UPDATE– Gov. Jim Justice signed the bill into law Wednesday, Feb. 23.
GLENVILLE, W.Va. — Glenville State College is a signature away from Gov. Jim Justice to becoming Glenville State University.
House Bill 4264 ‘Change designation of Glenville State College to “Glenville State University”‘ passed through the House of Delegate and state Senate on Tuesday.
Dr. Mark Manchin, the Glenville State College president appeared on Tuesday’s MetroNews ‘Talkline’ and said the institution met the criteria of a certain percentage of PhDs. in its faculty and the number of graduate courses offered.
“We’re offering graduate courses in Master of Arts in teaching and Master of Arts in critical instruction. By next year at this time, we hope to have six graduate courses,” Manchin said.
The move to university status has been previously approved by the state Higher Education Policy Commission, the Higher Learning Commission and the Glenville State College Board of Governors.
Manchin said with the status bump, Glenville State will continue to expand education and department of health science programs.
“There’s a teacher shortage. We’ve been working closely with state superintendent of schools as well as the higher education policy commission chancellors,” he said.
The passage comes on the same week that Glenville State celebrated its 150th birthday. Feb. 19 marked 150 years since the college’s founding in 1872 as the Glenville Branch of the West Virginia State Normal School.
.@gopioneers will be celebrating its 150th birthday this month. Mark Manchin, Glenville State President, discusses the historical background of the college to @HoppyKercheval. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nDJuy pic.twitter.com/Djch9zLbmL
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) February 22, 2022
State Senator Charles Clements (R-Wetzel) and state Senator Mike Romano, (D-Harrison) both gave comments on the floor of the Senate Tuesday before unanimous passage. Romano touched on the growth of Glenville State and how this will accelerate that.
“It’s growing. There are new programs including nursing. It’ll be one of the few schools in the nation with a cyber security major. And they are adding students,” Romano said.
The bill was sponsored by Brent Boggs (D-Braxton).