A water tower bearing the name of Ohio Valley University stands next to dormitories Wednesday. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

VIENNA — Ohio Valley University’s ability to confer degrees has been revoked due to a vote from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission on Friday morning after the institution was placed on academic probation in 2020 and did not meet the requirements to maintain accreditation.

Earlier this week, OVU officials decided to close operations and not offer spring 2022 classes. President Michael Ross said the school’s administration tried to come up with different solutions and reached out to its sister school to see if it could acquire the university, to no avail.

“We uncovered every single stone. We made what we thought was the best decision with a level of integrity,” he said.

The HEPC sent a letter to Ross in July of 2020 saying the university was being placed on academic probation “primarily for financial concerns” and that the institution had to provide a monthly report of enrollment, the financial situation and any other relevant information, the letter said.

In August of 2021, the Higher Learning Commission sent a letter to Ross saying it received a complaint which raised “potential concerns” regarding the university’s ability to “provide support for student learning and resources for effective teaching.”

OVU was asked to provide a formal response to the HLC detailing “appropriate evidence to demonstrate that the institution continues to meet the requirement noted above in the light of the complaint,” the letter said, and school officials had 30 days to do so.

In October, the HLC sent another letter saying it had not yet received a response and “determined that further evaluation of the institution’s compliance with HLC requirements is necessary,” the letter said.

The HLC then conducted a campus visit last month to “review and validate” the institution’s compliance and a letter said OVU “may not be in compliance with several obligations of membership” because it did not respond to the August 2021 letter, had not submitted signed teach-out agreements for HLC approval and had not made payment for annual dues which, at the time, were about 120 days past due, the letter said.

Students, parents and employees reported issues to the commission office in October and “the issues complained of ranged from the inability of the institution to provide academic transcripts to the institution’s failure, for months, to compensate employees for work performed,” documents provided by the HEPC said.

During a meeting with commission members, OVU officials “confirmed the reported issues were accurate and ongoing,” the documents said. OVU administration also said the server issues which made the institution unable to produce transcripts started this past summer and the school’s payroll issues started in the 2020-2021 school year.

“Ohio Valley University also confirmed that, as a result of continuing issues with its server, its student and institutional performance data has not been provided within the established deadlines to the U.S. Department of Education as required for federal accountability purposes,” the documents said.

The HEPC said OVU officials were expecting a donation on Nov. 3 to be used to fix the server and pay employees. In the initial letter from the HEPC in July of 2020, another donation was mentioned. OVU officials said they had received 130,000 acres of land with a taxable value of $4 million, which, the institution said, would improve the overall financial situation, the letter said.

While the status of the gifted land is unknown at this time, the HEPC said OVU had not provided any confirmation that it received the donation it expected Nov. 3. During the HEPC meeting Friday morning, Ross said a donor provided the institution with the money it needs to pay employees what they’re owed.

On Nov. 29, commission members from the Office of the Financial Aid and West Virginia Network visited OVU to assess the server and financial aid situations and they “found that there is not sufficient depth of experience in OVU’s financial aid office, bursar’s office or IT office to help move OVU out of its current descent,” the documents said.

Financial aid employees were “relying on hand-written paper records and only know cumulative student data, not the specific data necessary for it to create transcripts or other essential student records,” the documents said.

In regard to the servers, they had been faulty because of a power surge and the documents said the data was there, it just couldn’t be accessed. PowerCampus, the software the institution uses for student data and records, was broken and it “had not been updated in seven years, and Ellucian, the company that provides PowerCampus, will not update it for OVU at this point until OVU pays for the seven years it has not availed itself of Ellucian’s services,” the documents said.

From the standpoint of the commission, no further actions will be taken concerning Ohio Valley, spokesman Jessica Tice said. Questions concerning the school’s finances were referred to the college. Calls to the college are unable to go through.

During Friday’s HEPC meeting, Ross said the server had been fixed and transcripts could be administered during the university’s college fair Friday afternoon.

“As of (Thursday), PowerCampus is running on another and it is being installed on our server today. Cautious optimism is that we’ll be able to pull those transcripts (Friday) afternoon,” he said.

Ross said both in-state and out-of-state colleges and universities at Friday’s college fair understood the situation and would help to accommodate students with their limited records.

About 30 seniors at OVU are set to graduate in the spring and Ross said they will be able to complete their degree but it is not clear whether classes will be completed at the university for the seniors. Teach out plans were submitted to the HLC and are under review, Ross said.

For those needing to find a new school to finish their education, however, there were a multitude of colleges present at the college fair Friday to talk to students.

Michael Hoard from Marshall University said its recruitment office was taking preliminary transcripts for the time being and will require the official documents once the service is back online.

“It’s kind of a somber fair, but we at Marshall are excited to work with the students and welcome them to reach out with any questions they have,” Hoard said.

Students attending the fair were noted to have had really good attitudes by multiple colleges in attendance.

“I can’t imagine how hard it must be for the students,” said Sarah Palelis with Appalachian Bible College.

Harding University in Arkansas, OVU’s sister college, sent out representatives as well.

“This is a very sad day for us all,” said Harding school representative Dana Steil. “We have had a close relationship with them for a lot of years, and it is sad to see them close their doors.”

Sam Dugdon, a student at OVU who attended the fair, said he really appreciated that the school took the time to organize the college fair among all its current struggles.

“It really shows their care for their students, working to help us to the very end,” he said.

Ross said that what makes OVU special is the legacy it leaves and that it will continue to through the lives of people and the community it has served for so long.

“It continues to transform me every day and will be something that will be a lasting effect in the state of West Virginia and in higher education in our great state,” he said.

Staff reporter Jess Mancini also contributed to the story.

Candice Black can be reached at cblack@newsandsentinel.com and Madeline Scarborough at mscarborough@newsandsentinel.com