By Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — Bluefield State University’s interim president took a break from signing the 300 letters of recommendation piled on his desk to speak about work that’s now underway to make sure that faculty, staff and students have voices that will be heard by the university’s leadership.
Dr. Darrin Martin was appointed Nov.21 as the university’s interim director after the retirement of the previous president, Robin Capehart. Martin was the dean of academic success at nearby Bluefield University when he applied for the position. Martin is a graduate of Bluefield State College, earning a B.S. in Mathematics Teacher Education.
Martin’s first task was to address concerns the Higher Learning Commission raised in a highly critical report it issued after a review team visited the Bluefield State University campus last September. Issues the report raised included the disestablishment of the faculty senate, the board and the president rarely communicating with faculty on areas of interest such as the curriculum, the faculty hiring processes and post-tenure review.
A university delegation will be meeting with the Higher Learning Commission in Chicago on March 11-12, 2024. Martin said he plans to be with that delegation. One of his first jobs after becoming interim president was to review the report.
“First thing, we received the report from the Higher Learning Commission. We reviewed the report and then we started our response back,” Martin said. “There were a lot of process and procedural questions that they had, issues and concerns they had with Bluefield State; so we are in the process of working with the faculty and staff to make sure shared governance is happening. We have reviewed several policies and procedures and we started changing and amending those so our faculty and staff have a voice in the policies and procedures that govern them.”
