Thursday afternoon, the commission voted to accept the donation agreement to take control of the Dow Chemical Technology Park in South Charleston.

The group also talked about some of its future plans for the park.

Two lab buildings on the site will remain open and a third building will be mothballed.

The chairman of the Higher Education Policy Commission says this decision saves some 400 jobs that pay an average $100,000 a year.

"We now have a place where we can put people in there that can do research development, create jobs, create products, create opportunity in situations to implement the things...the things they learn in the classroom. So it's like completing the circle," says David Hendrickson, Chairman of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.

Commission members say researchers from colleges and universities throughout the state could also put their ideas to work there.