SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The presidents of Bluefield State, Concord and WVU have resolved to work through some of the overlaps in seven of their programs by coming to a collaborative agreement.
The agreement, discussed during Friday’s Higher Education Policy Commission meeting in South Charleston, helps resolve a series of concerns that begin with the HEPC’s rules.
“With the move of WVU Tech to Beckley, you would have all three institutions offering those common degrees there in the Beckley area,” Dr. Corley Dennison, the HEPC’s vice chancellor for academic affairs, told MetroNews Friday. “The series says you can’t have program duplication by different institutions at the same location.”
The HEPC also granted a waiver to the institutions regarding two conflicting rules. The waiver will permit Chancellor Dr. Paul Hill to make a final decision that would allow the three schools to co-exist in the Beckley area.
“The chancellor, of course, wanted to have the commission rule on the waiver,” he said. “And then that clears the way for him to consider approval of the degree offerings in the new locations.”
Some of those programs included business, psychology, health services, management, computer sciences, engineering, and nursing.
Dr. Dennison said engineering and computer science could be two of the most complicated negotiations, but that things are moving in the right direction.
“Those probably are going to require the most discussion,” he said. “But those discussions are moving forward and they are working it out.”
The agreement between the schools’ leadership remains the key to ensuring the schools were together to avoid the overlap.
“The signed agreement is a very important piece of this whole process because it is formalization that the institutions are going to get together and going to talk out and work out the issues they need to work out as WVU comes into the Beckley area,” he said.
Chancellor Hill could make a final ruling by Dec. 11.