MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University Office of the Provost has released the final recommendations from the final three appeals as part of the Academic Transformation.
The School of Design and Community Development won their appeal to keep the BSLA Landscape Architecture major. The school will lose the MSLA Landscape Architecture program and the BSLA in Landscape Architecture will be taught with fewer faculty members. Additionally, the school must submit a recruitment and marketing plan to the Provost’s Office by Oct. 31 to set first-time freshmen enrollment targets and set an enrollment goal for fall 2026. The unit must also provide the Provost with follow-up fall enrollment reports for each of the next three academic years.
“The School made a strong case for retaining the BSLA major by demonstrating it could achieve efficiencies while addressing the needs of landscape architecture students who do not have a similar degree program to pursue here at the University,” Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Maryanne Reed said.
Division of Resource Economics and Management
The PhD Resource Management major will be discontinued due to low enrollment and a lack of dedicated faculty.
In the Division of Resource Economics and Management the PhD in Natural Resource Economics will continue and the MS Energy Environments major will be eliminated.
Three additional majors will be discontinued and merged to create new cooperative programs by Jan. 31, 2024, in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design.
1. The BS Agribusiness Management will be discontinued and combined with the BS Environmental and Natural Resource Economics;
2. BS Environmental and Energy Resource Management will be eliminated and merged with the BS Energy Land Management;
3. BS Environmental and Natural Resource Economics will be discontinued and merged with the BS Agribusiness Management.
Department of Public Administration
Appeals for the MLS Legal Studies and MPA Public Administration programs in the Department of Public Administration were denied due to declining enrollment and low student-to-faculty ratios.
The committee also considered the lack of faculty leadership for MLS Legal Studies and market saturation relating to online options presented by the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.
The final recommendation is to discontinue both programs and reduce the number of faculty to 0.
School of Design and Community Development
The BS Interior Architecture, BS Design Studies and BS Fashion, Design and Merchandising programs will move from the School and Davis College and into the new unit created by the merger of the College of Creative Arts and Reed College of Media.
“Bringing these design programs into the new merged college will enable students to benefit from the new collaborative curricula and instruction that can arise by such restructuring,” Reed said. “This epitomizes the goals of Academic Transformation.”
Proposals for the BS-AGR Agriculture and Extension Education, BS Environmental and Community Planning, and PhD Human and Community Development majors were not appealed. The number of faculty will be reduced to 21.
Process and next steps
Appeal hearings were held by the Program Review Appeal Committee from Aug. 24 to Sept. 1 for 19 of the 25 programs under review. The School of Medicine, School of Pharmacy, Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, Department of Philosophy, Management Department and Department of Mining Engineering did not file notices of appeal.
“We’ve been impressed throughout this process by the faculty, department chairs, deans and others who have brought forward innovative ideas for enhancing their programs,” Reed said. “It’s clear we share a desire to create the high-quality, industry-relevant academic offerings that will help our students be successful.”
The Board of Governors will hear public comments from those who have signed up or submitted their comments in writing in advance of Sept. 14 before a planned vote on the final recommendations during its regular meeting on Sept. 15.