WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. — West Liberty University is ready to turn a page with the welcoming of a new president this summer.
Dr. Tim Borchers begins his role as the 38th president on July 1 and will be on campus for a series of meetings next week.
“Some of my priorities will be really trying to get to know the people, building trust, creating stability for the university, but also getting out into the community and meeting as many community leaders as I can to create partnerships,” Borchers told MetroNews.
Borchers, a native of South Dakota, was selected by the university’s Board of Governors (BOG) earlier this month. He previously served as vice president for academic affairs at Peru State College, the oldest college in Nebraska.
Borchers said Peru and West Liberty have some similarities when it comes to student achievement.
“I’d had experience working on retaining students, helping them graduate, helping them be successful, looking at some innovative academic programs. I think all of those will be very well received at West Liberty University because it aligns very closely with their mission and vision as well,” he said.
Borchers succeeds Interim President Dr. Cathy Monteroso who served as president since Jan. 1.
The president’s position opened last year after the BOG voted not to extend the contract of former President W. Franklin Evans who came under scrutiny for allegedly plagiarizing his speeches in 2021.
Borchers said he hopes to restore confidence within the campus community as West Liberty’s new leader.
“Really trying to be transparent, communicate frequently and to communicate in a variety of different venues and forms to help try and people understand what is happening at the university and why it’s happening,” he said.
Borchers has 18 years of higher education administrative experience. West Virginia and West Liberty felt like the perfect fit to continue his career, he said.
“The mission and vision aligned so closely with my beliefs, my values and the experiences that I’ve had,” he said. “When I saw it (the job) I thought it felt very comfortable and a place I could come in and make a difference.”
During his tenure at Peru, Borchers helped lead the college to achieve its highest first-year retention rate in the past 30 years by enrolling two of the largest first-year student classes. He also provided leadership so that the college received continuing accreditation status with the Higher Learning Commission in 2022.
Borchers spearheaded Peru’s migration to new retention software and motivated more than 90 percent of the faculty to use the software to provide regular updates on students’ academic progress. His work also included administering Study Abroad programs.
Before Peru, Borchers served as the Dean of the College of Arts, Media, and Communication at Minnesota State University Moorhead in Moorhead, Mn., from May 2008 to June 2015.
Borchers holds both a doctoral and master’s degree in communication from Wayne State University in Detroit, and a bachelor’s degree in speech communication from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society.