We must reinvent, transform higher education in West Virginia

But with challenges come opportunities — if we have the courage to seize them. And seize them we will. We have no time to lose, because transforming the arc of higher education can transform the arc of our future.

As West Virginia’s flagship, land-grant university, we are the doorway to the American dream. We must make the path to that doorway even straighter, throw open that door even further and guide scholars through it even more diligently.

That is why we are opening our campus in Beckley — the proposed new home of West Virginia University Tech — to bring higher education to more people in southern West Virginia.

Our calling is to change lives through education. And as we all know, that calling extends far beyond Morgantown. It is a calling that starts before students arrive on our campuses. Indeed, it starts before they ever skip into a kindergarten classroom.

That is why we are partnering with West Virginia’s pre-K-12 educators to awaken our children’s love of learning. We encourage reading through programs such as Extension’s Energy Express. We are training more secondary science and math teachers through our UTeach program. And through a new alliance with 100Kin10, we have committed to doubling the number of math and science teachers we graduate by 2020.

We invite high school students into university-level study through the ACCESS WVU Early College Program. This fall, we added online courses to our highly successful mathematics and engineering portfolio. The result is the largest number of high school ACCESS students ever — representing 69 high schools in West Virginia and eight other states.

And once students enter West Virginia University, we must ensure they graduate with a degree — as well as with the personal and career skills needed to flourish in the 21st century global economy. For our undergraduates, the route to 21st century success is Project 168.

This path beckons before the students arrive and shows them how they can enrich every moment on campus with academics, personal and professional development, campus life, community service and global exploration. Students who participate in Project 168 will be goal-oriented — gaining skills, experiences and attitudes that promote career achievement.

Project 168 was developed for students, but the question it poses truly applies to all of us: How can we best use our limited time and our unique talents to make a difference?

That is a question we need to ask as we revamp our reward and recognition structures for our faculty members.

Different people have different strengths, and it makes sense to reward people for what they do best, whether it is teaching or research or service. Our reward systems for faculty and staff should reflect our deepest values.

If we truly appreciate great teaching, then we should look for ways to give teaching faculty equality of status and job security.

If we truly value fresh perspectives, we must give our younger faculty members greater responsibility and chances for recognition.

And if we truly prize performance, we must be totally merit-based as an institution and remove policies that impede improvement — and that includes being prepared to pay for quality.

We need to keep our faculty here even after they retire by helping to make North Central West Virginia an even more senior-friendly place. I want to draw on their wisdom by enlisting them as mentors to our students, whose needs are changing.

Just as we finally get a handle on the so-called Millennial generation, it is time to meet a new cohort — Generation Z, today’s teenagers. Research shows that they are a completely different animal.

For our university, this means even more and faster change: A curriculum flexible enough for constant revision. Technology that is on the leading edge. It means new ways of thinking.

Our university is shifting swiftly and effectively to meet our obligations to this new generation. We are transforming the dreaded first-year orientation course by focusing on five key learning goals.

We are encouraging our students to adopt a culture of service through the 12 (BIG!) Days of Service initiative. These service projects also take us one step further toward fulfilling our goals for the Million Hour Match. As part of fall 2015 academic courses, our students logged more than 4,000 hours of community service. That is an investment of more than $92,000 in the community — and a priceless gain in life experience for our students.

And we will continue to inspire the exploration of the arts and humanities, allowing our students to integrate our Appalachian and world cultures into the very fabric of our days.

In every facet of our education mission, we must strive to be better. To innovate. To invest. To envision a different paradigm.

We are West Virginia’s education experts. Therefore, we must lead.