Create West Virginia

04/11/2024

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10/20/2023

Help Shape the Future of Innovation in West Virginia 🏔️✨

Deep within the heart of Appalachia, the mountaineers of West Virginia have always been natural-born innovators. Our challenging landscapes have forged an unwavering spirit of creativity and resilience. With each hill and valley, we've learned to navigate economic challenges and craft solutions, often in isolation.

Technology has been bridging these isolated pockets of brilliance, weaving a tapestry of innovation across the state. But to truly soar, we need wings - and that's where you come in!

🌟 Create West Virginia is a non-profit organization born in 2007 with a mission to supercharge West Virginia's emerging innovation economy. We're channeling grassroots energy to shift from extractive industries to an economy bursting with homegrown ideas and vibrant collaboration.

Why Should You Care?
- By supporting us, you're nurturing a hub of untapped potential and driving change in a state ripe for transformation through meetups, forums, and workshops.
- You're playing a pivotal role in safeguarding higher education, as we rally against more cuts in liberal arts programming in higher education as our flagship WVU did this year.
- You're contributing to vital projects like the Kanawha Valley Air Monitoring initiative, empowering communities with real-time data on air quality and offering environmental and technology education opportunities for students.

If you live in a community where innovation is booming and well oiled, remember that it doesn't come as easy in rural communities like ours. Be a part of West Virginia's renaissance. Lend a hand, spread the word, or donate. Together, we can sculpt a brighter, more innovative future for West Virginia and beyond. Big cities around the nation have benefited from our extraction, and we need your help to correct the imbalance and pave a new future for our state and for the world.

Invest in innovation, invest in West Virginia.
👉 https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/createwv

Learn more about Create WV
🔗 https://createwv.org

Go to paypal.me/CreateWV and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

09/13/2023

Create WV Releases Report on WVU Stakeholder Concerns:
Non-profit seeks dialogue with WVU Leaders

READ THE FULL REPORT: CreateWV.org/WVU-Future-Report

After conducting a series of in-person meetings and an online survey, Create West Virginia (CWV) is asking West Virginia University and its Board of Governors to listen to alumni and other WVU supporters who want to see the institution flourish.

CWV is making the request as WVU and the Board of Governors prepare for Friday’s final vote on an academic transformation intended to respond to a projected $45 million deficit. The administration’s proposed transformation targets several academic programs and faculty positions for elimination.

The majority of some 270 respondents who attended an in-person meeting or completed an online survey say they want new leadership at WVU, and ask the administration and Board of Governors to slow down or halt the transformation until it can consider alternative solutions to WVU’s financial shortfall.

CWV, founded in 2007 as a nonprofit organization to promote entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development through Innovation Economy principles, organized a series of in-person meetings in four regions of the state, starting in Charleston, Tuesday, August 29. Subsequent meetings in Wheeling, Martinsburg, and Morgantown, allowed WVU alumni and stakeholders to express feelings and opinions concerning West Virginia University’s plans announced on August 11.

A total of 241 survey responses from 19 states including West Virginia and four countries came in during a five-day period. The majority of responses were from WVU alumni.

“Our goal in reaching out to WVU alumni and stakeholders is to demonstrate to the Board of Governors and administration that we have valuable experience and ideas,” said Rebecca Kimmons, a WVU School of Journalism alumna and a founding member of Create West Virginia. “We want to open a dialogue that would result in an academic transformation that is positive and allows for growth.

“We are asking the administration and the Board of Governors to open the door to more perspectives and to establish a continuing dialogue,” she said. “We are eager to start now. We want to create a channel for the people of West Virginia, prospective students, secondary school educators, businesses and industry as well as alumni to contribute ideas and alternatives.”

Kimmons continued, “Emotions are high, and many respondents had questions about the process and procedures the administration used to arrive at deep cuts to WVU faculty and programs. Many felt that a broad group of stakeholders were neither informed nor consulted, and that the administration’s decision to cut programs and faculty was precipitous.

