CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Campus safety around state college campuses may become more streamlined.
West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC) Chancellor Dr. Sarah Armstrong Tucker provided an update to the West Virginia Council for Community and Technical College Education Thursday morning.
The council meets once every two months.
Tucker said that representatives from universities, colleges, and community colleges all across West Virginia gathered Wednesday for a safety conference.
“Our student affairs staff hosted a wonderful statewide campus safety and emergency response symposium,” Tucker said. “The event really was incredible, the turnout had more than 150 attendees, all of the public four-year institutions, all of the private institutions, and most of the community colleges were represented in that meeting.”
There was statewide and federal interest in receiving maps of West Virginia institutions, Tucker explained. The symposium was an opportunity to educate institutions about the importance of authorities knowing their way around campus grounds.
“We had heard from the FBI and the West Virginia Department of Education on campus mapping,” Tucker said. “That would help provide security and the police force across the state with maps of the institutions so they would know where to go should a tragedy ever befall one of our campuses.”
Representatives from West Virginia institutions seemed keen on learning more.
“We also gave the institutions an opportunity for feedback, so that we would know what other needs they may have. The campuses really seem very eager to get information about campus safety, so we were happy to provide it,” Tucker said.
West Virginia Council for Community and Technical College Education Chairman Steve Roberts said he was glad to hear the symposium was well attended.
“When I first heard about that, I was disappointed that I couldn’t drop in and attend myself,” Roberts said. “I think that was a great event and something that provides a tremendous amount of value to our schools.”
Also during her briefing of the council, Tucker said that the Education Alliance is preparing for another big event on Wednesday, April 29 in the Capital City.
“Next week, our student affairs team is going to host a GEAR UP Career Academy here in Charleston,” Tucker said. “That event will bring about 800 GEAR UP students from 17 different high schools, and it’s going to feature representatives from 62 West Virginia-based employers. The idea with this career academy is to get students exposed to a wide variety of occupations that are here in West Virginia.”
The 2026 Career Academy runs from 9:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
GEAR UP is an acronym, short for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. The program is federally funded and operates in eleven West Virginia counties. The program is partnering with Education Alliance to host the Career Academy.
Tucker stated the organizers are hopeful to match the success of last year’s event.
“Last year, we had everybody from the skilled trades up to WVU Medicine and Vandalia Medicine, and every company in between,” Tucker said. “We even had a company who is a West Virginia company that makes games. Lots of students were flocking to them to see exactly what they did.”
The keynote speaker for the Career Academy event will be Alefiya Master, CEO and founder of MAD-Learn. MAD-learn is a mobile app development program that gives students a chance to develop software firsthand.
Tucker said Master will give two keynote addresses — one at 10 a.m., and the other at 11:15 a.m.