ATHENS, W.Va. — The presidents at Concord University and Bluefield State College are both interested in working with WVU as it makes plans for its Beckley campus but neither believe their futures are as tightly tied to the state’s land grant institution as WVU President Gordon Gee seems to think.
Last week on MetroNews when asked about WVU Beckley and working with Concord and Bluefield State, Gee said, “If I were the president of Bluefield or Concord I would have my marching band and my cheerleaders out and I would have been right out there right in front and saying, ‘Let’s work together and let’s do the kinds of things we should be doing.'”
Beckley is not a new option for Concord, its president Dr. Kendra Boggess said.
“We’ve been in Beckley for 40 years and we’ve worked with every college that’s been there and I don’t think any other college or university has ever come in and said, ‘You are now tied to us,'” Boggess said. “There is so much to gain by working together that we would be foolish not to. Whether or not we are tied to them? I think that’s a pretty strong word.”
Boggess and Bluefield State President Dr. Marsha Krotseng both told MetroNews they believe a collaborative agreement with WVU in the area of graduate programs would be most beneficial.
“There are some excellent opportunities for our students to complete their four-year degrees here and go on into graduate level and advanced offerings that WVU might be able to bring to Beckley,” Krotseng said.
There are still many unanswered questions, Boggess said.
“They (WVU) really don’t have a plan yet that they can share with us,” she said. “While they’ve said, pretty loudly, that we ought to cooperate with them and ought to do everything we can to work with them–we’re glad to do that, but we’ve yet to understand what they are going to do.”
WVU Beckley plans to begin offering classes next fall with plans to move WVU Tech from Montgomery to Beckley by the fall semester 2017.
Also during that MetroNews ‘Talkline’ interview last week Gee said WVU had no plans on being ‘Godzilla’ in southern West Virginia.
“We’re trying to be the helping hand,” Gee said. “But also those institutions, rather than try to build a wall around themselves, they need to aggressively pursue opportunities with the university.”
There have been ongoing discussions, both Boggess and Krotseng said, and they are willing to continue. Concord plans on surviving with or without WVU Beckley, Boggess said.
“We really want to work with them. We want to have better kinds of programs available to students in this part of the state. I think we surely can survive and I think we’ll thrive and grow,” she said.