty-one, chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and
reenact section four, article two-a, chapter eighteen-b of
said code, all relating to allowing institutions of higher
education to enter into agreements with private corporations
to provide funding and real or personal property to those
corporations engaged in research and development or economic
development initiatives with those institutions.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections two and four, article thirty-one, chapter
eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted; and that section four, article two-a, chapter eighteen-b of said code be amended and
reenacted, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 18. EDUCATION.
ARTICLE 31. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS FOR STATE
INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
§18-31-2. Legislative findings and purpose.
(a) The Legislature finds and determines that the future
economic development in the state will depend in part upon research
developed at the state institutions of higher education, and
enhanced research opportunities for state institutions of higher
education will promote the general economic welfare of the
citizens of the state. In order to enhance the competitive
position of state institutions of higher education in the current
environment for research and development, expenditures for
equipment and material for research projects must be handled in an
expeditious fashion, and the acquisition and utilization of
research grants can be simplified and expedited through the
utilization of corporations.
(b) The interest of the citizens of the state will be best met
by agreements entered into and carried out by the governing boards
and corporations to provide research assistance for state
institutions of higher education. Therefore, in order to
facilitate research and development grants and opportunities for
state institutions of higher education, it is appropriate to authorize the governing boards to contract with corporations
organized for the purpose of providing such these services to state
institutions of higher education and to provide funding and
property, both real and personal, to these corporations to enable
them to provide services to these institutions and to facilitate
the purposes of this article.
§18-31-4. Agreement; required provisions.
(a) Notwithstanding section ten, article three, chapter twelve
of this code or any other provision of law to the contrary, each
governing board is hereby authorized to enter into an agreement
with a private corporation, which agreement shall be for the
benefit of such the state institution of higher education and
contain the following provisions, subject to further specification
as shall be mutually agreed upon by the appropriate governing board
and the corporation:
(1) On the effective date of the agreement, the corporation
shall be charged with the responsibility of serving as fiscal agent
for sponsored projects conducted by the faculty, staff and students
of the state institution of higher education, and grants shall be
accepted by the corporation on behalf of the institution and
assigned to the corporation for fiscal management.
(2) The corporation shall provide evaluation, development,
patenting, licensing, management and marketing services for
inventions, processes, trademarks (except institutional trademarks that the governing board of an institution elects to retain,)
copyrights or any other intellectual property developed by faculty,
staff and students of any state institution of higher education.
(3) The corporation shall have the right to may determine the
application of the proceeds from any invention, process, trademark
(except institutional trademarks that the governing board of an
institution elects to retain,) copyright or any other intellectual
property developed by the faculty, staff or students of a state
institution of higher education among the corporation, the inventor
or developer, and the institution.
(4) The corporation may receive, purchase, hold, lease, sell
and dispose of real and personal property of all sorts.
(4) (5) The corporation shall have such has any additional
responsibilities related to the administration of research and
development at the state institution of higher education as are
necessary or desirable to facilitate the development of research at
the institution.
(b) Upon termination of the agreement, the funds or grants
paid or held by the corporation, and all other property held by the
corporation, shall be paid to the state institution of higher
education or its designee as the appropriate governing board shall
direct directs.
(c) A corporation may utilize both corporation employees and
personnel of the state institution of higher education: Provided, That the corporation may pay the costs incurred by the state
institution of higher education including personnel funded on
grants and contracts, fringe benefits of personnel funded on grants
and contracts, administrative support costs and other costs which
may require reimbursement and may include as costs any applicable
overhead and fringe benefit assessments necessary to recover the
costs expended by the state institution of higher education
pursuant to the terms of the agreement, it being the intention that
a board may be reimbursed for expenses incurred by it pursuant to
the agreement.
CHAPTER 18B. HIGHER EDUCATION.
ARTICLE 2A. INSTITUTIONAL BOARDS OF GOVERNORS.
§18B-2A-4. Powers and duties of governing boards generally.
Effective the first day of July, two thousand one, each
governing board shall separately have has the following powers and
duties:
(a) Determine, control, supervise and manage the financial,
business and education policies and affairs of the state
institutions of higher education under its jurisdiction;
(b) Develop a master plan for the institutions under its
jurisdiction; except the administratively linked community and
technical colleges shall develop their master plans subject to the
provisions of section one, article six of this chapter. The
ultimate responsibility for developing and updating the master plans at the institutional level resides with the board of
governors or board of advisors, as applicable, but the ultimate
responsibility for approving the final version of the institutional
master plans, including periodic updates, resides with the
commission. Each master plan shall include, but not be limited to,
the following:
(1) A detailed demonstration of how the master plan will be
used to meet the goals and objectives of the institutional compact;
(2) A well-developed set of goals outlining missions, degree
offerings, resource requirements, physical plant needs, personnel
needs, enrollment levels and other planning determinates and
projections necessary in such a plan to assure that the needs of
the institution's area of responsibility for a quality system of
higher education are addressed;
(3) Documentation of the involvement of the commission,
institutional constituency groups, clientele of the institution and
the general public in the development of all segments of the
institutional master plan.
The plan shall be established for periods of not less than
three nor more than six years and shall be revised periodically as
necessary, including the addition or deletion of degree programs
as, in the discretion of the appropriate governing board, may be
necessary.
(c) Prescribe for the state institutions of higher education under its jurisdiction, in accordance with its master plan and the
compact for each institution, specific functions and
responsibilities to meet the higher education needs of its area of
responsibility and to avoid unnecessary duplication;
(d) Direct the preparation of a budget request for the state
institutions of higher education under its jurisdiction, such the
request to relate directly to missions, goals and projections as
found in the institutional master plans and the institutional
compacts;
(e) Consider, revise and submit to the commission a budget
request on behalf of the state institutions of higher education
under its jurisdiction;
(f) Review, at least every five years, all academic programs
offered at the state institutions of higher education under its
jurisdiction. The review shall address the viability, adequacy and
necessity of the programs in relation to its institutional master
plan, the institutional compact and the education and work force
needs of its responsibility district. As a part of the review,
each governing board shall require the institutions under its
jurisdiction to conduct periodic studies of its graduates and their
employers to determine placement patterns and the effectiveness of
the education experience. Where appropriate, these studies should
coincide with the studies required of many academic disciplines by
their accrediting bodies;
(g) The governing boards also shall ensure that the sequence
and availability of academic programs and courses offered by the
institutions under their jurisdiction is such that students have
the maximum opportunity to complete programs in the time frame
normally associated with program completion. Each governing board
also is responsible to see that the needs of nontraditional
college-age students are appropriately addressed and, to the extent
it is possible for the individual governing board to control, to
assure core coursework completed at state institutions of higher
education under its jurisdiction is transferable to any other state
institution of higher education for credit with the grade earned;
(h) Subject to the provisions of article one-b of this
chapter, the appropriate governing board has the exclusive
authority to approve the teacher education programs offered in the
institution under its control. In order to permit graduates of
teacher education programs to receive a degree from a nationally
accredited program and in order to prevent expensive duplication of
program accreditation, the chancellor may select and utilize one
nationally recognized teacher education program accreditation
standard as the appropriate standard for program evaluation;
(i) Utilize faculty, students and classified employees in
institutional-level planning and decision making when those groups
are affected;
(j) Subject to the provisions of federal law and pursuant to the provisions of article nine of this chapter and to rules adopted
by the commission, administer a system for the management of
personnel matters, including, but not limited to, personnel
classification, compensation, and discipline for employees of the
institutions under their jurisdiction;
(k) Administer a system for the hearing of employee grievances
and appeals therefrom: Provided, That after the first day of July,
two thousand one, and notwithstanding any other provisions of this
code to the contrary, the procedure established in article six-a,
chapter twenty-nine of this code shall be the exclusive mechanism
for hearing prospective employee grievances and appeal: Provided,
however, That in construing the application of article six-a,
chapter twenty-nine to grievances of higher education employees,
the following shall apply applies:
(1) "Chief administrator" means the president of a state
institution of higher education as to those employees employed by
the institution and the chancellor as to those employees employed
by the commission;
(2) The state division of personnel shall may not be a party
to nor have any authority regarding a grievance initiated by a
higher education employee; and
(3) The provisions of this section supersede and replace the
grievance procedure set out in article twenty-nine, chapter
eighteen of this code for any grievance initiated by a higher education employee after the first day of July, two thousand one.
