The West Virginia Senate Government Organization Committee on a meeting day advanced House Bill 3279 to the full Senate after adopting an amendment that changes how quorums are calculated and alters membership rules for public university governing boards.

House Bill 3279 would change the composition of institutional boards of governors at several public higher-education institutions. The engrossed bill, as explained in committee, would: require one member on both the West Virginia University (WVU) Board of Governors and the West Virginia State University Board of Governors to have a background in agriculture, forestry or silvicultural science; make faculty, student and employee representatives advisory, nonvoting members; limit those faculty and employee representatives to one two-year term rather than up to three two-year terms under current law; increase the WVU Board of Governors from 17 to 19 members and increase the number appointed by the governor from 12 to 15; remove the chair of the Board of Visitors of WVU Institute of Technology from the WVU Board of Governors; require at least one appointed member to be a WVU graduate and one to be a graduate of Potomac State College at WVU; and cap appointees of the same political party at no more than nine of the 15 appointed seats. The bill also revises quorum language for the affected boards.

A committee amendment adopted before the final committee vote changed quorum language to a standard formula: "one more than half the number of voting members currently serving on an institutional board of governors shall constitute a quorum." Counsel said the change was intended to avoid situations where altered board sizes would require a fixed, larger number and therefore risk frequent lack of quorum at scheduled meetings.

The bill drew a public statement from Leslie Cottrell, who identified herself as a professor at West Virginia University and a current member of the WVU Board of Governors. Cottrell said faculty, staff and student voting representation at WVU and other institutions has existed since 1989 and that she and other board members had "appreciated the opportunity to serve at the same level as the rest of the representatives." She asked the committee to restore voting rights for those members.

A senator speaking in opposition said the measure removes votes from three people on every board and expressed concern about the optics, saying, "I just think the optics are horrible of taking votes away from people who are members of a board." Committee members discussed the change but proceeded to adopt the quorum amendment and to report the bill to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass as amended.

The committee adopted the amendment by voice vote and then approved a motion, moved by the vice chair, to report HB 3279 to the full Senate with the recommendation that it do pass as amended. The committee recorded the outcome by voice vote; no roll-call tally was given in the transcript.

The bill would become effective on passage if enacted. It will next be considered by the full Senate.