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The University of Charleston (UC) is a private non-profit university with its main campus in Charleston, West Virginia. The university also has a location in Beckley, West Virginia, known as UC-Beckley.
The school was founded in 1888 as the Barboursville Seminary of the Southern Methodist Church. In 1901, it was renamed Morris Harvey College, in honor of a devoted supporter.
In 1935 the school moved to downtown Charleston and affiliated with the Mason College of Fine Arts and Music. In 1940, it became independent of the Methodist Church. In 1947, the school moved to its present campus in the Kanawha City section of Charleston across the river from the State Capitol. In 1951, it purchased the Young-Noyes House as the home of the college president. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The college fell on hard times after the end of the military draft and college deferment during the Vietnam War and offered itself to the state in 1975, which refused the gift. In December 1978, the school changed its name to the University of Charleston. Beginning with the inauguration of President Dr. Edwin H. Welch in 1989, the school has undergone a physical and academic transformation. Four new residence halls, a parking garage, a fitness center, an academic building housing the library, computer and science labs, and a new school of pharmacy have been built since 1998.
UC established campuses on Mountain State University's former Beckley and Martinsburg, West Virginia, locations on January 1, 2013. UC later vacated the former MSU Martinsburg campus (the property was sold to a third-party buyer), and established a new location in Martinsburg, known as UC-Martinsburg. UC vacated the former MSU Beckley campus after the 2014–15 academic year and established a new campus in Beckley.[9]
On December 15, 2017, the board of trustees named Martin S. Roth to succeed Dr. Edwin Welch as the president of the university. He began on June 30, 2018. Roth left his position as the dean of the business school at the University of Hartford.
The University of Charleston is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
The university employs a unique outcomes-based model of education whereby students learn and master six competencies by graduation: citizenship, communication, creativity, critical thinking, ethical practice, and science.
There are over twenty undergraduate major programs at UC, with two majors being somewhat unusual to the region, with few other colleges offering similar programs: interior design and radiologic science. Besides these two programs, other top majors at UC include English, sports administration, education, communications, accounting, nursing, and athletic training.