January 10, 2007

Changes at Tech beginning to pay dividends on campus

By Susan Williams
Staff writer

During a news conference Tuesday, WVU Tech President Charles Bayless said Tech is back.

Students, alumni and supporters of the school protested when Gov. Joe Manchin announced during his 2006 State of the State address Bayless’ plan to move the engineering program to South Charleston and give it to West Virginia University.

After the strong negative reaction to the proposal, the Legislature instead made Tech a division of WVU and left the engineering department intact at Montgomery.

Thanks to a focused recruitment effort, undergraduate applications for the fall semester are up by 61 percent, Bayliss said. Applications to the engineering school are up 49 percent.

Enrollment is also up at Tech’s community college. “That’s huge,” Bayless said.

WVU-Tech students are also most likely to get jobs and to start at higher salaries than students at other schools, he said. A Tech graduate has a starting salary of $37,477, the highest starting salary of any student from a four-year college in the state, he said.

He also pointed out that CNNMoney.com recently listed the 12 top paying jobs in the country. Bayless said Tech offers majors in all 12. Some of those include chemical and computer engineering.

The community college also recently added a diesel mechanics program. He said when a student completes the diesel program, that student has “an instant job — a good job.”

Tech also added two majors: criminal justice and psychology.

He said Tech is also recruiting students from military bases. People returning from Iraq are familiar with technology, so they are invited to come to Tech to study.

“We are pulling out all the stops,” he said.

Academic achievement at Tech continues to be strong. Bayless said Tech students have the highest scores on the Medical College Admission Tests in physical science and the verbal exam among any students in public schools in the state.

Bayless said he will continue to support an athletic program at Tech because many students can only find a way to come to college through athletic scholarships. He said they are also adding two sports to Tech’s offerings: cross country track and wrestling.

As Bayless explained, it costs about twice as much to offer engineering as it does to offer other subjects, but for too many years Tech was funded at the same level as other schools that did not offer engineering.

During those years, they deferred much building maintenance. Deferring maintenance also hurt enrollment.

Maintenance staff and contractors are working to improve Tech’s buildings. Ratliff Hall, once a dorm for women students only, is now co-ed. Tech maintenance staff remodeled the bathrooms at Ratliff last summer.

Workers also just completed renovations in the auditorium of Davis Hall. Before those renovations were completed, metal heaters overhead clanged through the auditorium and made it almost impossible to hear in the facility.

Thanks to Tech’s partnerships with West Virginia University, Bayless said, they have $10 million for capital improvements. Tech should become a fully integrated division of WVU by July.

They are using about $6.2 million to renovate Maclin Hall, and they hope this will be finished by September. The main part of Maclin was built in 1939, and the building never had air-conditioning. The renovations will include air-conditioning and an elevator.

Jim Darling is the director of facilities for Tech and gave a tour of the facilities. At Maclin, he said, “I’m excited about this building. This building has character. I would rather see these buildings renovated than torn down.”

There will be 150 to 170 beds in Maclin.

They also plan to spend $4.6 million on the Tech Center. This will include an expanded cafeteria. The other cafeteria located in the Hi-Rise Dorm will eventually close.

Several other buildings on campus will get help — especially with roof repairs or replacements.

Unfortunately, they still need more money, at least $150,000, before they can repair Tech’s now-empty swimming pool.

Through the partnership with West Virginia University, Bayless said they can streamline certain school functions, like food service and student database and information systems, and save money.

But Bayless said Tech’s engineering school will keep a separate accreditation.

To contact staff writer Susan Williams, use e-mail or call 348-5112.