CHARLESTON — CHARLESTON — Frustrated over the failure to get timely updates and data from West Virginia University, three Fayette County lawmakers are trying to get a legal separation for WVU Tech.

A fresh bill sent out Thursday by Delegates Dave Perry, Margaret Staggers and Tom Louisos, all Democrats, would restore the Montgomery school to its former standing as an independent institution.

“We’re serious about trying to send a message to WVU about our oversight of what’s going on at Montgomery on the Tech campus,” Perry said.

Within the past two months, Perry said, several meetings have been held with WVU officials, none to Tech’s satisfaction.

“It appeared they’re not moving as fast as they indicated they were going to move, in terms of being able to get reports back on what’s happening,” Perry said.

“They’re holding confidential information and not making it available.”

Perry said a goal of the bill is to accelerate cooperation between Morgantown and Montgomery.

Yet, if the bill succeeds, Tech would return to its onetime status, he acknowledged.

“They had done a satisfaction poll survey because of some personnel issues on the campus,” Perry said.

“In meeting with them, they indicated they would release the report to us, but at the end, said they couldn’t because of HIPPA. We just can’t seem to get forthright information from them.”

Tech became embroiled in a bitter controversy a few years ago after a proposal surfaced to pull the engineering department out of Montgomery and re-establish it at the Dow Chemical complex in Charleston.

“I think we have to do some things in Montgomery to ensure stability of the institution,” Perry said.

“This is the first step toward that, perhaps. I think the stability of Tech is in question, whether they’re under WVU or independent. Regardless. We’re just trying to find out what would be the best model for them and the most successful.”

With time running out in this session, Perry said, the measure could be sent to the House floor before the deadline.

But he is less than optimistic that the bill would attract enough support by the full House.

“There is time to get it out, but do I feel there will be support for it?” Perry said.

“Not really.”