“There’s no question that WVU’s financial straits are real,” Kimmons added. “Many alumni feel that a variety of feasible solutions should be considered. The result of this sampling of alumni and stakeholder views is that the process should be slowed down, and that better options should be explored.”

Visioning for a Future WVU: A Preliminary Report on Community-driven Transformation is available at CreateWV.org/WVU-Future-Report .

09/03/2023

TLDR: Take less than 10 minutes to fill out a survey and share your vision for WVU before Wednesday, September 6th at 11:59 pm here: https://tinyurl.com/wvuvisionsurvey

Create West Virginia is hosting visioning sessions across the state. These sessions are a platform for WVU alumni, stakeholders, and community members to share their aspirations and hopes for WVU’s future. By gathering your thoughts, we aim to present a collective vision to the WVU Board of Governors.

We are visiting Charleston, Wheeling, Martinsburg, and Morgantown for in-person discussions. However, we realize the need to include as many voices in the process as possible. The challenge is reaching as many West Virginian communities before the September 15 BOG vote.

Whether you have concerns about program eliminations or aspirations for innovative new paths, we invite you to join the conversation virtually through this survey, which is open to everyone who believes in the boundless potential of West Virginia University. The insights and visions shared in the responses to this survey and during these sessions will be compiled into a report, which will be presented to the WVU Board of Governors on Friday, September 8th.

Take the survey here: https://tinyurl.com/wvuvisionsurvey

DEADLINE: Wednesday Sept. 6, 2023 at 11:59 pm Create West Virginia is hosting visioning sessions across the state. These sessions are a platform for WVU alumni, stakeholders, and community members to share their aspirations and hopes for WVU’s future. By gathering your thoughts, we aim to present ...

08/31/2023

Create WV's Visioning Sessions for a Future WVU has been to Charleston, Wheeling, and coming tonight to Martinsburg.

Yesterday in Wheeling, Eric Ayres with the Wheeling Intelligencer reported some of the comments. Delegate Shawn Fluharty, Minority Whip of the West Virginia House of Delegates, said the state legislature flatlined funding to WVU in recent years, which has also contributed to the problem as much as the falling enrollment.

“Quite frankly, if we would look at the numbers that are out there right now, if we had been funding higher education at WVU – particularly like we had been in years past – the deficit of $45 million that they’re now facing would look more like $7 million or $8 million,” Fluharty said.

Read the full article here: https://www.theintelligencer.net/news/top-headlines/2023/08/programming-cuts-seen-as-bad-for-wvu-states-future/

Whether you're a WVU alum or just feel connected to the impact these budget cuts could have on the community, you can join the conversation in person in Martinsburg tonight at 5:30pm at the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Libraries or virtually via Zoom.
Event details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/966470791317709

Then the final session will take place in Morgantown on Sep 6 before Create WV compiles its report. Details to be announced.

Learn more about these visioning sessions, other resources, and how you can be involved here: https://createwv.org/wvu-future/

08/30/2023

The 3rd of our Visioning Sessions for a Future WVU is in MARTINSBURG at the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Library Central Library! Thursday, Aug 31 at 5:30pm, join alumni, stakeholders, and community members to share vision and ideas amid WVU's budgetary crisis.

EVENT DETAILS: https://fb.me/e/1bcjJTpuk

08/30/2023

The 2nd of our Visioning Sessions for a Future WVU is in WHEELING at the Ohio County Public Library! Tonight at 6pm, join alumni, stakeholders, and community members to share vision and ideas amid WVU's budgetary crisis.

EVENT DETAILS: https://fb.me/e/17iyGv5Gs

08/29/2023

There are a lot of emotions amid WVU's budget cut announcements! Join the first of several Visioning Sessions for a Future WVU! Tonight at 6pm we are joining together in Charleston at Kanawha County Public Library in the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation Meeting Room with alumni and stakeholders to meet and share vision and ideas for a WVU of the future.

And look out for announcements for sessions in Wheeling, Martinsburg, Morgantown, and a virtual one for anyone who cannot make it in person.

More info here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/281490344602905