During the 2011-12 academic year, Clarion University–Venango Campus has celebrated 50 years of growth and community partnerships.

As the campus embarks on its next 50 years, it will do so with a new moniker — Venango College of Clarion University of Pennsylvania.

Clarion University President Karen Whitney will formally announce on Thursday that effective July 1, Venango College will join the three colleges of the Clarion campus — the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education and Human Services and College of Business Administration.

Designating Venango as a college provides a clearly identifiable college home for the four academic departments there: the Department of Nursing, Department of Allied Health, Department of Applied Technology and the Venango Department of Arts and Sciences.

It provides students, faculty, staff, alumni and the community with an enhanced sense of academic and institutional stature and creates new opportunities to promote the campus to regional and out-of-town students and constituents.

Venango offers 11 associate degrees, six bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree, in addition to a wide variety of noncredit continuing education programs and certificates.

The campus offers the certificate and associate degree programs commonly found in community colleges, and the niche bachelor and graduate degrees that provide upward educational and career mobility for Clarion students and students who transfer to Clarion from other institutions throughout the region, the commonwealth and the nation.

This article was submitted by Clarion University.