West Virginia Tech
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| Motto | Be Big Here |
|---|---|
| Established | 1895 |
| Campus President | Carolyn Long |
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Academic staff
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177 total (120 full time) (57 part time) |
| Students | 1,106 |
| Location |
Beckley, West Virginia, United States 38°10′46″N 81°19′29″W / 38.17944°N 81.32472°WCoordinates: 38°10′46″N 81°19′29″W / 38.17944°N 81.32472°W |
| Campus | Rural, 200 acres. |
| Colors | Navy blue and Gold |
| Nickname | Golden Bears |
| Mascot | Monty |
| Website | www |
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West Virginia University Institute of Technology is a four-year college located in Beckley, West Virginia. It is a divisional campus of West Virginia University. The school is commonly referred to as WVU Tech, WVU Beckley, or by its former nickname of West Virginia Tech.
The college was founded in 1895 in Montgomery, West Virginia as the sub-collegiate Montgomery Preparatory School for West Virginia University. In 1917, it was separated from WVU and renamed the West Virginia Trade School. Next, in 1921, it reached the junior college level as the New River State School. It became a four-year college as New River State College in 1931 and was renamed the West Virginia Institute of Technology in 1941. It began to grant engineering degrees in 1952.
West Virginia Tech added a community college in 1966. It began granting the master's degree in engineering in 1978, but no longer offers graduate degrees. WVU Tech's community college component was separated from WVU Tech in 2004 and is now part of BridgeValley Community and Technical College.
Facing dwindling enrollment, the school became a regional campus of West Virginia University in 1996, leading to its present name. It later became an integrated division of WVU in July 2007. While several support departments on campus report directly to WVU, local oversight of academic programs remains on the WVU Tech campus.
The "Old Main" building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The Neal D. Baisi Athletic Center was completed in 1968 and was home to the Golden Bears' basketball teams.
The school had been beset with declining enrollments for many years. In 2011, the state government passed the WVU Tech Revitalization Project law, in response to its declining enrollments and financial distress. As a condition of the law, an assessment was conducted over the summer of 2011 and a “revitalization report” was completed by October 2011. The report found that:
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