(l) Solicit and utilize or expend voluntary support, including
financial contributions and support services, for the state
institutions of higher education under its jurisdiction;
(m) Appoint a president or other administrative head for the
institutions of higher education under its jurisdiction subject to
the provisions of section six, article one-b of this chapter;
(n) Conduct written performance evaluations of each
institution's president pursuant to section six, article one-b of
this chapter;
(o) Submit to the commission no later than the first day of
November of each year an annual report of the performance of the
institutions of higher education under its jurisdiction during the
previous fiscal year as compared to stated goals in its master plan
and institutional compact;
(p) Enter into contracts or consortium agreements with the
public schools, private schools or private industry to provide
technical, vocational, college preparatory, remedial and customized
training courses at locations either on campuses of the public
institution of higher education or at off-campus locations in the
institution's responsibility district. To accomplish this goal,
the boards are permitted to share resources among the various
groups in the community;
(q) Provide and transfer funding and property, both real and personal, to corporations with which state institutions of higher
education under its jurisdiction have contracted pursuant to the
provisions of article thirty-one, chapter eighteen of this code.
(q) (r) Delegate, with prescribed standards and limitations,
the part of its power and control over the business affairs of a
particular state institution of higher education under its
jurisdiction to the president or other administrative head of the
state institution of higher education in any case where it
considers the delegation necessary and prudent in order to enable
the institution to function in a proper and expeditious manner and
to meet the requirements of its institutional compact. If a
governing board elects to delegate any of its power and control
under the provisions of this subsection, it shall notify the
chancellor. Any such A delegation of power and control may be
rescinded by the appropriate governing board or the chancellor at
any time, in whole or in part;
(r) (s) Unless changed by the interim governing board or the
chancellor, the governing boards shall continue to abide by
existing rules setting forth standards for acceptance of advanced
placement credit for their respective institutions. Individual
departments at institutions of higher education may, upon approval
of the institutional faculty senate, require higher scores on the
advanced placement test than scores designated by the appropriate
governing board when the credit is to be used toward meeting a requirement of the core curriculum for a major in that department;
(s) (t) Each governing board, or its designee, shall consult,
cooperate and work with the state treasurer and the state auditor
to update as necessary and maintain an efficient and cost-effective
system for the financial management and expenditure of special
revenue and appropriated state funds at the institutions under its
jurisdiction that ensures that properly submitted requests for
payment be paid on or before due date, but in any event, within
fifteen days of receipt in the state auditor's office;
(t) (u) The governing boards in consultation with the
chancellor and the secretary of the department of administration
shall develop, update as necessary and maintain a plan to
administer a consistent method of conducting personnel
transactions, including, but not limited to, hiring, dismissal,
promotions and transfers at the institutions under their
jurisdiction. Each such personnel transaction shall be accompanied
by the appropriate standardized system or forms which will be
submitted to the respective governing board and the department of
finance and administration;
(u) (v) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to
the contrary, the governing boards shall have the authority to may
transfer funds from any account specifically appropriated for their
use to any corresponding line item in a general revenue account at
any agency or institution under their jurisdiction as long as such the transferred funds are used for the purposes appropriated. The
governing boards also shall have the authority to may transfer
funds from appropriated special revenue accounts for capital
improvements under their jurisdiction to special revenue accounts
at agencies or institutions under their jurisdiction as long as
such the transferred funds are used for the purposes appropriated;
and
(v) (w) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to
the contrary, the governing boards may acquire legal services as
are considered necessary, including representation of the governing
boards, their institutions, employees and officers before any court
or administrative body. The counsel may be employed either on a
salaried basis or on a reasonable fee basis. In addition, the
governing boards may, but are not required to, call upon the
attorney general for legal assistance and representation as
provided by law.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow institutions of
higher education to provide funding and property, real and
personal, to certain corporations to assist them in providing
research and development to the institutions and for assisting in
economic development initiatives with the universities.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.