College of Business conducting study of city’s operations

Marshall University’s Lewis College of Business has been hired by members of the local business community to conduct a study of the city of Huntington’s operations. City officials also are involved and participating in the study.

Marshall President Stephen J. Kopp, Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors Chairman Tom Gilpin and Mayor David Felinton announced details of the study on May 10.

“It’s important that when the opportunity arises, the university partner with the city and assist in making informed decisions,” Kopp said. “As a major stakeholder, we want to step up and assist in any way we can. We have the expertise and resources to conduct an impartial, evidence-based study.”

Kopp said the goal of the study is to generate ideas on how the city can solve some of its financial problems. The study began in April and will continue through most of the summer, according to Dr. Paul Uselding, dean of the Lewis College of Business. “We hope to present a report to President Kopp by mid-September,” Uselding said.

The study was facilitated by the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce. Recently, Chamber President and CEO Mark Bugher called a meeting of CEOs from five of the city’s large employers – St. Mary’s Medical Center, Cabell Huntington Hospital, Steel of West Virginia, Alcon Laboratories, Inc. and Marshall University – to discuss ways to help the city.

“We just started talking about what we could do to help,” Bugher said. “Dr. Kopp suggested the university could do a study of how the city operates, and come up with some ideas as an independent third party.”

Uselding, at Kopp’s request, put together a proposal as to how the study would be done and what it would cost, and that proposal was shared with the business community and city officials. “We all agreed to it and the chamber took it upon itself to raise the money,” Bugher said. “We all agreed we wanted to do something.”

“The dean made it very clear that when this study is over, it will not be a list of exactly what has to be done,” Bugher said. “This will be more of a benchmarking study, where they’ll look at other similar communities with similar problems and similar demographics, and look at what they have done. We know further study may be needed when this is finished.”

The following members of the business community combined to raise funds to pay for the study: Marshall University, St. Mary’s Medical Center, Cabell Huntington Hospital, Steel of West Virginia, Alan Modliszewski with Alcon, Huddleston Bolen, LLP, Steptoe and Johnson, PLLC, Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce, Jenkins Fenstermaker, PLLC, and West Virginia American Water Co.

Felinton said he appreciates Marshall for doing the study and the businesses that funded it. “The university is an outstanding resource and can help us analyze our situation,” he said. 

Uselding said faculty members from the Lewis College of Business and the College of Liberal Arts are participating in the study. In addition to Uselding, the Marshall team includes Dr. Paul Hamilton, assistant professor of economics; Dr. Loren Wenzel, professor of accounting; Dr. Marybeth Beller, political scientist; Dr. Kurt Olmosk, associate professor of management and marketing; and Dr. Charles Stivason, assistant professor of accounting.

Gilpin described the study as “an exciting initiative. From our perspective, there is no preordained result,” he said. “We hope it results in something helpful. Whatever they find, we’ll all take a look at it.”                           

Bugher agreed that there are no specific expectations from the study.

“The only conditions we put on it when we met with the city is that the city provide Marshall with whatever information it needs, and that we would make the results public,” Bugher said. “The chamber’s role will be to advocate for changes it feels are most important.”

Getting Marshall involved was important for validation of the study, he said.

“We’re going to assume that because of the reputation of Marshall University and the School of Business, the recommendations they make will be valid and make sense,” Bugher said. “They are a resource we ought to use, and the credibility of Marshall reduces some of the political aspects which are inevitably present in a study of these issues.”