Senate Bill No. 676
(By Senator Boley)
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[Introduced February 18, 2002; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section four, article two-a, chapter
eighteen-b of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to preventing
abortions from being performed at educational institutions
unless the abortion is necessary to save the life of the woman
having the abortion; and providing a penalty.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section four, article two-a, chapter eighteen-b of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
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 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
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:
(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 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) 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 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) 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) 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) 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) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the
contrary, the governing boards shall have the authority to 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
transferred funds are used for the purposes appropriated. The
governing boards also shall have the authority to 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 transferred
funds are used for the purposes appropriated; and
(v) 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; and
(w) A governing board shall prohibit any employee or any
independent contractor of its educational institution under its
jurisdiction from performing abortions unless the abortion is
necessary to save the life of the woman having the abortion. Any
employee or independent contractor of an educational institution
that performs an abortion in violation of this provision, unless it
is necessary to save the life of the woman, shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less
than one thousand dollars, or imprisoned not less than ninety days,
or both fined and imprisoned.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to direct the governing
boards of each educational institution to prevent abortions from
being performed at its facility unless the abortion is necessary to
save the life of the woman having the abortion, and providing a penalty.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.