Injury Suit against Glenville State Set for August

The WV Record Reports:

A Gilmer County man’s lawsuit against Glenville State College for injuries he sustained at a motel the College owns is slated for trial later this summer.

Kanawha Circuit Judge Carrie Webster has set Aug. 20 as the trial date in the case of Dale J. Norman v. Glenville State College, et. al. In his suit filed Oct. 4, 2010, Norman, 53, a Glenville resident, alleges he sustained third-degree burns to his feet when he attempted to take a bath two years earlier at the Conrad Motel.

According to the College’s Web site, the Glenville State College Housing Corporation, a non-profit arm of the College that aids in helping it acquire and construct property, purchased the 42-room building on July 1, 2008, from Susie Kidd Shipe, and her uncle, Jack Conrad, whose family first started a restaurant in 1926, and expanded their business into the motel three years later. According to the Gilmer County Assessor’s Office, GSCHC purchased the motel for $500,000.

GSCHC is named as co-defendant in Norman’s suit.

The reason GSCHC acquired the motel was to provide housing for law enforcement officers in Glenville for training conducted by the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety. However, rooms would still be available to the public especially in June during the annual Folk Festival.

Records show, both GSC and GSCHC filed their separate answers to Norman’s suit Nov. 12, 2010. With the exception of GSCHC admitting Norman did receive burns to his feet, and the hot water heater was not in his room, both it and GSC denied his allegations.

Also, they both asserted defenses, among other things, that they breached no duty owed to him, and any injuries he sustained were the fault of someone else including himself. Additionally, GSC asserted immunity from civil suits as a defense.

Furthermore, along with their answers, both GSC and GSCHC filed cross claims against each other. Both said should they be found liable for Norman’s injuries, the other should be made to compensate for its share of the negligence.

According to the Secretary of State’s Web site, GSC President Peter B. Barr is also president of GSCHC, whose office is located in the College’s business office in Bennett Hall. Aside from being both president of GSC, and GSCHC, Barr is the managing member of Gilmer Housing Partners, a for-profit corporation located at the home the College provides for him on One Pioneer Way.

Seven months before Norman filed his suit against GSC and GSCHC, GHP was named as a co-defendant in a separate and unrelated breach of contract suit over the Rivers’ View subdivision it developed along W.Va. Route 5 between the Otterbein United Methodist Church and the Gilmer Federal Corrections Institution. It was dismissed from the suit a year later.

Records show David J. Mincer and Benjamin P. Warder with the Charleston law firm of Bailey and Wyant represent GSC while Debra Tedeschi Varner with the Clarksburg law firm of McNeer Highland McMunn and Varner represents GSCHC.

A mediation session was scheduled for Sept. 13. However, Norman’s attorney Doug Miley said he was postponed due to the need to conduct additional discovery.

Kanawha Circuit Court case 10-C-1767

~~  By Lawrence Smith   - The WV Record~~

I SMELL the RANCID SMELL of the Butcher&Butcher;-law firm being involved in this mess somehow, and to the degree of self interest only pertaining to attempting to protect some personal FINANCIAL investment in this obvious debacle, does anybody else smell that smell.

EWWW that smell! The smell of Butchers all around you!

Also I am hearing quite a lot of POWER ELITE threatening parents and the kids at the high school that finally spoke out on being bullied by the POWERS THAT BE and their off spring, which will only get the ELITE MORE PRESS, not less.

That’s a situation that has the same smell to it and it is PUTRID!

Why is the College involved in a business venture in competition with the private sector, how much was lost from the tax base through the arrangement, how can Dr. Barr’s involvement with outside business ventures be justified when the College has grave problems in need of solving, is it not true that the College and the Housing Corporation are fighting each other with Barr being involved in both legal battles? Only in Gilmer County! More ammunition in support of a need to replace Barr and the entire Board of Governors. Maybe we need another coalition to try to salvage the College. Is Sue Morris still heading up the Board of Governors?

If Dr. Barr says the GSC Housing Corporation and GSC Partners have nothing to do with the college, then why is the lawsuit against the college? Shouldn’t it be against the officers of these corporations?

Citizens believe that emphasis at the College has shifted to construction projects and athletics instead of top rated academic programs to promote increased campus enrollment. Citizens know about construction projects including Ike’s stalled work along Mineral Road. What about the enrollment Dr. Barr? What are the yearly stats for the past ten years for full time equivalents (FTEs=total hours taken by all students on campus/15) on campus? To account for prison inmates taking training a separate data set expressed in FTEs would be informative, and it could include FTE stats for State workers coming to Ike’s criminal justice center for skill upgrading. Also, it would be informative for the yearly FTE count to be disclosed for off campus, dual credit high school courses. If there is a massive bump in enrollment as claimed what would be wrong to provide referenced data to end the confusion?

The conclusion by those with access to the College’s records is that if FTEs for students who actually come to the campus to work on degrees are counted and FTEs for dual credit courses by high school students and courses for prison inmates are excluded it would require creative accounting to have a total FTE count of 1250. For those unfamiliar of why FTEs are used, the WV legislature tired of game playing with enrollment numbers and it demanded numbers to be expressed in FTEs, not head counts. As an example of how games can be played with enrollment numbers,there could be 1500 students taking one credit each. Some administrators would count that as an enrollment of 1500 students (head count). The correct way would be 1500/15=100 FTEs. Dr. Barr is invited to confirm what the current campus FTE count is and to include data for each of the past ten years to enable citizens to know the trend line.

Prof, when the County Commission authorized the 28 million dollar bond issue for the College’s new dorm citizens were told that there was increasing enrollment and more dorm space was needed badly to accommodate excess demand. Now, we are told that the old dorm is not used anymore to house students to suggest that the County was duped. County Commissioners, you are requested to update citizens on the issue to include details about how the old dorm is being used. While at it could you provide accurate trend line data for the on-campus FTE count for the past decade? If that information is withheld by Dr. Barr and the Board of Governors perhaps a FOIA would be necessary.

Look at the Report Card for 2011 posted on the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission and West Virginia Community and Technical College System’s website.

http://bit.ly/zAXqkD

Check page 18 for enrollment by FTE since 2006 and most noteworthy, the number of four year degrees awarded by Glenville State College compared to other state institutions of higher education shown on page 12. Draw your own conclusions.

People.  If you have *any* interest in Glenville State College,  and their future,  you really need to read this report.  The person who told you to look at page 18 and page 12 was correct.  But that is but a tiny peek.  The current administration has to be cahoots with the GSC Board of Governor’s, or is complicit in a vast cover up of the “true state of GSC”.  Administration and or the Board of Governors are either ignorant or inept.  I suspect the latter.  The Board of Governor’s is likely being spoon fed male cow dung from the top down.  Housing and tuition costs have skyrocketed.  Enrollment figures are very questionable as to what really is going on.  I would say from “male enrollment stats” that the prison or off campus numbers are incorrect.  There is something wrong with the numbers somewhere.  Some of what might be encouraging stats,  have so greatly increased,  that likely they are showing cover up,  errors,  or cooked books.  If I can find time I will attempt to analyze some of the info.  Possibly some other GSC Grad or Alumni has the time to look at this report as well,  and do an analysis of it.  Summation:  The “State of GSC”, this report points out, I have to wonder why there is no investigation of the college at the state level.  Or is there?

Rest assured that an analysis of the Report Card’s implications for the College is being done for posting on the GFP soon to enable citizens to judge for themselves.