The Board of Visitors’ Committee on the College at Wise convened Monday in the David J. Prior Convocation Center in Wise, Va. following a series of Board meetings Thursday in Charlottesville. The Committee heard a report on the College’s increased projected enrollment for the Fall 2026 semester and heard updates on the College at Wise’s 2035 Master Plan to increase its enrollment capacity with new dorms and academic buildings.
The College at Wise is a separate state agency that is part of the University system, and is therefore overseen by the Board. The Committee for the College at Wise is charged with oversight of the College at Wise, helping to further its strategic goals and mission and raising the College at Wise’s “needs and concerns” to the full Board. Monday’s Committee meeting was not recorded.
According to a presentation delivered to the Committee by the College at Wise’s leaders, the school has seen a steady growth in enrollment since 2023. The College at Wise expects the addition of 300 new “on-campus learners” by 2030, which would bring on-campus enrollment to over 1,600 students. In light of these developments, the Board’s Buildings and Grounds Committee approved a Master Plan in March for the College at Wise to construct new academic buildings and to renovate dorms to better serve first-year housing needs with state funds.
As part of the Master Plan, the College at Wise will renovate Darden Hall — an academic building within the core campus that serves education, mathematics and computer science needs. According to Monday's update, the goal is to increase the number of classrooms, student spaces and technological learning environments in the building.
In the long-term, the College at Wise also plans to make Darden Hall a space solely for education and social sciences needs, at which point mathematics and computer science learning will relocate to a new Technology building. The College at Wise also seeks to add finishes for exposed structures and industrial areas, as well as to address walls that only partially extend to the ceiling in certain rooms of the building. The renovation will also build more restrooms to address an uneven distribution of restrooms across floors, according to the presentation.
As part of the plan, the College at Wise also conducted an entrance study to consider the possibility of further strengthening “the already significant link” between the campus and the town of Wise. The plan is to have synchronized projects to further develop East Main Street and Park Avenue into an area of prioritized economic development and pedestrian improvements known as an “Enterprise Zone Corridor.” Further, it is considering improving links for pedestrians and vehicles with “paths, signage and pedestrian safety measures.”
The Committee also heard updates from Jeffrey Baylor, vice chancellor for enrollment management at Wise, Chancellor Donna Henry and other University officials on the College at Wise’s projected enrollment for the Fall 2026 semester, which will increase after the College at Wise accepted 27 percent more students this application cycle.
The Committee also heard an update from William Rudeseal, student government association president and fourth-year College at Wise student, on recent changes to the SGA’s structure and its memorandum of understanding with the University’s Student Council. According to Rudeseal’s presentation, these changes included the addition of the student member of the Board for the College at Wise to the SGA’s Executive Board.
The Board for the College at Wise is the governing board of the College at Wise, which promotes the “sound development” of the College at Wise while abiding by policies passed by the University’s Board of Visitors. The Board for the College at Wise’s current student member is Taylor Cochran, fourth-year College at Wise student.
The memorandum of understanding was adopted Oct. 20, and constitutes a commitment between the Council and SGA to share crucial information and encourage mutual cooperation as part of shared efforts to upholding student governance. According to Rudeseal’s presentation, the formal agreement will "improve communication between student leadership” at both the College at Wise and the University. Cochran also presented to the Board on student activities at the College at Wise.
The Committee also heard a presentation from Karen G. Carter, faculty consulting member to the Board for the College at Wise and associate professor of information systems, on “items relating to the faculty,” according to the meeting agenda. These items included information about the College’s online Associates to Bachelor’s program, which allows students who have received an Associate’s degree to obtain a Bachelor’s degree and teaching license in two years with a full-time class schedule. This program will help address “the critical teacher shortages in Southwest Virginia and across the Commonwealth,” according to Carter’s presentation.
Carter also highlighted that the College at Wise has an online Masters program for aspiring teachers with three concentration options — Curriculum and Instruction, Library Media and Special Education. The program began accepting students in the Fall 2023 semester and has accepted 125 students, 45 of whom have graduated.
According to University Spokesperson Bethanie Glover, no action items were on Monday’s agenda, meaning no formal votes on policy were taken by the Committee. The Committee will reconvene during the next series of full Board meetings in Charlottesville June 3-6.
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