Law change could affect WVU-P

By MICHAEL ERB
PARKERSBURG — A proposed change to state law make take away West Virginia University at Parkersburg’s status as a regional campus.

Connie Dziagwa, spokeswoman for WVU-P, said an amendment to House Bill 3215 would reclassify the school as a community college, taking it out from under West Virginia University and putting restrictions on the kinds of courses that could be created by the college.

The original house bill was intended to sever administrative ties between Shepherd University and Blue Ridge Community and Technical College. A last-minute addition to the bill, however, would have a similar effect on all state colleges, including WVU-P.

“In doing so we would lose our status as a regional campus of WVU and return us to being a community and technical college,” Dziagwa said. “It also would block us from any future development of baccalaureate degrees. We would still have the baccalaureate courses we currently offer, but would not be able to add classes or programs.”

The move also would remove West Virginia University’s administrative authority over the Parkersburg campus, but it would remain as WVU-P, Dziagwa said.

The college has been an unusual institution in West Virginia since it first became a regional campus in 1989. WVU-P has remained the state’s only regional campus and has blurred the line between community college and four-year institution, in part because it has fit the needs of students in the Mid-Ohio Valley, Dziagwa said.

“There has always been a desire (at the state level) to bring community college education under one roof, so to speak,” Dziagwa said. “We’re always been outside of the box.”

Members of the Wood County Commission today sent letters to several local delegates, urging them to review the proposed changes and act accordingly. The group also issued a statement to the local media.

“WVU-P is an important tool for economic development,” commission President Bob Tebay said in a statement Thursday. “We have counted on them to provide training needed for our local work force and serve as an anchor for economic development.”

“The proposed change to return WVU-P to a community college status would not only harm out community, but more importantly harm the young people of our community who seek to achieve a four-year degree through the university affiliation,” commissioner Rick Modesitt said in the statement. “Those we want to help the most could possibly be hurt the most.”

Commissioner Blair Couch said the move would rob the community of a four-year institution.

The bill will be looked at in several West Virginia Senate committees this week and next. Educators from across the state were in Charleston on Thursday for West Virginia Higher Education Day and representatives from both WVU and WVU-P were speaking with local and regional delegates concerning the bill, Dziagwa said.

“Our main concern is how the students in the Mid-Ohio Valley would be served if these changes were instituted,” she said. “We became a regional campus in 1989 and since then grown to be the fifth largest college in the state, so it must be working.”

With the proposed bill, “it sort of feels like we would be going backwards,” Dziagwa said. “We want to remain as a regional campus of WVU.”