Greetings, Alumni and Friends of Our Wonderful College,
It has been a rainy couple of weeks at WVU Potomac State College, and I am glad. Our beautiful flowers and our green grass have been thirsty, and the crops we grow on our farms have been much in need of water. Rain is one of the primary ingredients which causes our plants to grow and replenish the earth. Lately, I have been thinking about how rain is also a metaphor for what this administration is working hard to accomplish with and for WVU Potomac State College.
The One WVU System is engaged in a period of deep reflection to determine how we can best position the state’s flagship university, its regional campuses, its medical system, and all its resources to serve the people of the Mountain State and beyond as the state’s largest land-grant university. It is no secret, nor should it be, that the system is confronting a significant structural budget deficit that we are addressing system-wide and on the WVU Potomac State College campus, a reality like that of many colleges and universities nationwide.
The university will ultimately become smaller and more strategically focused. This
moment allows us the opportunity as a family to re-examine our mission, vision,
and the teaching and service mechanisms that are most essential for us to continue
and to grow in support of the workforce needs of West Virginia, and, in the case
of WVU Potomac State College, the specific communities we serve as the university’s
eastern-most regional hub where the Mountain State and State of Maryland come
together and reaching into the State of Virginia and the District of Columbia.
With the very real challenges inherent in a budget deficit which we do not deny
and which we will continue to address transparently, there is a very real opportunity
here for us to emerge as a stronger regional campus as a vital component of an
even stronger One WVU system.
And, so, I take us back to where I started: we hope that the process through which
we redefine our college and prepare it to remain relevant and important for generations
to come will nurture our community in the same way that the drops of rain nurture
our flowers and our crops. Sometimes rain comes in the form of storms. Sometimes
it is gentle. Sometimes it only lasts a moment, and sometimes it goes on for
hours or days. One thing, however, remains constant. Without it, nothing can
survive and flourish.
With the continuing vital support of our dedicated alumni, be fully assured that
surviving and flourishing are precisely what we intend for the future of WVU
Potomac State College.
Warm regards,
Chris Gilmer, Ph.D.
PSC Campus President