WHEELING, W.Va. — Following months of debate between officials with Bluefield State College, the City of Wheeling and local college leaders in Ohio County, the West Virginia Council for Community & Technical College Education rejected the request by Bluefield State College to offer three associate degrees at a satellite campus in the city.
The council (CTC) made the motion unanimously to reject any type of offering on Thursday morning. The coordinating board for West Virginia’s two-year higher education system must approve any new associate degree programs for it to begin.
BSC, which has its main campus in Mercer County bordering southern West Virginia, requested three associate of science degrees at a new location in Wheeling on the city-owned old Ohio Valley Medical Center (OVMC) property. The programs proposed were civil engineering technology, electrical engineering technology and mechanical engineering technology.
There was first a motion by council member Bill Baker to table the request because no one from the institution was on the line. Baker, who said he didn’t believe the request should go forward, said he wanted to hear from a BSC official on why they wanted to do it. According to Corley Dennison, vice chancellor for academic affairs for the CTC, there had been communication between himself and BSC officials in the weeks leading up to Thursday’s meeting to inform BSC of being on the agenda.
Baker withdrew his motion following multiple council members speaking out against the proposal. Bob Brown, the vice-chair, said the decision was based on the lack of need to expand the engineering programs into the Wheeling area.
According to Dennison, the council conducted research with workforce database EMSI and it showed a flat demand for engineering degrees in the Northern Panhandle area between now and 2026.
Further research stated by Dennison in the meeting included the US Department of Labor reported only a 0.3% increase in engineering technology degree in the next five years. He also stated that between the two and four-year schools in West Virginia, 154 students are graduating every year in engineering which meets the demand, according to the database.
Steve Roberts, the secretary of the CTC and graduate of Wheeling University spoke against the Bluefield proposal saying there is no long-term focus of expanding engineering in the Upper Ohio Valley.
“There is not even a long-term focus in the area for a significant industrial expansion right now that would support a need for additional educational resources in this area,” he said.
On January 5, BSC and the City of Wheeling entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) to assess the feasibility of a long-term lease deal on the OVMC campus. Dennison said Thursday that the MOU was to provide area consumers and industry the opportunity for technology education.
The plan for BSC was to open a branch campus with in-person courses in January 2022.
Officials with the school stated in a news release on the MOU in the winter that the marketing department at BSC conducted surveys throughout West Virginia in 2019 to locate areas of interest for engineering technology programs. The results revealed a high demand in the northern panhandle of West Virginia where programs were not being offered, according to BSC.
BSC President Robin Capehart, former president of West Liberty University (WLU) from 2007 to 2015 and well known in the Wheeling area, has also held meetings this year with industry leaders in the Wheeling.
The MOU and plan by BSC did not sit well with the presidents of West Virginia Northern Community College (WVNCC), Wheeling University (WU) and WLU. The trio, Daniel Mosser president of WVNCC, WLU President W. Franklin Evans and WU President Ginny Favede voiced their opposition in a joint statement released to the public on March 10.
Almost one week after the statement, Mosser spoke during a Wheeling City Council meeting, blasting city officials and alleged them of not disclosing lease figures, giving BSC a ‘personal deal’ and bringing up past relationships with Capehart. On March 19, Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, Vice Mayor Chad Thalman, and City Manager Robert Herron released a joint statement Friday evening, denying statements made by Mosser.
Mosser spoke during Thursday’s meeting and said WVNCC recently conducted its own gap analysis with EMSI and said the degrees offered in the area match the workforce needs. He stated four positions opened in engineering technology in 2020 and WU had seven graduates in its existing engineering science program.
WVNCC and WU recently signed an articulation agreement to expand access to Wheeling’s engineering science program that is linked to construction management.
“There is no documented need for this program in the Northern Panhandle,” Mosser said. “We, presidents, feel it would be a disservice to recruit and attract students into these programs with a false promise of engineering careers that just are not out there.”
Officials with BSC could not be reached for comment on Thursday. There were documents shared Thursday by the CTC that showed communication between Dennison and Ted Lewis, the Provost & Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs at BSC, about the notice of BSC proposal being on the agenda and BSC’s request to be on it.