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Marshall faculty to take ‘no confidence’ vote on President Kopp

Marshall University President Stephen Kopp said officials will be starting over when it comes to finding $5.3 million to cut from the university’s budget.

“We’re going to go back and rebuild the process to get the university engaged in this,” President Kopp said on Friday’s MetroNews “Talkline,” a day after members of Marshall’s Board of Governors tabled discussions on a proposal to move to a more centralized budget system.

Kopp says such a reworked revenue process would allow for tighter controls on the flow of funds at a time when 8.94 percent has been cut from Marshall’s state appropriations for the coming year’s budget. More reductions are expected in the coming years.

Last week, Kopp announced a freeze on the hiring of “nonmission-critical personnel” and a sweep of some departmental revenue accounts.

“These actions will conserve important resources, while providing the flexibility we need to fulfill our strategic priorities and our public mission,” Kopp said in a statement.

Kopp claimed changing to a centralized budget model would help the university manage its money better by simplifying the fee structure for students and streamlining faculty and staff salaries.

But many within the Marshall community were upset after departmental accounts were abruptly swept into a central holding account earlier this week for review. Kopp later apologized for the move that, he said, was designed to allow for a full analysis of revenues and expenses.

“The actions and so on are responsible in terms of dealing with the financial issues. The process, I think, could have been greatly improved,” he said.

Such budget sweeps, Dr. Kopp said, are not uncommon at other institutions. “Obviously, culturally here, it was insensitive, so we’re going back to square one and going to reengage and get everybody involved,” he said.

Marshall’s Faculty Senate held an emergency meeting on Friday afternoon to look at the proposed budget changes.  Faculty members will take a no confidence vote on President Kopp starting on May 1st.

University officials estimate state appropriations made up almost a third of Marshall’s total revenues last year.





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