The New College Institute in Martinsville, Va. is looking to become a branch campus of an existing state university, Director Barry Dorsey said.
NCI, which currently offers degree-completion programs in conjunction with the University and eight other institutions, was founded in 2006, when the Virginia General Assembly approved $2.5 million in initial appropriations, which was matched by the nonprofit Harvest Foundation.
"The New College Institute is one thing that the Harvest Foundation hoped would transform Martinsville," Dorsey said.
Virginia lawmakers created NCI with the intention of offering programs from other schools only for its first six years of existence, Dorsey said. After this period, in 2012, the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia will decide whether it should stay as is, become a branch campus or charter itself as a new public university.
The Harvest Foundation set up a New College 2012 Commission in advance of the state's decision about NCI's future. The commission, which recommended last week that NCI become a branch campus, consisted of a mix of educators and business leaders.
"It was the commission's feeling that there had been tremendous progress, but to move to the next level, we decided something had to be done," Commission Director Bill Leighty said. "With this economy, it was clearly not the right time to ask the General Assembly for the funds to start a new school. The logical next step was to become affiliated with some existing institution."
With the recent release of the recommendation, NCI has established an exploratory committee to examine its options.
"We're looking at affiliation with any of the state colleges or universities. We're looking at all of them and reaching out to them," said Allyson Rothrock, Harvest Foundation director and exploratory committee member.
The search is still in the very early stages, and the University has not had any serious internal discussion about the move thus far, spokesperson Carol Wood said.
The committee "had no idea" about what the chances are for NCI to become a branch of the University, Rothrock said.
Wood, however, pointed out that a branch campus would not be completely out of character for the University, as it currently supports the College at Wise in southwestern Virginia.
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