BLUEFIELD — Trustees of Bluefield College approved a new academic major for adult students and continued their study of the feasibility of football, further collaboration on a proposed new student and community center, and plans for the creation of the MacMillan Center for Service and Missions during their April 20-21 meeting.
Endorsing the school's seventh new academic program in the past two years, trustees voted to launch a new marketing major for the school's adult degree-completion program. The new major, said trustee Cameron Forrester, is in response to demand from prospective students.
“This is exciting,” Forrester said. “Marketing is a very popular major among college students, and we're excited to be able to offer it to our adult students through the degree-completion program.”
Continuing an initiative from its fall meeting, the board also endorsed resolutions that will push two key existing Bluefield College projects further: the study of the feasibility of bringing football back to BC and the formulation of plans to build a new student and community center with the town of Bluefield.
Last fall, the board created a Football Feasibility Study Group to conduct research on the viability of a football program. Since then, the FFSG has conducted studies of four similar colleges that have created football within the past two to seven years and consulted with Richard Kaiser, athletics director at Defiance College, who holds more than 35 years of experience as a college football coach and athletic director, and with James Davis, longtime president of Shenandoah University who for years opposed football at his institution before creating a program seven years ago.
The FFSG also solicited input from administrators from nearly 100 Christian colleges and distributed a variety of surveys to gather feedback from Bluefield College constituents, including faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community friends. In addition, the study group explored the financial aspects related to a football program and the facilities required to maintain football.
After reviewing the study group's findings, the board created a new task force to continue to explore the idea of football and to consider the feasibility of obtaining resources to fund a football program.
“Whether we begin a new football program or not, this study has been an extremely valuable process for Bluefield College,” said interim president Charles Warren. “We've learned a lot about the college and our constituencies. If we do bring back football, we want to make sure our academic integrity and our Christian values are not only maintained, but enhanced.”
The board also gave the go-ahead to the administration to move forward in formulating plans to construct a new student and community center that meets the needs of students, faculty and staff, as well as residents of Bluefield. Discussions between the town and the college have been ongoing since the board approved the idea last fall.
In other business, trustees approved plans to create the MacMillan Center for Service, Mission and Ministry in honor of former president Daniel G. MacMillan and as a demonstration of the school's longstanding commitment to servant leadership. The center, to be established through the renovation of an existing faculty house on campus, will be designed to “further coordinate, focus and effectively present the college's multi-faceted commitment to developing and graduating servant leaders.” It will also serve as the focal point of the college's civic engagement, personal outreach, impact teams, music and drama ministries, and service learning projects.