New Academic Programs

arshall University must continue to address the needs of the people of the Ohio and Kanawha Valleys and southern West Virginia through relevant course offerings and outreach programs.

For the future well being of the state, undergraduate education should maintain a broad-based liberal arts approach as well as address the needs of workforce development. The Community and Technical College, the College of Business and other academic units will play a key role in addressing the workforce development needs through non-degree, certification and retraining programs.

The undergraduate curricula must be flexible to meet the changing economic forces of the 21st Century while ensuring each student at Marshall possesses critical thinking and analytical skills, communication skills, technology competency as well as a global understanding of socio-political and cultural trends.

Graduate education should be expanded by continuing to build on the merger with the Graduate College and by creating new and innovative, non-duplicative doctoral programs which will allow the institution to advance to an SREB Level 2, doctoral granting institution.

Specifically, the committee recommends the following:

Doctoral and Professional Programs:
The university should continue to build on the strength of its medical school, health professions and education and human service programs. Possible areas of expansion include geriatric studies, human services and hospital administration. Other terminal degree areas could include education with the potential for a number of specialty areas, science related fields and expansion of the forensic sciences.

The committee recommends a further study regarding a law school at University. Any such school would have to use a non-traditional approach to meet the needs of West Virginians who work, have family obligations and cannot attend a traditional, full-time law school. Course offerings must be in the evenings or weekends and/or utilize distance and on-line learning opportunities.

If the university vigorously pursues a level two institutional status, Marshall should examine the possibility of creating some Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs. Possibilities here include an MFA in creative writing, arts management and an MFA in “new media studies” which would be a cooperative effort between the College of Fine Arts, the School of Journalism and Mass Communications and the Communication Studies Department.

Other Graduate Offerings:
At the masters and advanced degree level, Marshall should consider a degree program in Management Information Systems and expand on health related programs such as nursing, physicians assistant program, biotechnology, technology management, geriatric studies and human services. Building on the Graduate School of Information, Technology and Engineering (GSITE) programs, more graduate degree offerings in the engineering related and technical oriented degrees would serve business and industry in the Ohio and, Kanawha Valleys.

Undergraduate education:
Using integrated sciences, math, related sciences and the Graduate School of Information and Technology as a foundation, the committee recommends the pursuit of undergraduate (and graduate) engineering programs. These should be innovative, non-duplicative programs such as environmental and electrical/ biomedical engineering which meet the needs of the 21st Century.

One approach is to seek three plus two programs which allow the undergraduate institution to offer three years of basic prerequisite courses and then a two year association with the graduate school and other cooperating institutions to provide professors on-site, or utilizing distance learning technology, to teach upper division courses.

The university should also continue to build on the two-year engineering technology program offered at the Community and Technical College. The university could also pursue more traditional engineering degrees such as civil, structural and chemical by utilizing cooperative programs which provide the appropriate foundation for engineering education then allow a student to transfer or to continue on-site via distance learning after two or three years.

Other possible growth areas in undergraduate education include health related therapy programs and health related fields in general. Fields of study related to the tourism industry offer a potential area of growth as the service related economy continues to expand in West Virginia. Also, the study of gender and ethnicity related issues in Appalachia provide the foundation for additional new degree offerings.

The Community and Technical College:
CTC will play a pivotal role in meeting the needs of the workforce development program as outlined by the West Virginia Roundtable including the development of additional associate degrees and/or certificates in manufacturing areas, safety related fields, information technology and health care. The Community and Technical College should expand two plus two opportunities wherever possible. CTC must develop stronger ties with regional high schools to promote dual credit and articulation programs.

The Community and Technical College offers the potential for tremendous growth in the coming years. The committee recommends a task force be formed which would examine areas of program growth for the Community College and find ways to obtain necessary funding for support of those programs.

Continuing Education:
Community outreach programs will increase in importance as American society adapts to a lifelong learning environment. Areas for expansion include continuing professional education, community based learning programs and learning opportunities outside of traditional based degree programs. The committee also recommends the continued support and expansion of the Marshall Artists Series.