West Virginia University at Parkersburg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| West Virginia University at Parkersburg | |
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| Established: | 1961 |
| Type: | Public |
| President: | Marie Foster Gnage, Ph.D. |
| Students: | 3,743 |
| Undergraduates: | 3,743 |
| Postgraduates: | 0 |
| Location: | Parkersburg, West Virginia, United States |
| Campus: | Small city |
| Former names: | Parkersburg Community College |
| Website: | wvup.edu |
West Virginia University at Parkersburg is a public college located in Parkersburg, West Virginia. It is a stand-alone college with its own board of directors and degree granting authority, separate from WVU. Conceived as a community college to serve seven counties in west central West Virginia, it now offers some baccalaureate programs. It is currently the fifth largest public college in West Virginia with over 3,700 students.
WVUP is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
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[edit] History
The college was founded in 1971 as Parkersburg Community College (PCC) and was originally governed by the West Virginia Board of Regents. In a reorganization of the state's higher education governance structure in 1989, the West Virginia Legislature enacted S.B. 420 which, among other initiatives, renamed PCC as West Virginia University at Parkersburg, designated it a regional campus of WVU, and transferred its governance to the newly-formed University of West Virginia Board of Trustees.
In 2008, the governance structure of WVUP was changed by the state legislature. WVUP now has no relationship with WVU other than a commonality of names. WVUP is now part of a state-wide network of independently accredited community colleges and is controlled locally by a Board of Governors.
[edit] Academics
WVUP is the first and, thus far, only community college in West Virginia to offer any Bachelor's degrees. Bachelor's degrees that are currently awarded at WVUP include: the Bachelor of Applied Technology, Bachelor of Applied Science in Business Administration, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and the Bachelor of Arts in either Elementary Education or Multi-disciplinary Studies. WVUP also offers a Regents Bachelor of Arts (RBA) degree, which gives adult students college credit for past work and life experience and allows them to gain a general college-level education with selecting a specific major.
WVUP also offers Associate's degree and certificate programs, as community colleges traditionally do, in a wide variety of other academic areas which are not offered as baccalaureate programs.
[edit] Athletics
WVUP does not currently field any of its own intercollegiate varsity teams.
[edit] Campus
WVUP is located on the outskirts of the city of Parkersburg. The campus is home to, among various buildings, a library, the WVU Extended Learning Center, and the Caperton Center. WVUP does not have any student housing on campus; it is a strictly commuter school.
[edit] Naming Issues
The school was founded as Parkersburg Community College. Under Governor Gaston Caperton in 1990, a redesign of the state system of higher education was proposed. The state Speaker of the House was from Parkersburg and added the renaming to the bill. In 1995 this system was replaced by yet another system of college orginization under Governor Cecil Underwood, however the school retained the name WVUP.
In 2008 the state adopted yet another system of college orginization and completly "divorced" the community colleges from their parent institutions. WVUP has no relationship with WVU, any more than any other community college has with an upper division school in the state, and under the terms of the act will have to rename itself, as community colleges associated with the other state colleges have done, including the community college of West Virginia University Institute of Technology, now Bridgemont Community and Technical College. However WVUP wishes to retain the current name, something that WVU is only willing to do on a year-by-year basis, under the terms of a trademark lease. WVUP wishes a long term arrangement under the terms of an acceptance that WVU does not hold a trademark to the words "West Virginia". The issue is currently at an impass between the two colleges and the state legislature will consider the issue again in 2010.
