Many Colleges Don’t Have Enough in Savings

Officials for the commission that oversees West Virginia’s four-year colleges have warned that, by at least one indicator of a school’s financial strength, many appear to be weakening. The Gazette-Mail reports that staff members of the Higher Education Policy Commission say several schools had less than two months of cash on hand at the end of the fiscal year on June 30. Commission Vice Chancellor for Finance Ed Magee says schools should have at least two months of cash on hand, at minimum, but a healthy institution would have upward of six months. Glenville State College’s cash on hand was the lowest, with a projected 13 days of reserve, as of June 30. Bluefield State College had only 14 days of reserve.