CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice announced a $1 million pledge for campus improvements at Bluefield State College.
The first $500,000 is meant to help Bluefield State build a new student housing complex, which is already in the works. The other $500,000 is for work on the college’s student union.
Justice made the announcement Saturday afternoon while on campus at Bluefield State.
This is the second announcement in support of a West Virginia college this week for Justice.
Earlier in the week he made clear his support for Wheeling University, where there was fear of closure. On Friday, the university got a reprieve of at least a year when the Higher Education Policy Commission voted to reauthorize operations on campus.
That was made possible by $2 million backing by the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.
In Bluefield on Saturday, Justice joined others at a groundbreaking ceremony, celebrating the start of construction for the housing facility, which will be called Heritage Village.
“This will make this institution grow,” Justice said, according to a news release from his office. “You’ve waited too long, that’s all there is to it.”
Heritage Village will become Bluefield State College’s first on-campus student housing facility since 1968.
“The state is going to commit $500,000 to start this project…and that in itself is going to kickstart matching dollars that you have and, all of a sudden now, here we go,” Justice said.
“This facility will have people in it very, very, very soon and here we go at Bluefield State. And absolutely you’ve waited too long, 50 years is ridiculous.”
Once fully built, the new facility will welcome 120 to 140 students, which could boost enrollment at Bluefield State by about 10 percent.
College leaders hope to have the first of two pods completed and ready for students to move in by fall 2020, according to the Governor’s Office. Construction on the complex’s additional two pods will follow.
Last year, concern about the financial condition of West Virginia’s college system led Justice to create a Blue Ribbon Task Force on Higher Education.
Its members met several times over the following months, all over the state. But eventually the work of the task force tapered off without clear, public recommendations.
Prior to that, a report commissioned by the Higher Education Policy Commission recommended that the state consolidate Bluefield State with nearby Concord.
The consultant found that “for the institutions at highest risk, Bluefield State College and Concord University, the challenges are so serious that only a major restructuring will preserve postsecondary education opportunity for students in Southern West Virginia.”
According to the West Virginia Higher Education Report Card, Bluefield State experienced a 28.7 percent decrease in enrollment between 2012-2017.