ISSUED: 1 May 2017
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — The Shepherd University Board of Governors approved an adjustment to the university’s academic structure at its April 27 meeting, moving from a school structure to a college structure and adding a new college to the existing four.
Shepherd will launch a new College of Business effective June 1, which will include the departments of business administration, accounting, and economics and finance. A renamed College of Social and Behavioral Sciences will include the departments of family and consumer sciences, political science, social work, psychology, and sociology and geography.
Also moving to the college structure will be the College of Arts and Humanities, College of Education and Professional Studies, and College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
The board also approved for fall 2017 a minor in geographic information systems and a concentration in environmental geomatics. Changes approved were a renaming of the women’s studies program and minor to gender and women’s studies and a renaming of the Department of Political Science to the Department of Political Science and Global Studies, both effective July 1.
The board approved academic program reviews for accounting, business administration, chemistry, environmental science, history, and health, physical education, recreation, and sport studies, as well as the Master of Arts degree program in curriculum and instruction, recommending that the programs be continued at their current level of activity.
A resolution was passed unanimously by the board that “implored” Governor Jim Justice and the West Virginia Legislature to “recognize that any additional reductions in appropriations to higher education will cause genuine harm to the people of West Virginia and must be avoided” and requested that the governor and the legislature work together “to address the revenues and expenses of State government in West Virginia and to ensure that a State budget which protects higher education from further damage be adopted promptly.”
Recognized during the meeting were retiring faculty and staff who received emeritus titles. To be eligible for the emeritus designation, a retiring employee must have completed ten or more years of service to Shepherd University. Those individuals honored include faculty members Dr. Meg Galligan and Dr. John Schultz and staff members Dave Cole and Nan Snyder.
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