Dear CEHS and CPASS Students, Staff, Faculty and Alumni,
As you likely have heard, West Virginia University announced on May 19 that it will merge the College of Education and Human Services and the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences to form a new larger college. This merger is part of the University’s focus on academic transformation, which began in December 2020.
As the current deans of CEHS and CPASS, we want to keep you informed about the status of the merger. Please accept this note as the first update on progress related to the joining of our two colleges. We have generated a list of important tasks associated with the merger that we need to complete to ensure success.
We have created nine working groups that will take a deep dive into the data and make recommendations that will guide us moving forward. These working groups are 1) Leadership, 2) Academic Affairs, 3) Enrollment Management, 4) Research, Centers and Community Outreach, 5) Communications, 6) Promotion and Tenure, 7) Development, Alumni Relations and Visiting Committee, 8) Student, Staff and Faculty Awards and Recognition, and 9) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Some of these groups are starting to work this summer, while others will begin in the fall.
The name of the new college has not yet been decided. The leadership team has conducted benchmarking of names of similar units at other institutions. We have sent a list of potential college names to others at the University for consideration. Once we receive feedback on these names, we will ask for your comments before the final naming decision is made. Our goal is to decide on a name before the start of the 2021 fall semester.
We are undertaking high-level discussions about the administrative and academic framework of the new college and will release more specifics about the structure as soon as possible.
We realize that this is a brief description of the current process. Please feel free to reach out if you have specific questions related to the merger.
Thank you,
Tracy Morris, Dean, College of Education and Human Services
Jack Watson, Dean, College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences