MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The newly-appointed West Virginia University Board of Governors Chairman Rusty Hutson says that after some unrest and disagreement in the wake of recent changes surrounding higher education, the board is striving to come out stronger.
Hutson recently said on MetroNews Talkline that higher education currently faces a number of challenges.
“You know, academia is not what it was 20 years ago, we’ve got a lot of issues there, a lot of unknowns around federal funding, grants, athletics and how we’re going to fund athletics moving forward with revenue share and all these things,” Hutson said.
These issues come after a state law was passed earlier this year that removed voting rights from faculty, staff, and student representatives on university BOGs, as well as concerns about how WVU will handle the presidential search process.
Longtime WVU President Gordon Gee will officially retire from the university on July 14. Coastal Carolina University President Michael T. Benson is set to take Gee’s place as the 27th president of WVU.
Hutson said one of the major issues surrounding the presidential search arose when the board called an executive session during the search.
He said there were a number of criticisms that arose from that move, and going forward, he said the board would like to see more transparency and stay away from executive sessions when possible.
“At the end of the day, we got the president that we want and I think he’s going to do a fabulous job, but I want to be more transparent, I want these things to be a full board conversation with transparency around it and a lot of different inputs, and I think you’ll start to see that happen as we move forward,” Hutson said.
However, as recent legislation made it so faculty, staff and students no longer have voting rights on the board of governors, Hutson said their input is still needed to maintain a certain level of transparency on the board.
“We need to hear them out, we need to give them the opportunity to voice their opinions and have input on the issues that are important, and I think that has been the case all along,” he said.
Hutson said that all-in-all, the 15-member board needs to have more open sessions.
He said most of them are volunteers and they need to have more involvement.
“They are appointed by the governor but at the end of the day, they’re not paid, they do it because they love West Virginia and they love West Virginia University, and all of us want what’s best for the university,” he said.
Hutson said that one of the biggest challenges Benson will probably have to face as he steps into his tenure at the university is student enrollment and addressing the impact of the enrollment declines seen over the last several years, as well as the athletic declines that seem to have come along with it.
He said higher education is an ever-changing environment and they must be prepared and flexible enough to maneuver it, but he believes Benson is up for the challenge.
“He’s already fit in with the university and all its people and the students and all that, he’s going to fit in very well, and he’s going to keep the job running and accomplishing great things,” Hutson said.
Hutson said the board wants to work hand-in-hand with Benson to ensure everyone remains on the same page regarding the strategic vision of the future for WVU.