Higher Education

The West Virginia Legislature successfully balanced the state's budget this past Sunday, but not with increased taxes, as Gov. Bob Wise had proposed. Instead, lawmakers cut agency budgets and more troubling, relied on a number of funding sources that can only be used once. As long as lawmakers keep avoiding the hard choices, the state's budget will continue to be a cobbled-together attempt to get through each year instead of being a real spending plan for the future. On the plus side, the $3.07 billion budget passed Sunday provided $269 million for higher education, more than the governor had sought.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - Gov. Bob Wise officially dedicated Shepherd College's name change to Shepherd University in a brief ceremony Friday morning, more than seven months after he signed the bill authorizing the change. The school has been using its new name since March 13. Wise, who leaves office at the end of the year, told Shepherd President David L. Dunlop that the school's signs will have to be changed, even those carved in granite.

The late Harry S Truman gets credit for a great many things that happened during his time in the White House - including bringing World War II to an end and overseeing the rebuilding of Europe through the Marshall Plan. But not so well known is Truman's involvement in the promotion of community colleges. In 1947, the President's Commission on Higher Education suggested that the U.S. should have a network of community colleges and "that their activities be multiplied. " According to a history done by the Nebraska Community College Association, the report was not only an endorsement of the community college concept, but also made it clear that these institutions were part of the nation's "higher education" system.

Since his election, West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise hasn't shared his proposals with legislative leaders prior to the start of each year's session. This week, Wise's secretive methods came back to haunt him. If he's smart, he'll take what happened for the wake-up call that it is. A week after the governor announced his agenda, House Speaker Bob Kiss pressed four major committee chairs to pass bills that cover Wise's priorities, but which take different...

Hagerstown Trust Hagerstown Trust will open a new branch Monday. The branch, on Potomac Avenue in the Long Meadow Shopping Center, is a full-service bank complete with a drive-up ATM. Dot Foods WILLIAMSPORT - Dot Foods Inc. recently received the 2003 Trailblazer Award, which honors groundbreaking strides within the food service industry, at the ID Update 2003 Leadership Summit in Chicago. The award is presented annually by ID Magazine, a prominent publisher for the foodservice industry.

The best way to improve the economy and prosperity of a region, most would agree, is to increase the percentage of its residents who have a college education. And yet the present economy has pushed Maryland officials to make deep cuts in the higher- education system, which has pushed up tuition rates. Members of Washington County's General Assembly delegation disagree about whether those cuts are too deep, or just the state university system's fair share of the fiscal pain.

HAGERSTOWN -- Even at 10 years old, it's not too soon to think about college, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot told fourth-graders on Monday. Franchot urged students in a Pangborn Elementary School class to ask their parents to start saving money for their higher education. Franchot was joined by Joan Marshall, executive director of College Savings Plans of Maryland, an independent state agency. Later, he toured the new school, two years after seeing cramped conditions at the previous Pangborn Elementary building, which since has been torn down.

Sometimes we, as a community, are so absorbed with fault-finding that we fail to notice the success stories that reside right under our noses. We have a number of shining lights in Washington County, but Hagerstown Community College would have to rank among the brightest. Reinforcing that perception this month were statistics revealing that Hagerstown Community College outgained all other community colleges in the state in enrollment percentage, and was near the top when all other institutions of higher education were considered, as well.

Mrs. Mary Correal Springer, 102, of Shippensburg, Pa., and formerly of Uniontown, Pa., died Nov. 14, 2011. Born May 26, 1909, in Masontown, Pa., she was the daughter of the late Guisippi and Rozina Correal. She lived most of her life in Uniontown, moving to Shippensburg to live with her son in 2002. She and her husband, the late Clifford Taft Springer, were married Dec. 20, 1943. Mr. Springer died Jan. 20, 2004. Mary worked for many years in various positions at the Fayette County Court House.

Recent action by a Maryland House Appropriations subcommittee has put the future of the University System of Maryland (USM) at Hagerstown in jeopardy. This is unfair to the 390 students served by the regional center as well as to the economic future of Hagerstown and the surrounding region. It is also unwise public policy, given the region's demonstrated need for more access to higher education and given the State of Maryland's unmet demand for teachers, nurses and other professions for which students at the center are being educated.