FAIRMONT, W.Va. – House Bill 2805 would reunify Pierpont Community and Technical College and Fairmont State University after more than 10 years of operating independently. In 2008, House Bill 3215 was passed directing the universities to separate and establish their own operating structures.
Interim president at Pierpont Community and Technical College, Dr. Anthony Hancock came to WAJR’s Talk of the Town and said the community college student and liberal art school students are very different with completely unique needs.
“When we opposed it, we opposed it on it’s merits,” Hancock said,” How does a liberal arts institution take over a community and technical college and deliver that customized training?”
A provision in the bill prohibits releasing any Pierpont employee during the first 12 months of the transition. But, Hancock is concerned about what happens to employees in departments like IT or students services that would be become duplicate functions.
“We would assume all those divisions would go away and it would be delivered by FSU,” Hancock said,” So, it’s my assumption that all of those individuals would lose their jobs at the end of the day.”
According to Hancock, they have a close relationship with employers and have the ability to change, or add curriculum as requested or needed in the local economy.
“We’re able to deliver that training just in time and on that particular day,” Hancock said,” We are experts in looking at skillsets, we experienced at looking at skills to meet employers expectations.”
Pierpont Community and Technical College Provost Michael Wade testified before the House Education Committee Thursday about the unique learning opportunities offered by the college.
“Welders, those phlebotomists and all those individuals in industrial maintenance that want to get to work,” Michael Paul Wade said,” But, a university, or a college or a liberal arts school with their admission standards and criteria may not be the best fit for them.”
Wade also raised questions about the accreditation process if the bill would pass. Accreditation could take a matter months or years and that would also cast doubt on certificate or degrees that current students are working toward or completing.
“No institution who has already been deemed eligible as accredited merely by virtue of having accreditation shall be or enter into a merger without the approval of HLC,” Michael Paul Wade said,” And there is no guarantee of that accredited status.”